I like these small Mexican kits I saw on auction. I assume they are Montaplex. I love the Seaview style sub to the right.
R&L didn't issue these vehicles too did they?
Wednesday, 1 March 2023
Tuesday, 28 February 2023
SHADO PLAY
Here are the 2 SHADO Dinky toys that survived my childhood.
These are the actual ones I got for Christmas 1970 or thereabouts and they survive to this day because my Mum saved them and kept them until I was old enough and wise enough to reclaim them.
Positive track,
Kevin D
UK
THE BEAST'S BIRD: THE HOT WHEELS X-JET
Here is another recent Hot Wheels find. The X-Jet from the Marvel X-Men universe. It is part of the Screen Time TV and movie range within the Hot Wheels Mainline. This is a new casting from 2021 and this is the first colour scheme.
The Hot Wheels Wiki site describes the X-Jet as a supersonic, vertical take-off and landing transport, with cloaking ability.
The model has a metal upper body and twin fins, with the lower fuselage and wings being moulded in plastic. Overall metallic mid-blue. The windscreen is tinted red, as are the engine air intakes.
The only printing on this version consists of two yellow squares on top of the fuselage, just behind the canopy. There is no undercarriage. Like a number of recent Hot Wheels aircraft, the model is provided with a small display stand in the shape of the Hot Wheels ribbon, moulded in clear smoked plastic.
A word of warning: this is a very loose fit, so be careful when you pick the model up.
The aircraft has a downward curved nose, forward swept wings, and two widely-spaced engines.
The underside has plenty of information moulded in to the fuselage and wings. Mattel, Hot Wheels, Marvel, the name X-Jet, copyright date 2020, and Malaysia. Length 80 mm, wingspan 67 mm.
Being a Hot Wheels Mainline model it is much smaller than the Matchbox Sky-Busters, but is still a really nice model.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
ALTAIR BOY: TERRANOVA'S NEW FORBIDDEN PLANET ROBBIE ROBOT
Neither forbidden nor invisible, this American Walmart exclusive Robbie is the biz!
Enjoy!
Images kindly shared by Terranova47, USA
THE AUSTIN MAGIC PISTOL: THE TABLE TENNIS MENACE
Some toys are downright dangerous.
This late 1940's contraption is just such a one,
The Austin Magic Pistol.
Its jazz deco looks give it a totally Flash Gordon vibe.
Its also known as the Magic Pistol or the Ping Pong Pistol.
The 'magic' came from being fuelled by calcium carbide!
These were tinned-up as Austin Magic Crystals and created the blast for the plastic ball ammo.
The crystals were tipped into the rear.
Ignited by the trigger, the resultant blast was massive!
images: internet
Tested in Detroit and made in Michigan the Magic Pistol lit up the toy world for a bit and then was promptly banned.
Unsurprisingly I couldn't find a single one on Ebay.
Did you ever feel its magic?
THE ITC BUMBLE BEE KIT RESEARCHED BY PAUL ADAMS
In the 1950s model companies were still trying to discover what types of kit would sell. So far, aircraft, ships, cars, and missiles were doing well.
But what would come next ? Some firms tried anatomy kits, and models of various animals. How about insects - giant insects ? Because insects and arachnids are so small, models of them would have to be made several times life size, so that is what ITC and a few others did.
The kits did not sell, and few have ever been re-issued. Most firms only produced one or two kits before dropping the idea of giant insect models. Further models that had been planned, and listed on kit boxes and even included in catalogues, simply never appeared.
It would be the 1970s before Fundimensions had the obvious idea of re-creating the giant-bug-on-the-rampage movies of the 1950s with their Gigantics kits, setting their monstrous insects in dioramas that showed them leveling an entire city block. Over the years there have only been a handful of giant insect models, and all appear to have been short lived.
Here, we will look at the sole giant insect kit from ITC - the Bumble Bee (two words). This is what the box had to say:
ITC Model Craft - Hobby Division of Ideal Toy Corporation.
Fascinating and Educational - The First of a Series of a Great New Hobby.
Authentic Plastic Assembly Kit - No Painting Necessary.
Made in U.S.A. by Ideal Toy Corporation, Hollis, N.Y.
Kit No.3805-129, meaning it sold for $1.29.
The side of the box lists 'Other insects in this series': Scorpion, Grasshopper, Tarantula, and Praying Mantis - although a couple of these are arachnids, not insects. The illustrations are simple line drawings, and do not show actual box tops. I can not find any listings for these kits, and it seems they were not actually produced.
The Bee kit is mainly moulded in dark brown plastic, with clear plastic wings which have to be cut from a thin vac-formed sheet, and a display stand to show the bee in flight. The most unusual part of the kit is the inclusion of some soft, fuzzy yellow fabric. This could be glued in to recesses in the main body parts, to depict the soft hairs covering the body. There was also a decal sheet, which gave both the common and scientific names (Bumble Bee and Hymenoptera Bombus), for use on the stand. This gives the scale as '8 X Actual Size', or 8:1. Real Bumble Bees can be just over an inch long. A metal rod is also included for mounting the model in flight.
This ITC advertisement has the date 1959 on it, but if it is for a trade show this might have been for the coming year, so it could have been either late 1958 or early 1959. It gives the price as $1.30. The model was 9 1/2 inches long, and had 44 pieces. It is listed as being available for Immediate Delivery. The copyright date on the underside of the model also seems to be 1959, although it is hard to find a good photo of this area.
Scalemates say the model is 20 times life-size, but that does not match what the kit says - given that real Bumblebees can be just over an inch long, this ties in with the quoted scale of 8:1. The model does not appear to have been re-issued by anyone else. It seems to have been a fairly short-lived kit. The only ITC catalogue on the Box Art Den site is dated 1963, and does not show the Bumble Bee.
Copyright date just visible under body.
Instruction sheet.
A good view of the vac-form wing sheet.
Good views of the parts, but colour balance appears to be way out.
Assembled store display model, in its original box.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Monday, 27 February 2023
WELGAR SHREDDED WHEAT FREE GIFTS
These are free gifts from Welgar shredded wheat cereal. Presumably they came in the box with the cereal. Does anyone know what date they might be? Will O.
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