About Me

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I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label "MADE IN HONG KONG" (in circle). Show all posts
Showing posts with label "MADE IN HONG KONG" (in circle). Show all posts

Thursday 2 November 2023

Grandmother Stover's C3 Spacemen / Astronauts

Another brand to link to the lesser of the three copies of the Giant Spacemen here, with small packets from Grandmother Stover's one of the smaller (but like SSCO relatively common) cake decoration, pocket-money novelty and craft/doll's house accessory suppliers.

A small'ish set contents-wise helps explain why they are the harder to find, a lot would have been lost piecemeal over time, but these will turn-up from time to time, I haven't opened it as I have a reasonable number of loose ones, including the odd metallic-maroon painted ones!

You can see the distinctive circular marking for the C3, which is my numbering system, no need for anyone else to use it, but it helps get them in 'an' or 'some' order! There's about 12 figures, but they seem to be a good mix of poses, whether you actually got all ten with some extras, or a totally random pick is a moot point I may try to work out if I find a couple more samples!

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But is it Giant

As I said last time: these like the C1 and C2's are copies, clones, piracies . . . there's nothing Giant here, but we have the additional Grandmother Stover's for the archive!

Friday 25 March 2022

Giant and Giant-like Astronaut Spacemen - Part V - Copy Type 'C3'

But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Or What; Giant Spacemen; Hong Kong Astronauts; Hong Kong Cosmonauts; Hong Kong Spacemen; Marx Space Tank; NO.T703; Rocket Firing Space Vehicles; Scale Size Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space tanker; Take-A-Part; Unbreakable Polyethylene;
So to the hardest to pin-down, they seem to have gone head-to-head with Giant, or appearing shortly after Giant, so could be earliest, but I suspect they are contemporary with but copied-from and a few months later than C1, with the C2's also copied from C1? But anyway, this post is on the C3's which are the poorest in quality really?
 
But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Or What; Giant Spacemen; Hong Kong Astronauts; Hong Kong Cosmonauts; Hong Kong Spacemen; Marx Space Tank; NO.T703; Rocket Firing Space Vehicles; Scale Size Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space tanker; Take-A-Part; Unbreakable Polyethylene;
Binoculars are reduced to different sized blobs, but the 'bazooka' keeps it's shape quite well, so 'swings & roundabouts ' there! Flash is greater, and pieces of runner have been left on some of the figures. the weapon of the radio-operator ending-up looking like a fancy aerial!

I believe the paint here is 'factory', and they may have been painted to compete with the later, 1970's, bi-coloured packs of Woolbro's Space Explorer Set's? I have had more than one sample come in with the paint, same shade, and it's painted over the runner-stubs (forth from left) which you feel a modeller/war-gamer - even a young one - might have trimmed-off first?

But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Or What; Giant Spacemen; Hong Kong Astronauts; Hong Kong Cosmonauts; Hong Kong Spacemen; Marx Space Tank; NO.T703; Rocket Firing Space Vehicles; Scale Size Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space tanker; Take-A-Part; Unbreakable Polyethylene;
Marking is a circular 'MADE IN HONG KONG', often double-stamped, or over-stamped, not always clear and in a more condensed font, while the bases are the largest of the four types (C2 are the smallest).

The same mark appears on at least one of many generations of Monogram GI copy, and a small-scale Blue Box piracy cow I have, so whoever this company was, they seem to have been quite busy churning out generic clones for unprincipled Western buyers, or unethical Western contractors!

But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Or What; Giant Spacemen; Hong Kong Astronauts; Hong Kong Cosmonauts; Hong Kong Spacemen; Marx Space Tank; NO.T703; Rocket Firing Space Vehicles; Scale Size Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space tanker; Take-A-Part; Unbreakable Polyethylene;
While I have similar quantities of both, that could be down to coincidence, as the next image would suggest unpainted should be more numerous, but later-produced figures survive better (that's the law of attrition), so if painting came later there would be proportionally-more still around.

But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Or What; Giant Spacemen; Hong Kong Astronauts; Hong Kong Cosmonauts; Hong Kong Spacemen; Marx Space Tank; NO.T703; Rocket Firing Space Vehicles; Scale Size Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space tanker; Take-A-Part; Unbreakable Polyethylene;
Old internet shot - a direct take of Giant's own set, but un-branded and in full colour, with no apparent accessories - despite the artwork - the code number would tie this in with the direct-copies of Giant Wild West sets I have in the pile.

No paint on the figures and the Giant rip-offery, would point to this effort being earlier, with later sets put-up against the Woolbro set, with paint, or 50/50 paint? This set also suggests that there are non-Giant 'Giant' space-tanks out there?

But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Or What; Giant Spacemen; Hong Kong Astronauts; Hong Kong Cosmonauts; Hong Kong Spacemen; Marx Space Tank; NO.T703; Rocket Firing Space Vehicles; Scale Size Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space tanker; Take-A-Part; Unbreakable Polyethylene;

Here's another space tank . . . er! Posed with Marx's tracked Chlorine/Hydrogen/Oxygen rocket-fuel tanker, this is a re-issue I think in a white plastic which could be a dense 'ethylene polymer or a polypropylene? The figures are - of course - and like the other four sets - all softer polyethylene plastic.

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But is it Giant

These like the C1 and C2's are copies, clones, piracies . . . there's nothing Giant here, but this type is trying hardest to be Giant with the total copy of card-art and accompanying text . . . including the probably non-existent rocket-firing tanks!