#498 CORGI JUNIORS – FERRARI TESTAROSSA and FORD TRANSIT VAN (1984 and 1985)

This entry continues with the same topic of the previous one. I am showing two more models I own, just to illustrate variants and show some promotional ítems.

The first model is the Ferrari Testarossa, here in two different versions from the normal line (one of them is already marked "Made in China"), and then a Kellogg's promotional car in white with tiger stripes (J77). My guess is that the promotion was focused on Frosties. There was at least three cars in this promotion, the other two were a Porsche 911 Cabrio in black and a Jaguar XJS in grey, all with the same tampographies.

The second model is the Ford Transit Van from 1985, first in an ordinary version (J4 ver. 05 “Fire Chief”) which is not even marked on the base, and then the promotional model from “Batchelors Peas” (J51 ver. 02). In this case, the complete series comprised four vehicles: a London Bus (double deck), a truck, a Porsche 911 and this Ford Transit, all in white/red/green colours.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FERRARI TESTAROSSA (J77) and FORD TRANSIT VAN (J4 and J51)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: 1984 and 1985
• Company: Corgi (G. Britain)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#497 CORGI JUNIORS – SEVERAL MODELS FROM 1984 TO 1990 (Around 1984)

Corgi entered receivership in 1983, but in 1984, the Company was re-formed as Corgi Toys Limited and continued producing toys. The competition with new Asian manufacturers was very high, so Corgi also sent the moulds to China to produce there in association with a Hongkongese company called Flying Dragon. These miniatures are not as good as those done before 1983, and sometimes they do not appear in catalogues or are not mentioned in specialized books.

Some models still share casts with older (made before 1983) toys, but colours are usually plain or with rather poor tampographies, and sometimes, windows are dark to hide the lack of interiors.

In this entry, all models shown should be relatively recent after the refoundation of the company, since all models are still marked “Made in Gt. Britain” (in the next entry some will be marked Made in China).

The models made between the years 1984 and 1990 have a reference number starting with J, maybe an indication of the old series name “Juniors”.

Ford Escort (J25)
BMW M3 Racing Car (J50)
Zakspeed Capri 3.0S (J57)

Ford Sierra 2.3 Ghia (J31)
Pontiac Firebird S/E (J46)
Mercedes 2.3/16 (J90)

Note that the casts are quite rough, and the only one model (the Ford Sierra) has practicable doors. Even the tampographies are poor, most of them in only one colour.

It is also interesting to point out that all models except one have the classic Corgi Juniors wheels. The Mercedes already have the wheels that would come next, and that in my opinion are much uglier than the original model.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FORD ESCORT (J25), FORD SIERRA 2.3 GHIA (J31), PONTIAC FIREBIRD S/E (J46), BMW M3 RACING CAR (J50), ZAKSPEED CAPRI 3.0S (J57) and MERCEDES 190 2.3/16 (J90)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: Around 1984
• Company: Corgi (G. Britain)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#496 POLITOYS-E - MERCEDES C-111 (E-16) and OSI BISILURO (E-25) (1971)

These are two more models made by Politoys in 1:43 scale. Both belong to the E-Series, launched in 1971 and characterizes for having fewer details than the M-Series (that came a few years earlier and were extremely detailed for a 1:43 model. They show more similarities with the “Export” series, which was the budget line of politoys during the last years of the 60s decade.

A complete list of Politoys models (not only the E-series) can be found in the Italian Wikipedia.

I have nothing else to add to what I said in previous Politoys/Polistil/Penny entries, so I’ll simply publish the images, and wish you all a happy new year 2015!

MERCEDES C-111 - Reference E-16

OSI BISILURO (a.k.a. SILVER FOX) - Reference E-25

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MERCEDES C-111 (E-16) and OSI BISILURO (E-25)
• Scale: 1:43
• Year: 1971
• Company: Politoys (Italy)
• Size: approx. 9 cm

#495 FIGURAS EN ACCIÓN (F.E.A.) Nr. 11

In our particular appointment with toy collectors every December we recently released the last issue of the toy magazine Figuras En Acción, Nr. 11.

 This time the magazine is slightly shorter than the last numbers, because a couple of colleagues could not participate. The cover story this time are superheroes, since we have collected articles about Super Powers, Secret Wars, PVC Figures from Comics Spain and Airgam Comics (plus a short insert of Far-Men superheroes). This special has around 20 pages and includes many interesting facts about those toy lines.

Apart from this, there are three other articles, the first one dealing with Thundercats, the second one with Scalextric Vintage cars and the third one is an interview-report to/about madelmania.com, the customizers of figures in 1:8 or 1:10 scale.

To round up, we have a new bunch of news (lots of publications shortly before Christmas), a book review and this time we visit the Toy Museum in Dénia (Alicante), which hosts a great collection of wooden toys made in the region.

You can download the magazine here:
http://www.bubok.es/libros/237998/REVISTA-FIGURAS-EN-ACCION-Nr-11--DICIEMBRE-2014

and we will be happy to hear your comments in Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/102107516491713/

#494 DANONE - CLASSIC DISNEY PLASTIC FIGURES (1990)

This is my (almost complete) collection of promotional Disney figures that could be obtained when buying Danone´s Petit Suisse around 1990. Petit Suisse was the children´s dessert made of cream, today it is called Danonino. At the time it was available in three flavours: strawberry, banana and a white one that was my favorite, but whose flavour cannot be easily described (sugar? milk?). Other collectors argue that these figures are a giveaway from Yoplait, but I am not sure at all this is right, I bought them myself at the supermarket and I think, it was Petit Suisse and not the equivalent product by Yoplait.

 

 

This dessert was sold in packs of six units, and between the small recipients of the six packs were two plastic figures inserted, and then a sticker on the base prevented these figures to fall off. The figures were available in several colours each: dark blue, orange, green and white... and they were unmarked.

Because of this, the figures are very difficult to find on the internet (what should you search for?!) I have sometimes seen some of this figures, but most sellers labelled them as figures from the 70s or even the 60s, and wanted to have a big lot of money for them. They are sometimes mistaken with another set of Disney figures in more or less the same size made in the 70s or the 80s also for Danone.

 

Until now, I couldn´t find Minnie, but I´d like to find her, so I have my complete set of 8 figures.

These were:

• Mickey Mouse
• Minnie Mouse
• Donald Duck
• Daisy
• Scrooge McDuck
• Goofy
• Pluto
• Bambi

I have taken pictures of my figure with and without flash, so you can see the sculpt of the figures better. Especially fragile is Pluto, whose tail can easily break.

UPDATE: I finally have Minnie too. Here's a picture of the cute mouse together with my other figures. I discovered a set of Danone figures called "La Caja Mágica de Disney" from the 70s, which is quite similar to this, but includes other additional figures, like the Lady and the Trump, Chip or one of Donald Duck´s nephews. Note that the characters which are both in that set and in this set are dfferent. Maybe this is the confusion that I describe above that lead some seller to mark this figures as "70s" and put very high prices to them. Visit this link here: http://www.todocoleccion.net/figuras-goma-pvc-dunkin/figuras-dunkin-caja-magica-disney-danone-completa-su-caja~x58430565

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DISNEY FIGURES
• Year: 1990
• Company: Danone (France)
• Size of the figure: Around 5 cm

#493 HASBRO’S WWF – BRET “HITMAN” HART, BRITISH BULLDOG, RICKY “THE DRAGON” STEAMBOAT and UNDERTAKER (1992)

The fourth wave is not such a wave as we would understand it, or as we usually imagine it… it was more an update of wave 3, since 4 new figures simply replaced a couple of old ones.

Wave 4 consisted of all figures in wave 3, except:

• Brutus Beefcake #2
• Macho Man #3

Which were replaced by:

• Bret "Hitman" Hart
• British Bulldog
• Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat
• Undertaker

The new figures were (as usual) popular fighters at the time. Interestingly, they are all first versions, or first appearances in the Hasbro toyline, and two of them are real legendary wrestlers:

The Undertaker (Mark William Calaway) is one of those legends, the fighter is still active after 25 years, putting their opponents in corpse bags once they’re defeated. It was really impressive to see him fighting because of his height and his look. In addition to that, he was always accompanied by Paul Bearer, who was also a quite dark character. His fights are among the most renowned ever.

The figure is also very nice, including his hat, his typical full body outfit and gloves. It performs the quite common punch/sweep waist turn move.

Bret “the Hitman” Hart is the second legendary wrestler I mentioned above. He fought  also very long, but is now retired. Most die-hard wrestling fans consider him as one of the best fighters ever.
The figure has the twist-punch action and is especially fragile, since both the black t-shirt and the boots are painted, so the paint loss is most probable than in other figures. The pink heart in the vest is also quite fragile and tends to disappear after playing with the figure regularly. The normal version has a pink heart, but there is a variant with a purple heart, that is quite rare (it was a factory error, the later mail-away version would also have a purple heart).

The other two figures were popular fighters at the time but later were for some reason forgotten.
Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat (Richard Henry Blood) had an amazing ring entry spitting fire, and a nice fighting technique with many jumps and acrobatic moves. His outfit was also quite nice, that’s why the figure came with detachable “wings”, and a very colourful trousers and some kind of harness. Its action feature is the classic “jump”.

And finally the last figure is the British Bulldog (David "Davey" Boy Smith), who was expelled from the WWF around 1994 for taking some forbidden hormones. He was a fighter who represented Great Britain, that’s why he usually came with a king’s cloak and brought some small bulldogs with him, which are two symbols that the Americans usually connect to Great Britain.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BRET “HITMAN” HART, BRITISH BULLDOG; RICKY “THE DRAGON” STEAMBOAT and UNDERTAKER
• Toy Line: Official WWF (Wave 4)
• Year: 1992
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 12 cm