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.

Thursday 24 March 2022

Giant and Giant-like Astronaut Spacemen - Part II - Giant Originals

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;

So, to the figures issued by Giant in the early to mid-1960's, the same figures would have been found in The Toy House or World Toy House (same firm) packaging. Figures are marginally the largest at a tad over 21mm and a mean/average, and also the best sculpted, these can paint-up well, but are scarce, so better to use commoner copies for that sort of thing!

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;
The boards I used t shot these have left a bit of a shock on the eye, vis-à-vis the base-marks, but if you enlarge the images (right-click and 'open in new tab', or window, then left-click the image if a plus-sign is showing) you'll see they are clear enough.

This is what I call the command poses, four-of-nine, with detector man (it's sci-fi he could be detecting anything, not necessarily mines!), a spotter with binoculars, a squad/section signaller/runner and the O/C - Officer Commanding; we know that's who he is as he's the only one with a side-arm . . . or ray-pistol!

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;
The squad troopers, armed with various lengths of space-rifle and a recoilless, tube-launched weapon, undoubtedly capable of some cosmic devastation on an epic scale! Giant originals are all clearly marked with the mark more associated with the later retail production (black and silver knights, Mongols &etc.), including the spurious -mark! - "GIANT ⓟ MADE IN HONG KONG"

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;
Someone sent me this about ten-years ago, maybe twelve (2007/8?) and I can't find the eMail to thank them, they are - sadly - only empty cards, but I think we can tell they would have contained - from the left; a random (of three designs) space-tank and a handful (20-odd?) of figures [3907 Space Patrol], a larger single blister of (40/50-odd?) figures [Space Men], at least two tanks, with the missile-launch mechanism of a third, along with a sample of figures and possibly one of two things yet to be identified (?) [5933 Space Brigade] and finally; one of the big rocket-ships with a dozen or so figures [5932 Space Launch].

Not clear in this low-res shot is that the Space Launch set has an integral sunken tray like the Viking longship sets, and later simpler blister-packed sets existed including another Space Men and a Space Explorer set.

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;
I don't have the tanks or rockets yet, so until I track them down, which I will, here are a couple of past feeBay lots with two of them, they all have the same twin missile-launcher as a plug-in and the same dodgy running-gear as the WWII tanks, but three different superstructure/bodies of which there are two seen here

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;
Compared with the 23mm'ish Airfix Astronauts, you can see the diminutive size of Giant's figures, the bino's guy looks smaller-still because he's bending forward slightly and foreshortening has 'dwarfed' him!

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;
This image (left) is now on 'Worthpoint' except theirs is a fuzzy thumbnail you have to sign-up to see properly (which I'm sure involves money or endless spam, probably both!), but the eBay original can still be found at a higher resolution, it came in an opposite colour-way (blues for reds and vise-versa) and while being now some sixty years of age, bears a remarkable resemblance to Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship 'Heavy Lifter' (main image), which is designed to land on its tail fins like all those 1950's pulp-cover artwork and kids comic vessels!

1021; 3907; 5932; 5933; But Is It Giant; But Is It Giant?; butisitgiant.blogspot.com; Giant Astronauts; Giant Cosmonauts; Giant Hong Kong; Giant New York; Giant NY; Giant of Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Spacemen; NY; Scale Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Brigade; Space Brigade 5933; Space Explorer Set; Space Launch; Space Launch 5932; Space Men; Space Patrol; Space Patrol 3907; Space-Men; Space-Tank; Spacemen; Take Apart;
Vintage and modern as the current HexBug Nano - Nano Space/Nanobot's space ship disgorges a troop of Giant's intrepid finest to  . . . err . . . check something out! Please note; There were no gold astronauts from/issued by Giant

I think I've bored you with this before, but Giant's figures are problematical for me with what passes for OCD in an Aspergic; namely they are armed, so should be 'Spacemen', but they are clearly wearing NASA-era spacesuits which makes them 'Astronauts' . . . doh! And hence the titles of this series 'Astronaut Spacemen'! Although Giant get round the quandary (it's real!) by using the separate words 'Space Men' across the whole line - not 'spacemen'.

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But is it Giant

Yes! Apart from the obvious prop in the last shot, the four Airfix and most of the figures in the filtered first image, this IS the Giant Plastic Corp of New York & Hong Kong issued product.

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).

Sunday 21 November 2021

'Wavymane' - The Original, Hong Kong Made, Hollow Horse?

So, I covered a couple of the easier horses at the start of this Blog, now it's time for one of the hardest, not as many variations as the Giant horses ('Smoothie' and 'Mexican'), but enough variants, and probably the original of all the hollow-horses, certainly the most numerous, by country-miles.

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
This is it, the horse I dubbed Wavymane, because I'm a simple chap and it has a wave in its mane, a curl - if you like - or, with the lighting on this shot, a bit of a loop, clearly visible on the right-hand horse's mane, about half way down the neck.

I was going to highlight it with an arrow, but some of you may decide to use these close-ups to build a ready-reckoner guide, so I thought I'd keep them clean!

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
My total sample, as of April 2016, there has been some growth, with a fair few in the TBS box, but I don't buy the quantities I used to when I was first trying to sort and annotate the 20+ main [named] types and 100+ variations, which is mostly now complete as an exercise.

We'll be visiting each sub-type in its own post here and we'll look at their marks when we do so. This is just a guide to what I have been working with/from, but there are a few points to note;

Type 1's are best quality, with a chalky (but not brittle) look, good musculature to the horses and subdued, but rich colours to the riders, with no accessories yet tied to them, they are definitely the oldest, may be the first HK horse of this HO/OO-compatible model, and - due to that age - are less numerous.

Type 2's introduce both new marks and a glossier plastic for both horses and riders, the carded set seen is 'theirs' as are some generic pocket-money bags. They are commoner than the 1's, but as clean 'Early' samples not much more numerous.

As Type 2 Late however, they are the commonest Hong Kong hollow-horse out there, there are thousands of horses in the box and the riders fill two large bags, with sets from A Pocket Money Toy (H - 502, a phantom brand?) and Larami (who also carried other Hong Kong hollow-horses, at other times, in the same packaging - so almost certainly bought-in, probably from third-party.

The Type 3 is the cake-decoration candle-holder version, and the numbering is purely arbitary, but was placed before the 4's, as it would have been an early application of the moulding, contiguous with the 2's if not originally the 1's, it depends on who had the idea first (decoration buyers, or horse seller) and how soon they arranged contracts, new tooling and deliveries of first orders!

While Type 4 covers all the late production which includes exceptions to rules, bought-in accessories, different riders or foot figures &etc. Some of these may still be in stores somewhere, but probably not.

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
Large sets from the Type 2 ('Empire Made' left) and Type 4 (YF, right) eras; The 2 has both ex-Giant foot figures and an ex-Giant fort without the bunk-house, but the riders are all Wavymane, while the 4 has new riders (ex-Timpo poses) and new foot figures.

US readers should note that while I don't have an MPC set yet, I've seen enough on evilBay to know they are within the Type 4 oeuvre, and specifically are packaging-graphic variations of the Blue-Box lookie-likey YF blister-card seen here. The foot figures also being issued with truncated versions of the fort as seen in the previous image - all will be looked at properly in the Type 4 post/s.

Also it should be seen/noted that YF produced ex-Giant second version Knight sets (tool passing through to Archie McFee/Accoutrements and ultimately BuM), yet there is no ex-Giant content in this set - although everything above is described as Giant by unknowing or unethical sellers on that there interma'web thingy!

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
Wavymane is basically a straight copy of the Crescent 54mm horse, down-scaled to a 1:76th/72nd or HO/OO-compatible size. The horse is technically galloping, although at full gallop the horse only ever has one hoof firmly on the ground at any given moment. However it's important to note that the sculptors at Crescent went with three hoofs grounded; one (front right) coming in, one (front left) lifting and one momentarily firm - rear right.

You can see I have highlighted the wave with arrows here, it is carried over from Crescent donor to Hong Kong piracy, along with all other details of mane, tail, saddlery and halter/harness, the location hole being raised to receive studs higher-up the scaled down legs of the small-scale riders.

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
Britain's had gone with a two hoof down pose for less stability, but greater realism, the front going down, the rear lifting. To the right of the Britains is a recent (and still findable) larger scale version of the old small-scale Hong Kong hollow horse, with the tail from one ('Flicktail') and ex-Giant 'Smoothie' body, but fitted for a base.

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
Timpo followed Britains with the two-hoofs-down gait, and when I sat 'followed' check out the sculpting of the tail or the ulna (shoulder) and carpus (knee) of the front left leg!

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
So, to the contentious bit; the Giant horse is a copy of the Wavymane! It's smaller because whether pantograph or hand cut, it then got reduced as the fine musculature of the Crescent horse was smoothed-out! Hence 'Smoothie' but they retained enough of the saddlery details - specifically the funny little flaps of 'Front Skirt' and/or 'Fender' (yeah - I had to look all this stuff up!), for us to know the Wavymane came first, the Giant is second generation, but re-cut to quality . . . to begin with.

This is important for two reasons, one; it will annoy the Giant purists and if you are annoying a specific group of fan-people you are usually getting something right, and two; because all the subsequent horses can be either 2/3/4th generation from Wavymane, or 3/4/5th generation copies of Smoothie - which is why studying them is so hard. Add stand-alone's and other 1st generation copies and it's all very complicated, but it has to be got right . . . or ignored.

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
A couple more large-scale offerings from Hong Kong, one which is clearly the Crescent horse, but now seemingly the donor for the small-scale horses I call Spiky-mane and Flicktail as it's had more work done on both features, to hide the Crescent origins? The other a Britains/Timpo hybrid with Britains take-off base.

Britains Herald; Britains Swoppets; Crescent; Fort Apache; Fort Cheyenne; Frontier Set; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Horses; Giant Plastics Corp; Giant Wild West; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong Horses; Hong Kong Wavymane; Horses; Made in Hong Kong; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wavymane Horse; Wild West; YF Blister Pack;
Three of the previous images scaled-together in Picasa for a full comparison. The Timpo looks bigger, but that's because A) it has a rider and B) I've lifted the image to fit it in the corner to match the bottom-left corner, for graphical purity!

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But is it Giant?

Obviously the two used in the comparisons are, but the Wavymane specifically and all the large scale ones in general; no. However, you will find Wavymane's with Giant product as bought-in 'mix-and-match' sets, they are post- or ex-Giant.

Sunday 3 October 2021

'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!

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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 19th 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?

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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'!

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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.

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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.

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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.

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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!

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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.

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
A close-up of that forth type.

Anti-Tank Obstacles; Atlantic Wall; Barbed Wire Entanglements; Bunkers; Defence Line; Defence Works; Dragons' Teeth; Fortified Position; Giant; Giant Barbed Wire; Giant Bunkers; Giant Hong Kong; Giant Plastics Corporation; HO - OO Barbed Wire; HO - OO Bunkers; HO - OO Dragons' Teeth; Home Guard; Marx Bunkers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Wire Entanglements;
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.

Monday 13 September 2021

Novelty Headquarters Inc., and Others - Space Alien Clones

We've already seen these as I only have the three examples and they have all been used in comparison-shots on the previous two posts! However, to get the boxes ticked, we'll have another look at them with a bit more info' and some theorising.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Cake Decorations; Christmas Crackers; Giant Aliens; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Goodies; Gum Ball Capsule Toys; Gum-ball Prizes; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Novelty Headquarters Inc.; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens;
So these are they; it has taken all of my 40+ years collecting to get the three, which equates to one every fourteen-odd years! I fact they've all come in, in the last 30 years, so about once a decade, although, technically they aren't [or 'weren't'] rare once, as we'll see in a minute.

But the slow drip of them here in Albion points to them having been either the very cheap gum-ball machine capsule prizes (1p or 2p machines back in the day) or the budget Christmas cracker's - 1 per cracker, 1 cracker to every few boxes?

Mark is, as you can see, a small, crude 'HONG KONG', in semi-readable condition.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Cake Decorations; Christmas Crackers; Giant Aliens; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Goodies; Gum Ball Capsule Toys; Gum-ball Prizes; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Novelty Headquarters Inc.; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens;
And they are copies, probably from crude re-moulding, hand-finished, rather than with a pantograph, simplification of the blue-guy's rifle, and the missing butt of the pink guy's, coupled with a marked reduction on size over the originals and loss of fine detail, suggest a crude method of copying? Especialy as they've then been given the same size bases as the Giant donors, something which would have been equally reduced by an off-set pantograph.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Cake Decorations; Christmas Crackers; Giant Aliens; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Goodies; Gum Ball Capsule Toys; Gum-ball Prizes; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Novelty Headquarters Inc.; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens;
This has been on the PC since I got the one before the one before this, and I think it came from a defunct Blog or website, it may be off eBay (some early images were very poor) but it illustrates the point that in the 'States you could get a bag of 100+! For what, .25/35¢? And say 5-20 bags per outlet, 500 or 5,000 outlets . . . somewhere; a mountain of these has disappeared into thin air! As have the Giant originals!

Except we know they are in landfill! Ephemeral rack-toys, from the budget-end of a budget-genre, they were discarded, hoovered/vacuumed, lost in the garden or playground, down drains (there'll be a bunch of 'em in the Sargasso garbage patch!) and whatever was left, eventually went in the bin.

Alien Novelties; Alien Novelty Toy; Aliens; Bug-Eyed Aliens; Cake Decorations; Christmas Crackers; Giant Aliens; Giant Martians; Giant Moon Men; Giant New York; Giant NYNY; Giant Of Hong Kong; Giant Outer Space Men; Giant Plastics Corp.; Goodies; Gum Ball Capsule Toys; Gum-ball Prizes; Hong Kong; Made in Hong Kong; Novelty Headquarters Inc.; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Space Aliens;
Another old crap image with some LB (Lik Be) robots rounding up the Novelty Headquarters Inc's invasion force!

Now, these are the same colours as those in the bag, not the same as mine, which may point to mine being a 2nd generation piracy, 3rd generation if you count the Giant ones. The US ones also seem to have retained a bit more of their stature, although the red one on the left has a poor weapon, so it's probably down to the base-mark, which I don't know, however I suspect two runs of the same tool.

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But is it Giant?

Neoooow! Not in a million-billion-squillion-gazillion-years Pal! Yer 'avin' a larf, in't 'cha!

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!