Battle of Berlin Mini Military Playpak - DFC - Multi Toys Corp.

I'll load this last so it appears above the other two of three, as it's ended up with the most images and the other two are pretty-much much-of-a-muchness! The three were - in point of fact - sold together in a cling-film outer with a card tray.

Box scan promises little but a light tank could reasonably be expected to star in the contents! The "Over 35 Pieces" on all three boxes is a funny one, there are in every set 31 figures, one or two vehicles and a polyethylene play-mat made of carrier-bag material. In the case of one set (the Battle of Berlin in this post) this gives an item-count of only 33, count the wheels and turret seperately and you get 36! The other two sets are a little better, giving 34 items/40 parts!

The contents complete and set-up on the rather simplistic play-mat; clearly a meeting of two cart-tracks down in the Grünwald rather than the more iconic urban setting of so much of the photography of the final, brutal campaign by the 'Red Army' to behead the Nazi-daemon!

Which makes the sight of two sets of Matchbox US Infantry piracies dukein' it out in the woods all the more incongruous! Especially as one side gets to call on a vaguely British armoured-car for fire-support . . . lend-lease to the Soviet Union!

The figures, no mortar or team but most of the set is copied (leaning-back Tommy-gunner, bazooka-man, AFV-overalls and stabbing down are also absent, along with the MG No.2) and you get them in two colours, a mid-green (close to the Russian summer uniform) and an olive-drab which sort of passes for field-gray!

The figures are so-so, they're not the worst copies of Matchbox in these small sizes, nor are they the best. Unmarked and in a glossy plastic; they is; what they is, what they is!

The armoured-car is a very basic version of the big Daimler as modelled in small scale as a kit by Hasegawa for a long time now. There are lots of versions of this from Hong Kong (and 'China'), most probably coming down from the Dinky die-cast toy original; this is the poorest version I know and is an umpty-somethingth-generation copy!

However, finish-quality is good; it's a nice clean, well-defined moulding, just not very accurate to the donor! Marked "Made in Hong Kong" in the body-cavity.

A scan of the play-mat should anyone need to print-out a paper replacement, neatly dating the set's issue to 1983 and suggesting that DFC/Dimensions for Children might remain with us through the still-busy MTC whose rack-toy products have featured heavily on the Home-Blog over the last 20-odd months.

Below this post you will find briefer looks at the other two sets in the series/pack-liner; Battle for Stalingrad and Battle for the Black Forest.

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But is it Giant?

 

No - date is way off, source-material for the piracies is way-off, plastic play-matt is not Giant's style, although some of the comic-stuff with Giant figures did have similar play-mats; they were paper.

Battle of Stalingrad Mini Military Playpak - DFC - Multi Toys Corp.

So, to the second of the three sets issued jointly by the Dimensions for Children and MTC brands in 1983; small sets sold together in a trio and containing a handful of Hong Kong-sourced piracies, the contents similar between the three sets.

Scanned box, the artwork is even more exciting than on the (above/newer post) Battle of Berlin set, if only we actually found a Schwimmwagen with MG fitted upon opening the box, or plastic renditions of the walls of the Kremlin - wrong city DFC! Sadly - no such luck!

The figures are copies of Matchbox's US infantry and as we looked at the poses above, we are here looking at the colour variations of the two main armies, one being in a rich yellow-olive or khaki and the other set being in  a darker olive-drab or jade-green, however there is quite a variation between figures and each set has 31 figures, random by pose and number of each pose but always (or certainly - in the case of my three sets) 15 in one colour-way, 16 in the other.

In place of the Daimler armoured-car in the Berlin set we get two jeeps in this set, both scaled larger than the figures, one fitted with a spigot for an absent driver and looking vaguely like a US WWII-era Jeep, following a common HK design, the other having a hole forward of the driver's seat which may be for an equally absent driver, or a steering-wheel, as it's not present either - we'll never know!

This second 'jeep' however is not a Jeep, but resembles almost the Soviet version utility-car with a different bonnet (hood) and squat'er appearance, see also next/older post (Battle of the Black Forest) for a couple more views; it also lacks the star on the bonnet usually seen on Hong Kong Jeeps.

The different markings, plastic solour and wheels suggest both were bought-in from separate manufacturers, with the smaller one being supplied by the same producer who provided the armoured-car seen in the Battle of Berlin set, the larger one originating with the same company that made the figures.

As with the other two sets this is a 1:1 scan of the play-mat in case anyone needs to print a paper replacement for the PE original, and, in keeping with the Battle of Berlin set, seems to have eschewed the iconic scenes of urban combat around the tractor-factory, rail terminus, river-side wharves or main square, depicting - instead - the rural idyll to the South of the city as described by Guy Sajer in his seminal autobiography The Forgotten Soldier!

So we've had Berlin and Stalingrad, what great battle next; Iwo Jima, Leningrad or Moscow, Tobruk maybe, Kohima . . . Mote Casino, Dunkirk even . . . ? No, we're off to the Black Forest!

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But is it Giant?

 

No - date is way off, source-material for the piracies is way-off, plastic play-matt is not Giant's style, although some of the comic-stuff with Giant figures did have similar play-mats; they were paper.

Battle of the Black Forrest Mini Military Playpak - DFC - Multi Toys Corp.

This set is in the same vein as the other two, and has almost identical contets to the Stalingrad set, whether the likelihood of getting two jeeps or an armoured car in each set was fixed or random I don't know, but one day will track-down some duplicates which will answer that particular question!

Again we'll lead-off with the box scan, hint's of a German tank are going to prove misleading when the purchaser opens the box, but at least this time we have US forces on the cover!

Of course; there was no major combat in the Black Forest in the Second World War - the people who started the bloody conflagration escaped remarkably unscathed, as - indeed - in the case of the Austrians, they had in 1918, after starting that 'show'! Some of the Cities had been bombed, often heavily for years, and there were some limited actions against fanatical Nazis in some towns, but generally Southern Germany and Austria escaped the worst.

The complete contents vis-à-vis the figures and in keeping with the two sets above ('newer post' or click the DFC tag) we get two colours of Matchbox US infantry copies, 15 in one colour and 16 in another; figures are reasonable for what they are, early 1980's piracies from Hong Kong.

It's seems amazing; but with random pose-numbers and plastic colour variation, it looks likely that the figures were hand-sorted/counted into the boxes, each of my three having exactly 31 figures with a 15/16 split as far as main plastic-colour goes.

Two Jeeps, again as per the Battle of Stalingrad set from the same brands (Dimensions for Children / MTC) and within the same retail liner, from two sources; one is a common HK design with star on the bonnet (hood), the other looking a bit 'quatsch'!

Well, it says Battle of the Black Forest and for once the play-mat delivers! Two connected, twisty paths for your handfuls of figures to rush round, stalking each other, a bit narrow for the jeeps though!

It's a 1:1 scan for anyone who needs to print-off a paper replacement for a missing plastic one - the original is basically printed on plastic carrier bag material; Polyethylene (PE) film/sheet.

What's clearly a missed opportunity with these three sets is that despite the similarity of the contents and the fact that they were sold as a trio in a cling-film wrap with card-tray, they (the designers, shippers, jobbers) didn't think to make the mats line-up . . . a bit of tweaking and they could have matched-edges like Lego base-plates!

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But is it Giant?

 

No - date is way off, source-material for the piracies is way-off, plastic play-matt is not Giant's style, although some of the comic-stuff with Giant figures did have similar play-mats; they were paper.

Hong Kong Hollow Horses - Mexican Large - Lucky Clover - Fort Cheyenne with Red Indians

I think we can assume there was a similar one printed 'With Cowboys', but more on that below. This is another easy one, clear distinctions between the similar 'bits' of this set and other sets, some of which we will look at here, others - in future comparison posts.

We've looked at the ancient and Royal Guards sets over on the main 'Home' Blog, and this has no real surprises, however while they had the same title (Tower Fortress with Soldiers) or shared the same packaging, this has a set-specific title block.

Four mounted figures replace the guns or chariots of the other sets and again we can assume that would be true for a cowboy version. A number of relatively unique (by size) foot figures accompany a pretty standard Hong Kong Wild West fort, although it has higher walls than the more common versions from Giant, Woolbro, Gordy, et al., and shallower step/walkway . . . too shallow to stand the figures on!

Logo, code number and a locating arrow, the purpose of which will be to ensure the packers get the tray-insert and the lid to line up, with the fort's own title-block reading in the English fashion (right-way-up, left-to-right) for neat, uniform, shop-displays.

The Stock-code number is the same for all sets, and as I've seen some of the sets as a probably later 1970's blister-carded assembly coded 6647H, it is fair to assume this too probably appeared in that guise, however, both from the numerically earlier stock number and the graphics, we can place this in the 1960's and indeed James Opie dates them to 1969.

The Indians; I have no way of knowing if these are all the poses, and the evidence would suggest probably not! There's a seventh damaged foot figure still to find, complete, for a start!

The figures are based on various sources, notably Timpo '1st version' Swoppets providing the mounted poses (spellchecker wants me to replace 'poses' with posse!), with a couple of Britains Swoppets and the Crescent 60mm sets providing the foot poses. They are also quite large, 26-28mm for the foot, so hard to mistake for other HK figure sets using any of these poses.

The foot figures have 'peanut' shaped cloud bases which are quite thick with an ogee edge and the locating studs on the mounted figures are surprisingly small, almost pointed pimples and all the Indian figures only appear in shades of purplish or oxide browns and red-browns, the darker figures are a bit translucent, and may well be from the later carded sets (if they existed), but the paler solid-colour ones are definitely from these window-box sets.

The horse is the one I call Mexican Large, and is about the best examples of the type you'll find after the Giant issued ones, unmarked and with a slightly textured surface to the interior to the body cavity and very thick body-walls.

Base mark is a blocked HONGKONG in a DIN type font and the fort will be looked at against the others in a comparison post at a later date.

Because I have only the three sets (Guards, Trojans and Indians) we will look at the cowboys as well here, in the hope that a cowboy set will turn-up one day . . . it will! I know the cowboys belong here as they have the following in common with the Indians . . .

• Size
• Base mark (foot figures)
• Peanut bases (foot figures)
• Ridden horse
• Locating stud (mounted figures)

. . . and because they came together in 'clean' loose-figure samples. Indeed; they were among the first sets to be sorted out of the main lump, such is the clarity of their signature features.

There are a couple of differences, namely that prior to obtaining this set, they had only turned up with a darker fort (although there were a few creamy-tan spare bits in the unknown box from mixed samples) and they don't take any poses from Timpo or Crescent.

It is my belief therefore; that the dark-brown (Indian figure colour) forts probably accompanied the so far missing cowboy sets, while the Indians got a fort which contrasted with their own plastic colour. Although the previous clean-sample loose sets I had taken-in often contained similar quantities of cowboys and natives, so there may have been 'belligerent' sets with both sets of figures and an oxide-brown fort.

The Cowboys; again I have no way of knowing if this is all the poses, but at eight foot and seven mounted two things are likely: A) there are probably less cowboys (if any) to find than the Indians, and B) there probably ARE one or two more Indian poses to find!

Always in the same four primary colours, but various shades and hues, the poses this time are from Britains Swoppets only, but from both the 1st and 2nd series. If anything their bases are even thicker than the Indians and with a sharper radius on the edge.

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But is it Giant?

No. 1969 puts it a year or two beyond the best of Giant, although some of their original stuff lasted on as sell-through (barbed wire, wagons) or comic book game-playing pieces, they were gone before this lot hit the toy, model and sports and bicycle-shops of the West!