#672 GLOBETOYS – SPEED CARS (1983)

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

Globetoys is a small Spanish brand for toys from the mid 80s. I recently discovered that it is in fact a subsidiary company of Guisval and it started in 1983. From my childhood I remember having a few toys made by this company. But why a second, new brand for Guisval, when they already were very renowned and famous in Spain? The only reason that cames to my mind, is that Globetoys offered many models that were copies of other foreign toys, and maybe Guisval wanted to protect their brand in case of trouble. This toy cars here are a good example of what I am talking about. As you may have noticed, these cars are a copy of Kidco´s / Matchbox´s Burnin´Key Cars (see next entry #673).

Globetoys made this key car in three colours (white, yellow, red) and six references (101 to 106: ambulance and sheriff in white, police and rally champion in yellow and firefighter and racing pilot in red). Each model had different decals according to its reference. They were simply marked “Globetoys – Made in Spain” in the base.

Some time later (maybe 2-3 years later), Globetoys added the blue model, but by that time, Speedcars came without decals.

Note that the sirens can be either red or yellow, depending on the colour of the body.

In the next entry you can compare Globetoys model with the original Kidco model in which the design is based. The Kidco model is more elaborated and has a slightly more detailed cast. The bonnet of the Kidco Model is also removable, but not Globetoy´s.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SPEEDCARS
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: 1983
• Company: Globetoys (Spain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#671 IMPERIAL CHINA – MUDSLINGER and SWINDLER (1988)

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

Imperial China is the only text that can be read in these figures. I guess they were made by the late 90s in very short batches, because I haven’t seen much and on the internet there are no resources on them. Thanks to the information provided in a comment below by user Chaser, we now know that these toys are much older than we thought, almost contemporary to the toys that the copy. A blistercard has been spotted recently and the copyright is from 1988.

The only I know is that there are several micromasters knock-offs but the colours may differ a bit from the originals, and they are even smaller, maybe 20% smaller. They are even smaller than the smallest transformers ever released by Hasbro or Takara, so, all in all, nice collector pieces.

My two robots are Mudslinger (Off-Road Patrol) and Swindler (Race Car Patrol), although there are also some jets from the Air Strike Patrol and other cars from the Race Car Patrol. Some can be seen in this page: http://www.builtstlouis.net/tf/mmkos/imperial.html

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MUDSLINGER and SWINDLER
• Toy Line: IMPERIAL CHINA
• Year: 1988
• Company: Imperial China (China)
• Size of the figures: 2 to 2.5 cm

#670 METALBOX - DATSUN 126x (Around 1976)

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

This car is quite a mistery. I found it in a flea market and bought it in a lot together with very old cars, most of them were from the 70s.

The car represents the Datsun 126x, which became popular in the 70s and was reproduced by Matchbox (in 1973) or other toy companies, like Payá.

Compared to the Matchbox model, this model is slightly smaller: according to the inscription on the base, it is made in 1:70 scale. Both have a practicable bonnet (rear part).

The complete inscription on the base is:
DATSUN 126x
280 Km/h
MODELL 1:70

But there are no indications of country of origin or manufacturer. I have found pictures of this car on the internet, and I have observed, that there are at least two types of wheels. This one is the most elaborated one, since it has grey hubcaps. The simpler type is completely black.
Also interesting are the stickers used with the car, that resemble a little bit the German flag.

I would say this toy was made in Hong-Kong. At the time, these kind of toys were made and bootlegged there. The fact that on the base says "Modell" and not "model", and the speed is given in Km/h, made me thought that it was intended for the German market (or that maybe it was an order from a German toy manufacturer for the German market). However, I have seen this same car for sale in South America, North America and other European countries, so I guess, it is impossible to know today the exact origin of this model.

If you have any information, please leave a comment. Thanks!

My friend Steve sent me an email telling me this is an hungarian model made by Metalbox. I'll try to update this entry soon with new information.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DATSUN 126x
• Scale: 1:70
• Year: Around 1976
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer (probably Hong-Kong) Metalbox (Hungary)
  
• Size: approx. 5 cm

#669 MC TOY – MICRO CARS (LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH, FERRARI 250 GTO and OTHERS) (Around 1990)

MC Toy is a brand that copied and knocked off (not sure if this verb exists) many famous collections. I recently learnt that MC Toy made the Forest Families, which are a pretty obvious knock-off of Sylvanian Families.

In this case, we are going to talk about MC Toy knockoff of Micro Machines. The mini cars, that became popular by the latest 80s, probably came out in 1990. They are slightly larger than genuine Micro Machines, and have a metal body (not plastic). The car is not reproduced accurately, but in the “toon” style of Micro Machines. However, the metallic body, and mostly it’s thermopaint resemble the “Mini Color Racers” by Hot Wheels! (see #281). These are bigger in scale, and were released in 1990.

By that same year, MC Toy had a series of 1:64 models also with thermal paint, so they quickly adapted the idea for their “Micros” (see for example: #582).

UPDATE 1 (May/2017) Ferrari 250 GTO

UPDATE1 (Dec/2021): I got a big lot of mint/near-mint cars from this series. Other models apart from the two above are: Citroen 2CV,  Baja Buggy, Porsche 959, Kenworth-style truck, Pick-up van and another sport car (any ideas?)

        

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH, FERRARI 250 GTO and others
  
• Year: Around 1990
• Company: MC Toy (U.S.A./ Macau/ China)
• Size: Around 2,5 cm.
• Scale: Unknown

#668 KAÏDO - MOLLOCH and TETRARK (1990)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

 

There seems to be a great interest nowadays in this small bootleg figures made for (not "by") the Belgian company Bikin. I guess many collectors of G.I.Joe: ARAH are also interested in similar figures that were contemporary to Snake Eyes, Duke and Cobra Commander. The Corps! by Lanard are probably the most successful bootleg, but there were many others that also had great designs and were quality toys.

The interest is there (my previous entries about these figures receive many visits) but the sources of information are very scarce. Something most people do not know about these figures is that they also had at least two vehicles and one playset. These were not referenced in the packaging of the figures or in the "secret book" that each figure included. Since there are no known catalogues or any other promotional printed items, nobody really knows about them.

I haven´t got any of these vehicles, and I don´t think I will ever buy them, but neither would I like to ignore them in my blog. Here is a short review.

The first vehicle I know of, and the only one I once saw boxed at a department store is this jet (or jets). I don´t know what is the name of the toy, I just know the plane is undersized and you cannot place any figure in it. The pack included some kind of launcher seat (you can see it on the back of the illustration) and from there you could activate 4 battle sounds (they are indicated in the box).
Since the illustration depicts two jets I think both were included in the box... it is unclear since the box says "Caza Sónicas", were the name is singular and the adjective, plural. Note as well that the inscription seems to be a direct translation from another language, that doesn't really make sense in Spanish, not to talk about several grammar errors: "Electrónico Fuerza del Cielo con Caza Sónicas".

The second vehicle I know of is a small jet, this time with enough space to carry one or two figures. From the picture it is not clear. Note that the plane has been pictured over a desktop printer, so it should be around 30 cm long. The plane has 3 action sounds that can be activated from the three buttons on the rear part. Note the stickers under the cockpit "Kaïdo Air Force".

And finally, the third toy I know of is this headquarters playset. I found it in an ebay shop called "Hallelujah Toys". Since Kaïdo and M-P.A.C.T. share casts, at least this playset from M-P.A.C.T. was actually “recycled” for Kaïdo. The importer or whoever brought these figures to Europe, simply placed a sticker with the Kaïdo logo over the M-P.A.C.T. logo in the appropriate language. I saw this in the command center/base, which is quite big for such a small toyline.  

Here you can see the contents of the box. Remeber to visit "Hallelujah Toys" if you are interested in this item!

Note the M P.A.C.T. logo on one side and the Kaïdo logo on the other side. As you can see on the pictures, the headquarters has three levels plus a crane and a radar station, again with sounds and voices. Both Kaïdo and M P.A.C.T. main feature are battey operated backpacks with battle sounds and commands.

For the M P.A.C.T. toyline there were at least other two vehicles made: a fancy helicopter for the Shatter Force (the bad guys) and an even cooler Ferrari (kind of a F40 cabrio) for the Global Force (the good guys). These two were depicted in the back card of every figure, but they haven´t been spotted so far with Kaïdo stickers, so we cannot really certify that these were also available for the line we are talking about today. It wouldn´t surprise me though.

Considering the facts above, it surprises me that M-P.A.C.T. came later to market (1991) than Kaïdo (1990).



Pic found at: http://www.geocities.ws/mkbip/webpages/Mpact.htm

And now time to show two new figures of this collection, both belong to the "New Order", the criminal and terrorist organization of Emperor Orx.

MOLLOCH (KS009) - Explosive Specialist
I don't like this figure very much, it is quite generic with those camo trousers and black vest...

TETRARK (KS012) - Weapons Specialist
I have this one in an open box, so I can show the actual figure with more detail. I like it more than the previous one, but it is also quite dull. The uniform is very generic and only the patch in the eye brings something unusual to the figure.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MOLLOCH and TETRARK (Ref.KS009 and KS012)
• Toy Line: Kaïdo
• Year: 1990
• Company: Bikin (Belgium)
• Size of the figures: 11 cm. or 3,75’’