P is for Polymer Plunder Package - Animals

The penultimate post on the wonderful Christmas package from Chris Smith finds us looking at the animals, large, small, and daft, vintage and current, prehistoric and more recognisably 'out there now'!

 

A nice, but play worn blow-moulded Tiger, I thought it might have been flocked, but there's enough evidence of painted stripes to suggest not, rather the sort of thing we've seen in Argentinian Tarzan sets, or similar jungle fayre? Behind it is a bendy . . . . Panther? It's a bendy, and it's brilliant, whatever it is; lioness maybe?

 

Slightly damaged (possibly removed from a larger vignette), the grey-pyjama'd chap in a fez, is an old bisque piece, possibly an Edwardian cake decoration, but I suspect from something larger? The chap to the right is a budget toy, aiming at Schliech or Papo I guess, maybe ELC or Wilko, both gone now!

 

While the other dude (assuming they are all male, for the sake of conversational blurbage!), is in brown plastic, which is unusual, and my immediate thought was Dulcop Tarzan sets, but he's not as 'wavy' as the Dulcop one, so I'm guessing Dom/Heinerle or someone like that?

 

Interesting handful, the Dimetrodon looks a bit earlier than the others, and has a very good head, while the big chap is a classic 'gape-mouth' Chinasaur! The other three may go together, but the blue (metallic blue!) sauropod is a little more catoony than the other two, smaller Dino's?

 

A mix of vintage and modern, some were marked I think, but I didn't take notes at the time, the two/four at the back may all be from one modern toob/tub, and at least two of the piggies are new to me. The larger bath duck is a nice piece, with some age, while the red one was usually found in sets of incrementally sized 'duckies'

 

After the jumping feet and FFL scale-down, this obviously 1960's (or even late 1950's) octopus is the third favourite, and a lovely survivor, he originally had green eyes, but all the paint is a tad play worn. The red stretchy lizard is an old capsule toy, similar to a very oily, leaching one we saw here at Small Scale World years ago.

 

The green lizard may be a companion piece from a larger 'pink/purple' action figure or fantasy play set, while the Sperm Wale and rather unusual shark, are probably from the same tube-type set?

 

Mixed bits, the green teddy almost certainly was flocked once, the lion is rather fine and the dark horse/pony is a Corgi job, I think. The small grey elephant is new to me, while the faux-ivory one with a charm-loop (probably Christmas cracker prize) still has both tusks!

 

Loving the shooting-game, target ducks! A home fairground sideshow! I think the big blob is an 'Angry Bird'? The last one on the right is a Yowie, and there are several posts in the long queue on them, which will be done, sometime! It's an interesting range, which has come and gone in fits and starts in different territories and with different issues, and there are some very unusual animals in there.

 

The next day! Does he think I'm an idiot? He's got a lesson coming, anybody can raid eBay/Worthpoint/Scalemates, for anything, even TV21!

 

Two cats from a relatively recent, budget set we may or may not have covered, there are quite a few! The middle dog is the Corgi farm dog, the pale one may be from the Blue Box hunter/cowboy/Tarzan sets' one, which is often separated from the base, being only attached by a portion of one rear paw! And another poodle, there are so many poodles out there, they may get their own page one day!

 

The small scale includes a piece of fence which could be from the Airfix Zoo, or a copy, quality is poor, but memory (and the stash) reveal that the fence sections got flashy very early in the run, so it probably is Airfix? The three animals to the right however, are further piracies of Airfix Zoo animals! A Corgi (Husky/Juniors) calf  and a small duck bring us to the end of the animals, thanks as always to Chris for sending them to us.

Phfffff! is for Whatever!

I thought I ought to have a post before midnight, just to get the ton up before the end of February, and looking around I can't see anything jumping out at me which doesn't require more effort than the few minutes available, so against the fact I might not beat the midnight news after work, here's a shot from the 'seen elsewhere' folder as I listen to Lady Muck (Sarah Montague) on the Lunchtime news, whittering-on about Hairy Bikers, Police Rapists and anything else which doesn't require looking in depth at either of our, or the US's, two main political parties or anything happening in Gaza, while Putler threatens nuclear-annihilation . . . Again!!

 

The Blue Box WWII Russians, complete, and completed, I think I'm right in saying, by a donation from Chris Smith, a while ago, as they've gone to storage in the meantime, seen elsewhere, awhile back too!

Also, and for no particular reason - other than it needed doing, of course (hee-hee) - I've edited, rearranged, and added some catalogue/archive stuff to the Airfix Tarzan page which some of you may remember, can be found here!

A is for Aaaaahahahaaa, aahh, haa, haaar!

Which may be the sighing-yell from The Good The Bad and The Ugly, I'm not sure if I got all those 'a's in the right place?!! Just a quick follow-up on the Argentine Tarzan post of the other day (two posts down the page), and to welcome the Blog's newest fan, Mr. Incognito? Those who know; know, hee-hee-hee!

 

Friend of the Blog Gisby pointed out a marked similarity between the Marx Indian with knife and the various Argentine iterations of Tarzan we looked at the other day, and I thought I had one here for a comparison shot, but I only had the MPC copy (far left here), so the one on the right is from Worthpoint, and while it may not be obvious, there is, in other shots, from other angles, a clear resemblance between them, the Argentinians having raised the arms, while MPC move a leg slightly.

 

I'd also forgotten how big the pink Argie is, next to the painted one which goes on the elephant, I would say the lead one is 54mm, the painted one was about 60/70mm (same as the WoW-style painted Marx one here from Worthpoint) while the pink one is nearer 90/100mm (so that Jaguar probably does go with him?), and the MPC clone is closer to 50mm - all by eye, mind, I didn't measure any of them!

This chap's come in recently, the Blue Box kneeling, we saw them (there's a standing one too) here at Small Scale World, years ago, but the paint on this one is marginally better than my best example, so will become the new No.1, when they are all reunited in the new house . . . which is closer now this one's on the market! He needs a careful clean with a cotton-bud!

Mr & Mrs Gorilla visit Tarzan for tea! Also a recent purchase, I have all the Dulcop figures in storage with some of the animals, so the Tarzan is a duplicate, but I needed both gorillas - Lord of the Jungle, King of the Apes!

D es para Dos - T es para Tarzans Argentinos!

Bit of a fun post this evening, and quite a few years in the gestation, as the first image (last shot below) was taken back in 2016, with the elephant migrating to the stash a year later, only for me to find the leery one on feebleBay a while back and for it to take so long to get here, there were barely any records of its ordering left in my account profile by the time it turned-up!

 

Here he is, a Tarzan from Argentina, riding Bagheera, whom he doesn't fit-on too well, but as we'll see, he's meant to go on an elephant, and I'm not sure this Bagheera even goes with this set, he's a slughtly better quality in both plastic (can't really go wrong with black!) and painting?

 

Close up's of the eponymous panther, it also shows how Tarzan's knife is joined to his waist for the moulding process. You can also get an idea of the difference in finish quality between the two, if you didn't in the first collage, but I'm looking for filler blurb here!

 

I suspect he actually belongs with the blow-moulded elephant here and/or the Tarzan that came riding it, the left-hand figure in the lower shot, who when I first saw him WAS still on the elephant! Sadly, they got separated, and when I was having a 'look-out for elephants'*, it came home with me, only for the Tarzan to go elsewhere!

However, I had managed to shoot the Ape Man? . . . the Man of the Apes, in a thematic shot with a couple of the Wundertüte figures normally ascribed to Jean, Manurba, Dom or Heinerle, but which I suspect, going on both their material and the paint, are from a still to be identified supplier - as far as I know, no empirical evidence of them being any of the former has ever been shown?

 

But, it (the image) lead to the fortuitous coincidence that I had a shot of the missing Tarzan who goes on the blow-moulded elephant, still in the archive, and he is not the same as the leery one in the upper pictures, indeed I think the heliotrope pink one is a sub-piracy, but the Panther may well belong to the set including this lower Tarzan & elephant, he's just as likely to be from a Disney knock-off set though!?

There's no sign of the missing weapon/equipment (another knife?) being attached to the [probably] earlier figure in the same way / same position, nor are the hands the same, but sculpting of the main folds on the loin-cloth are the same, so copying was involved one way or the other!

OTSN auction shot from the Pielin Brothers' collection, showing the - also Argentinian-made - lead figure, upon which both the above are clearly modelled, along with a snake who's probably a solid, in fact I suspect both might be, rather than hollow-casts?

 

* I often have a mental list of things to look out for at a show, as a default against not finding anything in particular, in the past it has been Romans, anything/everything Fontanini or it might be straw-bales, it's been water-wells, or, as in this case elephants!

F is for Follow-up - Merit 'Tarzan And His Animals'

Last time we looked at this set (ten years ago!) I suggested an Elephant was the missing animal, and I'm pleased to say it was! I also said if I got a better one, I'd swap box lids, but I didn't, I got a worse one, however it did fit the new A3 scanner so . . . swings and roundabouts!

Figures first, and the immediate question is -  was the previously seen set home-painted? I suspect not; this game probably ran for a few years and like a lot of people at the time (Britains, Crescent, Lone Star), painting was seen as a quick money-saver and got dropped at some point?

So now 'Ivorene' flats, in a creamy-white, the dark spots are the anchor-points of embedded metal plates on the underside of the base, used for magnetic manipulation!

The cage you are trying to drag the animals to, if you are the horrid player (nice players [Tarzan] are trying to save them) with a hidden wand, it's half Driving School and half Answer Robot (both also Merit games as some point), missing it's door/gate last time, when I unpack I will save this board and the older box!

I will also have to carefully transfer the older pull-ring, and it will have to be careful, as this one was complete until I touched it, whereupon it fell into three pieces and I have to assume the other will be equally age-brittled?

The magnetic arm with which you locate, capture and drag the poor animals by any-which-way (even tail-first) possible, back to the cage!

Scanned lid; a bit tatty, but higher resolution/detail than last time!

Rules, also scanned as a high-res' for those who need to know how it ends!

F is for Follow-Up - Native American Zulus!

Well, it is the first day of Rack Toy Month and while I will try to keep up the current output, I have had a lazy week on emptying a house, so at some point I must concentrate more on real life and trying to find the deeds in a pile of paperwork which if stacked A4 would be over eight-feet tall!

While I was preparing the article we saw the other day (three posts down the page) Chris Smith was A) taking delivery of more figures (and a carded set!) and B) putting his thinking cap on, which resulted in a hypothesis I think has wings, and a quick trip into the attic this morning to see if I could add anything, which I could, but not much!

So, the smaller set of clones now have a 'set' set - if you know what I mean. Chris was worried about the title, but I think - within the context of the time - it's OK to see, I was worried, when he first mentioned it, that it might include the other n-word, I've seen children's annuals from the 1920's which contain appallingly racist stuff, so Negro Fighters is pretty tame for what was a rack-toy which may date back to the late 1950's?

It can be taken as offensive though, Wikipedia says - "In the English language, negro is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The term can be construed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region or country where it is used. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe." so is presented here within its historical context and for research purposes only, neither the author nor the contributor condone it's everyday use. In Spanish it is the word for black.

A close-up of the really quite charming artwork and a shot of the figures in situ; note we now see/have the crouching guy in the smaller set, which takes the pose count to seven for both sized sets or 22 to find for a one of each with the originals, still considerably more with plastic and paint variations.

But why are we also looking at two Native Americans (top left)? I'll let Chris tell it: "By now you will have spotted the two figures top left in [the] photo 1 and be wondering why they are included. I had had that Indian in brown a couple of times in mixed lots and always put him in with Wild West lots of early Hong Kong copies of British figures for resale. Then when I got the two black larger version warriors there was that Indian in black as well, on checking, the base mark is the same as the warriors and the paint for both the black and brown versions . . . So my theory is that this Indian pose was the 8^th pose, what do you think? Hard to prove until a bag/boxed set turns up."

I think he's right! And it was 'off to the attic' to see if I could find any as I had an idea I might have one somewhere? First stop was the Unknown Wild West Box 2, which is not supposed to have Britains' poses in it, but does if they are part of a mixed-origins set or 'lot'. I found two in a smallish sample, obviously I've only been collecting the larger scales for twelve or so years, but I still managed to find two (marked with asterisks).

However . . . neither quite fitted the bill! One is much smaller and unmarked the other has a faint 'made in Hong Kong' mark in a different font and a bunch of likewise -marked Wild West mates, so it was back to the drawing board - or attic! Note that both have their Britains feather-headdress reproduced.

Turning to a temporary box which got half-emptied in the course of this morning's antics as all the swoppet-copies were 'swapped-out' to a new box with only swoppets in! I managed to find one in a bag by himself!

This is he, and he's also from the larger Zulu type, going by the base mark, the point to note is that there is a definite attempt to created a more African style top-knot instead of the American's headdress, not quite the full quoit, but aiming there?

Chris's pair, one black, one brown, no matching Wild West, it all adds up to an eighth figure / ninth-pose in this range of originals and clones! And while he's right that it will take the finding of a set to confirm, its absence from the obvious set; the Past The Post set seen here, helps firm-up my own theory vis-à-vis that being the eventual/likely brand for the larger set of 'Zulus'.

Chris's are also both from the larger set, so two paces forward, one pace back, are we looking for the same figure in the smaller set and could it be the unmarked one from my unknowns (feathers say 'no'!) or will it, too, have the upper-surface base mark we looked at the other day?

Questions, questions!

While I had them all out I shot this chap, in the hope that flushed with these minor victories (and that carded smaller set which is a proper victory!), we might be able to find out something about this Britains 'Herald' Hong Kong copy. He has a separate knife unlike the donor, which is similar to but heavier than the Timpo knife and has something 'late Italian' about his production values, think Dulcop or all that Kinder/Giodi/CGGC stuff?

Five days later (6th August; early hours) . . . 

Literally sat there looking at me while I edited this and the previous post on the subject! He must have come-in with the other four additions, but not knowing Chris's theory, I'd sorted him out with the other Wild West and he was still waiting on the chest of drawers to go in the Wild West TBS box!
 

C is for Carpet Warrior Clones

A slightly bitty post this one, as I'd already got some images in the long queue when - as a continuation of the series of Jungle Explorer set's revelation posts a year or two ago, I think (?) - Chris Smith sent me his shots, only for me to take some more, lose the post, find it again, delete the duplications between the two lots and then - the other day - get some more in and take a separate shot which hung around for a few weeks as I couldn't find the folder again! In the end I found it didn't have African, Warriors, Lone Star, Jungle or even Tarzan in the title, but the rather obvious Zulus!

Anywhoos, it means this is a bit of a meander rather than a straight narrative, but I can sneak a separate Charbens shot it, so hopefully some of it will be of some interest to some readers!

We'll start with Chris's main shot as it is a comparison between some of the better clones and the Lone Star originals (which I haven't been able to locate (one reason the post was on hold in the 'long queue'), and may not have, although I thought I had them somewhere - maybe only the Cherilea 'Nubians'?); Lone Star black plastic, Hong Kong clones; brown. In Chris's words;

"Fairly common Hong Kong copies of the Lone Star natives, I happen to like them even though they are turd brown lumps of plastic!"

"I had a single black one then recently got a yellow/cream one so thought I would do a comparison shot it is then I noticed they are a slightly different mould, smaller with a squarish base and Hong Kong mark on the upper surface . While sorting out the best brown copy for the shot turns out I also had a brown one in this smaller size. Thing is all three of these smaller figures are the same pose, okay there maybe others out there but another possible diecast accessory or cracker gift? The black and brown ones are painted, the yellow one isn’t, both the black and yellow have one feather missing."

My sample a while ago now, and I have a few more of the black copies (no originals in this shot, they're all HK), some coloured ones which I think came from the legendary Barry Blood's sell-offs back in 2009/10, and which I also think are where Chris's cream/yellow one belongs, and another smaller black chap (bottom, yellow shield) who I used to suspect to be from a third source; he's not, he's a probably earlier version of the 'monochromatic' ones in bright colours. As you can see i think most poses will appear in all types - see caveat below!

I have had one Lone Star come in with a odd-lot recently and here he's compared to one of the brown ones in close-up, the larger brown- (and black-) plastic ones are the first generation copies I suspect, certainly they are the closest size-wise.

A base comparison; better one coming below.

Charbens only did the three Africans but they go quite well with the Lone Star set having the leg-feathers if not the head-quoits of their stable-mates.

I had a few more of the coloured ones come-in, enabling this better shot of them, I am suspecting the 7th pose (knobkerrie) wasn't copied over to this smaller set, as the Lone Star (8th pose) stomping 'chief' (channeling a bit of native American he is!) wasn't carried over to the larger clones? But, I stand to be corrected on both musings, neither Chris nor I have large enough samples to draw firm conclusions from either absence?

Lone Star originals, Black and brown larger copies and painted and unpainted smaller copies, I can't call the single sample black or brown, he's a dark, damp-looking khaki, while Chris has brown AND black, so they may have had several plastic-colour issues under the paint? It's also confusing that the throwing spear figure is a heavier/larger sculpt in both lines, while the waving spear pose is lighter/smaller in both!

Improved the contrast! Assuming the absences mentioned above are held over time, this gives us a target of 21 (8+7+6) figures to collect to have one of each physically different figure, but many more if plastic colour or paint variation is to be sought to the n^th degree!

Lone Star have a pretty standard mark, for them, the larger figures have a crude and roughly engineer's-stamped 'Hong Kong', most with a mould-release pin-mark, while the smaller figures as Chris pointed out above are marked on the upper surface of the base with a neater stamp; 'Hong Kong', as two small blocks.

Something else I would point out (against an eventual return to them, here at SSW) is that the base markings on both sets above tie them in with the similar Crescent/Lone Star Wild West copies and some Britains/Monogram/Timpo 'Khaki Infantry' clones, some of which we've already looked at here (Past The Post for instance) in the past, so we'll compare that way another day, in order to try separating some of these copies into potential manufacturer 'families'! Indeed I wouldn't be supprised to find some of the above figures (larger?) came from/in those long Past The Post boxes?

That's it, a bit of back and forward, but hopefully something of interest? I think I can say both Chris and I are rather enamoured of these funny little piracies!

T is for Two - Tarzan

King of the Jungle, Lord of the Apes, Whisper of the Animals, Prince of the leopard-print underwear!

Half this has been in the queue for a couple of years, indeed I think I lost the folder a couple of times, and it nearly got written-up over a year ago but things shifted - as they do, while the others were shot the other day, but together they make a nice 'T is for . . . ', and quite different treatments of the subject between the two!

Sent to the Blog by Brian Berke - as I said - ages ago (possibly after we'd looked at another Tarzan or jungley thing here?) and totally new to me; large PVC single-moulding figurines in the style of Bullyland or Papo, Plastoy or Schleich, but actually clearly marked-up to Disjorsa.

Google has so far failed to find any other products, or a history of the company, but the Tarzan set had a third pose; flexing arms in a half squat like a bodybuilder, which appears to be less common. The use of the J in the company title/brand suggests Portuguese or Spanish as a starting point and while that could point to Central/South America, most offers are on European sales sites?

About 100/110mm, and some of the sales descriptions I found mention Jonny Weissmuller as the target of reverence in the sculpting, being not familiar with such things I can only presume the likeness to be such . . . ! That turned into a pompous sentence rather quickly!

Perhaps I should continue the blog in the habit of an Edwardian gentleman? "And forsooth, the real surprise of this fine morn's investigations is the incredible likeness of these novelty trinkets originating from the colonies of the Far Orient to the prodigious output of the company owned by the widely regarded William Britain Esquire!"

Feb. 2025 - now to be also seen here, with extra images.

A safer size for PW's fans (other branches of the hobby do exist), is Kinder's little Tarzan pop-together's, variation provided by (yeah! Pompous-head on today!) different coloured bases in red, green or brown.

Every Tarzan deserves a Jane and Kinder's gets one! She has no weapon to speak of, but that parrot looks pretty sharp! She has a more obvious variation, the green runner was also issued in Yellow, I may have one somewhere (the Kinder box is still in the depths of the garage, but may be found in the next few weeks?) but fear it's an incomplete green one!

Both are of eight pieces, and the Kinder numbering suggests they were paired in the order-forms with other models; the Zorro set were of the same source with similar bases and are also of a TV/Movie theme?

Cheers again to Brain B for the Disjorsa examples.

G is for Ginormous Jungle Man

He's ginormous, and he's a man, from the jungle! No making it up as I go along here! Shot this two or three years ago now, but as I try to steer-away from the army-man stuff at chritsmas i thought you'd be interested.

He's 'believed to be' Spanish or South American in origin, although he ticks all the Hong Kong boxes apart from being marked with anything. A blow-mould about 5 1/2-inches (bit smaller than Action Man/GI Joe) with the (probably slightly bulging) base removed to give him a flatter standing surface, that's it: Ginormous Jungle Man . . . with a monkey!