Giant and Giant-like Vikings - Loose Examples

I realised we'd got through a Rack Toy Month over on the home Blog without posting anything here, and I usually manage to get something up here in RTM, so a bit late, here's a quick overview of the loose Vikings from the Giant Plastics Corp., of Hong Kong and New York.

We looked at the carded stuff years ago on the home Blog here, and will look at them again here when I've taken some new images of the cards which are currently in storage.

The ship, sans oars and anchor, just to give an idea of what it looks like, a simplified scale-down of the Aurora model-kit (reissued in the 1990's by Smer), which has been scaled at 1:64th (by hobbyists I think, the actual kit doesn't give a scale/size?), and which is here a nominal HO-gauge compatible or somewhere between 1:76th and 1:87th.

A recent one on evilBay with a blue sail and a couple of crew in situe, they are provided with small locating studs or spigots to keep them upright as the boat is rolled-about on the carpet or abused in the bath or fish-pond! Ulike the Giant Romans where all figures have the hole for the chariot spigot, here only the crew have a hole.

Each ship comes with a bag of accessories consisting of the crew - typically; one commander, one helmsman and four spearmen/sentries (but it can vary), an anchor, a steering oar (steer-board / starboard / stab'd), 16 shields and 14 rowing oars. The reason they are missing in the above shot is that I'm won't to open a mint pack!

The sample I'm working from is not great, they are among the harder to find of Giant's output, but not as rare as the backwoodsmen or early knights! Giant originals on the left, unmarked copies on the right, crew above, fighting 'troops' below. You can see from this unscientific sample that about 2/3rds of all the Vikings out there are actually knock-offs, not Giant!

The copies don't follow the Giant donors exactly, with the axe-man (red) being a composite of Giant's spearman (yellow)'s legs with new torso, sword and shield. While the copier didn't carry-over the spearman or Giant's axe-man, when they did their pirating.

An interesting and accidental yet serendipitous variation is found with the copy-set, where the ships commander can have a mild form of short-shot (incomplete moulding), resulting in his wind-blown cloak being reduced to a rod of plastic which resembles a sword scabbard on the right hip! Both the figures marked with asterisks.

It should also be noted that while the ship's crew are ex-Aurora, the fighting figures are original sculpts, although that's original with heavy influence from Crescent/Kellogg's knights and Hausser/Elastolin Anglo-Saxons!

Base marks; there is a marked difference between the fighters (above 'GIANT ⓟ MADE IN HONG KONG' in a typewriter/engineer's stamp font) and the crew (below 'GIANT ⓟ HONG KONG' in a DIN/sans-serif font) suggesting different tools, if nothing else, but as both were early and contemporaneous it only questions comments made elsewhere about using base marks to date these, all my carded sets are early, but these are 'late' marks! The copies are unmarked.

There were cavalry too, not something the annuls of Viking history are strong on, they must have had a few for farm work etc . . . or to sell to the Rus for cash! . . . but they weren't noted horsemen, being a maritime nation.

Certainly evidence - beyond the odd leader on a 'prestige' horse (which might be lashed to the mast or a deck shackle and fed from a bale or two), or similar 'grave-goods' horses buried with their owners, as  symbols of wealth or status - is almost non-existent.

Four of the foot figures provide the bodies for the Giant mounted figures, the copy-maker didn't bother with mounted figures.

This came with one of my larger lots, and is 'technically' the Mongol fort, but with the migrations/invasions from the East and the Slavic neighbours, it would make sense to include the 'Asian' gate-house version with Viking sets, however it has been given the 'medieval' or 'European' turret roofs on the corner towers.

The door is quite oriental too! We will have a whole post on all the forts, Giant and non-Giant through to the Accoutrements-Archie McFee / BuM Slot reissues, eventually, with all the combinations known.

Three identical wall sections are marked slightly differently from the gate, but I don't suppose there's anything particularly significant about that, the numeral ('1') is the same on all three sections and is probably just a mould-tool cavity number, or pattern-maker's mark.

Some sets also seem to have received ballista style catapults, more commonly found in the knights/Mongol sets, and pirated from Marx Miniature Masterpiece sets, where they were also issued to Vikings; attacking late medieval (from the suits of armour) forts!

The elastic band is a replacement, but is matched to the dried remains of the original, i.e. size (about a one-inch radius), type (thin, square-section) and rubber colour (neutral tan), for which jobs I have a large bag of rubber bands of every type! The Lone*Star Trebble-o-Trains car-carriers - for instance - take dentists brace-bands to hold the vehicles on!

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But is it Giant?

Half and half on the figures, everything else is Giant, I forgot to annotate the type of horse marking on these, so another post another day!

Giant Set No.981 Roman Legion Assault Group 59¢ 1963

The Romans weren't strong on cavalry, they did use them for scouting and patrolling the boarders of empire, sending signals and such like, and the books tell they were recruited from or tended to be the Aristocracy, but in fact they would have used horse-riding peoples from around the Empire for serious mounted work.

But clearly a few 'Toffs were allowed to ponce about on the edge of the battlefield, picking off stragglers or retreating enemy while staying relatively safe? Anyway - this set 'Assault group' is half and half cavalry and Infantry, and both disappoint to one degree or another!

Packaging follows the rules laid-down by set 980 (previous/older post), with the two-colour, screen-printed card folded-under and stapled to trap the rim of the blister in a sandwich of card, and the dotted line (which most developed humans in the 1960's knew to mean 'cut-here') indicating where to dig!

Blisters are the same size, which means more Infantry (about 40) that cavalry (10) as those hollow, 'Hong Kong' horses are room-occupiers with all those arms and legs and tails and stuff!

But . . . the mounted element consists of nine standard-bearers (meant to be Agamemnon in the Britains Herald universe) and one bloke with a shield so big it would shelter a family!

So to the disappointment with the foot-arms; it is that at least six are not ancient Romans (or Greco-Trojans!) but Giant medievals, and while it may be a case of making-up the numbers, that they are mixed together quite well, would suggest a deliberate act, probably applied to the/a whole batch, which, by modern terms would be a fraud, not that they worry about such things in rack-toys, then or now, but still a bit of a swizz!

We'll look at the Medievals in detail another day, but it's interesting to get them together like this as we can see two marking's running side-by-side, quite early in the short history of Giant's output, later Medievals (the smaller black & silver versions) would get the full 'P' nonsense, but here they have a cleaner GIANT over HONG KONG in a DIN font. The true Romans get a more scrappy mark , which I've previously looked at a possible history-of, on the Home Blog, here.

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But is it Giant?

Yeap! As sure as shit's found in a midden!

'Face' Bunkers and Barbed Wire - Giant and Others

This is not a perfect post, both the Dragons' Teeth and the third sub-piracy are absent, but by the end you will at least be able to pair-up most of your Giant and sub-Giant bunkers and barbed-wire, if you currently have them all in one tub/box/place!

But we start with the granddaddy which is Marx, specifically the Miniature Masterpieces accessory which was, itself, probably pantographed-down from the larger item found in the 54 and 60mm play sets.

And odd design; more knights helm than pill-box, but having something in common with some of the cheap iron or concrete 'sniper' posts used by various armies/nations since the end of the 19^th Century, except they are usually small one- or two-man things.

Hard polystyrene plastic and marked clearly with the full stamp, this one 'Hong Kong' but there may be 'Taiwan' versions out there?

Giant got a copy of the Marx unit out for their WWII sets, it's soft polyethylene plastic, a little smaller, a little less sharply finished, and there was barbed-wire (illustrated) and dragons' teeth (see below) to build a formidable defence-line from multiple sets.

A reminder that the that the P-in-a-circle mark; ⓟ, is internationally recognised as the symbol for phonographic recordings, not 'patent', 'protected', 'perfect' or even 'plastic'!

These would seem to be sub-piracies, and I have titled them C1 for 'copy, type one' (for the purpose of this post, you can title them whatever you like!) although it may be that the next lot ('C2') came first, but these are closer to the Giant version, just a poorer copy, less well-finished.

The arrows are pointing to large pin-release marks, which are more-like channels, filled with resin which has then been cut away with tin-snips or side-cutters, leaving still quite-pronounced protrusions.

These (C2) are poorer again, but differences in the overall design suggest parallel copying rather than liner, so they may predate the C1, but it will only be by a few months as the sets carrying them both are pretty contemporary - approximately 1966-68.

Also - or again; soft polyethylene plastic like the C1's and Giant's original copy.

The barbed-wire which accompanies the Marx-copy/Giant-clones; they are both copies of the giant version - which we looked at here - and a much finer piece than all the clones. It should be noted that while I am 100% on the tie-in between the C1's, with the C2 I have such a small sample of wire it cannot - yet - be taken as empirical, although checking with the Beach Head sets will sort them all out, more accurately, another day.

The four together, you can see that with the C2, there is a different profile to the soil the pill-box is set into, and while the surface is smoother (suggesting another pantographing) it is also a cleaner bunker sculpt than the lumpy C1, so one suspects that the C2 is a separate copy, independent of a evolution-line of cloning of the Marx/Giant donors.

There is another bunker design, which could be C3, or, a C2 if the brown ones are a stand-alone line/design, as it seems to be copied from the Marx-Giant-C1 evolutionary line, but the 'mouth' has been dropped and a 'side-door' arrangement added to the [defenders] left side (right side as we're looking at them here), they can be seen in the above links, but I can't find them, despite last shooting it in 2015, so they must be here somewhere!

Comparing the barbed-wire entanglements/fences, in the link to the Beach Head and other sets above, I noted that one of them ('D-Day Invasion') had Giant-marked barbed-wire, I'd better check to see if it has Giant bunkers as well, I suspect it did have?

While the additional strand (at the bottom of this shot) may go with the missing 'doorway' (C3) bunker, something else I'll have to check against those sealed sets! Note: double barbs on C1 and smaller barbs on C2 with the question-mark being closer to the Marx original but with four spans against the three of everyone else's.

A close-up of that forth type.

When I check the other question marks remaining above, I will return with a fuller article, and get these properly sorted. I have a shed-load somewhere as I was literally the only bloke in the UK hoovering them up at shows for years, where they were always in the junk trays, although kind people like Trevor Rudkin and John Begg saved lots for me over the years as well, so the above is just a taste, of what I had to hand, and is no guide to anything!

Basically they all follow the Airfix pattern of a 'hand' of five, linked to make a double row 2-3 ( ,',', ) and I think the Giant are the taller, with the clones getting smaller ones, which - like the barbed-wire - will probably be found to run to four obvious variants? However, all the clones are without the pyramid on the cap, which the Airfix ones wear.

In addition to the links above, this post covered the other examples in my 'master collection', and both posts linked-to owe a debt to James Opie, from who's collection several of them came.

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But is it Giant?

I set a rod for my own back with this footer-feature didn't I!

Yes, if it says so in the text, no if it doesn't and almost certainly no if it's product added to a generic set with a bunch of non-Giant product also present! Another way . . . everything in the second image is Giant, except when it's been supplied to someone else; everything else isn't Giant except where the Giant stuff is being compared with it - in images 6 and 7! There might be some Giant in the last image!

It'll be clearer when we return to them to clear-up the remaining question-marks.

The Toy House's Strange Men from Mars . . . with Space Ship!

Some say Giant did supply these some say Giant had folded, some say Toy House used Giant, some say used they copies, and while I don't have a vast selection of Toy House mint/carded, so can't come off the fence on all points, I do have this, and can confirm the contents are Giant-marked with the full enchilada!

A handful of Giant aliens and a yellow space ship in a blister-card; the blister is heat-sealed (where early Giant blisters were sandwiched between card), which could point to a later-dated issue, or just a heat-sealer at the Toy House works, so while a clue, is only circumstantial, and of no help as Giant's later blisters were also heat-sealed!

Jack & Jill was an American kids periodical (1938-present day), confusing as we had one in the UK (1954-1985), whether there was any link/license between the two I don't know, while the reference to Life is because Toy House advertised in it, back in the day.

Also I mentioned on the 'Home' Blog the other day that there is a 'The' prefix to Toy House, but even they use the shorter form and you can see that in the blurb on the card reverse!

Toy House were a bit like Child Guidance, Early Learning or Hestair Kiddycraft, in that they dressed their toys up in a bit of science and cod child-psychology, and maintained that all their toys were tested on kids before going to market, but ultimately, being harsh - this is cheap, Hong Kong, rack-toy, polymer shite!

But . . . "Play Tested & Approved" . . . goddamned right; it's aliens with feckin' ray-guns!

Close-ups of the blister's contents, I struggle to come to a single total, but I think it's 26, so either one over 25, or short on a 30-target, as far as the figures go, all fully marked-up as per the previous post's figures; 'GIANT ⓟ HONG KONG', and mostly a matching purple plastic, with three dark brown and one bighter green.

Another comparison with a cheapo-copy/clone (pink one!) in the upper shot, and more Giant base-mark close-up's are seen in the lower image. Note - the lighter brown Giant figure.

Boysie-Boy (Cassius) is not as interested in this stuff as his much-missed mother was, but he does like an exploratory bite, not to be encouraged and no damage was done to rare packaging in the making of these images!

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But is it Giant?

Yes . . . and No! Yes, because it is (or contains) all Giant 'product', but, No, as it's A) branded to Toy House and B) we don't know - for certain - if Giant provided the product (I suspect they did) or if the originating factory/a shipper/agent in Hong Kong did. However . . . found loose - all Giant!

Giant Outer-Space Alien Bug-Eyed Martian Moon-Men From Mercury!

Flagged-up as forthcoming on the 'Home Blog' the other day, except this isn't the referred-to post on the Toy House blister set, but rather the lose Giant originals, the post on the Toy House set will be the next of two following this post.

Giant's space aliens; six poses, manufactured in a nicely tight palette of chocolate browns, jade-greens (here toward the darker hues) and a pink toward purple or is it purple toward pink (?) range. Note - the forth figure from the left (second green) is a left-hander, nice to know other worlds have the same variable DNA!

How they came here; despite what you might read - here, or elsewhere - they arrived in small, blow-moulded staring wheels (yeah, there's an attempt at a joke in there somewhere!). Seen in yellow and red (as here), I'd like to think there may be green or blue ones out there, but everyone else seems to only have, or found, red or yellow, so far?

They are soft polyethylene ('polythene') with a clear-plastic dome manufactured in harder polystyrene, which clips into three slots, found at the upper-roots of the ship's arms. The compartment will take two or three at a squeeze, but is probably designed for one figure.

Top - A comparison between the two similar 'advancing' poses, the figure on the left is almost stationary 'at the ready', while the figure on the right has a more horizontal weapon-hold and a bent right leg, he's clearly getting a shift-on!

Middle - Camera-flash rendered this a less than successful shot, but is supposed to be showing the range of the pinky-purple, with a darker purple on the left and a paler pinky on the right. Brighter and darker exist; see below.

Bottom - A Giant original on the left against a poorer clone on the right, the copies come in a wider range of often wackier colours (again; more below) but can be quite distorted or misshapen, and are all-over more 'blobby'.

There is little-to-no evidence that these large blow-moulds were ever branded to Giant, despite them being often so-described by some online (there's an hideously overpriced 2-pack on evilBay as I publish this, describing them as Giant), nor any evidence they were ever carried by Giant, PMC or the later Arcotoys? Every example I've seen/encountered (we looked at them here, a while ago) is an unmarked 'generic' rack toy.

Equally, there's nothing definitive to say whether they came first or second. My own feelings are that they are later copies, for a number of reasons, not least is that they only copied three of the six poses, a forth, less common pose (waving space-rifle) being not taken from Giant.

Additionally Giant's early bi-colour graphic blister-carded sets date from the early sixties while the larger bagged blow-moulds with full-colour header-cards are more late 1960's/1970's, so these days I suspect the blow-mould'er copied Giant's diminutive figures.

Comparison between Giant and non-Giant bases, the clones having a simple and often half-readable 'HONG KONG', the Giant's having the full 'GIANT ⓟ HONG KONG' mark.

Now, I have been quite derogatory toward the Giant ⓟ-mark . . . in the original series of articles in One Inch Warrior magazine (back issues may still be available of the later numbers), earlier on the home blog and most recently - I think - on the Roman page of the same Blog.

However someone then thought to add a rather long winded addition to his site - which hadn't worried about the ⓟ-mark until I did that Roman page - muttering about patents. There are several internationally recognised abbreviations pertaining to patents, all of which have been on the home Blog for a decade;

• Pat. - Patented
• Pat. App. - Patent Applied-for
• Pat. No. - Patent Number; followed by a numeral

In 1961 it was agreed internationally that the P in a circle mark; ⓟ, would represent phonograms (phonographic recordings), referred to as "...the sound recording, phonorecords, phonogram or phonographic copyright symbol" by the Rome Convention on such matters.

So, while some date Giant from 1959 (without empirical evidence), Tawser gives "common belief", which is pretty safe, Garratt gives 1962-, which is a bit later but would have come from one [or more] of his US correspondents (Pestano?) back in the day, nearer to when it all happened, I myself prefer a wider 1961/2, which gives a couple of years for production contracts to be settled and for New York to organise licences with the Hong Kong office and/or shippers, UK importers et al., to enable James Opie to be buying the early bicolour blister-card sets, in the UK, in 1964.

Even if Giant dates earlier (and the correct date for their move into the colony may be in the HK book), the ⓟ-mark is lacking from some of the earlier stuff, and fully-associated with the later-issued black/silver knights, as blister-cards gave-way to header-carded bags.

Ergo, Giant were pulling a fast-one with their ⓟ-mark, hoping people might THINK it meant patented or protected or some other equal nonsense, and as such I will continue to take the piss out of their ⓟ - yes; another attempt at a joke of some sort!

The aforementioned archive shots, I believe the trio in the bottom-left hand shot are now in my sample! The upper shot seems to have been worked-on in a picture-editor; the brown and green darkened as the pink has been enhanced to a probably false shade? While a more turquoise green is to be seen bottom right, in a more colour-true image.

The only remaining question is, are they aliens, aliens in space-suits or riveted android/robot types?

Elite interdiction-squad the 'Puce Panteras' of the 4th Astrovasion Wing (LRRP) receive the day's orders from their spore-parent, prior to launching their invasion of Earth, little did they know that their reconnaissance drones, lacking scale on the camera's, had sent back terribly inaccurate data, the Terran's were over a thousand height-units, and the gravity so heavy, the moon-men couldn't move, few survived, and decades later it was a rare thing to see them alive or dead, usually on the evilBay . . . for many credits; fate is a cruel mistress.
 

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But is it Giant?

Yes! except the obvious copies and the blow-mould comparison, this is all Giant product, unless it's Toy House, but I'm getting ahead of myself . . . see next post/'Newer Post'!