#1076 JURASSIC PARK – DENNIS NEDRY, TIM MURPHY and ROBERT MULDOON (1993)

With the current update rate of this blog, it takes ages until one toyline comes again, so this time, I will present several references from Jurassic Park by Kenner. I will focus this time in the three figures that I haven´t commented yet. In entry #819 you can read about Allan Grant and Ellie Sattler.

All these three characters: Dennis Nedry, Tim Murphy and Robert Muldoon are secondary and therefore less recognizable than the previous two, and maybe that is why they were packed with very cool dinosaurs and accessories. As I mentioned in the entry dealing with Alan and Ellie, the figures were produced before the film was actually shot, and the figures do not resemble the actors. On top of that, they didn´t produce in the first place the figure of Ian Malcolm, the character that most people remember from the first film and almost the entire saga.

Dennis Nedry. The computer specialist, and also the traitor who disables the security fences in order to steal some dinosaur eggs, and triggers the whole danger and chaos situation for the other visitors… and himself. The figure is far from the complexion of the actor Wayne Knight, who played the role. The colors of the clothes are also very different from the ones that appear in the movie and the face is generic. Pity, because we are missing those Hawaiian shirts. Since the bad guys tend to sell worse than the other figures, this one was given very nice accessories: a gun with a backpack that could spit water (one of the classic accessories in most action figure series) plus an strange helmet, that may have some importance in the novel (I haven´t read it) or the original script, but that it does not appear in the movie. The dinosaur hatchling in this case is the dilophosaurus, as it is the dinosaur that best fits the character.

Tim Murphy. Is the grandson of Dr. Hammond, and one of the two kids in the movie. Why there is no figure of the granddaughter (Lex) is unclear to me, pity, again, that Kenner didn´t cast it. I guess there was already one woman in the series and it was always risky, as female figures also tend to sell worse than their male counterparts. The figure of Tim does not look like Joseph Mazzello (who was 9 when the film was shot while the figure actually looks like a teenager), and also the clothes are different. The figure came with a brachiosaurus hatchling, a cage to carry it, a red lasso-bazooka (whatever it is called) and the nightvision googles, a very small accessory that is difficult to find.

Robert Muldoon. The main InGen hunter comes in a generic uniform that is far from the more military one used in the film. The face of the figure has no similarity whatsoever with the actor Bob Peck. This figure is actually the most commonly seen together with Allan Grant, maybe because it included a T-Rex hatchling and many accessories: a red bazooka, two red missiles (different from each other) and a backpack to carry these. The weapon could really shoot. Altogether, the figure is great.

The figures are nice, even considering that they do not resemble the movie characters, but in this collection, what every child wanted to have was the dinosaurs! I guess the best business was made with the dinosaurs, and as a result, the figures today are not so easy to find, if you are looking for complete samples in good condition. The dinosaurs included no accessories (some included a piece of detachable flesh) and are easier and cheaper to find. Next time I will show some dinosaurs.

To finish the article, a “family” portrait of all human figures in the series 1 of this great Kenner toyline.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DENNIS NEDRY, TIM MURPHY and ROBERT MULDOON
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 cm long

#1075 GINGELL/RHINO – HUDSON HORNET '51, CHEVROLET BEL-AIR '57, FORD THUNDERBIRD '57, CHEVROLET CORVETTE '62 and CHEVROLET CAMARO IROC-Z '82 (Around 1994)

These set of cars came in a big lot of toys including also Transformers, Micro Machines and plastic figures. There were some die-cast models as well, most of them very crude Made in China. Among them, I was surprised to find these classic American cars from the 50s and the 60s, so I put them aside. Also the Camaro seemed to belong to the same series, so I also kept it. I learnt from Steven (from the Motorcade) that these cars are Rhino (or Gingell, see previous entry). 

It is quite uncommon to find in these sets from the early 90s other than sport cars and utility vehicles, and cars like the Hudson Hornet are also rare in 1:64 scale, so that makes a nice addition to my collection.

The colours are basic, but the tampogaphies are very elaborated. They include funny words such as Fire-Wheel, Turboline, T.Fashion or High Sport, but this is also part of their charm.

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name:  HUDSON HORNET '51, CHEVROLET BEL-AIR '57, FORD THUNDERBIRD '57, CHEVROLET CORVETTE '62 and CHEVROLET CAMARO IROC-Z '82
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: Around 1994
• Company: Gingell/Rhino (China)
• Size: approx. 6 cm

#1074 GINGELL – BMW 323i CABRIO, FERRARI TESTAROSSA and PORSCHE CARRERA (Around 1993)

I have to admit, that, despite collecting toy cars since my childhood, I have no idea about most of these cheaper, made in China, brands that popped-up in the early 1990s. I usually get advice of Steven from the Motorcade, or I visit his webpage directly. 

The models themselves are rather uninteresting. Not bad casts, but lots of plastic, black windows and also bad tampographies (although I appreciate the racing numbers, as they help, or, at least, helped me as a kid, to organize races at home). The BMW seems to be a poor copy of a Matchbox model, but otherwise, there is nothing remarkable about them. 

The cars have been spotted in sets of many cars, and with different commercial names, but the company behind them is Gingell (Gingell Die-Casting Mfy. Ltd.). This company operated either with a big “G” logo or with a second logo that represented a rhinoceros, so Gingell is sometimes called Rhino, too (we will come to that in our next entry). Those logos appear in the boxes, not on the bases of the cars or anywhere else, so it is difficult to identify these miniatures loose. At HobbyTalk.com there are some threads that try to get a list of these models and investigate in which sets they were available. 

Both logos have been retrieved from HobbyTalk.com

Something noteworth is that the bases seem to be prepared to carry a pull-back motor, but this is not present in any of them. They do not have a reference number or any marking on the base other than "Made in China".

I bought these three cars together with other things, so I didn't have to pay for the shipping. The interesting part for me were the stickers placed over the roofs of the cars with the logo of Wüstenrot, an Austrian company for financial services, real-state and insurance. They were probably intended as a give-away to the kids who came to their offices together with their parents.

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name:  BMW 323i CABRIO, FERRARI TESTAROSSA and PORSCHE CARRERA
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: Around 1993
• Company: Gingell/Rhino (China)
• Size: approx. 6 cm

#1073 G.I. JOE – COBRA TROOPER and COBRA VIPER (1982 and 1986)

When I deal with the most popular toylines of the major toy companies, my blog receive almost no visits. Of course, everything I could say here about G.I. Joe has already been said somewhere else, or, if you are looking for some information, you have yojoe.com or many other sites to read for hours.

Still, I love to write about lines such as G.I. Joe and taking my figures out for a photo session, so this time I´d like to talk about the main characters of Cobra´s armies: the Cobra Trooper and the Cobra Viper. They are the infantry soldiers of the terrorist organisation, and where always present in the comics and the TV series. First the Cobra Trooper, who was one of the figures in the very first wave in 1982, then updated in 1986 to look less human and more like a sci-fi character. There is a second version of Viper from 1994, but this one is much rarer and I still don´t have it. In any case, the really remarkable ones are these two.

The Cobra Trooper was released, as I just said, in 1982 with straight arms, but then “updated” the following year with swivel arms, which is the version in the pictures. It came with a black machine gun only. It is not to be mistaken by the Cobra Officer, which is a very similar figure, whose more remarkable difference is a silver emblem in the chest. Since we are going today for the “cannon fodder” only, I'll reserve the Cobra Officer for some other day.

 

The Cobra Viper looks much more menacing with its silver visor or helmet and has a much more detailed body sculpt. It seems to be wearing a special jacket (maybe bullet-proof), protective gloves and googles. This other figure came with a grey rifle and a black backpack. The dark blue is the same, as it is the corporate colour of Cobra and suits well for night actions or city guerrilla.

 

Both figures are highly interesting for collectors, as you cannot have only one, you need a bunch of them! In the community in which I used to participate many years ago, there were many advanced collectors who had 10, 50, 100 of each of these two for armybuilding. Crazy! Fortunately, they are not so scarce that they are impossible to find, with some effort (also economical effort), you can find one complete and in good shape. And if, not, they has been cloned and can be bought new, almost indistinguishable of the original ones.

Here is the Spanish fullcard of Viper (Víboras)

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: COBRA TROOPER and VIPER
• Toy Line: G.I. Joe
• Year: 1983 and 1986
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 10 cm approx.

#1072 LLEDO - LAND SPEED LEGENDS (1993)

It is not so long ago I wrote my first entry about Lledo in this blog. There I mentioned this set of six cars that I didn´have yet, but I recently received it from a friend and I´d like to comment it now.

The cars represented are:

• Thrust 2 / Richard Noble (1983)

• Spirit of America / Craig Breedlove (1965)

• Railton Mobil Special / John Cobb (1947)

• Blue Bird / Sir Malcolm Campbell (1931) 

The set was first available as a cereal premium from Kelloggs in the UK in 1993. They came in white cardboard boxes inside a bigger box and included a nice brochure or small poster with a history of the cars that had broken the land speed record over the years, depicted in a timeline. The gift is a great one, maybe one of the best gifts I recall from a cereal promotion. At the time you needed 9 points plus 80 pence (that is less than one euro) to receive ALL FOUR cars. Nine points were most likely four big boxes of Corn Flakes plus a smaller one, or nine small boxes. Not so much if you have them for breakfast everyday. There was also the option to get only one model (with less points), but in this case the leaflet was not sent along with the chosen car in the white case.

As Lledo is known for reusing the casts they have, the same models were available for everybody in retail. In this case, the boxes was much more elaborated and nicer, with windows and with a short summary on the history of the four models in the back of the box. There is a second type of box for the Thrust 2 which was exclusive for this model at the Museum of British Road Transport in Coventry.

The cars are easily found online and cheap to buy (the poster is not so cheap, usually more expensive than the complete set of cars), I guess there are not so many Lledo collectors out there and they are not very well known, but they are beautiful, done with great care, nice paintwork and tampographies... a nice addition to every collection. The only negative point that we can find are the undetailed plastic bases and the white boxes, but taken out for display in shelves these two aspects are not important.

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name: LAND SPEED LEGENDS
• Scale: Approx. 1:43
• Year: 1993
• Company: Lledo (United Kingdom)
• Size: approx. 10 cm