#581 LONE STAR - ROADMASTERS "IMPY" / "FLYERS" - VOLVO 1800S (1968)

Lone Star has two Roadmasters series. The first and oldest one, spelled Road-Masters started in 1956 and was made in 1:43 scale, like their competitors from Corgi and Dinky. During those first years, the models by Lone Star were not very well detailed. In the early 60s, models started having windows but not interiors, that would be available first by the end of the 60s. Head and tail lights were painted silver or red. Wheels were two parts, including aluminium hubcaps and rubber tyres.

 

In 1966 the Impy series was introduced. This series had a fixed size of 3,5 inches, that is, very similar to the Matchbox 1-75 series. The Road-Masters were discontinued, but this new series was called Roadmasters Impy. Here's a flyer with the first 12 models ever reeased in this series.

 

 

The Impy models were advertised as the "cars with everything": a lot of practicable parts, steering, jewelled headlights. They were the first toy producer to adapt the thin, low-friction wheels introduced by Hot Wheels, less than one year after Mattel (Mattel: 1967, Lone Star: 1968). Models equipped with these wheels were repackaged to the "Flyer" series.

 

 

 

The packaging was similar to the one used by competitors Corgi and Dinky, although afer a few years, the introduced the boxes with plastic Windows. The boxes of the Impy series displayed a baby devil.

 

 

 

In the U.S.A., the Impy series was sold as "Mini-Cars" in blisters packaged by Physio-Chem, a toy company that usually distributed in the United States toys made in other countries.
To finish this entry, I would like to publish here the images of a catalogue that I found on the blog DieCast Chile, which is a very nice blog in Spanish that shows die-cast models from different manufacturers. This catalogue was found here: http://www.diecastchile.cl/2013/06/publicidad-de-impy-lone-star.html. Note that the cover car is actually the same I am presenting here, with the original rubber wheels instead of the "flyer" wheels.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: VOLVO 1800S (Nr. 19)
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: 1968
• Company: Lone Star (Great Britain)
• Size: approx. 8,5 cm

#580 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE – METEORBS - ORBEAR (1987)

When the Masters of the Universe fame was decaying, Mattel decided to introduce a series of 10 figures that did not fit the rest of the series. These were 9 animals and one robt that could transform into eggs.

HEROIC METEORBS

• Cometroid – Heroic meteorb with mechanical power.  
• Ty-Grrr – Heroic tiger Meteorb.
• Astro Lion – Heroic lion with amazing brute strength.
• Comet Cat – Heroic panther. The fastest of the Meteorbs.
• Tuskor – Heroic Mammooth who busts force fields with tusks.

EVIL METEORBS

• Dinosorb – Evil brontosaurus who stomps to start quakes.
• Crocobite – Evil crocodile with crushing jaws.
• Rhinorb – Evil rhino with horrible ramming horn.
• Orbear – Evil grizzly who bashes enemies with his claws.
• Gore-illa – Evil ape with monstrous muscle-power.

The story created to fit the Meteorbs into this series was that they were powerful creatures from space that reached Eternia together with Rokkon and Stonedar (two figures from series 5). They appeared in a few comics, catalogues from different countries and also in one chapter of Princess of Power.

The figures are not even a Mattel toy. They were manufactured by Bandai in Japan. They belonged to another toyline called Tamagoras, that reached a certain popularity by the beginning of the 80s. Unfortunately, the Meteorbs didn´t sell very well, and were discontinued after only one wave/ year. The MotU were already in their end phase and the concept was too different. It didn´t work, although transforming toys were some kind of fashion back them.

I own only one of these, Orbear, the bear.

I also have several figures from the Huevox series by Phoskitos. Phoskitos is a biscuit and chocolate dessert intended for children at school. They always have some promotion running with stickers or whatever. In this case you could win these figures. They are from the late 2000s and made in China. One of them is identical to Tuskor the Mammooth, only in another colour.
 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: ORBEAR (Ref. 1415) + Some HUEVOX
• Toy Line: Masters of the Universe (Wave 6) / Huevox
• Year: 1987 / Around 2008
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.) / Unknown (Phoskitos promo)
• Size of the figures: 6 cm

#579 THE CORPS! – WAVE 3 (V): LIGHTNING MOBUTU, SENSEI KABUTO and STEVE WYOMING (1992)

From the six figures we were talking about in the last entry, I still wanted to comment three.

• Brickwall
• Crusher McCloskey
• Hat Trick Lemonde
• Lightning Mobutu
• Sensei Kabuto
• Steve Wyoming

LIGHTNING MOBUTU - Probably the most iconic of this six figures, since it appeared in the artwork of some blister cards. I love the colourful uniform constrasting with the black skin of the character. This figure has again great sculpt details, especially head and trousers. I would say it is/was the fashion of the early 90s. He might be wearing some kind of augmented reality glasses, maybe the first version of Google Glass? :)

SENSEI KABUTO - This is another of my favorite figures, it represents some kickboxer or martial artist, and looks really cool: black trousers, orange details in sculpt, and naked torso. Head has some protection for fighting, which might be impractical for real war.

Found on: https://www.joeaday.com/sensei-kabuto-lanard-corps/

STEVE WYOMING - As said in the previous entry, Steve Wyoming is one of my least favorite figures, I find that helmet quite boring, especially considering his naked torso... Head is perfectly protected, but shoot me a little bit lower. The colour combination of skin-red and grey/silver helmet leaves me indifferent. This figure appears also very often in the packages’ artwork.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LIGHTNING MOBUTU, SENSEI KABUTO and STEVE WYOMING.
• Toy Line: the Corps! (wave 3)
• Year: 1992
• Company: Lanard (Hong-Kong)
• Size of the figure: 3 ½¨ or 8 cms.

#578 THE CORPS! – WAVE 3 (IV): BRICKWALL, CRUSHER McCLOSKEY and HAT TRICK LEMONDE (1992)

This is an entry I was willing to write since a long time, because this CORPS topic remains more or less open since entries #278, #279 and #280. There, I talked about all figures from the Corps´ waves 2 and most figures from wave 3, but I still need to comment the last 6 figures from wave 3.

If you want to know more about this series, plese visit now (or later) those entries, there are a lot of data there to read and analyse!

The names of the wave 3 missing characters are (in alphabetical order):

• Brickwall
• Crusher McCloskey
• Hat Trick Lemonde
• Lightning Mobutu
• Sensei Kabuto
• Steve Wyoming

These figures are the most difficult to find in the whole collection, especially complete with accesories, since the casts (both for the figures and the accesories) were almost never reused. All six figures except one (Hat Trick Lemonde) were reissued in the "Blades" series. Some rumours I heard say the casts got destroyed/damaged accidentally, so, these figures could only have a v1, unlike other Corps characters which have 5 or more versions... I should investigate about this, because I own later figures which share the legs with Brickwall and other casts that look pretty much the heads of Brickwall or Steve Wyoming.

Two things surprise me from these last six figures. First are the names, which are quite imaginative... to say it diplomatically. Second is the colourful and strange uniforms they are wearing. Yes, I now the rest of wave 3 is also quite colourful, but in my opinion, the uniforms of Crusher McCloskey, Hat Trick Lemonde or Steve Wyoming are... ahem... ridiculous.

By the way, figures have quite fragile hands... make sure not to break thumbs when playing with them, or pay attention if you plan to buy them online. And one last piece of advice: please note before purchasing that the weapons are included and that they are the right ones. There has been some confusion about which weapons go with which figures because an old webseite (today not active anymore) presented the figures with changed weapons. Pay attention to my pictures because they are correctly ordered in them.

But it´s not the negative aspects of the figures I want to point out. These figures are nice, and great collectable items. Let´s see the details one by one. In this entry I will present three characters, and in the next one, three more.

The first three are:

BRICKWALL - Probably the best figure in the group, Brickwall could be some spaceship pilot, or some astronaut soldier. The figure has a nice colour scheme in white and red, and nice sculpt details (considering this as a general flaw in the whole  "the Corps!" collection). Its helmet reminds a bit of Sci-Fi from G.I.Joe:ARAH.

CRUSHER McCLOSKEY - This figure has a strange torso, being naked except for some kind of pads and cables that also go to his head. I don´t really know what to think. The head sculpt reminds me of Psyche Out from the G.I.Joe line.

HAT TRICK LEMONDE - This figure is my least favorite (together with Steve Wyoming), because it is some futuristic rollerskater with helmet and some kind of armour that makes him look a bit fat. The helmet let see his face, and he has a moustache, so, all in all, an interesting combination. Colours are also a bad combination of green-red-white. His name is often mispelled as "Lemonade" instead of "Lemonde" (some old Corps! Webseite had this information wrong). Maybe that French sounding name inspired his moustache?

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BRICKWALL, CRUSHER McCLOSKEY and HAT TRICK LEMONDE.
• Toy Line: the Corps! (wave 3)
• Year: 1992
• Company: Lanard (Hong-Kong)
• Size of the figure: 3 ½¨ or 8 cms.

#577 MICRO MACHINES - MICRO LIGHTS COLLECTION #6 (1990)

The next Micro Machines subseries are the Micro Lights. There is also the Super Micro Lights Series (#166), but although they are similar subseries, they are not the same. The Micro Lights are cars with front are rear lights, that can be activated when the car is pushed down, while the Super Micro Lights are generally bigger vehicles (trucks, vans, camper vans, limos, buses...) and they don´t have rear and front lights, but lights in the interior that reveals the silhouettes of the passagers.

Both lines were launched in 1990. The Micro Lights subseries comprised 18 collections of 2 cars each, however, Micro Lights and Super Micro Lights were merged the next year into the Micro Lights series. Cars were the same (partly in the same colours/decorations), but "remixed".

The two cars presented here are a BMW 635 and a T-Bird Super Coupé (Collection #6), both decorated in rally colours and patterns.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MICRO LIGHTS COLLECTION #6
• Scale of the cars: 1:150 aprox.
• Year: 1990
• Company: Galoob (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 2 cm

#576 JURASSIC PARK - DILOPHOSAURUS (JP02) (1993)

 

After a long pause without showing anything from this toyline, I return with one of the two Dilophosaurus released in the first wave of the Jurassic Park toyline. The other one is the "Electronic" Dilophosaurus shown in entry #285.

This one is a much simpler toy. The dinosaur, if you can remember the movie, could spit venom. In the movie attacks and kills Dennis Nedry, and to add some visual effects, the dinosaur had a skin around the neck that could extend when atacking. This skin is an invention for the movie, because the real dinosaur did not have that.

To this extent, the "normal" dilophosaurus is more realistic than the "electronic" dilophosaurus. Morphologically is very accurate and the plastic used is also a softer one.

The dinosaur can spit water by pushing its belly, which is a very nice feature ("with Dino-Strike Venom Spray!"). It was also present in the figure of Dennis Nedry, which had some water-launching weapon.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DILOPHOSAURUS (JP2)
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park (Wave 1)
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 13 cm long

#575 SCHUCO MODELL - FORD CONSUL and ESCORT (Nrs. 301858 and 301881) (1973 and 1975)

 

My second entry dealing with the Schuco series in 1:66 scale show two Ford models from the 70s. They are used but in a very good shape. As usual in the Schuco Modell series, the base of the car is marked with the characteristics of the car. The Ford Consul base is shared with the Ford Granada, and this is also a common thing to many other references.

Ford Consul in light green - 75 PS - 145 Km/h

Ford Escort in red - 54 PS - 137 Km/h

You can see more of this series here (#288).

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FORD CONSUL and ESCORT (Nrs. 301858 and 301881)
• Scale: 1:66
• Year: 1973 and 1975
• Company: Schuco (West Germany)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#574 VAM - RENAULT 5 (Around 1984)

VAM is a toy company that became famous in the 70s for its cheap plastic cars and trucks. They were very popular due to their low prices and their availability: you could find them almost anywhere, from kiosks, or drug-stores to bakeries and coffee shops. When I bought them in the mid-80s, the small models (1:64, 3 inches) were 5 or 10 pesetas, that's 0,03 to 0,06 Euros, so they were really affordable.

VAM takes its name from its founder: Valeriano Aguilar Monforte, who started the business in Zaragoza. First in Belchite street number 1, and later in the Carretera de Castellón without number, a industrial zone.

Each car was made of several plastic parts, for example, the chassis, the wheels and axles, the pilot, maybe some antenna. Other bigger models included body and chassis, and maybe more parts. The pieces were assembled by private people at home, mostly housewives. According to people who saw it (as recalled in www.laisladelreloj.blogspot.com), it was usual to see a small van in some quarters of the city taking big bags with parts to be assembled. The assembled toys were returned to the manufacturer and then distributed to shops around the country.

If I recall well, cars were stored in the shops in big transparent plastic bags. The bag usually hung on the wall, so you could chose any car you liked, and the seller would take it out of the bag for you.

With the improvements in the economy, and the slow introduction of foreign and quality car models, VAM started selling less and less toys, although it took many years to see it closed. When that happened, VAM casts were sold to two different companies from the same city that coincidentally were located even in the same area/region: "Baratijas Ruiz" (that is still active today) and "La Ilusión".
 

The model shown today is a big car, I would say it is a scale between 1:43 and 1:36, maybe closer to the first as to the second, although I should have somewhere a small bag of 1:64 scale cars (race cars, land rovers) and 1:100 scale trucks. They will be shown in other entry in the future... I need to check if they are VAM or Ruiz.

In the link above, there is a nice collection of plastic cars made by this company. Watching them, I recall how many of these I had as a kid. Recommended to click here! http://laisladelreloj.blogspot.com.es/2009/03/cochecitos-de-peseta.html

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: RENAULT 5
• Year: Around 1984
• Company: VAM (Spain)
• Size: Around 10 cm.
• Scale: Around 1:43