Toys from the Past

Thursday, November 24, 2022

#1010 EDOCAR – VW 1300 MUSICAR “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” (1989)

What I found about Edocar was already explained in a previous entry, that you can review here. This time I am presenting a single model which has the special feature of singing Happy Birthday using the same mechanism than Majorette’s Sonic Flashers.

The model, of course, it is produced by MC Toy in a color which is specific for Edocar, and the decoration is somewhat colourful although not especially remarkable. Most MC Toy models have better tampographies. The windows are black to hide the electrical circuit that produces the music. It was sold in a blister pack.

Back to the musical feature, Happy Birthday was not the only melody available, there were other models which reproduced the tune of “Tulips from Amsterdam”, the theme of “Alfred J. Kwack” or the jingle of Coca-Cola. Edocar and Coca-Cola have a special relation about which I will write in another occasion.

What I dislike about this toys is that, once the battery is empty, there is no easy way to replace them. Also the batteries corrode, and at some point, they will spoil the toy, not to mention that many of these toys ended in the waste bin contaminating earth and water. Remember to remove batteries from the toys if you are going to store them for a long time!

FACTS AND FIGURES:

Name: VW 1300 Musicar „Happy Birthday“
Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
Year: 1989
Company: Edocar (Netherlands, China)
Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

Sunday, November 13, 2022

#1009 BUCKY O’HARE – BUCKY O’HARE and AL NEGATOR (1991)

I am not collecting this line specifically, but, as I have two more figures with their accessories that I got in exchanges and in lots I bought, I have decided to make a new entry with these two nice characters from the toyline created by Larry Hama.

The first one is Bucky O’Hare himself, the main character of the series and one of the nices figures in the collection. I already and extensively talked about him in a previous netry, so this time I am focusing on the figure. It has the usual 5 points of articulation, plus the two ears, which is kind of peculiar. The figure came with an orange pistol that can also be attached to his belt, and cloak, that, for some reason I forgot to photograph. I has nice bright colours, but I miss at least one more colour applied to his uniform, and it is all red with some yellow and silver details. With one more colour, it may have looked much better.

Al Negator (Al Garto in Spanish) is one of the bad guys, some alligator with an astronaut outfit and also with a pistol, this time a green one. It can also be attached to his back, to carry it easily. This figure has 6 points of articulation, the usual 5 ones plus the tail. The figure has also 4 basic colours.

The figure in their blisters have been available for a long time, but now they are starting to scarce and the prices are going up. Maybe it is our last chance to complete this collection for very little money before it definitely goes up. Several year ago, I had the chance to buy all figures at 5 euro each new in their blister cars, but I decided to get only one. That was the time when I was starting this blog.

FACTS and FIGURES:

Name: BUCKY O’HARE and AL NEGATOR
Alternate Names: Al Garto (Spanish)
Toy Line: Bucky O’Hare (Wave 1)
Year: 1991
Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
Size of the figures: 12 cm approx.

Monday, October 24, 2022

#1008 SOHBI – VARIOUS MODELS (Around 1995)

I already wrote about Sohbi a long time ago, you can review this entry, if you are interested in reading a bit about the company or you want to see a nice Lancia Stratos or Two versions of a Volkswagen Golf.

Around three years ago I found a small lot of 6 Sohbi cars in a flea market, and I got Them all. These are the models I am presenting today. All of them are based on casts from MC Toy, Zylmex or Matchbox. Some of them have interesting decorations, although due to the low quality of the tampographies, these are partially lost.

E-18 - Ferrari Testarossa (MC Toy)

E-19 - Porsche 959 (MC Toy)

E-20 - Peugeot 205 (MC Toy)

E-21 - Mercedes-Benz 300 SE (Zylmex)

E-24 - Jaguar E-Type (Zylmex)

E-28 - Lotus Europa (Matchbox)

I also tried to elaborate a list of Sohbi models together with their reference numbers, using as a base the list in Swifty’s Garage and inserting one or two references from my own models.

E-16 - Lancia Stratos (Zylmex?)
E-17 - Volkswagen Golf (MC Toy)
E-18 - Ferrari Testarossa (MC Toy)
E-19 - Porsche 959 (MC Toy)
E-20 - Peugeot 205 (MC Toy)
E-21 - Mercedes-Benz 300 SE (Zylmex)
E-22 -
E-23 -
E-24 - Jaguar E-Type (Zylmex)
E-25 - DeTomaso Mangusta (Corgi Juniors?)
E-26 -
E-27 - Porsche 906 Carrera 6 (Corgi Juniors)
E-28 - Lotus Europa (Matchbox)

Citroen DS
11 - Ford Econoline
12 - Jeep CJ-6
Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL
Lamborghini Countach LP5000
32 - Porsche 911 Carrera
35 - Mercedes-Benz 500 SL

FACTS AND FIGURES:

Name: FERRARI TESTAROSSA, PORSCHE 959, PEUGEOT 205, MERCDES-BENZ 300 SE, JAGUAR E-TYPE and LOTUS EUROPA (D-E18, D-E19, D-E20, D-E21, D-E24 and D-E28)
Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
Year: Approx. 1995
Company: Sohbi (Hong-Kong/ China)
Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

Sunday, October 9, 2022

#1007 STAR WARS - DARTH VADER and IMPERIAL GUARD (1977 and 1983)

This character here does not need to be introduced, anybody will recognise it immediatly. It is Darth Vader, as it was released in 1978 (copyrighted in 1977) by Kenner and representing the character of the first movie of the Star Wars saga (Episode IV: A New Hope) premiered in 1977. The reason why the figures were a bit late and all the topic with the mail away coupons is also well known.

I will only say that the retractable lightsaber that came as an accessory has its tip broken, which is something extremely common, as the tip is so thin and so fragile that it is rarely unbroken. I had somewhere a repro lightsaber, but I decided to keep the original one. The vynil cloak is also original and it is removable, although this is not recommendable, as the holes for the arms may open and even break, especially after so many years.

Those of you who haven't watched the movie The Return of the Jedi many times, may not recognise the three guys behind Darth Vader. They are imperial guards, and appear in very few scenes of that movie. Their mission is just to scort The Emperor wherever he goes, but in that particular scene, they appear behind the Emperor and Darth Vader. It is one of my favorite figures ever released by Kenner in this toyline, as the mask and the cloak have a very specific design. Also the burgundy red perfectly contrast the white or the different troopers and the black of Darth Vader and the Emperor. In this case, the cloak is not removable, but behind it, there is a quite elaborated sculpt (not painted, though). How the artist imagines what is below the cloaks, or if they just took some parts they happened to have around (from some unreleased project), is something I would really like to know.

In the official films they do not have a great protagonism, so I do not know much about them.

FACTS and FIGURES:

Name: DARTH VADER and IMPERIAL GUARD
Toy Line: Star Wars (Star Wars and The Return of the Jedi)
Year: 1977 and 1983
Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
Size of the figures: 9,5 cm (3 3/4'')

Sunday, September 18, 2022

#1006 BERLINER SPIELKARTEN GmbH – KLAUS HAVENSTEIN ZIRKUSQUARTETT (1970)

Klaus Havenstein was a German actor an also did voice dubbing in many movies, among other artistic activities. He was quite popular at the time of the publishing of this deck of cards. Shortly before, he also had presented a TV Show that explained how a circus worked behind the scene, and also wrote a book called “Die Stadt auf Rädern” (The City on Wheels in German) about the same topic. That is where the circus deck comes from.

It shows 9 families of four card each (quartets) and each family is devoted to one of the different shows that are usually performed in the circus arena: tricks with horses, wild animals tamers, acrobats, clowns and so on. The deck is over 50 years old, and, we see the evolution of circus, if we compare the pictures here with current shows. Some laws have been passed recently in which the use of animals is limited or even forbidden, while at the time, we could see wild animals like monkeys (mostly chimpanzees), tigers, lions, elefants, bears… The circus as such has also lost a great amount of importance in these five decades and today there are much fewer companies (or troupes) touring Europe, is rarely seen on TV, and it does not raise as much interest as 20 or 30 years ago. Actually is a shame that such cultural and artistic events are declining, or if not declining, that the successor or the evolution of these are not as attractive as it used to be. Children are today difficult to surprise or astound, as there are many options to see extraordinary things in short videos on Internet platforms.

The deck is made by Berliner Spielkarten GmbH, which is a company that produced many card decks and also board games during the 70s and the 80s and that is now part of Ravensburger, after this company took over Berliner in 1999. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much information on the web about the old Berliner Spielkarten Firm. Maybe somebody can forward me to an article or newspaper with information in German or English.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Name: KLAUS HAVENSTEIN ZIRKUSQUARTETT (Nr. 102019)
Year: Around 1970
Company: Berliner Spielkarten GmbH & Cie (Germany)

Thursday, September 8, 2022

#1005 BLUE BOX – PENNY RACERS and TRAFALGAR – COIN CHARGERS (Around 1989 and 1982, respectively)

The Penny Racers (or, in Japanese, Choro-Q) are best known under the Takara brand, which is also the company that introduced them in 1978. They were based on a previous toyline called Mame Dash which was discontinued in 1980.

They are miniature pull-back cars with superdeformed dimensions (Choro is an abbreviation to the Japanese word for “cute”), in whose rear part there is a slot in which you can insert, if you wish, a small coin (f.e. a penny) and the car will drive on two wheels, making nice acrobacies on its way. There were a lot of tracks to go with and the variety was enourmous, as they encountered great success both in Japan and outside Japan. The license has even make it up to a dozen videogames and some Transformers sub-lines are also Penny Racers, not to forget the licenses awarded to Blue Box, Funrise, Tonka and others. Even it may seem strange, the original Japanese line was aimed to adult collectors, whereas Tonka version (called the Turbo Tricksters) is intended for children. There were all kinds of vehicles made, and they are still being sold in many countries, so it is a line that is still alive and producing many different models per year.

The blue and yellow buggy is my only Penny Racer, I bought is for one euro in a fle market around 4 years ago. It is a nice model with a decoration and colour combination that was usual in the 90s. You can read more about Blue Box Toys here.

Another model which fits into this category of toys, but it is actually a knock-off is this Coin Chargers by the Hong-Kongese company Trafalgar. This one is clearly older (probably from the early 80s) and represents a fire truck. It was a gift from Steven and it is still carded, which is always nice to see. The instructions are in simple English and include some errors. The backcard shows other 5 models, but you can observe that the Coin Chargers were probably sold for very little money, as the quality of the package is rather low, although at the time, most products of its kind had (more or less) this quality.

UPDATE (May/2023): I got this model from my friend Steven, and it is matching exactly the first model shown in this entry. It is also made by Blue Box.