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 Toy House - The. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toy House - The. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 March 2022

Giant and Giant-like Astronaut Spacemen - Part I - Introduction

So, a five part overview of Giant's spacemen and the more numerous clones to be found out there, and more by accident than design I ended-up with an image which was so useful, I've used it - with masking - on every subsequent post, but we can see it here in its entirety!

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; Blast Off; Five Star Toy; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; Helen of Toy; NO. T703; NY; Space Briage; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Explorers 1021; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Parol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Woolbro;
First though, this is an idea of the size of the sample I've been working from, these were actually the ones in storage, and others were here, while a few more have come in recently, but you can see that the main 'types' we will be looking at (Giant, C1, C2 and C3) are all represented in largish quantities except the Giant originals (bottom-right, nearly empty pack) which were mostly here already! Silver predominates, but as the 'C2' we also get gold, scarlet and metallic blue & maroon figures, while . . . hold on! This is all for the next image;

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; Blast Off; Five Star Toy; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; Helen of Toy; NO. T703; NY; Space Briage; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Explorers 1021; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Parol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Woolbro;
Right . . . Silver plastic predominates, but the C2's were also done as gold, scarlet (not shown here, but peeking in the first image - above)) and metallic blue & maroon figures, while as C3 we sometimes find painted figures, a finish which may be of factory origin.

The C1 may not be the first copy, but is the best so earned it's moniker by dint of being closest to Giant's issues, while the C2 was by far and away the commonest, and the C3 is a separate issue, possibly (and only possibly) copied from the C2's as a third-generation piracy, on their post I will look at this further.

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; Blast Off; Five Star Toy; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; Helen of Toy; NO. T703; NY; Space Briage; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Explorers 1021; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Parol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Woolbro;
The Enemy; as far as I know there were no instances, either as Giant or otherwise, of the two being issued together, or established/flagged as protagonists, the one line being 'stand alone' spacemen, the other 'stand alone' aliens, but they would likely - in Giant's case, and probably as The Toy House - have been hanging next to each other on the rack, so the link (as belligerents/foils to each other) is there.

I don't have a Giant set yet, so this toy house one will have to do, but we looked at them all recently here;

Giant Originals
Toy House Issue
Dodgy Copies

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But is it Giant?

The figures in the bottom right-hand bag of the first image and the figure (3 angles) in the left-hand column of the second image are Giant product, everything else (99%) is not. The third image is dealt with on the relevant post (second link above).

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!