Some photos of the Sixteen 12 'Bringers of Wonder' set which is currently set for release towards the end of this year.
Sunday, 24 April 2022
THE VISIBLE GIANT AMERICAN BULLFROG
Hi
Here is another Visible animal model, this time from a small American company called Superior Plastics. They did not make many kits, and were only in the kit business from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. Most of their moulds ended up with other companies.
Superior Plastics Giant American Bull Frog
Yet another frog kit, this time the Giant American Bull Frog, by Superior Plastics Incorporated. Later re-issued by Educational Products, and Lindberg - all three companies being based in Chicago, Illinois.
Superior Plastics Incorporated, Chicago, Illinois
Superior was one of several smaller American kit companies active for a short time in the 1950s and 1960s. Their boxes are easy to identify because of the triple-diamond logo in the lower right corner, which the later Educational boxes lack. Helpfully, the copyright date of 1960 is printed on the box top.
The top and sides of the Superior box proudly boast that the kit is moulded in Superlon plastic. As far as I can tell, this is a type of High Density Polyethylene used mainly for plastic piping, and other heavy duty industrial items, rather than kits. It is difficult to glue, and many modern glues would not have been available in the 1960s. That might explain why Superior did not last long in the kit business.
Scalemates say the model is 1:1 scale, but do not give a catalogue number.
Bull Frog, Superior Plastics Inc. (1960) (scalemates.com)
The box top lists several features:
Finely detailed - Life-size body over a foot long
Fit-together vital organs for both male and female
Full-size skeleton - flexible, assembles and disassembles
Fun to assemble - an educational study model - fully dissectible.
EXTRA ! Display showing life cycle of frog
The body of the frog was moulded in the usual translucent green plastic that is almost standard for frog kits, white for the skeleton, and brown or purplish brown for the internal organs. The lower body half has a large opening, with a separate cover, allowing the internal organs to be seen more clearly, or removed. There is a flat moulded plaque with raised detailing showing the Life Cycle, from egg, to tadpole, to froglet. There is also a small Juvenile Frog in clear green.
Vintage Bull Frog Model Kit COMPLETE 1960 Dissection/Biology with DIRECTIONS | #3766963050 (worthpoint.com)
1960 Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit | #3674795679 (worthpoint.com)
VINTAGE 1960 SUPERIOR Plastics Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit & Box - $15.99 | PicClick
Educational Products Incorporated, Oak Lawn, Illinois.
Oak Lawn is a suburb of Chicago. The box design is the same as the Superior version, but now has the Educational name on it, and a new copyright date, 1967. The top and sides of the box no longer mention Superlon plastic, so the Educational version was presumably moulded in conventional polystyrene. This company offered both the complete Bull Frog kit for $3.50, and the Skeleton on its own for 75 cents. I could not find anything on the Skeleton beyond a couple of old ads, including a leaflet that was presumably included with the Educational Bull Frog kit. I do not know if Superior also sold the Skeleton as a separate kit.
Detailed & Unusual Visible Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit, 1967 | #2027208136 (worthpoint.com)
Vintage (1967) Science Decor Giant Bull Frog Model Kit Dissection *Biology | #3779738441 (worthpoint.com)
Lindberg Release
In the 1970s Lindberg of Skokie, Illinois, another suburb of Chicago, acquired the Bull Frog, and has released it in a number of different boxes over the years. The colours of the plastic have varied. Although the boxes still refer to vital organs, there is no longer any mention of separate parts for male and female frogs. I have no idea if they were still included. Lindberg had an extensive range of human anatomy kits at the time, but this seems to have been their only animal kit.
Full colour box, copyright date 1973, model number 1310. This kit was still listed in the 1981 Lindberg catalogue, but was not included in the 1982 edition.
White box/green frog, model number 1303.
Blue box, model number HL301/12, date 2009. This was from the time when Lindberg was owned by Lloyd International. The name of the kit changed from Giant American Bull Frog to Transparent Bull Frog on one side - and Transparent Giant American Bull Frog on the other. The box also says the model is only 11 inches long, rather than 'over a foot', as on previous releases.
According to Cybermodeler Online this kit was again re-issued by Lindberg, now owned by Round 2, in 2013 as 0301.
Lindberg 0301 1/1 Transparent Bullfrog Kit First Look (cybermodeler.com)
Lindberg Transparent Giant American Bull Frog Educational Model Kit NEW,SEALED | #3851336387 (worthpoint.com)
Giant American Bull Frog Lindberg Vintage Model Kit 1973, New Sealed # 1310 | #2007681139 (worthpoint.com)
New!Sealed!!Giant American Bull Frog Lindberg Vintage Model Kit 1973 | #2059407164 (worthpoint.com)
New Lindberg Transparent Giant American Bull Frog Plastic Educational Model Kit | #3860961063 (worthpoint.com)
Vintage Lindberg Giant American Bull Frog Anatomically Accurate Model Kit # 1303 | #1785287384 (worthpoint.com)
All photographs from Worthpoint or Ebay. Six photos, in three batches.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Here is another Visible animal model, this time from a small American company called Superior Plastics. They did not make many kits, and were only in the kit business from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. Most of their moulds ended up with other companies.
Superior Plastics Giant American Bull Frog
Yet another frog kit, this time the Giant American Bull Frog, by Superior Plastics Incorporated. Later re-issued by Educational Products, and Lindberg - all three companies being based in Chicago, Illinois.
Superior Plastics Incorporated, Chicago, Illinois
Superior was one of several smaller American kit companies active for a short time in the 1950s and 1960s. Their boxes are easy to identify because of the triple-diamond logo in the lower right corner, which the later Educational boxes lack. Helpfully, the copyright date of 1960 is printed on the box top.
The top and sides of the Superior box proudly boast that the kit is moulded in Superlon plastic. As far as I can tell, this is a type of High Density Polyethylene used mainly for plastic piping, and other heavy duty industrial items, rather than kits. It is difficult to glue, and many modern glues would not have been available in the 1960s. That might explain why Superior did not last long in the kit business.
Scalemates say the model is 1:1 scale, but do not give a catalogue number.
Bull Frog, Superior Plastics Inc. (1960) (scalemates.com)
The box top lists several features:
Finely detailed - Life-size body over a foot long
Fit-together vital organs for both male and female
Full-size skeleton - flexible, assembles and disassembles
Fun to assemble - an educational study model - fully dissectible.
EXTRA ! Display showing life cycle of frog
The body of the frog was moulded in the usual translucent green plastic that is almost standard for frog kits, white for the skeleton, and brown or purplish brown for the internal organs. The lower body half has a large opening, with a separate cover, allowing the internal organs to be seen more clearly, or removed. There is a flat moulded plaque with raised detailing showing the Life Cycle, from egg, to tadpole, to froglet. There is also a small Juvenile Frog in clear green.
Vintage Bull Frog Model Kit COMPLETE 1960 Dissection/Biology with DIRECTIONS | #3766963050 (worthpoint.com)
1960 Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit | #3674795679 (worthpoint.com)
VINTAGE 1960 SUPERIOR Plastics Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit & Box - $15.99 | PicClick
Educational Products Incorporated, Oak Lawn, Illinois.
Oak Lawn is a suburb of Chicago. The box design is the same as the Superior version, but now has the Educational name on it, and a new copyright date, 1967. The top and sides of the box no longer mention Superlon plastic, so the Educational version was presumably moulded in conventional polystyrene. This company offered both the complete Bull Frog kit for $3.50, and the Skeleton on its own for 75 cents. I could not find anything on the Skeleton beyond a couple of old ads, including a leaflet that was presumably included with the Educational Bull Frog kit. I do not know if Superior also sold the Skeleton as a separate kit.
Detailed & Unusual Visible Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit, 1967 | #2027208136 (worthpoint.com)
Vintage (1967) Science Decor Giant Bull Frog Model Kit Dissection *Biology | #3779738441 (worthpoint.com)
Lindberg Release
In the 1970s Lindberg of Skokie, Illinois, another suburb of Chicago, acquired the Bull Frog, and has released it in a number of different boxes over the years. The colours of the plastic have varied. Although the boxes still refer to vital organs, there is no longer any mention of separate parts for male and female frogs. I have no idea if they were still included. Lindberg had an extensive range of human anatomy kits at the time, but this seems to have been their only animal kit.
Full colour box, copyright date 1973, model number 1310. This kit was still listed in the 1981 Lindberg catalogue, but was not included in the 1982 edition.
White box/green frog, model number 1303.
Blue box, model number HL301/12, date 2009. This was from the time when Lindberg was owned by Lloyd International. The name of the kit changed from Giant American Bull Frog to Transparent Bull Frog on one side - and Transparent Giant American Bull Frog on the other. The box also says the model is only 11 inches long, rather than 'over a foot', as on previous releases.
According to Cybermodeler Online this kit was again re-issued by Lindberg, now owned by Round 2, in 2013 as 0301.
Lindberg 0301 1/1 Transparent Bullfrog Kit First Look (cybermodeler.com)
Lindberg Transparent Giant American Bull Frog Educational Model Kit NEW,SEALED | #3851336387 (worthpoint.com)
Giant American Bull Frog Lindberg Vintage Model Kit 1973, New Sealed # 1310 | #2007681139 (worthpoint.com)
New!Sealed!!Giant American Bull Frog Lindberg Vintage Model Kit 1973 | #2059407164 (worthpoint.com)
New Lindberg Transparent Giant American Bull Frog Plastic Educational Model Kit | #3860961063 (worthpoint.com)
Vintage Lindberg Giant American Bull Frog Anatomically Accurate Model Kit # 1303 | #1785287384 (worthpoint.com)
All photographs from Worthpoint or Ebay. Six photos, in three batches.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Found In the Net
Some unusual thingies came up in this week's catch. Check these out. No idea what the grey oblong with rollers is. The little racer says Barlux. The jet is Bandai 1985. The gold Hot Wheels feels like plastic. Is that correct?
Saturday, 23 April 2022
A MORNING OF THE UNEXPECTED
After walking the family dog Blue I watched an omnibus of Tales of the Unexpected early doors this morning. It was on the telly. So strange to see it again, those quirky Roald Dahl morality tales. Oddly enough I'm reading a set of his short stories at the mo called Kiss Kiss, which is unexpectedly old-fashioned in a way and I understand formed the basis of some of the 'Tales'.
Anyways, the first tale this morning starred Shane Rimmer no less. Yep, Scott Tracy's voice in a salutary account of psychopathy across the decades, not unlike something you might find in an EC comic but without the grue. His victim is played by Cyd Hayman, a beautiful actress who I don't know at all but her TV credits feature everything from The Persuaders to Space 1999 to Jackanory!
Another Tale starred the ever-reliable George Sewell, well-known from Get Carter and playing Alec Freeman in UFO and one Bryan Marshall, who readers will know as the friendly Sergeant in Quatermass and the Pit or the corrupt Counsellor in The Long Good Friday. Again Dahl's pithy moralising seeps through again demonstrating that crime doesn't pay. Or at least in this one it didn't.
Yet another yarn dealing this time with the forgery of paintings starred Richard Johnson, who I remember in one of my favourite Sixties horror films, The Haunting. Checking IMDb he also featured in Space 1999 and a slew of other films and TV programs.
You can't watch Unexpected without wondering who the dancer is at the start. I had to look her up now we have Google. She's one Karen Standley and did the routine on her day off!
Were or are you a fan of the Tales of the Unexpected readers?
THE VISIBLE PIGEON
I thought you might be interested in a look at one of the odder kits in this line, a Pigeon. I am not certain, but I think this kit was later issued by Marusan in Japan.
Renwal Products Inc. of Mineola, New York, was an American kit company. Their most famous products were a line of 'Visible' kits. The outer shell was moulded in clear plastic, allowing the interior to be seen. Kits included engines, and various living creatures, including humans.
One of their odder kits was a 1:1 (life-size) Visible Pigeon kit, released in 1959. It was kit number 812:398, the suffix meaning it sold for $3.98, fairly expensive for 1959. The kit remained available well in to the 1960s. The pigeon is posed standing, with its wings folded, and comes with a small base. Some kits had the internal organs moulded in pink plastic.
This was from a period when US kit companies were heavily promoting the educational value of their kits, with several models tailored specifically to this market. Kits often included a booklet giving background information on the full-size subject, many written by noted experts in their field.
The box top of The Visible Pigeon Assembly Kit states: An Accurate Anatomical Model complete with All Vital Organs, Skeleton, Transparent Skin - assemble - take apart - re-assemble. Oddly, the Renwal name does not appear on the box top, only on the ends of the box.
An introduction to the World of Birds - Includes a 12pg. illustrated Booklet written by Wendell M. Levi, A.B., Ph.B., J.D., foremost authority on pigeons.
Here is the Scalemates entry for this kit.
Oddly, it seems this was not the only life-size visible pigeon kit available. Marusan of Japan also produced a kit in 1967, as number 860. The illustration on the box top suggests this is a different kit to the Renwal model, as the bird is shown with its wings open. The release date given by Scalemates is somewhere around the time the Renwal model was retired, although it is listed as a New Tool.
Illustrations of this model are in short supply, but I did find a sales listing for it - and I now think it is same as the Renwal model. Certainly the base on which the bird stands seems to be the same. Reinforcing this view is the fact that Marusan also did a Visible Boxer Dog, which looks to be the same as the Renwal Visible Boxer.
This site is in Japanese.
It would seem that neither kit has ever been re-issued, unless the Renwal and Marusan kits are indeed the same model.
From the Box Art Den, a copy of the 1966 Renwal catalogue, which still lists this kit. However it is not listed in the 1969 catalogue.
Photographs from Worthpoint.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Lightyear - the return of space toys?
Hi Woodsy.
Saw a new toyline in the local toyshop this week from the upcoming Disney Pixar CGI science fiction animated movie 'Lightyear' that is due out in June.
The movie is about the Buzz Lightyear character from Toy Story but in the film he is a 'real' astronaut rather than a toy.
Supposedly it's the 'real' science fiction movie that Andy in Toy Story watched that made him want a toy Buzz. The trailer has the great Bowie Starman track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwPL0Md_QFQ
Anyhow, Mattel have brought out tons of toys from this movie and as well as figures and robots in different sizes there is a range of 6 to 7 inch size spaceships in their Lightyear Hyperspeed series -the XL-01, XL-02, XL-07 and XL-15 ships, plus a larger Zurg Fighter that is 10 inches long. There are also Lego of the ships coming out too.
https://www.nda-toys.com/images/wholesale/disney-pixar-lightyear-hyperspeed-asst-wholesale-76561.jpg
https://www.nda-toys.com/images/wholesale/disney-pixar-lightyear-hyperspeed-asst-wholesale-76565.jpg
https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/action-figures-and-playsets/lightyear/disney-pixar-lightyear-hyperspeed-series-zurg-fighter-ship-and-zurg/p/206552
The ships remind me of a cross between Star Wars and the Project Sword Re-entry Task force series.
Given the popularity of Buzz Lightyear toys, hopefully the new movie is a massive success and space toys may be on the way back.
Keep up the great work on the blog.
All the best,
Yorkie.
Friday, 22 April 2022
LEGEND OF THE SEA DEVILS?
Having been abroad over Easter I missed British telly. I see that there was a special called 'Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils'. Was this a documentary of the old classic Seventies run or something in the new fangled series? Being an erstwhile Sea Devil fan I'm curious.
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Paul Vreede's New Spacex Toys Website
A beautiful and comprehensive site dedicated to the world of Tri-ang SpaceX and Golden Astronaut Toys
Ed Berg's Toy Blog: Toys and Stuff
