#425 TURLY GANG – SNAKER (1991)

 

The “Turly Gang – Fighters for Freedom” is another bootleg line based on Masters of the Universe. Two of the most famous bootlegs lines ever were the Galaxy Fighters (Sewco) and the Galaxy Warriors (Sungold), which were quite similar lines, since they shared the casts for some heads, weapons, plus almost the entire body… the only difference was in the left hand. Even the names of the figures were similar.

The Turly Gang’s figures are made by Sungold, and marked with this name, although in Europe they were distributed by EuroPlay. Without accessories could be easily mistaken by Galaxy Warriors.

The nice thing of these ultra-rare figures is that they intend to be a crossover between MOTU and TMNT… the two main characters are Primus (or Primos) and Sekundos (not very original names… First and Second is a latin-alike language), who are completely green and have Ninja Turtles heads.

This toy line comprised at least 10 figures, 5 good guys and 5 evil-doers. Each of them was equipped with a harness, a shield and a weapon. All accessories were made in black plastic, unlike the Galaxy Warriors or the Galaxy Fighters that only had grey accessories.

There were two different models of harnesses (a “round” one or a trapezoidal one with a sticker), two different models of shield (both with sticker), and then 2 types of sword and two types of axe.

The line is quite a mess… from the 10 available figures; two of them have a slightly different cast, since they have articulated knees. This type of cast actually comes from another bootleg line, called “Lord of Insects” (also by Sungold).

Other collectors claim that there is a second type of blister card available showing even more models of the figures and also some vehicles. The figures might be mostly colour variations. As I could see in www.onlinetoyshow.com, there are two more turtle-alike characters, practically identical to Primos and Sekundos, only with an iguana head instead of a turtle. All other characters might have a second decoration, so we would reach up to 20 different figures.

Backcard by Alfi from actionfiguresca.proboards.com, although the picture was retrieved from blog.toy-sector.de

The figure you can see here is one of the two versions of Snaker. Note that in the blister card, the figure is rather yellowish, while mine is green, with orange details.

The figure is extremely cool, and today it is quite sought-after. They were cheap toys from the early 90s (the trade mark was registered in April 1991), but today each figure might reach up to 50 dollars.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: SNAKER
• Toy Line: Turly Gang Fighters for Freedom
• Year: 1991
• Company: Sungold (Hong Kong)
• Size of the figures: approx. 13 cm

#424 HANS POSTLER – LAUFTIER/ WALKER (Around 1972)

This small and cheap toy is a “Lauftier” (lit. “Walking animal”, although in English this kind of toy is known as "Walker"). I bought it recently from a guy who had a box full of them. There were many different animals available: from dogs and horses to more exotic elephants, tigers and camels.

They are made of bright plastic, and have a string attached to its bodies. The other edge of the string have a very light weight (it’s a plastic ball), that makes the animal actually walk. As you can see in the package, the ball is left over the edge of a table, and the animal will walk in that direction.

They are really nice example of “kiosk” toys, which were available for very little money in other places than toy shops: newsagents, bakeries and so on.

The toy is made in Hong Kong, although the packaging is in German. There is a logo printed on it, that, I guess, belongs to the manufacturer or importer, I cannot read it, but I think  it says something like HEID, HEIP, HEDI, HEPI or a similar combination of letters. I have searched the internet, but I found nothing about this brand.

Thanks to Maverick Collecting, I have found out that  this logo belongs to Hans Postler (it was really a "H" and a "P"), a German importer of cheap toys (mainly from Hong Kong and China).

I think this toy was made by the early 70s, sometime between 1970 and 1976, because of the style of the package and being manufactured in Hong Kong for German speaking markets.

The security warnings are also written in French.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LAUFTIER (In German: “Walking Animal”)
• Year: Around 1972
• Company: Maybe HEDI, HEPI, HEID or HEIP (Hong-Kong?)
• Size: Around 4 cm.

#423 TOMICA - ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM VI, MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL, MORGAN PLUS 8, PACKARD COUPE ROADSTER and OLDSMOBILE TORONADO XSR (1976, 1977 and 1978)

TOMICA FOREIGN SERIES

All Tomica models I keep from the early 80s belong to the foreign series. I think I have already told this before, but most of them were bought by my father in Portugal, I think it was in Faro (Southern Portugal).

I cannot remember the boxes in which they were sold, because these were probably thrown away right after I got the car out of them, but they should actually be a white and blue one with a flag on it.

Picture taken from the great blog: http://toyingwithtomicas.files.wordpress.com

The flag of course indicates the land in which the real car was manufactured, for example, in the Mercedes above, it was Germany, for the Rolls Royce it was the United Kingdom, and so on. Other flags present on Tomica boxes were: USA, Italy and France.

The production of these models started in 1974 and ended in 1988, and there were 70 models made, all numbered with an "F" (Foreign) plus a number between 1 and 70, that's F1 to F70. After 1988, the foreign series was merged into the standard series. The new reference was the old number plus 80, for example, Rolls Royce Phantom VI was number F6, passed to 086. Those standard references (from 81 on) seem to be rare, since they were discontinued very quickly, and therefore only available for a short period of time.

(Information obtained from: http://toyingwithtomicas.files.wordpress.com)

The cars shown in this entry are:

ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM VI (No. F6) in 1:78 scale from 1976
Colour: dark red
Practicable doors

MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL (No. F19) in 1:63 scale
Colour: silver metallic
Practicable doors

OLDSMOBILE TORONADO XSR (No. F54) in 1:78 scale from 1978
Colour: white
Practicable doors

MORGAN PLUS 8 (No. F26) in 1:57 scale from 1977
Colour: red
No practicable parts
PACKARD COUPE ROADSTER (No. F52) in 1:72 scale from 1978
Colour: red
Practicable trunk (or is it an extra seat?)

You can see more Tomica from the foreign series in the following entries:

#259 TOMICA – VOLKS WAGEN, BLMC MINI COOPER S (MK-III) and VOLKS WAGEN PUTICA DISNEY (Nrs. F20, F8 and PD6) (1977, 1979 and ~1990) 

#282 TOMICA – MASERATI MERAK SS, LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH LP500S, DETOMASO PANTERA GTS and FERRARI BB 512 (1976, 1978, 1979 and 1993)

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM VI, MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL, MORGAN PLUS 8, PACKARD COUPE ROADSTER and OLDSMOBILE TORONADO XSR (Nrs. F6, F19, F26, F52, F54)
• Scale: 1:78, 1:63, 1:78, 1:57 and 1:72 (respectively)
• Year: 1976, -, 1978, 1977 and 1978 (respectively)
• Company: Tomica (Japan)
• Size: approx. 6 cm

#422 MICRO MACHINES – SUPER CARRIERS (1991)

The Super Carriers is a series of 8 small vehicles/playsets released in 1991. There were a total of 4 models each of them in civil and military decorations.

These were (see the last picture of this article showing the backpack of the blister card):

• Sea Carrier and Navy Sea Carrier
• Copter Carrier and Marine Copter Carrier
• Jet Cargo Carrier and Air Force Carrier
• Flatbed Carrier and Army Flatbed Carrier

According to the package, each of these miniplaysets came with two micromachines, which were present in the standard collections (to my knowledge, none of these cars or vehicles was “exclusive”)… although in Spain, Famosa seems to have included only one model with each carrier.

Another interesting feature is that each of the previous references had some special action. The Sea Carrier for example came with wheels that made the radar dish on the carrier to twist. Last but not least, the Sea Carrier had a small practicable ramp through which the vehicles can drive in or out of the boat.

The helicopter also has wheels, but it’s nicest feature is the removable compartment for two vehicles that it carries under its tail, apart from its rotating blades.

And that’s everything I wanted to say about these mini-series of playsets by Galoob!

UPDATE1 (Dec/2018): Here comes the Flatbed Carrier!

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: SUPER CARRIERS
• Alternate Names: Super Cargos (Spain)
• Scale of the cars: 1:150 aprox.
• Year: 1991
• Company: Galoob (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 10 cm (Carriers) and 2 cms (smaller vehicles –Micro Machines-)

#421 U.S. FORCES/ AMERICAN DEFENSE / AMERICAN FORCE/… – BRUSHFIRE (US2) (1986)

SHORT HISTORY OF REMCO

Remco Toys is an important American toymaker. It had its golden years during the 50s and the 60s. The 70s were also good years for this manufacturer with a lot of licenses from DC and Marvel comics, Star Trek and Universal films and then, during the 80s it went down and started producing lower quality toys, many of which were similar to other famous and successful lines of other toymakers.

The company was founded in the 40s by two cousins: Ike Heller and Saul Robbins, and soon afterwards, Armand Daddis joined the group. The name Remco actually comes from “REMote COntrol”, as among their first products there were some remote controlled toys, as well as some walkie-talkies, and battery operated toys. The company was the first toy company to advertise their products on television, according to Ellen Schroy.

By the early 60s, the company also presented some toys for girls, since all the toys produced to-date were intended for boys. From this time comes the slogan: “Every Boy Wants a Remco Toy …and So Do Girls!”.

Remco was also one of the first companies to base many of its toy lines in TV shows, music bands and comics by purchasing the rights to do it. The had toys during the 60s based on the Beatles and the Monkees, but also on Lost in Space, Star Trek, Batman…

The company was initially settled in Newark, NJ, and later (1963) they moved to Harrison (also NJ). In 1971, the company declared bankruptcy and was purchasd in 1974 by Azrak-Hamway International Inc. (AHI).

During the 80s, Remco would again produce a bunch of great toy lines, one of them, for example is the “Universal Monsters”, based on the characters from Universal Pictures like Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula and some others. These figures had previously been produced by AHI, and today are highly sought-after collectables. After them, the company never achieved a similar success. The end of the 80s and the 90s are full of second class toylines, most of them related to toylines of competitors.

In 1997 Jakks Pacific bought Remco from AHI.

The toy today is one figure from the toyline U.S. Forces, which is exactly the same size and has roughly the same construction than a G.I.Joe from Hasbro. The toyline had many names depending on where was it available. Some figures were even repackages for big supermarket chains like Sears (“Commando Force”). Unfortunately, not much information about the toyline is available so far, no listings, no background information… I hope this changes soon.

In some websites, a similar G.I.Joe knock-off toyline is mistaken for this Remco figure. The other “American Defense” line, made by Agglo (sometimes also credited as “The Demon Enemy”), consist of cheaper and worst made figures, pretty much ripped off of “Gen Patch and Evil Enemy”, by Galoob. The toyline from Agglo and the toyline from Remco have, in my opinion, nothing in common.

A more modern toyline with that name have again nothing in common with Remco. In this case, the unbranded figures are recasts of other toylines like Mission: Kaïdo or M.P.A.C.T.

Back to the figure today, Brushfire, I’d like to point out that it came with a rifle, a knife and two more accessories that could attach to his body: a bag for a gun, could be placed on one leg by means of a peg, while a knife-belt could be attached to one of his arms. These accessories are very small, I guess they’re easily lost.

I also keep the backcard of the figure, which is written in French. As in the American blister packs, each figure came with a nice sticker. On the back catalogue, you can see up to 20 figures with their names in French.

Althought the figures were made in China, the French distributor was Delavennat.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BRUSHFIRE (US2)
• Alternate Name: CHEVEUX DE FEU (No.2) (France)
• Toy Line: U.S. Forces, American Force, American Defense, Commando Force…
• Year: 1986
• Company: Remco (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 9,5 cm (3 3/4'')

#420 SCALEXTRIC – PORSCHE CARRERA RS (Ref. 4051) (1975)

The Porsche Carrera is one of my favourite cars of all times, and it is also one of the cars which has been released more often in the history of Scalextric Spain.

The first Carrera RS were released in 1975. It was one of the new releases from that year together with the Chevrolet Corvette Dragster and the Ferrari B3 F1.

That model had the reference number 4051, and was available in white, light blue, orange and yellow. There was 4 available race numbers for two different pilots (or decal sets): RN: 3 or 68 (Pilot: J. Fernández) or 5 or 42 (Pilot: Fitzpatrick)

As it happened at the time with Scalextric cars, new models were not discontinued the next year, but they were available during many consecutive year. This explains, that you can find this model with two different types of “pilots”, I mean, the figure that goes inside the car can either have an older type of helmet (both cars in the pictures have this type) or a more modern type (the helmet that was used –with almost no modifications-  until the late 1990s). At some point (maybe simultaneously with the pilot change), the mirrors changed from chromed to black. In my models, all mirrors are reproductions, since it is a very fragile part that breaks easily.

Another weak point is the chromed simulated motor screwed at the base of the car. It has two small exhaust pipes that also break easily. This part is shared with the Porsche 935, that I showed some time ago.

From 1975 on, there were several versions of this car made, I put a list here for completion purposes:

• 1975 – Ref. 4051 “Basic” - White, yellow, light blue or orange - RN: 3 or 68 (Pilot: J. Fernández) or 5 or 42 (Pilot: Fitzpatrick)
• 1982 – Ref. 4066 “Jocavi” - Red/blue – RN 2 (Pilot: Zanini)
• 1983 – Ref. 4069 “Rothmans” - White/blue – RN 4
• 1991 – Ref. 8335 “Foltène” – Green – RN: 220
• 1993 – Ref. 8359 “Shell” – Red – RN: 25
• 1995 – Ref. 8381 “Lois” – Black – RN: 28

Note that the last version date from 1995, 20 years after the first release, without a change in the cast.

In 1997, another version of the Porsche 911 was released, the GT2, which is similar to the Carrera, but a different cast. And after that, there were a few releases in the different collections from Altaya and Planeta Agostini (at least 4).

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: PORSCHE CARRERA RS (Ref. 4051)
• Scale: 1:32
• Year: 1975
• Company: Scalextric Exin (Spain)
• Size: approx. 15 cm