Sunday Sundries

 Today's Sunday sale garnered a few things.

A modern Action Man in vintage Palitoy clobber.

A threesome of plastic. General Grievous looks over a VTech Helicopter and a weaponised Optimus.

For a future project. Found not one but two Speed Kings mod trailers.

I think this is an Action Man mine.

This beret was inside the Action Man bag along with a sten gun.

One more of the threesome. Anything here you like?

THE BLACK HOLE COMING TO TALKING PICTURES TV

For those who don't pay for Disney plus, or have it on DVD. the cult Disney film, The Black Hole is being shown on free-to-air  Talking Pictures TV, here in the UK. 

TPTV have announced it will be broadcast at 4.05 pm on 1st April and Saturday  13th April at 1.05 pm. 

MPC Cygnus kit

Mego Maximillian 

Paint-by-Numbers Pyro Birds by Paul Adams

The Pyro Plastics Corporation, of Union, New Jersey, was one of the smaller American kit makers. 

Originally a general plastics firm, it was active in the kit field from the 1950s until the early 1970s. In 1958 it launched a small series of Bird kits, carrying the Mark Trail name. Mark Trail being a newspaper comic strip, with a conservation theme.

 There were only three kits in the series:

C280-.89 American Bald Eagle

C281-.98 Ring-Necked Pheasant

C282-.98 Mallard Duck

The Eagle sold for 89 cents, and the other two for slightly more, at 98 cents. There was apparently also a set, containing all three kits, but I have not seen a picture of this.

All three kits were re-issued in 1963 in new boxes, with new numbers, as Paint-by-Number sets. This being the first such range by Pyro. The paints came on a palette, and were common to all three sets. The colours were generic: black, white, yellow, red, blue, and green. A brush was also included.

All the birds were basically brown, and the kits were moulded in brown plastic (dark brown for the Eagle, and medium brown for the Pheasant and Duck), so only the details and the base needed to be painted.

At some point, possibly 1965 when the Paint-by-Numbers line was extended, the original paints were replaced with NEW ! Water Soluble Paints. This was pointed out on the side of the box, but not on the box tops.

All the kits now sold for 98 cents, although this did increase later. That was good value, given that most of the kits were no more expensive than the original issues, but now included paints and a brush.

The new boxes were basically white, with a full-colour painting of the bird within. This would have undoubtedly helped with finishing the model.

C353-98 Bald Eagle

C354-98 Ring-Necked Pheasant

C355-98 Mallard Duck

In the 1970s the Pyro range, including the birds, went to Life-Like, who sold the kits under the American Wildlife name. According to the Scalemates site, these kits were also issued by Bull Mark, which seems to be a Japanese company. The Eagle has also been re-issued by Lindberg. None of these appear to be Paint-by-Number sets, with paints and a brush, just normal kits.

The series was also released in Britain by Kleeware, as these pages from a 1960 Hobbies Annual list all three kits, with a retail price of 7/- (seven shillings, or 35 New Pence). But the only kit I have seen on-line is the Pheasant. Again, these appear to be the original kits, not the Paint-by-Numbers versions. Kleeware kits of any subject seem to be rare.

Category:Kleeware plastic construction kits - The Brighton Toy and Model Index (brightontoymuseum.co.uk)

Eight photographs, all from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

KEV'S IMAI SHADO 3

Just made the Dinky toy sized kit of the Shado Mobile from Imai. It's not a bad little model.

Sighting confirmed,

Kevin

UK

JURASSIC LARK

The Missus and me have just watched Jurassic Park Fallen Kingdom.

I was keen to catch up on this franchise we used to love. We got up to 3 in the past.

Fallen Kingdom was Jurassic Pants. The same old tired narrative, dragging grouchy saurians back to the States that we saw in JP The Lost World when it was fresh decades ago. Am I missing something?

And the cynical way that an aging Jeff Goldblum was wheeled out at the beginning and end of the film was just laughable, despite the fact that he said the most interesting lines in the film!

Please don't tell me Spielberg had anything to do with it. Michael Crichton will be turning in his grave.

The next installment is Jurassic Park Fallen Kingdom Dominion. The names are getting longer as the films get worse it seems. 

Its on Now TV, which we haven't got and I'm not paying for another channel. Dominion's dino's will just have to wait, no doubt sedated on a ship somewhere near New York.

Have you seen Fallen Kingdom or Dominion readers? What did you think?

BONE TO BE WILD

 When I was making my copy Boneshaker below I came across quite a few boney bike toys.

Here's Mattel's glorious 1973 original Boneshaker.

Here's Mattel's Chopcycles Ghost Rider. Chopcycles were a motorcycle version of Sizzlers. I adore the flowing stylised ghost. Those Mattel designers were something else back then.

Further skeletons appeared on Hot Wheel's Scorchin Scooter in their City line.

A much more recent affair, I'm unsure when this City bonehead was released. I'd certainly pick one up if I saw one at a boot sale.

Like most things Hot Wheels, fans mess around and here's a really comical duo of the Rrrumblers Boneshaker with a Scorchin' Scooter rider!

and there's even more rib-tickling adoration in this replica by Hell's Dept I saw online. I'm not certain what this is made of but it looks really neat!

Last but not least in this ossifying outing is the legendary Ghost Rider by Fleetwood toys. Below's a loose one I saw online, which you don't often see, loose.

This basic plastic rack carded toy has attained grail-like status among action figure collectors and I'm amazed to say that I have one tucked away. I bought it at a good price decades ago on Ebay so that I could attract people to my old vintage toy stall at toy fairs in the Noughties!

More often than not this carded rider is encased in plastic with an AFA grading like this one on Hakes in the US. I'm unsure what exactly 60 means and whether mine would cut the mustard. Anyone know about AFA grading?

You can read more about the Fleetwood Ghost Rider on MC as its a bit of a blog legend. just click on the label below.

Have you any boney toys, skeletons in the cupboard or playthings of to-marrow readers?

ALL REVVED UP AND GOING CAMPING! MY HOT WHEELS CARAVAN FINISHED.

 My home-made Revvers Camper caravan is finished.

It's not that great at all but it was fun to do and something that I'll never own for real. Hope you like it.

Here's Mattel's super cool vintage original with the Nomad pulling, my inspiration.

Here's my home-made caravan with a Nomad rod.

The wheels are Lego with a redline drawn on.

To emulate the metal base I used baco-foil. I opted for simple stick-on 'windows' and kept it to a minimum. It was the last thing I did at midnight last night!

My wheels stick out a lot but I quite like the dragster look it's created!

Painting was an issue all round with this make. The matt lemon yellow is mixed with PVA to give a smoother finish .... that was the plan. Overall the model resisted me!

My spare tyre sticks out too but I've done this on all three Revvers re-makes now so why change when I'm camping.

I added some much needed colour with the lime green tow hooks. The front window isn't great but I ran out of steam.

Like all my 'copycats' they look better from a distance!

I'll be downing tools for a while. This was the last model I'm making for now, as I lack further inspiration and whilst I sort out my ever-growing pile of vintage tackle to sell on Ebay. I need to pay for all those choccy Easter eggs somehow!

PS.

I've just realised that Mattel's Revvers caravan reminds me of their wonderful Hot Line trains, which last got a mention here a whopping five years ago! How hot time flies!

This is such an obscure toy line. Anyone ever had Hot Lines?

FUN IN FINLAND

Arto's fabulous collecting never ceases to amaze me. Finland really is the centre of the vintage universe. Its quite incredible what turns up in the far North.

Some of Arto's recent finds include a rare Finnish Flintstones cornflakes teepee and the blog legend that is the 'Space Boat' [Ebay]. This is only the second one Arto or I have ever seen. This second example is yellow rather than the white we saw decades ago.

Arto also recently visited Vintageland, a huge Spring fair at Aino Arena, where all sorts of goodies were on offer. Here are two of Arto's snaps and also the venue's own promo [Petri Matero].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ve2w6sw_cM

What do you think readers?

Are you going to a collectables, vintage or toy fair this year?