#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

#492 GUILOY – IBERIA “SERVICIO AEROPUERTO” TRUCKS (Around 1982)

This is a curious series released by Guiloy in the 80s (I cannot give an exact year, but I guess it was in the first half of the 80s), and represent up to 10 white Mercedes trucks with airport services.

The trucks are die-cast made in 1:124 scale, which results a miniature of around 3 inches. All trucks are the same, including the same cabin and the same chassis, but they carry different plastic loads. Some of these loads were made of chromed plastic, although with the use, this might have disappeared.

They all carry stickers with the function of the truck and also some Iberia logos, what makes it a curious collectable, not only for die-cast car and truck collectors, but also for aviation enthusiasts.
My two models are “Correo Aereo” or “Airmail”, and “Antifuego” (lit. “Anti.Fire”)

The complete list of models is:

• Camión de Gasolina
• Servicio de Limpieza
• Acumulador
• Antifuego
• Correo Aéreo / Carga Aérea (actually the same load only the first one in blue plastic, the second one in chromed plastic)
• Queroseno
• Mantenimiento de Pistas
• Camión Escalera

 

 

Some models had some special feature or practicable part. In this case, the "Antifuego" has a extendable hose and the "Correo Aéreo" has a practicable compartment gate.

 

The were sold “loose” from a cardboard panel, as we can see in this picture. The item is for sale (or it was when I wrote this article) in todocoleccion.



Pic: todocoleccion.net, seller: Freedom67

 

Maybe these models were intended to be combined with Guiloy die-cast planes, as those made by Pilen, Play-Me or Mira.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MERCEDES ANTIFUEGO and CORREO AÉREO “SERVICIO AEROPUERTO IBERIA"
• Scale: 1:124
• Year: Around 1982
• Company: Guiloy (Spain)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm 

#491 PLAYART MINI SUPER SPEEDSTERS and UNKNOWN MODELS (Around 1978)

These are two very small cars made by Playart. Although there is no scale indication, I guess they are probably 1:87 (H0) scale, and they might be intended to use with Playart H0 train models, although they were sold apart. In ebay there is (or was) a collection of 12 models in a box, although in other sites like worthpoint, there are also smaller 4-packs. I don’t know if they were ever sold individually, or have any further details about Playart’s smallest scale models.

The two cars I own are a Jaguar E-Type 2+2 in yellow, plus another car which I cannot identify right now in gold (seems pretty much like an American model, maybe Pontiac). Note that both models have different wheels, the golden model has some kind of simulated hubcaps, so I guess it is slightly older than the second one, whose hubcaps are less elaborated. The Jaguar is marked in the interior "Playart", "Made in Hongkong", "7331" and "2", while the second car is marked only "Made in Hongkong" and "15". Maybe there is a list somewhere with the reference numbers and the models, I haven't found any.

UPDATE (JULY 2018): A got two more Mini Super Speedster. One is a Volkswagen Bug, the second one is a van, looks American, but I cannot recognise the model. Both are very nice. The Volkswagen seems to be number 1 (is casted mirrowed), while the truck/van is clearly number 7. Very nice models.

UPDATE 2 (Nov/2020): Tanker Truck

UPDATE 3 (Sept/2023): A set of 10 new models, courtesy of Steven from the Motorcade, thank you for the cars! In the meanwhile, and thanks to other collectors I got to compile a complete list of Playart Mini Super Speedsters. 

• 7320 Lamborghini Miura
• 7321 Chevrolet Astro Concept
• 7322 Porsche 914
• 7323 Alfa Romeo Scarabeo
• 7324 Opel GT
• 7325 Jeep
• 7326 Twin Mill
• 7327 VW Beetle
• 7328 Dune Buggy
• 7329 Abarth 2000
• 7330 Mercedes C-111
• 7331 Jaguar E-Type
• 7332 Tanker
• 7333 Fire Engine

Among the unknown models there might be even two types. One of the types is marked with a number, and I have the following models:

• 2 - Jaguar E-Type
• 4 - Formula 1
• 7 - Pick-Up Van
• 15 - American Car

The second type could be made by Zylmex, as I have seen pictures of boxed "Mini Wild Cars", only mine are painted in plain colours, while those are more elaborated. The Pickup in black and the orange ATV in the first picture below seems to belong to that row... Since I have no way to find out who made which toys, I will put them altogether in thsi entry, and I will keep an eye to update it in the future. I will probably make new pictures where the models are grouped by maker.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MINI SUPER SPEEDSTERS: JAGUAR E-TYPE, VOLKSWAGEN 1300, VAN and UNKNOWN MODEL
• Scale: 1:87
• Year: Around 1978
• Company: Playart (Hong Kong), Zylmex (Hong Kong)
  
• Size: approx. 4 cm