AUCKLAND TOY FAIR

Auckland has just had its first fair of the year for model collectors. Very well attended, in spite of the rain.

Lots of action figures, Star Wars, and superheroes - these seem to be increasing at the expense of normal models. Tons of modern Hot Wheels. But fewer kits, railways, and older die-casts this time. Still, I was able to find some interesting goodies.

Here are a few photographs. Some deserve a more detailed write-up later on, so this is just a quick over-view.

Only four kits this time. The Polar Lights re-issue of the old, 1960s, Aurora TV Batmobile kit in 1/32nd scale. With Batman and Robin figures, and chrome parts.

A Hornby Rose Cottage kit, which will make a nice backdrop for model photography.

The Roco Minitanks Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter is a 1/87th scale kit, for use with HO model railways. This one is unusual in having UN markings, and is moulded in white plastic.

Hasegawa Mitsubishi F1M2 Pete floatplane. According to Scalemates this is the original, 1965 box. It contained one unassembled model (missing its clear parts); and a built, but partly disassembled, second model. A very early model by Hasegawa, now one of the big names in modelling.

Two Lledo Vanguards in their boxes. A Matchbox S.E.V./Chariot space vehicle - this is an enhanced version of the original. Four loose models: Matchbox Roll Royce Silver Shadow; Corgi Juniors Citroen Dyane and GP Beach Buggy; and a Zylmax Eagle racing car.

The Time Tunnel, Irwin Allen TV series from the 1960s, on DVD, Parts 1 and 2. The full series, of 30 episodes. I remember watching this show, and seeing it again years later. Very happy to have this.

One of the small Patterson Blick Instant Picture Books, with rub-down pictures. This one is on Railway Trains. I had three around the late 1960s/early 1970s, but not this one.

Comics are not my usual subject, but I spotted some with a TV or movie tie-in, and got them just for fun.

Walt Disney - Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. Based on the Disney film about a pilot who has to eject from his aircraft, and makes it to an island. Copyright date 1967.

The other three are all by Gold Key, a major US comic publisher in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of their titles had a film or TV tie-in. These usually had full-colour photo covers.

Daniel Boone - based on the Fess Parker TV series of the 1960s. In the 1950s he had played Davy Crockett, so he spent a lot of time wearing coon-skin caps, and firing muskets. Daniel Boone No.9, May 1967.

Land of the Giants - Based on the Irwin Allen TV series. Land of the Giants No.1, November 1968.

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines - or how I flew from London to Paris in 25 hours and 11 minutes !

This is a one-off title, based on the film. Copyright date 1965. I saw this film in a theatre when I was little, and it is one of my all-time favourites. The inside front and back covers have stills from the film.

A box of 18 metal pencil sharpeners in an antique bronze finish. A really wide range of subjects, from household items, to motor vehicles, artillery pieces, and musical instruments. I was only interested in a couple of these, but the lady wanted to sell the whole box as a single lot. So I got 18 sharpeners for just $10 (about £5). Photos of these to follow.

A good day out.

What do you think?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

THE SQUAT THICKENS: BIG THIGHS AND BENDED KNEES!

 I'm enjoying looking for and finding knockoff wrestlers from the 80's and 90's at the mo.

In fact any action figure with those classic Masters of the Universe big thighs and bent knees wherever possible or if not, obvious wrestler knockoffness.

With a little patience at boot sales the bendy fellas give themselves up. Its great fun tracking them down and more often than not there are always one or two at a sale and its reassuring to come home with a result.

Here's a bundle I've recruited this year.

Back row LtoR: Tall Redpants and Boley wrestler,

Middle row LtoR: American gladiator, unknown bended soldier, headless Hulk Hogan, soft rubber Galaxy Beast Warrior

Front Row: Lion-O Thundercats miniature

Have you got any He-squatters or wrestling cheapos readers?

THE LAND OF THE RISING TIN

Here’s another rare sighting on Instagram, a tin Japanese hovercraft toy from the 1960s. 

According to the (rough) translation, there is an actual fan inside, and the toy does levitate above the ground! Can you imagine having this as a kid?

Like it?

Rob C

USA

FIN DIESEL

I saw this beautiful toy space car on auction a while back. All fins and domes, its the very essence of sci-fi motoring. Do you like it readers? Got one?

THE TRI-ANG MINIC AMBULANCE

Re. the recent auction bundle that needed ID'ing, here's the Tri-ang Minic Ambulance from that mixed lot. 

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2023/04/who-is-master-of-tantalous-vase.html

Sometimes it's Red Cross, sometimes Switzerland?

I had never seen the Tri-ang Loch Ness Monster before. Must have one of the rare models from that range. Here he is on the Minic catalogue included with the models.

Terranova47

USA

TAJ ROBBIE

 

Its not often I see a stylised illustration of Robbie the Robot but this book cover caught my eye. It looks a fairly awkward stance for the big guy but I like this action scene. Looks like it was signed Taj from 1970.

Do you like it? Have you read the Neural Atrocity?

THE MATCHBOX HMS TIGER KIT

In 2021 I worked on the Matchbox model of the British light cruiser HMS Tiger. Ships are not my usual subject, and this is my first watercraft model this century. But I did build a few Airfix ship models back in the 1970s, and perhaps the 1980s.

The light cruiser HMS Tiger was originally part of the Minotaur or Swiftsure-class, but with the end of WW2 work stopped on the later ships. The last three vessels in the class were finally completed in the 1950s to a modified design, with a mix of 6-inch and 3-inch guns. 

In the late 1960s/early 1970s two were modified in to Helicopter cruisers, losing the aft main gun turret, but gaining a large hangar and flight deck for four Westland Wessex or Westland Sea King helicopters. The twin 3-inch turret on each side was replaced by a Seacat short-range surface-to-air missile launcher. In this form, the last two ships served in to the late 1970s, but had been retired before the Falklands War of 1982.

There have been at least three kits of HMS Tiger. The Airfix model was to 1/600th scale, and was the first to appear, in 1960. Frog released a 1/415th version in 1961, which was 16 inches long. Both of these early kits depicted the ship as a normal light cruiser.

 Then came Matchbox in 1979, in 1/700th scale. This being the only kit to show the ship as a helicopter carrier, and comes with a single Sea King helicopter. In the 1980s Revell acquired the Matchbox moulds, and continued to use the Matchbox name for a few years, but later just used the Revell name on ex-Matchbox kits, including the Tiger model.

I have had a couple of Matchbox Tiger kits sitting in a box for years. The original version was moulded in two colours - light and dark grey. The later version in the black box is from the time when Revell owned the Matchbox moulds, but is only moulded in one colour - light grey. This is the one I built.

The model is straight from the box. There are plenty of small and fiddly parts - all four davits holding the small boats broke in the same place as I tried to cut them off the sprue. 

It would be a good idea to pre-paint the model as much as possible prior to assembly, as there are many hard to reach corners. The decals were at least 30 years old, and broke up when applied to the model.

Still a fun build, and an interesting change of subject for me.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

TO THE BAT HANKY

A toy fair surprise was a rare Batman handkerchief that I had been looking for for a long time! 

There are three variants, and I've learned they are of British origin? Is this something you are familiar with my?

 My example looks as though Batman himself has wiped his nose with it after a fight, but I haven't dared to wash it myself yet!

Another rare yet a little bit garish find is the Korean Dae Ji Co. Lamborghini Batmobile from the 1980's. Plastic with tinplate torsos and vinyl heads for the Dynamic Duo.

I found only one other example online, and it was sold on eBay - from Finland! Maybe this is something that was dumped in here in fears of copyright infringement. It really looks horrible, but is a Batmobile nevertheless!

What do you think?

Arto

Helsinki Base