#762 MANURBA-PLASTIK - PORSCHE 912 (Ref. 10/9) (Around 1971)

 

MONTH OF THE UNKNOWN

I have a few interesting toys that I have been collecting over the years from which I know nothing at all. They cannot be identified since they have no manufacture marking. Despite searching the internet, I couldn´t find anything about them, so I changed my mind, and thought it may be better if I publish them now, and people reading this could help me identifying them.

There will be 11 toys (all 11 entries from January 2017), but I warn you: it is not an easy task to identify them. Are you ready for this challenge?

If I get hints and information, I´ll be updating the posts to add information about them. Thanks!

 

If you like the challenge, there are other toys in this blog waiting to be identified, click here to see all unidentified toys.

Thanks to Andreas (see comment below) for identifying these cars as Manurba-Plastik, a German manufacturer of novelty toys based in Bamberg. The name of the company comes from its founder Manfred Urban. Among other toys, the company produced cars in several scales, plastic figures, boats, trains, kitchen sets, trumpets and pistols. The packaging was usually a plastik bag with a folded cardboard closing it. Some of those small pieces of artwork were specially nicely done in the style of the 60s and early 70s with beautiful drawings

 

 

These two small cars are two Porsche 912 made in Germany. They are made of plastic and came in several colours, although the base plate is always black.

 

The base only shows the previously mentioned "Made in West Germany" together with some kind of "V".

 

 

They are slightly smaller than the classic 3 inches (1:64) and have no interior and black windows.

 

Additional Information: Bought in a flea market in Austria, there were several of this available in different colours, green, dark green... I took only two.

 

With the information provided by our reader, we could also find this picture, where a dark blue Porsche 912 can be seen, although this is still dfferent frm me. It has white base.

Pic fom 1968's "Das Spielzeug : das internationale Fachmagazin der Spielwarenbranche"
diepuppenstubensammlerin in flicker

Here is another picture from 1971 (taken from the internet) that show the exact same cars that I own.

Pic: De Erbe.com (http://deerbe.com/unt/82215-6_manurba_porsche_911__912_in_rot_plastik_autos_modell_heinerle_wundertte.html)

And thanks to this picture I have discovered another unidentified toy I have...
 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: PORSCHE 912 (Ref. 10/9)
• Scale: Around 1:64
• Year: Around  1971
• Company: Manurba-Plastik (West Germany)
• Size: approx. 5 cm

#761 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - UNIDENTIFIED SCI-FI WOMAN (Around 1980)

MONTH OF THE UNKNOWN

I have a few interesting toys that I have been collecting over the years from which I know nothing at all. They cannot be identified since they have no manufacture marking. Despite searching the internet, I couldn´t find anything about them, so I changed my mind, and thought it may be better if I publish them now, and people reading this could help me identifying them.

There will be 11 toys (all 11 entries from January 2017), but I warn you: it is not an easy task to identify them. Are you ready for this challenge?

If I get hints and information, I´ll be updating the posts to add information about them. Thanks!

 

If you like the challenge, there are other toys in this blog waiting to be identified, click here to see all unidentified toys.

I´ll start with the one I think it is the most difficult: It is an articulated figure of a woman with long dark hair over her shoulder and with some kind of futuristic clothes.

There is absolutely no indication of manufacturer, country of origin or year, not to mention a copyright note... The figure has a very low quality and I would say it could even be a knock-off from another line, maybe you can recognise the character from a TV series or similar.

I also take a picture of the opened figure, so you see the construction of the toy. One leg is longer than the other, so it cannot stand very easily.

Additional information: Was bought in a flea market in Spain, together with other toys from the mid to late 70s.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: UNIDENTIFIED SCI-FI WOMAN
• Toy Line: Unknown
• Year: Around 1980
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer
• Size of the figures: Approx. 14 cm.

#760 CORGI – LOTUS-CLIMAX FORMULA 1 and COOPER MASERATI F/1 (Nr. 155 and 156) (1964 and 1967)

Despite having consecutive numbers and looking very similar, these two formula ones are 3 years from each other. The Lotus Climax was released in 1964, and sold pretty well, probably because it was the car in which Jim Clark won the championships in 1963 with a clear superiority above all other competitors. Almost one million pieces were sold.

The second model, a Cooper Maserati, was released in 1967, but I cannot identify it among the cars that run that year or the previous one. The colour and decoration may point to the Rob Walker Racing Team, but I do not know who drove this car with RN7.

Both models were discontinued in 1969: the Lotus maybe after the death of Jim Clark in 1968. The reason why the Cooper was also discontinued after only two years is also unknown to me... despite being so short for sale, it was sold 726,000 times.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LOTUS-CLIMAX FORMULA 1 RACING CAR and COOPER MASERATI F/1
• Scale: Around 1:43
• Year: 1964 and 1967
• Company: Corgi Toys (Great Britain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#759 REAL GHOSTBUSTERS - MONSTERS DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN (1989)

The real ghostbusters toyline probably needed more characters than the main four and a few ghosts. Most of the times, the ghosts in the cartoons, appeared only one, so the ghosts in the Real Ghostbusters toyline are invented or concepts made exclusively for the film.

 

In this wave, Kenner provided a series of 6 classic monsters:

• Frankenstein
• Dracula
• The Hunchback from Notre-Dame
• The Mummy
• Werewolf
• Zombie

I have two of them, and these are the ones I am showing today. They have similar features to the Fright Features versions of the main characters: when pushing one leg against the other each monster would move in a scary gesture. There are no transformation or hidden monsters. I like that the figures have different sizes.
 

 

The two figures I have are Frankenstein and Dracula. The first one is huge and adapts its classic pose with straight arms and open mouth. Unfortunately it is quite damaged by sunlight, so I will try to replace it soon.

 

Dracula is is good shape and includes its cloak, which is a difficult accesory to find. Dracula also performs a move that reminds of the classic pose from the Universal movies, in which Dracula opens his arms to approach his victims.

 

The two figures are really great, I am looking forward to get the other 4!
 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MONSTERS DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN
• Toy Line: Real Ghostbusters (Wave 3)
• Year: 1989
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 12 and 14 cm, respectively

#758 SUMMER – FIAT 131 ABARTH (Around 1988)

Another Fiat 131 for my collection! I knew there was this car, because I had seen it in pictures several times before, and I finally got it a few weeks ago.

The car is made by Summer in the late 80s. It has a 1:43 scale and a motor inside similar to the one used by Matchbox in the "Trickshifters" series. The car has dark windshields to hide the inner mechanism.

I think the cast is good, but some poor details spoil the overall quality.

This is so far the only Summer car I have in this scale. I think there are many in this size.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FIAT ABARTH 131 (No. S.704)
• Scale: Around 1:43
• Year: Around 1988
• Company: Summer/ S.M. (Hong Kong)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#757 FIGURAS EN ACCIÓN (F.E.A.) Nr. 15

In May 2014 we decided to make a special issue dealing with toys and horror. At the time, I had in mind a lot of ideas of special issues we could explore and publish in the future. One of them was an issue dealing exclusively with toy shops, that is, the space in which the toys are displayed for the customers to purchase them.

The usual group of collaborators have gathered a collection of articles and interviews about this topic. I have written an article about the history of toy stores and collaborated in an article that searchs for the main characteristics of each type of toy shop (together with my friend Pablo from Coleccionismo80-90).

There are two interviews with the owners of two toy shops that are/were over 100 years old and another article about F.A.O. Schwarz, which is the most famous toy shop there has ever been.
To finalise the issue, there is a nostalgic article about toy stores that each of us (the magazine staff) remember from our childhood.

Very unusual issue! Download it HERE. Thanks!

#756 POLISTIL – ALPINE A441 and ALFA ROMEO 33TT12 (RJ32 and RJ 34) (Around 1977)

I have published many entries dealing with Polistil F1s, but this time, I bring two sport prototypes. I am not very familiar with this kind of races, although I know that from the beginning to mid 80s, there was a lot of interest on them, or at least, much moer interest that nowadays. Many manufacturers did die-cast scale Sport Prototypes.

Especially famous in this era was the Renault Alpine A441.

From the mid 70s to late 80s, there were also some famous Sport Prototypes that had their scale version, and from the 90s on, it seems like they had disappeared from the face of the Earth. Of course they are still running (for example the 24 hours of Le Mans), but the cars are not so popular anymore, they are not in the media, and even most drivers are well known (many ex-F1 drivers), the competition fails to wake up the interest of common people.

Polistil always had a very exquisite selection of models, and those two here are no exception.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: ALPINE A441 and ALFA ROMEO 33TT12 (RJ32 and RJ 34)
• Scale: Around 1:55
• Year: Around 1977
• Company: Polistil (Italy)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#755 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE - MOSQUITOR and NINJOR (1987)

These two figures are quite expensive because belong to the last wave, which was sold in lower numbers than the rest of the figures. In addition to this, Ninjor had many accesories so it is difficult to find it complete.

  

I took some pictures in the dark, trying to get some strange night effect, but I couldn't. The pictures are quite bad, sorry.

Mosquitor was the "last" figure I got in the 80s, together with Scareglow, so it is one of my favorites and mayeb the one I worry most about. I can remember where my grandparents did buy it for me. While collecting the rest of the figures in the 2000s, I got a second Mosquitor in perfect shape, whitouth that scratch in the eye, however, I kept my old figure and traded the other one. The evil energy-draining insectoid came with one accesory only (a purple gun), but with one of the best action features in the whole toyline. Many collectors agree on this, at least, when I used to participate in message boards, we discussed this many times.

Ninjor came with a cloth jacket (including the head part and the belt), a sword, a bow and a nunchuck, and despite having the classic body cast, the jacket somehow hides it and makes the figure more attractive. The action feature is the same from Fisto and Jitsu, only with a "normal" arm, intended to be used with the sword or the nunchuck. The evil Ninja Warrior is one of the last figures I got. In 1987 there was still a great interest on ninjas, mostly in ninjaxplotation movies. This interest would last until the first 90s in Spain. 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MOSQUITOR (Ref. 1191) and NINJOR (Ref. 3069)
• Toy Line: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (Wave 6)
• Year: 1987
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 14 cm

#754 MAISTO – FORD MUSTANG MACH III and JAGUAR XJ220 (Around 1995)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AND THE KNOCK-OFF AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

I have these two cars since a long time. My father brought them to me sometime by the mid 90s. I was already a bit old to play with cars, but still loved to look at the miniatures and see the details. Recently I decided to sell them in my toy shop, but after some time I retired them and decided to keep them. I now think these are the first Maisto models that came to Spain with the name Maisto (not MC Toys), and that may make them rare collectables in the future.

Also interesting is that these two models are actually based on Matchbox casts from the early 90s, most accurately, they are based on the Superfast models from 1994 (MB15) and 1993 (MB31). That makes them even more interesting, because, like some MC Toys models, these two are bootlegs!

I keep the original packages, although these have been opened. The colour black and those golden details would be used during several years from the beginning on. And also quite exotic is the sticker from the importer that brought these scale cars to Spain.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FORD MUSTANG MACH III and JAGUAR XJ220
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: Around 1995
• Company: Maisto (China)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#753 COMPUTER FORCE/ COMPUTER WARRIORS – PC BOARD WITH ROMM (1989)

I am fascinated by this new discovery. I completely ignored the existence of this toyline of small figures (they are the size of a Dino Riders or a M.A.S.K. figure), until I found one unit carded for sale on eBay. I bidded and won this nice card for very little money.

The idea behind Computer Force is that there is an army of little hi-tech soldiers hidden in everyday objects like a can of Pepsi, an alarm clock or like in my case, a pc motherboard. Objects turn from their stealth form to assault form very easily, just like M.A.S.K. vehicles, an carry the figures which are included with each set.

I do not know much about the series. The pc motherboard comes with ROMM, who, according to the description, is the heroic leader of the Computer Force. So, if this guy is the heroic leader, there is surely another faction of bad guys to fight. The figure is great and is decorated in a very different way on its back. Note that the motherboard transforms into some kind of delta wing, or light plane, on top of which, the figure sits. In stealth form, the figure lies on top of the board, and like a chamaleon, it is hidden thanks to its camo pattern on the back, consisting of electronic parts over a golden circuit board.

I’d love to lean more about this series. On the backcard we read that in 1989 only a few toys were available, since the pencil sharpener and the Pepsi Cola can would be available „later“, in 1990. Interestingly, the first playsets seem to be all related to computers and electronic, while the pencil sharpener and the can... not much. At some point the toyline’s name was changed from „Computer Force“ to „Computer Warriors“, maybe due to legal issues.

The toy has been distributed with a single card for all European markets, and it comes in 6 languages. As you can see it is a Mattel toy... or not. Actually it was made in China by another company, named Young Kowng Plastic Factory in China FOR Mattel. Surely not the first case of a toyline made by a small company for a big one.

The line was not so short as I expected, there were a dozen of playsets made, each with one figure, except the Personal Computer superplayset that came with two figures. This motherboard is the smallest and cheapest toy you could buy from this toyline, together with other 3 more similar pc boards. The rest were bigger playsets, all of them were made more or less in 1:1 scale to reality, I mean, the flashlight is the size of a real flashlight, the Pepsi can is the size of an actual can, and so on.
Another thing I love about this series are the names of the figures: Romm, Chip, Cursor, Debug, Minus, Asynk, Null... all concepts taken from computer science.

If you want to see picture of all the other playsets and figures, please visit this interesting webpage: http://www.parrygamepreserve.com/toys/computerWarriors/
Wow! Note the four mini pc boards over the keyboard of the Computer playset!

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: PC BOARD WITH ROMM
• Toy Line: COMPUTER FORCE / COMPUTER WARRIORS
• Year: 1989
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.) / Young Kowng Plastic Factory (China)
• Size of the figures: Around 4 cm