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 Flying Saucer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flying Saucer. Show all posts

Monday 13 September 2021

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!

S-562-3921-1N; Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Jack & Jill; Jack and Jill; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship; Strange Men From Mars; The Toy House; Toy House;
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!

S-562-3921-1N; Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Jack & Jill; Jack and Jill; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship; Strange Men From Mars; The Toy House; Toy House;
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.

S-562-3921-1N; Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Jack & Jill; Jack and Jill; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship; Strange Men From Mars; The Toy House; Toy House;
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.

S-562-3921-1N; Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Jack & Jill; Jack and Jill; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship; Strange Men From Mars; The Toy House; Toy House;
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.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship;
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!

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship;
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.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship;
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'.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship;
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.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship;
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!

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Alien Spaceship; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Flying Saucer Toy; Flying Wheel; Giant Aliens; Giant Flying Saucer; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Giant Spaceships; Giant UFO's; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens; Space Station; Spaceship;
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'!