Rubber Brand

I saw this hard rubbery plastic cat figure described as LP on Ebay but I'm unsure.

On the back is Made in Hong Kong and numbered 948 I think.

Its missing the LP logo.

Do you have one?

A regular jazz band LP plastic animal, of which there are many, has a clear LP logo as seen here on number A6, the sax rabbit.

Do you have any plastic animals?

LP FARM FRIENDS BAGGED #1006 Lik Be

New to the blog - I think! - this LP bag of Farm Friends I saw on Worthpoint. 

I like the header art. It has a sort of Disneyesque look to it.

I imagine each individual animal and figure is numbered on the base too.

Have you got anything like this readers! 

KOMODO DRAGON AND CONDOR KITS: Revell Endangered Animals by Paul A.

Two kits from the Revell Endangered Animals series of the 1970s. Most of the kits depicted various mammals, but this pair depicted a reptile and a bird.

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H-701 Komodo Dragon, 

1/10th scale - green plastic, 20 parts;

Moveable head, tail, and legs. A Long-Tailed Macaque Monkey was also included.

later 6461 Bedrohte Tierarten Komodo Waran.

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H-702 California Condor, 

1/8th scale - black plastic, 18 parts;

later 6462 Bedrohte Tierarten Californ. Condor.

The only bird in the Revell range. Moveable wings and head.

Eight photographs, all from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

ITC MARVEL METALS KITS - UPDATED

ITC Model Craft was the hobby kits arm of the Ideal Toy Corporation, of New York City.

Following on from their Dog Champions paint-by-numbers kits, was a series of Marvel Metal kits. These were intended to provide the look and feel of an expensive bronze statue, but at far less cost.

The advertising for these kits, and the instruction sheets, all carry a copyright date of 1960, and they appear to have been released in either late 1960, or 1961 - the kits were certainly advertised in the February 1961 issue of Boys' Life, a magazine aimed at American Boy Scouts.

They appear to have been aimed at the same craft and hobby market as the paint-by-numbers kits, rather than at modellers. Trade advertising for the kits describes them as easy, exciting kits for boys and girls of all ages. Just like the various paint-by-numbers sets, this was another attempt to get girls interested in modelling. Each set came with everything needed to complete a bronze-like model, so there was no need to buy any modelling supplies.

The kits themselves were very simple, with few parts, and were all moulded in black plastic. There was a tube of ITC cement; a bottle of finishing compound; a brush; and a metallic rod. As with the earlier Dog kits, there was no display base on which to stand the finished models.

Like many kits of the period, it was emphasised in the advertising that the finished models could serve a variety of purposes other than display. They could be used as bookends, trophies, or paperweights, although in each case they would have needed a base to give them some weight. In those days most boys would have had the wood-working skills needed for such a task.

From the advertising, and the description on the side of the box, it appears that the model was first assembled, just like any other kit. Then the finishing compound was brushed on, and the rod (described in the instructions as a wand) was rubbed over the model to give it a metallic finish.

The steps are shown in a period trade advertisement.

1 Simple plastic parts snap and glue together for perfect fit (cement included)

2 Exclusive MARVEL METAL compound applied in minutes

3 Rub entire animal with MARVEL METAL wand for gleaming metallic finish

The kits look to have been short-lived. They were not included in the final ITC catalogue from 1963, and there are not many listings for them on Worthpoint or Ebay.

There were six kits in the series, all depicting various jungle beasts from Africa or Asia. All were Big Game animals. There were two price ranges. The $1.69 kits came in blue boxes, and the $1.98 kits in green boxes. The animals do not appear to have been made to a common scale, but were all around the same size.

$1.69

3851 Lion - 9 inches long

3852 Tiger - 11 inches long

3853 Rhinoceros - 9 inches long

$1.98

3854 Giraffe - 11 inches high

3855 Elephant - 11 inches high

3856 Gorilla - 9 inches high

The side of the boxes show all six kits, along with six of the ten Dog Champion kits in what appears to be a similar bronze finish. I have not come across any listings for Marvel Metal versions of the Dogs, although three were released around 1963 in a chrome-plated finish. I assume the Marvel Metal Dogs were not actually issued ?

Those shown on the side of the box were:

German Shepherd

Collie

Boxer

English Bulldog

Cocker Spaniel

Beagle

Oddly, the models do not seem to have been released without the Marvel Metal finish, as normal kits, with painting instructions for a more life-like look.

As far as I am aware, these kits have never been re-issued.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312208494937?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338722076&customid=&toolid=10050

Photographs from Worthpoint and Ebay.

Paul Adams

New Zealand

ITC DOG CHAMPIONS KITS

ITC Model Craft was the Hobby Division of the Ideal Toy Corporation of Hollis, New York. 

About 1960 it launched a range of Paint-by-Numbers kits - the Dog Champion series. All depicted pedigree dog breeds. Of the ten kits in the range, six covered the same breeds as the Bachmann Dogs of the World series.

If the poses seem rather stiff and formal, ITC advertising explains the reason. The German Shepherd 'has the stance and form of a blue-ribbon winner' - and to prove it there is a blue-ribbon on the top of every Dog Champion box.

This magazine advertisement is from the January 1960 issue of Boys' Life (a US magazine aimed mainly at Boy Scouts). It also states 'ITC Dog Champions - the world's only scale-model dog kits - are only 98c and $1.49'.

These kits are normally dated to 1960, but the fact that the Boys' Life issue is dated January 1960, and magazines usually come out at least a month ahead of their cover dates, makes me wonder if the kits were actually released in late 1959, perhaps in time for the Christmas gift-buying season ?

Boys' Life - Google Books

VINTAGE 1960 IDEAL ITC DOG CHAMPIONS BULLDOG BOXER COLLIE SHEPHERD ADVERTISEMENT | #3936730870 (worthpoint.com)

There were two price ranges, 98 cents and $1.49. The small dogs in the 98 cent range stood 6 inches tall, while the large dogs at $1.49 were 8 inches tall. There was a small gap in the numbering of the kits, separating the two price groups.

A picture of a boy painting his new German Shepherd model, while his own German Shepherd looks on admiringly, appeared on the front of the 1960 ITC Hobby Kits Catalog (US spelling).

3814-149 German Shepherd

3815-149 Collie

3816-149 French Poodle

3817-149 Greyhound

3818-149 Boxer

3822-98 English Bull [Bulldog]

3823-98 Wire Haired Fox Terrier

3824-98 Cocker Spaniel

3825-98 Scotch Terrier

3826-98 Beagle

Six of these breeds were also in the Bachmann Paint-by-Numbers Dog range: German Shepherd; Collie; French Poodle (called a Standard Poodle by Bachmann); Boxer; Cocker Spaniel; and Wire Haired Fox Terrier (Wire-Haired Terrier).

The Dogs unique to ITC were the Greyhound; English Bulldog; Scotch Terrier; and the Beagle.

The Greyhound box shows the dog running, but the model itself is standing, like all the other dogs.

The English Bulldog is referred to simply as an English Bull, which looks a little odd.

All the box tops featured a painting of the Dog Champion against a plain coloured background. But the pages from a 1960 catalogue show the Dog posed in front of a small and unobtrusive scenic background. This artwork did not appear on the boxes, but two of the images made it on to the instruction sheets for the German Shepherd and the French Poodle. The rest of the kits repeated the plain painting from the box top, but in black and white.

All the kits were simple, with a minimum of parts. Mostly left and right body halves, including the head and outside legs. The inner legs, sometimes a face, and a few other details completed the kit. Unlike the Bachmann Dogs, there was no display stand.

The paints were again solid cakes, mounted on a small palette. There were five generic 'doggy' colours, which were common to all the kits: black, white, brown, tan, and either red or pink. These could be mixed together if required. Finally a brush. The paints needed a solvent, and several types are mentioned in the instructions. Some sheets refer to turpentine, another to something called Carbona cleaning fluid.

The back of the instruction sheet featured the painting instructions, which were fairly detailed.

This was another short-lived range, and there are not all that many sales listings for the kits on-line.

Marvel Metal

In 1960 ITC launched a range of kits called Marvel Metal. These were plastic kits (all seem to have been moulded in black plastic), to which a substance was applied, and then rubbed to produce a metallic look, like a bronze statue. The series comprised six wild animals. The side of the boxes also show six of the Dogs in a similar finish. The German Shepherd; Collie; Boxer; English Bulldog (rather than English Bull, as on the Paint-by-Number kits); Cocker Spaniel; and Beagle.

I have not found any listings for these kits, or examples of boxes, so I do not know if the Dog versions were ever released ? The wild animals were certainly available.

Silver Dog Champion series

Three of the large Dogs were released in a chrome-plated finish, the instruction sheets carrying the copyright date 1963, and they were shown in the 1963 ITC catalogue. By this time the standard Paint-by-Numbers kits were no longer listed. The boxes carried the name ITC Hobby Kit, rather than the previous ITC Model Craft. These kits seem to be especially rare, coming close to the end of ITC kit production. In fact, I could only find photos of the Collie and Boxer, but not the German Shepherd.

The box tops boasted:

Nothing to Paint

All Parts Pre-finished in Gleaming Mirror-like Silver

Handsome Display Base [walnut-colored according to the catalogue]

9 Inches High

The 1963 catalogue lists these kits as new, and each consisted of 12 parts. They were packed 12 kits to a shipping carton. Did the suffix to the catalogue number indicate the number of kits per box, as 6 + 4 + 2 = 12 ? The retail price was $2.00.

ITC (boxartden.com)

It was necessary to scrape the chrome plated finish off the parts where they were to be glued together, as polystyrene cement would not work on the chrome. The Silver versions also came with display bases, on which to pose the finished models.

3840.6 200 German Shepherd

3841.4 200 Collie

3842.2 200 Boxer

ITC SILVER DOG CHAMPION COLLIE Plastic Model 1/6 Scale VINTAGE 1963 NIOB | #3823656509 (worthpoint.com)

ITC SILVER DOG CHAMPION BOXER Plastic Model 1/6 Scale VINTAGE 1963 NIOB | #3823656529 (worthpoint.com)

According to Scalemates, a German company called Progress-Werk Nurnberg distributed various Heller and ITC kits in Germany, including at least six of the Dogs. The German Shepherd was listed as Rintintin, the famous movie star, and the Collie as Lassie. Only the box for the latter is shown. The other kits listed are the Boxer, Bulldog, Scotch Terrier, and Fox Terrier. Apart from the Scalemates listings, I could not find anything further on these models.

* - Scale Modeling Search (scalemates.com)

Collie, ITC - Ideal Toy Corporation 3815-149 (1960) (scalemates.com)

As far as I am aware, these kits have never been re-issued by anyone.

Twelve photographs, all from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

GRIZZLED!

Have you seen Grizzly, the wilderness 'horror' film from the 1970's?

As you can imagine its about a Grizzly bear running amok in an American National Park and eating the campers. There are some tense moments amongst the ranger chatter, especially as the beast approaches its prey and virtually no-one goes home without a bear hug.

It was panned at the time of its release as a brazen JAWS clone and to be fair there are many elements that the director has nicked from Speilberg: the der-der music during stalking, the flying severed arm and most starkly, the ending, which I've leave at that in case you watch it!

But I enjoyed GRIZZLY. I always wanted to be a National Park ranger in the UK. I studied nature conservation for 3 years including national park management but alas in the 80's all the jobs were in Cities and I ended up part of the urban conservation 'industry' and got based in a Leeds environmental charity, where I stayed for 20 years! I am a creature of habit if nothing else! I certainly never came across any Grizzly bears. 

I also like GRIZZLY because it captures something I imagine has gone in the US, the atmospheric olde-worlde mountain restaurant where the walls are made of redwood logs and the big wood fire is always burning, casting a soft light onto healthy-looking hikers sipping brandy from huge bowled glasses. Aah.

It also reminds me of two other films I enjoyed; Prophecy about a mutated bear monster and the very similar Snowbeast repleat with chisel-jawed mountain men too. Grizzly was very successful financially and I bet it beat these two into a cocked hat.

GRIZZLY had one 'official' bit of merchandise as far as I can tell and its quite sought after by the looks of it: the GRIZZLY rubber bear by Imperial Toys [yes, they who brought us Apollo Moon Exploring!]. 

The Imperial bear seems to have been an example of the 'hey, quick, slap a header card on that old toy and get it in the shops and we'll make a few bucks!" school of marketing!

They already had a growling polar bear in stock and when GRIZZLY came out they painted it and shipped it out. I imagine the header card was the first thing to go and few will have survived unlike the tough rubber bear. 

Having said that I found this pic online of three Imperial Grizzlies all with their 'official' card labels present and correct! Looking at it again I see that the word Grizzly, in its correct film font, is TM'd on the card. Could Imperial have actually got a licence for this toy?

Did you or do you have a Grizzly?

      Image: Mego Talk

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Addendum!

Here's Brian F's Grizzly toy in front of a MC post!!

Grrrrr!

BRUSHING THE WOLF

 Werewolves have always fascinated people and that includes me.

My favourite monster and an alpha-predator to be feared.

Artists have always tried to capture the ghastly allure of werewolves and this is one if my favourite early renditions from 1857 by Maurice Sand called Les Lupins.

This is another startling Sand drawing, this time Sand Sr., George.

Modern artists have rendered the wolf to canvas. This is Frank Kelly Freas' The Werewolf Principle.

Perhaps my favourite wolfman art is this iconic cover by Frank Frazetta on Creepy #4 1964. I'm pleased to say I have this issue in my Creepy and Eerie comic collection.

Do you have a favourite werewolf readers?

KRUSHER STANDS TALL!

 

You know me. I see monster clones everywhere.

The 1979 Krusher  - above - got me thinking about Ymir. Was this alien predator its inspiration? You know, the big fella below that destroys the Colosseum in 20 Millions to Earth released in 1957.

But now I'm thinking the monster was maybe inspired the later beast in the 1971 movie Equinox, especially when you compare the artwork - this Super 8 film box for instance - to the Krusher box art above from 1979.

The two raised fists between the lettering? Coincidence?

What do you think readers?

Should I just go to a dark room and drink beer instead?

JOHN SCHOENHERR'S BEARS

The late great American artist John Schoenherr produced many well-known sci-fi covers and illustrations.

But he was also a master of wildlife painting too.

His wild bears are startling, capturing their majesty and power perfectly whilst walking through lonely desolate landscapes in search of food and shelter.

John Schoenherr's bears are just part of his vast menagerie of fabulous wildlife works.

Very poignantly, he was working on a new 'old' bear painting shortly before he passed away in 2010. You can read about this sad finale on his son Ian's blog dedicated to his Dad:

https://johnschoenherr.blogspot.com/2010/07/studio-april-12-2010.html

Many years ago Ian kindly gave permission for me to publish two of his Dad's unseen sketch paintings for a Moon Crawler.

Ian covered it himself in 2011 on his blog at the time.

https://johnschoenherr.blogspot.com/2011/09/moon-crawler.html

and here they are again in all their glory:

Image copyright: John and Ian Schoenherr. Published with permission.