#1099 BULLY – BATMAN (ARTICULATED VERSION) (1989)

This small and poorly manufactured figure of the DC character is maybe one of the most intriguing action figures made along with the Tim Burton movie from 1989. The figure is marked on its feet with the text: TM © 1989 DC COMICS INC. But beside this indications, there is no maker sign or name casted in the body. This probably made many people suspect, that it might be a cheap bootleg or a copy of something else, since, if you had the rights to represent the Batman, why hiding your name?

The truth is that this figure was distributed and sold by Bully of Germany, most famous for their plastic or PVC figures of all kinds. This adds a bit of confusion to the topic, since this figure is made of hollow plastic and is articulated in their shoulders. It is also partially flocked and came with a cloth cloak. All these elements are previously unseen in other Bully toys or figures. Note that I said distributed and sold, but not manufactured, because I think these may have been made by another company for Bully. So the mistery continues...

As you can see in the pictures, the figure is well painted and flocked. It comes with a yellow belt (that cannot be removed), a cloak (removable), and the arms are practicable. Although in the picture of the shop display, that I found on the internet, all figures seem to be correctly assembled, my Batman has the chest logo upside-down. I love this detail, and I preffer this figure to another one with the logo correctly oriented. Also some figures seem to have a cord on the head to be hanged from a zip or somewhere else.

I think it is quite rare, I haven't seen many, or, at least, compared with the plastic/PVC Batman (I show it here, but it deserves it's own blog entry). It was part of the merchandising that Bully offered in 1989, as it can be seen in this promotional pages seen on eBay. The figure is shown on the right side, close to the right border.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BATMAN
• Year: 1989
• Company: Bully (West-Germany)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 cm

#1098 EXIN - EXIN CASTILLOS 2 (Around 1972)

There is not much I can say about this toy that has not been said before. Exin is the most important Spanish toymaker of all times and this was one of their highlights in the 70s and the 80s. A construction toy that allowed us to build castles and fortresses in the medieval style. Spain is a land with a huge number of castles and this toy would appeal to many children and to their families. As in every construction game, you can follow the instructions provided or try to reproduce the castle of your village or town. You just need enough blocks or bricks to finish your project.

The bricks have an unmistakable color that simulates stone (light brown plastic with white and darker brown seams) and, unlike Lego or Tente, there is not a huge variety of the basic bricks. The most common stone is 2x1, longer bricks (such as 4x1, 6x1...) are rare, so to construct something solid from zero can be a challenge. However, this is how houses and castles are built, so you are closer to the work of a mason than you are with other construction games. 

 

 

What makes the game unique are the pieces to make round walls (to build round towers or to round up corners) and other nice elements that are very realistic, such as different types of windows and doors and hand-painted plastic figures that represent common characters from medieval history or castles altogether. These include: knights on foot or horse, a princess, a ghost, guards and bowmen, among others... The figures were scarcely included in the boxes of Exin Castillos, but could be bought separately in nice "historical" sets, which also included war machines and small accessories. Some of this were made by Elastolin.

 

These sets are today very rare to find.  The toy I have was bought in a flea market in Austria and it seems to be Exin Castillos 2, a middle-sized set, just missing the two bases on which you start building your castle. These bases were made of thin hard plastic, and not many have survived until today. Still, I have the instructions and many figures, plus many other parts I got in another lot bought in a flea market in Spain. I haven't mixed the two together yet. According to the instructions, the castle looks like the one in the pictures. I took some pictures highlighting the figures and some corners and details of the building.

This great game was sold between 1968 and 1991. The models 0, 1, 2 and 3 are from the early 70s, the period in which the line grew, sold best and became really popular. By the mid eighties it was not so popular anymore, maybe because of Exin´s own competition with Tente, which had a bigger variety of pieces, was smaller and cheaper to produce. In any case, there are still many pieces out there and many enthusiasts of the toy that organize expositions and even design new pieces to combine with the old ones and achieve higher quality models.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: EXIN CASTILLOS 2

• Year: 1972

• Company: Exin (Spain)

• Size: Around 40x40 cm 

#1097 GISIMA – GS and BMW TURBO (GALLETAS SIRO PROMOTIONAL) (Around 1986)

There are not so many Gisima models as one may think, but some are quite rare and others are common. These two models are probably the ones that were made in bigger quantities, that is, the two most representative of this die-cast maker. The BMW already appeared in this blog in entry #795.

The GS is new to this blog, but I have to say it was my first Gisima, bought in 1984 or 1985. The original one had the same colour as the BMW, and it broke while playing with it. First the trunk, then everything else. I kept the remainings for a long time. This other model in red was bought much later, approximately in 2021, if I recall properly, together with the other car in the pictures.

The particularity of these two, is that they are promotional items, as they could be originally found in the boxes of Siro cookies (galletas in Spanish). Siro had a long tradition of giving away die-cast cars of different makers, mainly Mira and Gisima, but also Guisval o Guiloy were once part of the promotions. It is an open question if a particular model by Gisima was produced more often with the Siro sticker or without it (for retail sale), as these were rare to find in shops, that usually prefferred more renowned brands such as Guisval or Mira.

I once wrote a very long article dealing with promotional die-cast cars in Spain, that I published in the magazine Figuras En Acción, and the longest chapter in that article was the one dedicated to Siro. It is worth the time downloading this magazine and translating the text using Google Lens or any other online translator if you are interested in this particular brand.

Of course I have to remark that both models are copies of Majorette toys, being the GS the GS Camargue. Some other mdels made by Gisima, especially in the first years are knock-offs of more famous international brands, but in the later years, let´s say around the turn of the decade and from then on, they produced their own casts. These models are much more scarce but also more interesting for collectors, despite having very basic casts and not many details. Maybe you want to take a look at some other Gisimas in this blog!

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name: GS and BMW TURBO (GALLETAS SIRO) (PROMOTIONAL)
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: Around 1986
• Company: Gisima (Spain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#1096 TOP TRUMPS – ECO VEHICLES (PROMOTIONAL) (2007)

Before the electric cars really became a real option for everybody, the interest in this kind of vehicles was already very high.This promotional deck (Marches Energy Agency from the UK) is a proof of that.

Out of the 30 cards that this deck comprises, not all vehicles are electric. Some are just low-consumption petrol or diesel cars, there is also a Hydrogen-powere Honda, a Biodiesel Volkswagen and other vehicles powered by BioMethane. There is even a bicycle, that, of course, has the lowest CO2 emissions and the lowest fuel costs among all of them. Tesla was already a major player in this market and is represented with their Roadster model, but the rest of the brands are either Japanese (Honda, Toyota) or European (VW, Citroen, Vauxhall/Opel, Mercedes, Mini Cooper, Aixan, Reva...). No trace of Chinese makers. Of course, the deck is from 2007, in these 18 years, the panorama changed radically, and it is still changing. The EU Commision recently approved a plan to allow the combustion motor beyond 2035, after having arrived to that compromise to ban them more than 10 years ago. How this will result nobody knows.

Back to the card deck, it is made by Top Trumps, the current leader in this kind of toys. Top Trumps is currently a trademark of Winning Moves from the UK (part of the Hasbro group), and has all relevant licences of the time, which are continuously extended and updated. A complete history of the quartet decks and the Top Trump trademark in the UK can be read here: History of Top Trumps | Top Trumps Game History. 

The deck comprises 30 cards, but they are not sorted in families or in any other way. I present them in the pictures with no particular order.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name:  ECO VEHICLES (PROMOTIONAL)
• Year: 2007
• Company: Top Trumps/Winning Moves (United Kingdom)

#1095 DINO RIDERS - TYRANNOSAURUS REX with KRULOS, BITOR and COBRUS (1988)

I still have many Dino-Riders toys to be published. I am still missing the Pachyrrhinosaurus, the Edmontosaurus and, of course, the Brontosaurus, as well as a few loose figures. But I have all the other toys, and I will be publishing them some time in the next few years. Today, I want to show the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the biggest and most impressive toy in the first series from 1987, and maybe the most iconic reference of the whole toyline. As a matter of fact it was the model used to create the dinosaur character in the Toy Story movies.

It took some time to get it complete. I had some parts from a flea market, then I bought more parts on the Internet, and finally, I bought the dinosaur with almost every part of the armour, and with all these, I made a complete set. The plastic parts have become fragile and they break easily, so if you have the toy, do not try to remove or separate any parts from each other. The cannons pointing to the back are usually broken (the two that move up and down and the other two that move left to right). I repaired the two attached to the pink part in a way that it cannot be noticed.

The dinosaur also shows the pass of time, as the rubber bands in the wheels below its feet are worn and broken. I guess there are ways to repair it, but I have to find them out.

According to the comic, the T-Rex is the first dinosaur that the Rulons capture by using the brainbox. They prepare a trap on the top of a rock, and when the dinosaurs comes close, they drop the brainbox on its head. Since then, Krulos and the others can control the beast at their will. 

Krulos, of course, is the leader of the rulons, the most important character on that faction. The other two are secondary characters of the Antmen (Bitor) and Snakemen (Cobrus). Even though all evil characters in the series shared three heads (the Sharkmen are not represented in this set), these two are the most appealing one, due to their combination of red and black paint with some details in yellow. The colour scheme recalls somehow the eruption of a volcano or lava or something like that.

Krulos as a commander of the Rulons took for himself the upper position in the dinosaur. He stands in some kind of tribune of pulpit with two small cannons. A bit too exposed to the shoots of the Valorians, but we know from the cartoons, that these were not very good shooters. 

The body of the dinosaur is quite protected with big shields covering torso (or whatever it is called in a theropod) and legs. A central harness holds two cannon nests on the sides, very well covered (as opposed to the pulpit on top) with two shields in the shape of a cubic box. 

The front part has another position for a figure which seems to control two mechanic claws whose utility is uncertain: What are they good for? 

The tail is also heavily protected and has many cannons to cover the attacks from behind. A huge platform has space for another figure and a big shields hangs from that point down.

The last part to be commented are the two pieces that attach to the legs to pretect them, which have the nice detail of carryying a circular saw.

Amont the non protective parts, we can observe a very big motor (I guess all those lasers have to be powered somehow) over the pink platform, partially covered by the top plate, that also covers the two gunner´s seats at the sides. This last part (the "roof", so to speak) is the most fragile in the whole set, and the one it took me longer to find in an acceptable shape. The hinges of the parts exactly over the side cannons can be broken, and also the part that fits in the motor may have some wear or can be broken.

The dinosaur is battery operated and moves its legs in a way that the dinosaur walks. It is one of the fastest dinos (or, at least, faster than the other I have seen in action). The dinosaurs stands by using its tail, in the way that dinosaurs were depicted before the 1990s. Since Jurassic Park, theropods are represented standing on two legs and using the tail to keep balance when moving or running.

All in all it is one of the greatests toys from the 80s, a nice addition to any collection, although it takes quite a lot of space.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: TYRANNOSAURUS REX with KRULOS, BITOR and COBRUS
• Toy Line: Dino-Riders (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Tyco (U.S.A.)
• Scale of the dinosaur: 1:24
• Size of the figures: 2½’’ or 6,5 cm