#1020 GUISVAL - CENTURION MK.III TANK + KNOCK-OFF (1977 and Around 1993)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST

Today I want to show two small toy tanks.

The first one is made by Guisval and is a Centurion MK.III model, which appeared for the first time in the catalogue from 1977. There were several versions of it made those first years: in green (with british or Spanish roundels on one side), in light brown (with Spanish roundels) on and also in light brown with dark brown stripes (with a green flag and a crescent moon, which, to my knowledge, does not represent any real country).

Later reissues would also use new decals, like a British flag, and the last known issue is a completely white version from the United Nations, which I find quite original and I would like to own.

All of them have turning turret and the cannon moves up and down.

The second toy tank shown in the pictures is a low quality knock-off of the Guisval model made by an unknown company much later. The model is unmarked, except for “No. 462”, and it is almost identical to the Guisval model. The cannon is slightly longer, the plastic base and wheels and different). The metal and paintwork used are of lower quality, the paint scheme shows a green/yellow camouflage pattern and the stickers on the side say "U.S. Army".

Does anybody know about it? In any case, it is a very curious one, although the quality is very low.

 FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CENTURION MK.III and KNOCK-OFF
  
• Scale: Approx. 1:100
• Year: 1977 and Around 1993 (respectively)
  
• Company: Guisval and Unknown Toymaker (Spain and China)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#998 EKO - SEVERAL MOC VEHICLES (Around 1960-1975)

The history of EKo was already written in entry #551, so this time I would only like to show a series of unused (mint on card) vehicles I bought for no money a couple of years ago. I am afraid there are not so many Eko collectors anymore and so the prices are sinking since a few years already. I still recall some Eko displays in the mid-80s, that were bought by railway and train modellers, 1:87 soldier diorama makers, architects and also children, although, due to their rather weak construction, they were quickly displaced by more sturdy vehicle models pretty soon, remaining these for adults collectors

I like very much the 1:87/H0 scale and the cars from the 60s and the 70s that are being reproduced in scale here. One of them comes with a nice trailer carrying a boat, and a small truck is transportating gas bootles, an usual sight back in the day.

Serie Civil

• No. 2004 Opel Kapitan

 

 

Box Flap for Ref. No. 2004

 

• No. 2054 De Soto con Remolque Canoa

• No. 2088 Microbus Mercedes Benz

 

 

 

• No. 2105 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint

• No. 2122 Sava Butano

 

Serie Militar

No. 4035 Barreiros T-90.22 

 

 

 Nice lot!

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SEVERAL MOC MODELS
  
• Scale: 1:87 (H0)
• Year: Around 1960
• Company: Eko (Spain)
• Size: approx. 3.5 cm

#876 TRANSFORMERS MICROMASTERS - BATTLE and OFFROAD PATROLS (1989)

Another two squads of Micromasters for my collection. 

 

The first one is the Battle Patrol, Note this includes four figures, some of them with movable parts that are sometimes missing. That is why it took me a little bit to complete all of them. I had three of them since a long time ago, but one of them was missing its cannon.

The members of this squad are (left to right): Big Shot, Sunrunner, Sidetrack and Flak.

BATTLE PATROL

• Faction: Autobots
• Subgroup: Micromasters
• Function: Rapid Deployment Strike Force
• Motto: "It is better to strike first, then to not strike at all!"
• Bio: This tough-talking, battle-hardened foursome believes that the best offense is one that's fast, furious, and ferocious! They don't slow down until the enemy has been defeated and thrown into the scrap pile! With this in mind, Big Shot, Sidetrack, Flak, and Sunrunner use their brute force capabilities to hammer their Micromaster adversaries with devastating attacks! .
• Tech Specs for the Rapid Deployment Force:

• Strength: 9
• Intelligence: 7
• Speed: 6
• Endurance: 8
• Team Work: 8
• Courage: 9
• Firepower: 6
• Skill: 8

BIG SHOT

• Motto: "One good shot is worth a hundred bad ones!"

FLAK

• Motto: "Good luck is the residue of good planning."

SIDETRACK

• Motto: "A battle that isn't worth winnin' isn't worth fightin'!"

TUNRUNNER

• Motto: "Rule the skies and the ground will bow before you."

 

The second patrol is the Offroad patrol. Its member are (left to right): Powertrain, Mudslinger, Highjump and Tote.

 This series is simpler in contruction, are usually complete, since they came with no cannons or small movable parts.

OFFROAD PATROL

• Faction: Autobots
• Subgroup: Micromasters
• Function: Covert Activities
• Motto: "Don't follow orders, follow instincts."
• Bio: This quartet has an independence streak that runs as long as the Appalachian Trail. Experts at covert operations. Always work well together in any combat situation. Specialize in going where no one's ever gone and doing what no one's ever done. Continually caught up in some sort of enemy intrigue. Autobot Command trusts them to come up with brilliant counter-measures to be sprung on the Decepticons.
• Tech Specs for the Offroad Patrol:

• Strength: 6
• Intelligence: 9
• Speed: 3
• Endurance: 8
• Team Work: 9
• Courage: 8
• Firepower: 9
• Skill: 6

POWERTRAIN

• Motto: "If I can't go through it, I go over it"

MUDSLINGER

• Motto: "No Road is too Rough. No Foe too Tough."

HIGHJUMP

• Motto: "Keep it Down and Dirty."

TOTE

• Motto: "A rolling Autobot gathers the most Decepticons."

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MICROMASTERS BATTLE PATROL and OFFROAD PATROL
• Toy Line: TRANSFORMERS (G1)
• Year: 1989
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 5 cm

#683 BRITAINS LTD. vs. DINKY TOYS –BATTALION ANTI-TANK GUN and 6 POUNDER ANTI TANK GUN (1973 and 1975)

These are two samples of British military die-cast from the early 70s. Both are very similar, not only the type of cannon (Anti-Tank), colour and year (both WW2), but also their mechanism is similar. Both toys could actually fire projectiles, but, after so many years, the missiles are missing. 

No. 625 by Dinky Toys is the 6 Pounder Anti Tank Gun from 1975. British made, this gun was premiered in the North African campaign, 1942. Later was adopted by the American army. THe Dinky model was made with great detail and realism, as you can see, the towing part is practicable, just like in the real cannons.

The cannon from Britains can be seen in this catalogue image, and the text written for it says:

BAT gun. No. 9720 Anti Tank gun can be mounted on Jeep or such small vehicle or just used as it looks sitting on the ground. Modern Military. 1973 till closing down. Modern Military Series.

BAT stands for Batallion Anti Tank and is also British made. This gun is slightly more modern, since it was designed and made in the early 50s. A very impressive weapon!

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BATTALION ANTI-TANK GUN and 6 POUNDER ANTI TANK GUN
• Scale: Approx. 1:24
• Year: 1973 and 1975
• Company: Britains Ltd. and Dinky Toys (Great Brtain)
• Size: approx. 14 cm

#538 FUNRISE – MILITARY JET PLANES and GROUND VEHICLES (1988)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

Some companies started producing knock-offs of other toys and have become big companies with the time. In these cases, all companies hide this early history in their webpages and it is difficult to find information about it. The case of Funrise is one of them. Today, Funrise is a big toy company, but we know nothing about their origins.

No matter what, one of the first products by Funrise were a series of small plastic cars in the Micro Machines style. They were the most serious competitor to Galoob, from the dozens of manufacturers that started producing micro-vehicles. They had the largest number of vehicle casts, and even got cool licensed series, like one from the movies "Back to the Future".

The Funrise products were much cheaper than Galoob´s original MM, and so they tried to compete against the strong advertising campaigs from Galoob. Unfortunately, Funrise could not replicate the many different series with so distinctive feature by Micro Machines (like vehicles with lights, colour changing paint, battery operated...) which was also one of the anty-copy features from the "genuine" Micro Machines. Just one note... I think Funrise also has some changing colour vehicles, but I´m not sure about this.

As a kid, I got/bought a pack of military ground vehicles, that I am showing in this entry, and around 7-8 months, I got these two jet planes collections in a lot. At first sight, the military ground vehicles could perfectly be original Galoobs, they are beautifully done, with accurate details and decent paintwork.

The planes however seem to be a bit newer. They are also nice casts, but the paintwork is much worse. They all have a base colour (colour of the plastic), and just a few emblems are printed on them. The colours chosen (yellow, pink...) are not very realistic, so somehow I find the plane collections not so cool like the ground vehicles, or other collections that I have seen on the internet.

There seems to be a colour variation of these planes. I found the images below on eBay:

 

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MILITARY JET PLANES and GROUND VEHICLES
• Scale of the cars: 1:150 aprox.
• Scale of the planes, trucks and tanks: Unknown
• Year: 1988
• Company: Funrise (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 2 cm

#412 FORMULATOR FORCE – F-FORCE TRANSFORMING TANK (Around 1992)

This transforming robot came to me in a lot with some Masters of the Universe figures, and I decided to keep. Although bootlegs and knock-offs do not appear very often in my blog, I love this type of toys, and this robot is a nice example from the early 1990s.

At the time, Chinese toys arrived massively to Europe, and they were available almost everywhere. Those first toys had a very good quality, compared to what would come next… it is quite robust and simple, but it still looks great.

This tank is a transformer bootleg. It is not a knock-off, because the design is not copied from any of the Hasbro’s robots. Only its head seems to be identical to Autobot Sunstreaker (G1). Note also, that there are a lot of colour variations, of this figure. All of them have similar colours, but not the same combination.

The same toy was available in different blister cards or boxes, but the ones that I could find, say the toy line is called: “The Formulator Force”, and it consisted of this tank, a car and a jet (but they did not combine with each other). The names are: F-Force Transforming Tank, F-Force Transforming Ground Vehicle and F-Force Transforming Jet.

The slogan of the Formulator Force is: “mighty mutating machines that transform before your eyes!”, with the word “transform” highlighted in white. In that sentence, “before” has been wrongly translated, I guess it should say “in front of”.

More interesting things which can be seen or read in the packages are that the toymaker is called “ES¬ Toys” (Ever Sparkle Industrial Co, Ltd.), and they’re made in China. Toys were marked with a little golden sticker, which in many cases has survived until today.

Box package - Pictures taken from eBay – seller: the_usa_girl05

The same manufacturer seems to have released some Micromasters-alike robots for the Formulator Force. These smaller transforming robots are called Mighty Minis, and the slogan has been changed to “mighty little mutating machines that transform before your eyes!”. I have never seen them, but the toyarchive says, they are their own desings, so again, they are not a knock-off.

 Blister package - Pictures taken from eBay – seller: theuniversalstore

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: F-FORCE TRANSFORMING TANK
• Toy Line: Formulator Force
• Year: Around 1992
• Company: ES Toys (China)
• Size of the figures: Around 16 cm.