#617 POLISTIL - JAGUAR XK-E 4.2 LITRE, ALFETTA GTV and BMW M1 PRO-CAR (E-2001, E-2004 and E-2005) (Around 1984)

These models were made by Polistil in 1:43 scale. They probably belong to one of the last series ever  made by the company, and we can see the decreasing quality of the model.

By the end of the 80s, Polistil was purchased by Tonka, that started selling Polistil products under Polistil/Tonka brand. Those were hard times, due to the increasingly hard competition from Asian manufacturers and also from Bburago, especially at 1:43 scales or bigger. In 1993, Tonka closed the factories in Italy, and also dropped the Polistil name.

The current owner of the Polistil brand is the May Cheong Group, owner of Maisto (and also Bburago) and also manufacturer of the great MC Toy models.

Back to the models presented in this blog entry, note that they have a plastic base and are relatively badly casted. The decoration consists of several stickers in bright colours. The models remind a bit of a Bburago model, not only in size, but also because of the low-cost concept without axles. The car was sold in a red box with windows.

As you know from previous entries, all Polistil models have in their base casts the date in which they were designed and sent to factory. Both models are marked to have been created by the mid-80s, but these are re-issues in another series with less quality. The original series was the same as the Alfa Romeo F1 in entry #57, but the F1 seems to have a slightly better quality, that's why I dated these two in 1984 and the F1 in 1980. Between these two years, quality was probaly decreased to save costs.

Polistil made other versions of the BMW M1 in several scales and even for slot circuits. The car is amazing, one of my favorites ever. The BMW M1 has been made by many different brands: Matchbox, MC Toy, Scalextric...

UPDATE1 (Dec/2018). An E-Type Jaguar in light blue, maybe one of the nicest models in this series.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: JAGUAR XK-E 4.2 LITRE, ALFETTA GTV and BMW M1 PRO-CAR (E-2001, E-2004 and E-2005)
• Scale: 1:41
• Year: Around 1984
• Company: Polistil (Italy)

#616 THE ART OF HE-MAN and the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (VV.AA.)

This is amazing book, published with great quality and a big involvement of a lot of artist (writers, cartoon dubbers, artists, movie directors...) and also the "the Power and the Glory foundation", which is a group of collectors of MOTU´s art. They have gathered over several years a huge collection of original art/artwork related to Masters of the Universe and Princess of Power series: comic books, Filmation´s cartoons, promotional articles (posters, magazine ads...), toy boxes' art, as well as more art and documents related to the origins of the Mattel toylines, to the 1987 film or to the newer MOTU toylines.

The book is oriented to people who are already experts in the MOTU world and know the characters, the backstory and a few facts about the toy series, tv series, Mattel and others, that´s why the book has very few text. If you are not familiar with this series, you can still enjoy the art, but you'll be missing an important part of it.

Each chapter comes with one or more interviews with people involved in the process of creation. In the first chapters, that deal with the vintage toyline and the origins of the toy, most people do not remember anything remarkable about their work. Many just mention that it was just a work they got money for and that was all. Only a few remember characters beside He-Man and Skeletor. In later chapters, that deal with newer toylines, people go more into details.

Overall, I have the impression that people working in the 80s for Mattel, Filmation or as freelances were not aware of what they were creating, of how important that would become, while later artists already know that this is one of the most celebrated toylines of all times.

How the MOTU universe has touched and moved so much people is the magical thing about this toyline. After reading this book it is easier to understand why.

#615 BULLY - BIKER MICE FROM MARS (1994)

Bully is a PVC figure manufacturer. We talked about it when we presented the famous Smurf figures (entries #427 and #543). During the 80s and the 90s, there was a huge number of new cartoons, comics and toy action figures, and so had Bully: everything that was or could be popular at the time had their PVC figure line. Most of these series were really short, with just a few figures each, probably because Bully didn't want to make many figures of one particular series that might not sell later.

One of these short series was Biker Mice from Mars, a line of articulated action figures by Galoob and also a cartoon series. The figures made by Bully were the three you can see in the picture (the three main characters), plus the same three characters riding their motorbikes. From left to right: Throttle, Vinnie, Modo.

Interestingly, the Biker Mice were also reproduced by Yolanda. The Spanish company made exactly the same 6 figures, but in my opinión better sculpted and with weapons. The Bully versión of Throttle has a gun in his right hand, but the other two characters are unarmed. The pose of Modo suggest that its design might originally had some kind of weapon, maybe like Yolanda's Modo, who was reproduced carrying some kind of bazooka.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: THROTTLE, VINNIE and MODO
• Toy Line: Biker Mice from Mars
• Year: 1994
• Company: Bully (Germany)
• Size of the figures: 6 cm

#614 EFSI – SEVERAL TRUCKS IN 1:87 SCALE (Around 1985)

I do not know many models from EFSI. The cars are really great, but very difficult to find. Trucks, however, are easier to find (at least in my case) and I have bought a few ones over the last few years. Maybe it´s just that trucks are not so sought-after. No matter what, EFSI trucks are nice models in approximately 1:87 scale and sometimes include nice trailers.

The pictures this time are not good, I picked them very quickly without checking them, and most of them are blurry. However, the bases of the trucks are not marked in most cases.

Some models included trailers, and some times, these were even sold apart in an extra blíster pack, like this nice military trailer, which I bought years ago in Portugal:

Nothing especially remarkable about this series, except the nice “TopSleeper”, which I haven’t seen by any other maker.

UPDATE1 (Dec/2018): Yet another truck in alternate colours blue/white). Nice!

UPDATE 2 (Jun/2020) - Beautiful military truck in light blue

UPDATE 3 (Dec/2020): I got a carded truck with tampographies "Kulmbacher Mönchshof-Bräu".

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SEVERAL TRUCKS
• Scale: 1:87
• Year: Around 1985
• Company: EFSI (Netherlands)
• Size: approx. 8 cm

#613 REAL GHOSTBUSTERS – HAUNTED HUMANS (Part II) (1988)

I finally got to get the X-cop, which was the only figure (out of 6) that I was missing. The first 3 figures were shown in a previous entry (#360), and now I present the other three. I do not like to leave series of toys "open", so I am glad I can publish now the 2nd and last part of the Haunted Humans figures from the Real Ghostbusters series.
These figures are:

X-Cop

Terror Trash

Hard Hat Horror

 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: TERROR TRASH GHOST, HARD HAT HORROR and X-COP GHOST
• Alternate Names: POUBEL-FROUSSE, CROC PIOCHE and SPECTROFLIC (French) / STOUTE STINKERD, HORROR HENKIE and SKELETACHTIGE SUPERSMERIS (Dutch)
• Toy Line: THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS (Wave 2)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 12 to 18 cm