Mystery Monday: Tonka Play People giant scale boat!

 

It's another Monday, and I'm back after a bit of a break. This time around, I don't really have anything new, but another installment in an investigation that's been going on for about as long as this blog. We're back to Sidekick Carl and the Tonka Play People, with one new acquisition, a boat made for Carl's sweetheart, the giant Tonka lady aka Dana the Nine-Foot Woman! To start off, here's a few pics

As previously recounted, the giant lady was one of two sculpts Tonka made nominally for their Play People line but in a 5-inch scale. My best guess for the reason was that this was the nominal scale of their original Mighty Tonka vehicles, some of which came with doll-style figures. I have neither confirmed nor ruled out whether the large Play People were included with later releases of these vehicles, except for a phone repair truck that included the guy figure. Where the lady came in was a Backcountry Explorer set, an apparently original vehicle packaged with two figures, a motorcycle and the pictured canoe. I had looked on and off at acquiring either the jeep, which is affordable apart from a hit on shipping. or one of the secondary vehicles. I was most interested in the bike, but it was tricky to tell apart from smaller Tonka bikes and often in poor condition. I was also skeptical whether the 9 Foot Woman could actually ride the thing, which otherwise looked suspiciously like a decoration. I finally settled for the boat, evidently a canoe sort of thing. By a typical fluke of online listings, the best deal pound for pound was the boat together with another lady figure. Somehow, as always, it turned out even bigger than it looked. Here it is with Carl.

Of course, the twist was the new figure. I had previously identified a variant of the lady with a blue jumpsuit, but I have never found it for a good price and have come to believe that it was sold mainly or exclusively in Europe. What I got instead was a duplicate of the one I had, definitely in better condition. Here's a few pics.

"Yeah, I'm in the doghouse no matter who I pick..."

Yeah, I could say they're twins, but there can only be one 8 fout 3 woman...

The differences in condition are pronounced enough that I had no trouble at all telling the new arrival apart from the one I already had (always on the left). While the condition is better, there are things that are just a bit off. The new girl is a bit grimy. She also looks somehow less shiny, somethint that might not be nearly as obvious in the pics. On handling, she feels a bit rough, either from the noted grime or just general roughing up. One more thing that made me suspicious is that there's a paint error on the face, which looked like someone had touched up the figure (admittedly something I had considered with the one I had). On examination, however, I found that the paint doesn't line up at a number of points on both figures, as well as a fracture or so on the previously purchased figure that I didn't already know about. Ultimately, this is surely simply an indicator of how little the manufacturer was invested in these things. Here's a couple closeup pics of the new and "old" figures

And here's something just odd on the new girl. The same wear pattern is on the instep of both feet. I'm genuinely baffled where it came from. Maybe from actually being on the bike???

And here's an extra pic of the boat. It looks disgusting; as far as I can tell, it's all discoloration and maybe some spot stains. 

And here they all are in the boat. I told you it's bigger than it looks. Row, row, row you're... wait a minute, that's not right.

You'd think the problem is that there's no oars. Actually, it's that their hands don't hold anything.

And in case this doesn't feel mysterious enough, here's a few more leads from the online listings. First, a variation of the canoe; those bikes definitely don't belong with the figures.

And, a repaint of the jeep, have seen it sold with and without figures.

This is a little stranger. The wheels we've seen are removeable, but this seems to be a substitution with the usual wheels I've seen on my dump truck and forklift. The odd part is, some of these are listed as from 1978, before the Play People were released. Is this an error, or did this come first? Just try to find someone who cares...

And then there's this. It's clearly a version of the set with the bike left out. But... who the hell is that guy? Is this even a 5-inch figure? And if it's not, why is it here? Were they just trying to clear out as many as possible? Nothing about this line makes sense. Funghhh...

And with that, I'm wrapping this up before I get annoyed. For every mystery solved, there's always another, even if it's just a loose end, and usually, that/s a good thing. That's all for now, more to come!