S is for Seen Elsewhere - Sci-Fi Library (2) Kits, Movie Franchises and Movies

The other half of the Sci-Fi stuff I scanned a while back for elsewhere, and it's less about toys and more about research/information and some kit bits, I'll start with!

 

Mentioned when I showed the recent purchase of a late edit of his general list, this is Burn's Sci-Fi and Figures list, which as well as covering figures, also includes the odd dinosaur, monster, insect and bird kits etc . . . you see, off the back of little pamphlets like the original M.A.P./Military Modelling guide, Burn's and his co-respondents, did ALL the work, which sites like Scalemates took to the next level with their interactive member-pages and issue/brand timelines.

 

So when people bang on about a few dinosaurs and pretentiously add "Researched by . . . ", while adding a bunch of feeBay/Worthpoint images, understand it's just plagiarism! Pretending to do the work, actually done by other people thirty or forty years ago, while failing to credit them, is about as low as you can go . . . for a few clicks?

 

This is a Fine Scale Modeller 'special publication', which is really just a feast of exhibition-quality models, posed against realistic backgrounds or dioramas, and as such, is really another coffee-table book, but a rather nice one!

 

While this is a more general look at the smaller of the two 'big' enduring franchises, I've not got much invested in Star Trek, as there haven't been that many smaller-scale or solid figures in the pile of memorabilia issued over the years, but Playmates gave us small 'Action Fleet' types, there was that set I bought from Colin Penn at a Plastic Warrior show a few years ago, and the current (not in this book)  EMCE sets are still out there, so some stuff can be found in 'our' area of interest!

 

Then there's the other franchise . . .

 

This, minimally illustrated, is an encyclopaedic listing of everything known to hardcore-fans, from the release of the original movie, until the release of the final film in the second trilogy back in the 2005. After which, I think, due to first, the tsunami of new stuff and second, the coming of the Internet, updates became superfluous.

 

But Rebel Scum, the Internet fan-base, helped compile it, and it's THE list of pillow-cases, soaps, wallpapers, novelty lamps, and yes, toys and kits, from the early years of the Star Wars phenomena, though to, say, 2005 - nearly 30-years-worth of marketable tat, alphabetically listed, by manufacturer!

 

This only gets as far as the 1st/forth movie, and may be by the same Beckett? It's a tie-in with a then major Star Wars retailer, Beckett Hot Toys, and is arguably better illustrated than the previous, but more dated now by having the 1999 cut-off, in listed data.

These are really 'bestiaries' of one type or another, similar to the much more expensive, glossy, hard-backed, coffee-table 'technical manuals' which ran around the same time, but relying on mostly black-and-white line drawings. I use them to just find-out the names of things. Mostly from the first three 'classic' movies

 

While this is not one of the just-mentioned vintage technical manuals, but rather a more modern publication, best described as one section of the various Rebel Scum wiki's, in book form, and while it may be of use to you, I only bought it as a shelf-filler, because it was cheap, and can't remember it giving me anything useful, but that's in the context of me being the 'general reader' here, not a full Star Wars nerd!

 

While among the minor franchises, this is a useful tome, but then for collectors, Schiffier have never (? I stand to be corrected) produced a duff one, and I have maybe a dozen of their titles now? Like the Star Wars' ones above, this has non-toy stuff, and you find yourself remembering all sorts, as you flick through it!

 

While this pair are both bestiaries; the former using TV- and publicity-stills, the latter, more line-drawings, but helping to quickly identify two other franchise 'universes' I don't follow closely. There are several similar titles in the Tolkien 'zone', but that's never been with the toy books and wasn't shot with the rest, leave alone scanned with these! Add the Dungeons & Dragons guides, we saw while looking at the 'Gygax' stuff a while ago, and you've most of the monsters you could ever need!

 

While these two, are such useful research-tools I keep them with the collectables library, rather than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy library (where the Tolkien stuff is!), and do dip in them from time to time, especially when I can't remember the name of a movie or character which is on the tip of my tongue/in my peripheral thoughts!

There are lots of books like these, and I have more general ones, another on Westerns, and a very useful old film-library catalogue, from when clubs and societies could order films, in their 'cans', so show at schools, village halls or such-like.

 

We had a film-club at school, which anyone could attend, and I remember specifically seeing what were considered 'X' films, at the time, like Straw Dogs, the seminal Eastward movie The Beguiled, as well as fun stuff like Bugsy Malone and I think we had Once Upon a Time In the West? I think we had some Bond films too, I can't remember all of them, but we had two or three films per term, in the main hall, on a full-screen, this would have been 1977 - '80.

B is to Boldly Go Where No Toy Has Gone Before!

I know. It's a hackneyed and clichéd title, which isn't even true, as by 1976 there had been many spaceship toys, but sometimes the obvious is good enough! I'll have to get all this stuff in the Tags too, won't I? If we're going to be full-on rivals, I'll have to get the playing field level, as soon as!

 

By way of a Brucey-Bonus, here's the NCC-1701, USS Enterpise, a 23rd Century Federation Constitution class starship, operated by Starfleet, and the first Federation starship to bear the name, previously used for planet-bound, surface navel vessels, of the United States!

 

As modelled by Dinky in 1976, little did they know what was barrelling its way down the space-tracks at them, with Kenner/Palitoy written all over their huge polypropylene arses, and less than a year away from this archaic plaything!

EMCE is for Effigy Manufacturer Confirms Events

Back in December I received a nice eMail from Joe Sena, on the subject of the little output/figure list I appended to one of the earlier EMCE posts, a subsequent back and forth of correspondence produced this pocket/potted history of the various brands I had been getting confused by, so - with Joe's permission - here it is for those who may be interested;

 

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"After a 10 year period in Los Angeles, where I helped grow the merch side of a large Star Trek convention company in the early ‘90s as designer/creative director, I moved over to the New Media Group at Universal Studios where I went from writer/producer to Creative Director in a few months – largely because in the mid 90s, anyone who could spell “Internet” was an expert (also, I was the studio’s “Official Universal Monsters” expert because I was the only nerd who made it past the gatekeepers). A few years later, Universal was bought, I saw handwriting on the wall, started a web design firm with other Uni' ex-pats which crashed and burned within a year.

Moved back to NYC with my tail between my legs and went back to what I did for a living before the internet, which was to make merch. Most was of the apparel variety, off-brand and original stuff for fans of horror movies. I made a product called the “Zombie Outbreak Survival Kit” which exploded, and made me enough money to put toward growing the business.

My business’ legal name is SphereWerx, LLC, which I named after the Unisphere, the steel globe landmark in my hometown of Flushing, Queens, near the stadium where my poor Met's attempt to play baseball. After a few years of having to re-spell or correct the pronunciation of “Spherewerx,” I registered “Fourth Castle” as a “doing business as” name. I named it such because of the influence of your fellow countrymen – as with the King Of Swamp Castle in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, this was my fourth attempt at business, and it didn’t fall into the swamp😉

Coming back to NYC reunited me with an old high school buddy named Paul Clarke, who I was stunned to discover had a business called “Dr. Mego”, in which he would hand-make replacement parts for collectors of Mego action figures. If your Captain America lost a shield or Batman his cowl, Paul hand-poured them in resin, colored them and sent them off.

Eventually, he received a cease and desist from DC and Marvel, and asked me what he should do, and I said that I would put money into trying to get licences And bring back the Mego toys of the 1970s.

 

Through several partnerships with other license-holders, we successfully brought back Marvel, DC, Star Trek and other Mego-style figures, expanding beyond mere reproductions. I created the brand EMCE toys, drawn to look like the “Mego” logo, but pronounced “EM-CEE” or “M.C”, which stood for “Mego Corporation.”

Paul and I were handshake-partners, we never had anything on paper, but we agreed that we would split EMCE branded toys. Sadly, Paul’s “Dr. Mego” work was not enough to cut it professionally, so we hired out sculptors for heads and certain body parts, but I would sculpt small accessories or adaptations (Spock’s beard for the “Mirror, Mirror” set, Spider-Man’s webshooters and belt, etc.). I am not the sculptor of any of the major parts of any of our toys.

 

In 2008, the recession cratered sales, so even though Paul was a Mego fundamentalist, I said we had to do something to make a cheaper product. Megos were expensive to produce, so I focused on another old-school toy format: little green army men.

After a while, Paul stopped being involved in the toys brand, focusing more on his Dr. Mego business and coming back together with me for the occasional elaborate Marvel Megos we did with Diamond Select Toys.

 

I kept on with the army men and dubbed them “Nanoforce”, so I had a trademarkable name. Initially, the clunky sculpts were done by hand in the factory in China – we left them that way because a) they looked about as clunky as classic army men and b) it came free with the price of the production 😉

You pretty much know the rest, but I hope when my aforementioned presentation is complete and has made the rounds, I will send it to you as it does contain a pretty complete look at the Nano's we made from Day One. However, it’s so similar to your list as to be almost identical."

 

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So, to paraphrase the above, SphereWerx (legal), Forth Castle (trading as) and EMCE ('em-cee', line/range brand-mark) are the company name/s in the order they were acquired, Nanoforce is the brand-mark for the small 'army men' figures, and all the other names on the various sets or packaging generations are either the license-holders to the subjects depicted, or the contracting end-user (Diamond Select, Previews Exclusive/PX), even though EMCE's own branding is usually retained alongside as one or more marks. Toynk are the current distributor of the more commercial sets.

 

This is an updated/re-edited version of that original list, alphabetical;

• Aliens in Glowing Slime (figures from the below set, but glow in the dark polymer with a unique, oversized (in scale) 'Facehugger' sculpt. One figure per egg of slime, out of production and getting hard to find, old stock has now-solid, rubbery slime) - Diamond Select Toys / PX Previews Exclusive  / designed by Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - 20th Century Fox.
• Aliens -vs- Colonial Marines (35 figures, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - Diamond Select Toys / PX Previews Exclusive  / designed by Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - 20th Century Fox.
• Fallout 76 [bags, see also You Will Emerge - below] (12 or 24 figures per bag, 3 sets, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Toynk / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
• Fallout 76 [boxes] (13 figures per box, 4 boxed sets include a 4" figure and extra [blind pack] poses, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Toynk / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
  
• Gears 5 (Gears of War), (5-figures + droid, bag, glow in the dark variation, still around, affordable - Nanoforce by EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia) Licensors - The Coalition / XBox Games / Microsoft, UK retailer Toynk (?)
•  John Carpenter's Halloween (8 figures + 4 accessories and 1x 4" figure, very rare, limited edition of 2500 units, very expensive when found - Fright Rags / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys) Licensor - Compass International Pictures
• Night of the Living Dead (12 figures + 1x 4" figure, very rare, limited edition, very expensive when found - Fright Rags / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Image Ten)
• Star Trek - TNG (12 figures + micro-ship model, 'The Next Generation' boxed-set, newest, affordable, easier to find in UK - PX Previews Exclusive / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Fanwares a division of Fanwraps) Licensor - CBS Studios
• Star Trek - TOS (12 figures + micro-ship model, 'The Original (TV) Series' boxed-set, newest, affordable, harder to find in UK - PX Previews Exclusive / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Fanwares a division of Fanwraps) Licensor - CBS Studios
• Universal Monsters (planned/cancelled/next? EMCE / Mego?)
• You Will Emerge (24 figure 'Army Builder' bag of Fallout expansion, 23 common figures in 9 poses (twos or threes) with exclusive Jersey Devil flying monster, still around, affordable - Bethesda / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle, no Toynk) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
• Vault Tech Convention Exclusives (six figures from Fallout, in blind-bags, one per-bag, limited-edition yellow polymer, still findable/affordable - Bethesda / Toynk / Nanoforce by EMCE Toys / Forth castle) Licensors - Bethesda Softworks a Zenimax Media Co.
•  Zombies at War (35 figures, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - PX Previews Exclusive / Brilliant Novelty Co. / Diamond Comic Distributors / EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia, no 'Nanoforce')
• Zombies in Glowing Slime (as per above, but blind-bag model, in a tub of slime modelled as an oil drum, one figure per unit, glow-in-the-dark polymer, getting harder to track-down - PX Previews Exclusive  /  EMCE Toys) 
•  Zombies -vs- Zombie Hunters (35 figures, 10 poses, 3-each survivors, 4-each zombies, out of production, but findable, getting a bit pricey - PX Previews Exclusive / Brilliant Novelty Co. / Diamond Comic Distributors / EMCE Toys (a brand of) Forth Castle Macromedia, no 'Nanoforce')

In December, Joe was hopeful that more figures would come out this year, but I haven't seen/heard anything yet? Halloween was the last set issued, last autumn.

EMCE is for Every Model's a Corking Effigy

Two of the more recent lines from EMCE have been the TV/Movie tie-ins, including Star Trek, two of mine have gone to storage, and I've only scanned the boxes of the other two, so another brief look today, and something more substantial in the near-to-medium future!

 

Star Trek - The original Series (TOS), a set of upright or less dynamic poses, but the sculpting/detail is there, and each figure is recognisably who they are supposed to be depicting! You get four each of the figures in three colours, and a larger model of the original Enterprise (NCC-1701) in a smaller scale, so best added to the Galloob/Mattel/Soma mini-ship drawer!

 

I've never been a fan of the Horror genre, so couldn't have much to say about this, except that depicting other icons from the movie has reduced the figure count to only eight? But you do get a giant glow-in-the-dark matey as an extra!

 

I did shoot the other two before they went away to storage, and here - with stuff we've already seen in recent posts - are the Night of the Living Dead on the upper-left and Star Trek - The Next Generation (TNG) on the upper-right. I believe there has been talk of more monster sets, or a 'Universal' [studios] monster set.

The Living Dead had a full set of 12 figures along with another-glow-in-the-dark large-scale figure, while likewise the TNG set has 12 figures and an Enterprise model (NCC-1701-D), the figures in all four sets are pretty standard 54mm against the slightly smaller figures in the earlier Zombie and Alien sets.

All in all, a nice pair of additions to the increasing range of figures from EMCE.

B is for Best Show on Earth! 6. Space, Sci-fi, Fantasy, TV, Movie & Etc.

A biggie this one, I tried breaking it into two posts, but there was no natural split which would leave 7-images each and any other division would leave one still long and the other a bit short, so call it a Brucey Bonus!

Mostly vintage dime-store/pulp space from the 1950/60's, with (from the colour) a larger, original Archer, three smaller copies who could be one of several issuers and two of the Christmas Cracker chaps, with a fourth smallie in white with helmet in one shot, and in the other shot an unmarked-Linde premium type, could be DS Plastics or Siku?

 

The probably-not-Linde again, with a French soft plastic iteration of the Captain Video bolt-grenadier, and three modern PVC-replacement, rubberised astronauts who I think we've seen in harder plastic and a smaller size, so 'the sculpts du jour'?!!

 

A bunch of Bluebird Zero Hour/Mattel Code Zero rubber minis, came in two of the donations I think and will be sorted into the stash, hopefully helping make-up who sets, I know I still have a few gaps!

 

These are rather nice, probably 1960's or even 1970's, the seller bought them himself, and he didn't look older than me, younger if anything, gum-ball, capsule machine prizes brought back from the 'States on his return from those climes! A nice pulp-vibe and dime-store look with a touch of 70's styling!

Two modern game-playing pieces I suspect, either side, both heavily dry-brushed in a contrasting shade of their base colour, I haven't found the game yet. A Matchbox or Hot Wheels sci-fi 'type' from the Mega Rigs line or something, a Bluebird Havoc in need of a base (anyone who remembers the original post will know I have a few, but whether one to match him is another matter!), and behind them a Crescent for Kellogg's cereal premium.

 

He's actually a short-shot, his tool normally resembles a mine-detector with a bigger dish, but like this he really looks more like he has an actual 'space probe' with a specific job!

 

Smaller-scale robots, an overview! The painted four seem to be from the same range, even though one is more humanoid and a tad-larger, all four are unmarked and hard polystyrene - probably quite recent gum-ball prizes? The yellow sucker will be a knock-off/copy of something from Poppy/Bandai or Takara . . . someone like that, and is smaller than the similar LB-knock-off sucker types.

 

The really small one is from the Star Wars Risk board-game I think, the larger blue 80's mech' is from the eraser set we've looked at recently once or twice, the middle-sized bluey is a Mattel M.U.S.C.L.E. keshi (or copy; I didn't check for the distinctive marks!) and the similar greenie will be another gum-ball prize.

 

I thought I had a complete set of the Captain Scarlet premiums (Wheeto's from Wheetabix), but it turns out I had neither of the mini-vehicles, I now have the patrol car! But I also have all the figures lose and bagged! Pursuit vehicle is still to track down.

At the back is the one and only Superthunderstincar's Masterbraun, courtesy of Peter Cook complete with bushy eyebrows! "Eggcellent! Heh-heh-heh!" . . . also issued as The Hood by Kellogg's and Tom Smith.

I bought these from Colin Penn, when I first saw them he wasn't at his table (hopefully finding bargains of his own), so I wandered off, but when I went back round a while later, he said they were a full set (and cheap) so I grabbed them more as a box-ticker than anything else, as I still haven't looked them up and don't know anything about them! Obviously Star Trek, but which arm of the franchise I don't know (DS9, Next Generation?), and who or when? Modern and Mattel or Hasbro!

 

Playmates have held Star Trek licences as well, I have their 'Action Fleet' clones somewhere, but I think these may be older, but not the original series?

 

Dr Who stuff, Games Workshop mostly, but the slightly bigger leading Kaled living-suit is the same little rubber one the Philosophical Toad sent to the blog about 14-years ago! It came from a Christmas advent calendar if memory serves, but who by, I don't know?

 

A random vinyl (possibly electronic game playing piece) figure of a fantasy-ninja type and an equally random Power Ranger type, who came in one of the donations, both need investigating!

 

We saw these the other day in the London show-reports, so simply duplicates which will serve as swaps at some point in the future, Kinder Egg capsule toys of the latest Avatar movie.

 

The two Jungle Book figures are a mystery, they look like Marx Disneykins, but they're not, they are hard plastic, but not Minimodels, so . . . ? Nice figures though; French maybe? 10th - A correspondent says Kinder, which would make sense, they are almost too 'clean'!

 

Next to them is a Bullyland Big Ears for Toytown, a rather knackerd Tri-Ang Perriwincle Penny Brix character, and two of the better fruit & veg' 'Munch Bunch' pencil tops from the 1970's, a carrot and a cucumber I think. Separate hats (or foliage from one maker/issuer) is usually the sign of better versions, the cheaper clones were single mouldings.

 

The Poplar Plastics sledge came separately from the Santa in two purchases, but was a nice find as it's a different design to the commoner one, which we saw here, and has a rigid frame/draw-bars, so can't be used with the cat or dogs, only the deer.

From the left; random fairy! Then a figure I'd like to know more about, we may have looked at them briefly once before, but I don't know anything about them (and this one is very damaged as most are), but I have two or three poses now, several of this green one, a red one and a blue or yellow one? All slightly hippy-dippy, fairy, fantasy dancer types, and I'm wondering if they're from some Hong Kong take on Marx's Miniature Masterpieces of The Trolls or Sword in the Stone variety, possibly by Blue Box, or LB, or early Maysun or someone like that? But then they might even be Marx MM's?

A Hong Kong gnome after Fontanini I think, two of the Matchbox 'Advanced Dungeon & Dragon' figures and two poured-resin anthropomorphic animals lumps, who probably go together and a little angel/putti type, probably a cake decoration.

Thanks to all for everything last month; Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan, Michael Mordant-Smith, Peter Evans, Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, and Adrian Little.

P is for Pavilion - Toy Fair 2022

By way of a continuation of the previous post, Pavilion were a new name on me at this year's Toy Fair, a wholesaler, not a manufacturer, so they will only add to their tag-entry if they exhibit equally interesting stock in future years, but here's what they are offering this year!

Mostly handling clearance for 'big name' stuff, including the partwork issuer Eaglemoss and Dr Collector, a Spanish outfit concentrating on brand licences, they had an interesting array of stuff on display, but there are limits with clearance, and as a trade or B2B supplier, of little use to us beyond the images!

From their small catalogue, you can see Fallout, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park and ET merchandise on offer, with the ET stuff being the link with the previous post and on display at the show . . .

. . . where I photographed them (upper shot) against never seeing them again - which I haven't and I've tried Smyths and the local independent (but not The Entertainer yet?) - and I can report they are about the same size as the LJN and JAR Sales ones

There was also a bunch of ex-Partwork stuff, but the problem here is that the clearance tends to have limited scope, being those commoner figures (issues 1, 2 & 3, or the issue following a switch to subscription only, or a price-rise - with longer series) or side-issues; mail-away's and the like, separate to the actual partwork.

Anyway, that's more ET's and Pavilion in the tag-list!

H is for How They Come In - April I - Chris - Animals and Media Related

I've twined TV/Movie and animals in this post of Chris Smith's April donation to the Blog, and we'll start with the animals (and monsters!) as there are some very interesting items among them . . .

. . . starting with the hard-plastic giraffe at the back, in need of the liquid-poly vet - whom it has since been seen by! The only damage in the consignment, and probably courtesy of Royal Fail! It's cartoony but not a Lik Be (LB) or Colonial sculpt, as far as I know, it's also frangible polystyrene, but both Culpitt and Wilton carried 'styrene versions of the aforementioned animals, so I'm guessing a similar history for this chap - fun cake decoration for younger celebrants?

Two lovely dogs; one Airfix (? See forthcoming post) 'styrene flat, the other a chalky polyethylene sculpt of some quality, but a larger scale than the usual suspects, so probably a dolls-house set? The small deer will also return in a further post.

The kit giraffe is probably from a R&L circus premium, but could be Italian, they had several issuers of such stuff, while the sheep is Precepi/Nativity. The elephant is a US Cracker-Jack premium, I think, over here - Christmas cracker?

Which leaves a lovely owl in soft silicon-rubber and the grey horse; it is a copy of the Britains stage-coach/prairie-wagon horse I think, but scaled down and used with cake-decoration carrousels/roundabouts/fairground gallops.

Ahhhh! "Gygax Monsters"! There will be a whole page on them in the fullness of time, and these are two of several from Chris while Peter Evan's has sent one or two over the years, but I have lots (you need lots as there are many variations!) including the LB 'minis', here we see 'Bulette' on the left and a swamp-gator who Gary Gygax ignored!

For now suffice to say, they aren't as rare as people would have you believe, and they definitely aren't worth the $400 that someone was paying for them a decade or so ago, indeed, as we saw a few years ago, thanks to Brian Berke; you can still find the ex-Holly mouldings in seaside kiosks now, but there have been many iterations!

I hope/believe, these are the sea-animals which accompany the Nabisco take on baking-powder divers, which are to be seen here (toward the end of the article), they aren't the plain colour of my pair of divers though, being all marbled to some extent and there's no obvious hole for baking soda to be packed in, just larger hollows, so maybe they sat at the bottom of the vessel being used, or floated above the bobbing divers?

Assuming I'm right (never assume! Heehee) they are an extraordinary things to find in a box of mixed chuck-outs!

Disney's Pocahontas, Santa' rocking on a double-bass, a Coca-cola polar pilot, Roy 'Chubby' Bear "Yeah, but those fockers was Messerschmitts!" Boom Boom! and a Kinder Gnome make up the characterfull element!

She's not actually a superhero; 'gold lady' is DC's Lois Lane, I think from a fairly recent magazine part-work adult-collectable, we looked at the funny, semi-flat 'bat-bots' here and this silver one is both a new colour and a new pose!

While the otherwise quite typical eraser space-warrior type (yellow rubber) has wrap-around armour in polyethylene which is unusual? The Star Trek Worf is Playmates' take on Micro-Machines I think, while the other figure looks like one of the lesser Turkish or Spanish capsule toys - LZ or Maraja?

leaving this 'till last, it's fun! A Baywatch pick-up truck with muscle-bound hunk driving and puny sidekick in the passenger seat! Non-turning wheels suggest modern cake-decoration, and it must be 1980's/90's now as that craze is well-over, isn’t it, say it is . . . please!

I know! Some people loved it, I couldn't bear it, those fake tits of Pamela's looked like balloons! And how many believable story-lines can you get out of a strip of beach in Southern California? But lovely toy with two figures - cheers Chris!

Indeed; many thanks for all the above, especially the sea-creatures and the rack-toy robot! Full-combat Toy Soldiers next!

Next day - Chris reports it's Burger King 1987, and came with a similar speedboat and a quad-bike, I should have taken notes on base-marks before I sorted them away - similar note on the skateboards in the previous post.

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - GaleForce Nine - Own Products

As well as carrying the D&D stuff, GaleForce Nine also carry three gaming systems from Battlefront, but we'll look at them under Battlefront in a day or three, however they do develop their own games and they are rather special, 'cos they've got figures, and we like figures at Small Scale World!

These were the two on show at the London Toy Fair, Firefly and Dr. Who, you see those two on the same shelf and you know something magic this way comes . . . and you're not wrong - Sir or Madame!

Lovely, role playing 28mm, D&D style with shipping containers as the 'dungeons', lovely figures sort of Wild West meets Steam punk meets Blade Runner! Didn't enquire as to games mechanisms, it's about the scenery isn't it! And the figures!

Dead counters are card flats which is a good idea as it makes them less intrusive to continuing play, but they can build-up in  a gory fashion as the mayhem progresses!

Unit six looks like a rather unpleasant screened field-latrine I once knew in Kenya - yes - 'intimately'; the whole battalion was queuing-up for them, we'd been given some scaled fish when we landed in Nairobi the day before, which looked, cut (read 'sawed' or 'didn't cut') and tasted like gone-off, coelacanth might, I imagine!

Another shot and the catalogue 'flyer'. I've missed Firefly, and I think there was another mid/late-1990's late-night sci-fi serial along the same lines (sentient talking ship?), I'd catch the odd episode, but never stuck with the first and missed the other altogether, but I can see the appeal of this game, with its clear elements of several genres. It reminds me of a few favourite graphic novels too!

Ahhh! More NSD's and quite well detailed ones at that, along with that pesky K9-unit! If I understood the sales-rep correctly, there are four Doctors in the game box, with more planned as separate figures or figure sets, with other 'enemies' to be added or with extension-packs if this does well?

Again; the flyer from the catalogue, no inappropriate memories triggered this time, just me cowering behind the sofa while a giant spider clung to the back of Sarah Jane and a bunch of cultists taught me a Buddhist chant! Ohm-Mani-Padme-Hum, Ohm-Mani-Padme-Hum!

I don't think this was on show in London, but it looks fun for Trekkies (or are they Trekkers?), there even seem to be a few figures among all the micro-space ships, but not enough for me to get excited-about until I see it in a charity shop, and games like this never (or rarely - he says; remembering two Golden Compasses in two weeks!) turn-up in charity shops!