#948 SPEED WHEELS - HINO DUMP TRUCK and NISSAN FAIRLADY Z (TOMICA KO's) (Around 1990)

I got these two cars recently. Normally I am not interested in the die-cast models when I cannot recognise the brand. In this case, I recognised them as Tomica knock-offs and they were in their original blister cards, so I decided to buy them. 1 euro each blister.

Can you recognise which models they are?
The car is a Nissan Fairlady Z, like the one in entry #548.

 The truck is a Hino Dump Truck, although the plastic part is different from the original Tomica one.

This kind of die-cast models are usually unmarked in the base (just "made in China"), so it is difficult to match model with toymaker. With the blister, obviously, I can say it is Speed Wheels. At the cardback there are several models depicted, one of each kind: sport cars, formula racing cars, pick-up trucks, tractor racers and more. I do not know how many of each type were made, but both blisters have the text "SERIES IV" in the front. I don't know either how many series were made, but on Google you can easily find pictures of series V (some Yatming KO's there), series III (look like Matchbox's Super G.T.s), series X (look quite modern and better done than the previous series, some look like Maisto other like Hot Wheels KOs), series XIII, and more.

The upper part of the blister is cutted off because originally it had the price tag on it. It costed 0,69 US$ per unit or 1 US$ if you took two. As I could see on Google, some blisters have this part also cut off.

I have noticed models that were available in two different series, I guess the card was redone everytime they wanted to change the retail price, but most of the times the assortment just remained as it was.

Interestingly, the one who seems to be the earliest blister pack of "Speed Wheels" on Google (does not show any series number) has the Faie brand printed on the card, so does this series relate anyhow to Faie? I think it is more probable that behind Speed Wheels hides a company that bought stock rests or maybe obsolete machinery to get/make very cheap models, so maybe they started buying from Faie, then from Yatming, then from Welly, Maisto... It could even be that the brand is still in use.

Interestingly, the distributor is a company from Illinois, U.S.A.

Other Speed Wheels came in plastic bags, in this case, each model was 0.39 US$ or 1 US$ for three cars. These cheaper models look like Summer's withouh windows.

And for the TFTP record, some unknown models from past entries seem to be Speed Wheels too! The mobile crane in entry #766 has also been seen inside one of these blister packages!

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: HINO DUMP TRUCK and NISSAN FAIRLADY Z (TOMICA KO's)
• Scale: Around 1:61 and 1:100
• Year: Around  1990
• Company: Speed Wheels (U.S.A.) / Unknown Manufacturer, maybe Welly? (China)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#947 POWER COMMANDOS - FIGURES FROM WAVE 1 (1992)

I have known this series for a long time because it is one of the most thoroughly reviewed in the "bootleg" list of yojoe.com. I considered I knew a lot about Hasbro´s G.I.Joe: ARAH bootlegs, but I had not seen these anywhere else.

In ten years I only saw them very few times on eBay, and I got to buy two of them loose without accesories.

Fortunately, around three years ago, many lots of blister packs were sold by a Mexican seller, and I got a complete set for a relatively small amount of money. I didn´t ask him, but it looks like he found old stock somewhere and put all that for sale, either the figures in blister packs or loose (probably because some cards were too damaged for collectors). I recall that the description also stated that some blisters might present damage of some kind, so receiving the blister cards in perfect shape was a nice surprise.

Information about Lucky Bell and the Mexican importer

Copyright Notice

The Power Commandos by Lucky Bell are interesting for a series of reasons. One reason is that some body parts are very similar to others from original G.I.Joe and Cobra characters (for example some arms are just like 1986´s Vipers). Another one is that some characters vaguely remind of other from the Hasbro´s toyline, although the heads are all new, original sculpts, and third, because the weapons are quite imaginative and some are also bootlegged from Hasbro.

Other positive points for the line is the quality and durability of the figures and also the nice packaging art, also inspired by Hasbro. I like that some details of the figures are painted gold and also that the accesories come in different colours, but I dislike the colour combinations of these first 6 figures, all trousers are either light brown or blue, all torsos are either blue or red and the details are also blue, red or green, so all six figures look somewhat similar to each other.

This small flaw continued in a second series of figures, which are much rarer, but was corrected in the third wave which is ultra-rare and from which only a few pics have been seen so far. We will come to this later.

Another flaw is that in six figures we find only three different models of each body part: three torsos, three waists, three legs and three arms, all doubled, but six different heads, some of them very cool! This is not rare in G.I.Joe bootlegs, see for example The Corps or Kaido.

The character´s names are quite good, as we will see next, and they came with a filecard each with some bio-facts. Unfortunately they are written in poor English and the texts are rather simple and plain, not to mention the tag "Those guys from another galaxy", that actually reminds more of Masters of the Universe than G.I.Joe. The birthplaces of each character is not a real one (for example: "South of Arenia")

The figures were sold in couples, being one of the characters always a Power hero and the second one an evil villain. Note that the file cards have different colours and one is marked "Power" while the other is marked "Terror". Since these words are placed below the picture (that's where the affiliation of  G.I.Joe characters was indicated in the filecard), I would suggest the the good guys are the Power Commandos, and they fight an evil corporation or entity called Terror. Why not?

There were three blisters available:

1. Condor Strike
2. Red Raven

3. X-Ray Eye
4. Submarine

5. Mummy Mask
6. Metal Hawk

The blisters originally had its own artwork depicting both characters in action.

BLISTER 1: CONDOR STRIKE + RED RAVEN

BLISTER 2: X-RAY EYE + SUBMARINE

BLISTER 3: MUMMY MASK + METAL HAWK

Wave two figures are similar in colours but are made out of different parts/new sculpts, also inspired by G.I.Joe. The blister back showed all 12 figures in action, but the rest of the package is very similar. Of course the artwork was new and represented the new characters.

Wave 3 figures were sold individually and the package had brighter colours, maybe following the trend started by the G.I.Joes from 1992, 1993 and 1994. The text Power Commandos is written in yellow, the card frame is bright pink and the figures themselves are mostly pink, bright green and purple... this time the artwork is recycled from series 2 and the figures are also made out of parts already used in waves 1 and 2. Maybe I get these figures someday so I can take pictures and show them here.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CONDOR STRIKE, RED RAVEN, X-RAY EYE, SUBMARINE, MUMMY MASK and METAL HAWK
• Toy Line: Power Commandos (Wave 1)
• Year: 1992
• Company: Lucky Bell (Hong-Kong)
• Size of the figures: Around 9.5 cm