Mystery Monday: The immortal astronaut set!

 

I'm just past the middle of what I planned on as a month of posts every week day, and I definitely needed something quick. I decided it was time for an ace in the hole I have thought about on and off for a while. It's something I acquired a little before I kicked off this blog, and never got back to. As it happened, I had the foresight to take some unboxing pics, and it's just as well, because there's no way I'm ever getting them back in the original packaging. To kick this off, here's the original item, photographed with my phone on the Couch Mark 1.

Now to back up to the "mystery" part, I have been sighting these guys for just about the last 10 years, mainly in a hobby/ craft store. What intrigued and vexed me far more than the usual question of who the Hell made this was where to buy them and how they were getting to merchants in the first place. In the course of my inquiries, I repeatedly found what had to be sets from the same figures and molds, at everything from online merchant sites to the gift shops of actual planetariums and science centers. The bucket was the first I encountered, with the most common alternative being bagged sets with a "landscape" mat. Every time I thought of purchasing a set, I looked to Amazon, but it kept dropping in and out of even their catalog until I finally gave up for a while. Then, toward the end of 2019, I saw the bucket was back, so I ordered it. Here's a shot of what I got for the money.

Of course, what I had figured out by then was that these were from Hing Fat, long since infamous among collectors (see the channel for my lapsed correspondent Steve Nyland). This operation previously came up with the '80s ninjas lineup, and before that got a very brief mention in my "space guys to astronauts" post. From the evidence at hand, this manufacturer and quite possibly multiple imitators have been churning these things out since the early to mid-1970s. What amused me most is how jarringly Earthly their tools look. I've made fun of the Marx astronauts for looking like they're carrying a briefcase and a pooper scooper, but I swear these guys look like they're doing yard work, complete with a garden hose. (See the photo with my good camera up top.) What made this a little more interesting for me were the extras, shown in the following pics.

Aa seen here, the set comes with a pair of moon buggies, a wonky lander apparently based on an unused prototype, a two-stage rocket, a sort of space station, and a couple somewhat anachronistic space shuttles, plus a satellite I'll get to in a moment. I distinctly recall one of these had a sticker that had come off in the the packaging, which I quickly disposed of.  There are nice touches here and there, such as a nose of the rocket that actually detaches and a detail sticker on the lander that I believe I left alone. Here's another pic with the satellite, which definitely looks off scale-wise.

"Something, something/ On a three-hour tour, on a three-hour tour..."

And here's a new pic with a little more detail. Now I'm sure it's the satellite the sticker came off of.

Inevitably, I needed a few new comparison shots. What interested me most was a couple of astronauts I acquired independently. I expected to see major differences, bust what really stood out was that the pair looked less like each other than the bucket astronauts, to the point that I was a little worried if I could keep them separate. Here's a lineup of the separate pair and their bucket counterparts; the latter should be on the left.

Of the pair, the one with the pliers was the most distinctive. It's noticeably "gracile", with a lighter, somehow cheaper-looking shade. This is the one I could believe came from a different manufacturer. The other guy differs mainly in shade and somewhat better casting. (For comparison, note the egregious "flash" on the vacuum/ Geiger counter guy at the top.) I had a few moments of uncertainty, especially when I realized my "reference" differed from a few in the bucket in having the grabber stuck to the base. Still, a good look at the bases calmed my nerves. Here they are, with the bucket astronaut definitely on the left.

And here's the "gracile" guy, just weird.

And the inevitable lineup, with an MPC transitional space guy, a Marx 60mm astronaut, and the Galaxy Laser Team commander.

Finally, one more unboxing pic, with the GLT turtle crab alien!

"Houston, we have a problem... Well, for starters, I seem to be talking to you with a staple gun."

That's all for now, more to come!

Timmee Tuesday Returns! Colossal fighter jets

 

It's another day off on a week when I planned on a full lineup of posts, and this time I have something I've been waiting for. When I started this blog, one of my more frequent subjects was Timmee army-man toys, which were always at the edge of my peripheral vision in childhood. At first, I mixed Timmee with Marx among other things, then I decided to make a dedicated feature. Inevitably, I went through what I had and the modest pool of things I wanted to get, and I let it lapse gracefully after a final installment early this year. For me, it was simply mission accomplished, but I continued to think over whether there was anything more I wanted to get. Finally, about a month ago, I decided to put something I'd had my eye on for a long time with another order (in fact my copy of The Rocketeer). It was advertised as a pair of jet fighters, which I figured would be on the lines of the ones that came with the Galaxy Laser Team. What I got instead startled me enough that I held off writing about it for a while. Here's a few pics of the pair.

What caught me offguard was that these were much bigger than anything I had seen or played with in my own youth. The longstanding rule with "army man" toys is to be much smaller than they would be to hold even a diminutive toy soldier. These, on the other hand, are so big they look at least close to right size for a figure. Here's the inevitable comparison shot of one with the GLT commander and the original/ mini figure, plus the generic X-wing/ space jet.

And why not one with the Truckstop Queen (and Connie)? Holy kaka, how is this bigger than the Truckstop Queen???

Inevitably, I have been fascinated by the scale and proportions of these things. One is a bit shorter and definitely less robust, but then, the big differences are in style. The larger plane is a regular jet, while the other is an almost science-fictional design of a kind that really never got further than experimental aircraft. (Edit: Someone pointed out this is pretty much a Lockheed Starfighter, which did see production, but it's pretty much the exception to prove the rule.) Ironically, if you factor in the cockpits, the shorter plane looks like it would be bigger. Overall, the regular jet looks like it could hold the regular-sized Galaxy Laser Team astronauts, while the slender high-speed plane just might fit the "mini" figure. Here's a couple more closeups of each plane.

One last artifact, my order came with a sort of card and a sticker sheet. I definitely wasn't going to use the stickers, which are exactly the kind I usually peel off, but they're interesting enough that I haven't thrown them away.  By comparison, the card is rather plain, and the "Cold War" bit makes it suspect as a "vintage" design. The stickers, on the other hand, look exactly right for the 1960s, which is my best guess when these things were made. Here's a shot.

One last thing, I checked out these planes for further markings. There are sculpted missiles on both planes, mainly on the underside, which I didn't cover with my photos and didn't find interesting enough to go back for. What did intrigue me was that the bigger jet has the usual star pattern imprinted on the plastic, as well as the word "NAVY". I was struck by the sheer redundancy of these markings on a toy that came with stickers, which of course raises the question what the original release was like. Here's the best shot I could get.

With that, I'm wrapping this up. I admit that it's likely this will be as much as I will do with this feature for now. I've already explained why Timmee was an important part of my childhood. It's been an even bigger part of how I got into or back to collecting, toy blogging, and for that matter writing. I am still kicking around ideas for a full-fledged tribute to Timmee and GLT, but my plate's going to stay full for a while. That's all for now, more to come!

Mystery Monday: Eighties ninjas!

 

I've been working ahead for the coming week, but still hadn't come up with anything for today. I had a few ideas, but I knew what I had to do was another installment of mysteries. The thing I've kept coming to in this feature is that there are levels of mystery. First, there is, "What the Hell is this thing?" Then there is, "Who the Hell made this thing?" And finally, assuming all other questions, are answered, there is still, "Why the Hell did they make this thing???" And that is the best introduction to the present lineup, a group of army man-style figures I picked up a while back. Here's a couple pics of the group on the Battle Mountain.

To back things up, I first encountered these guys, like most things that have come up here, in the late 1980s or early '90s, at the peak of a craze that included but was not limited to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I can't recall how I got them, but I'm sure I had at least three, possibly picked up separately. I remember finding them now and then, until their condition deteriorated (a guy with a bow was first to go) and their numbers dwindled. Eventually, it crossed my mind to investigate what they were, and a thorough search turned up exactly one, a guy with two swords. Here he it in closeup with one more.

As I tried to run this down, the first and foremost problem I ran into was that any searches with the obvious terms was invariably dominated by TMNT merchandise and certain other relatively high-profile lines. Nevertheless, I found pics here and there that I knew had to be from the same line, or directly copied from them. My big break was when I found a name, Hing Fat, which is to army man toys what the Cannon Group is to 1980s sci fi movies (see the Space Guys to Astronauts post). It specifically turned out that they were part of a set called Master of Ninja, because this crew isn't any better at grammar than they are at anything else; Vintage Ninja gives a good rundown of the set. With that information, I found a lot online that covered most of the sculpts I remembered. Here's some pics of the group with the original. If the black guy's kusari gama-ish blade looks like something, trust me, it looked a lot clearer on the one I used to have.

"Sorry, but swords beat feet."

"So what if we have no historical attestation, we have swords and cool flail things!"

What should be apparent is that these are a bit smaller and definitely rougher in their look than the original. The differences are a lot more pronounced on actual handling, enough that I initially found them downright loathsome to the touch. With a little time, I got over it. If it comes to that, it's not even that bad compared to what I often encounter in "bootleg copy of copy" toys. What's comparatively impressive is that only two are broken or defective. Here's a pic of one of them.

"I'd rather cut my leg off than wear these pants!"

One thing I noted in casual research was that the size was given as 45mm, definitely small for army man figures. It was only then that I tried comparison with other figures. Sure enough, they were smaller than normal. Here's a reference pic with the Galaxy Laser Team commander.

After unraveling this mystery with relative ease, I looked into things just a little bit further. I confirmed Hing Fat was still in business, which wasn't in much doubt given how long the astronaut sets have stayed in circulation. Moreover, I found their website, and then I wasn't really that surprised to confirm that they were till making these damn things. Then I made one more discovery, they were also offering another set of ninjas I'd acquired far more recently. Here's a lineup of a few of them with the old crew.

Obviously, these little guys are in a very different style than the old ones, which didn't really exist until later. I bought the lot I had long enough ago that I had them at my desk at a job I held through 2016. They're fun, but a little awkward in sculpting, with a tendency to hold weapons at unnatural angles. They are also very prone to breaking, as this lineup will attest.

"Half a nunchuck, only slightly less useful than the whole thing!"

With that, I'm ready to wrap this up. Things like this are truly why I do this blog; it gives me a chance to sort through old memories, and in the process give them the meaning and form that only emerges in hindsight. Or if you don't buy that, I get to write about silly old toys. That's all, more to come!

Mystery Monday: Generic 1980s plane?

 

A recurring theme for this feature and the blog is that the hardest items to identify or learn anything about the ones that are cheap and generic enough for kids to ignore or take for granted. This time around, I have perhaps the most egregious example in my vast collections, a specimen so completely nondescript I didn't even remember noticing if I still had it. In a further twist, I started trying to identify it from online searches well before I went looking for the genuine article, which I suppose turned into a fixation in itself.  As it happened, I already had two or three very good guesses who might have made it, so it wasn't hard to narrow things down. It was only when I had a near-certain identification that I finally checked if I still had it. Sure enough, it was right where I would have looked first if I had really been trying, and an inspection confirmed what I already had concluded. But before we go further, here's some pics of the item, a toy plane from ca 1986.

As usual, I have a story to go with this one, albeit a fragmentary one. Somehow, when I was maybe 5 or 6, I was offered a toy as a gift or reward (I don't think it was at school), and I had a further choice between a Bigfoot truck or a plane. Given my usual eclectic tastes, the plane intrigued me more than the truck, so I picked it and took it home. It quickly became my go-to if I needed an airplane to go with a story but it didn't really matter what it looked like. Needless to say, these appearances usually ended with a fiery crash. To my further recollection, it was often a getaway craft for the bad guy that only came in to be stopped or destroyed with some dramatic heroics. As a further consequence, I can more readily recall having characters climbing on it than trying to fit them inside. That was enough to reconstruct in my mind that it was smaller than the nominal 3 3/4" scale of Star Wars and GI Joe but not so far off that I simply had to keep it in some kind of distance view (something I did very often).

For the research part of this, when I thought of the plane for this blog, my first semi-serious guess was that it might be/ have been a Timmee product. I had learned that Timmee/ Processed Plastic had made some vehicles and playsets scaled to action figure size, notably a "Star Battle" Star Wars knockoff mini-line. I was all the more intrigued after running across photos and listings for PP "Hi Rider" monster trucks, which definitely looked like a fit for the toy I turned down. (It was quite clear it wouldn't have been an "official" Bigfoot toy.) However, I never found anything that closely matched my plane. If anything, it was far more mundane than the Timmee fare I had long been familiar with, so I moved on.

Then I caught one big lead: According to certain records, there was a copyright infringement lawsuit in the very early 1980s over the design of a toy plane, with the defendant being Buddy L, another manufacturer of interest. (I had previously turned to actual court records researching generic Godzilla.) The long and short of it was that it seemed very possible my plane was the design in question, made either by Buddy L or the people who sued them. As soon as I was sure I still had the damn thing, I went straight to the underbelly, and don't blame me if you already looked at that link.

Yes, the actual name of the manufacturer is Gay Toys, a company I had previously seen mentioned occasionally. Obviously, they started out well before the term had its current connotations, and obviously, they changed their name, though apparently not until 1986. Here is a pic of what it would have looked like in full glory before my usual sticker removal. I must say, I'm a little impressed there's as much left as there is. It's one thing to have a residue when kid me was done, it's another to leave an entirely intact outline.

That brings us back to the plane. I decided it was again time to do a test of scale (see the Tonka camper installment). As seen above, it turned out to fit Sidekick Carl, kind of. However, he didn't quite fit properly, mainly because of that crossbar. That would be a recurring theme, as evidenced by the Toxo Warrior.

Something extra I noticed that I had forgotten about is that there is a second set of fully sculpted seats in the back, where it is absolutely impossible to fit a figure or any size. It's an impressive bit of unnecessary detail, but also a good indication that the ones in front are there for show far more than function. 

Meanwhile, I had one lucky break with the Construx pilot guy, who happens to be almost exactly 3 inches tall.

And one more. Bossk!!!

And while we're at it, why not a few more toys from the manufacturer? First up, a pretty good match for that tuck.

Another interesting angle I might follow up on, some Gay Toys action figures, apparently included with some Star Wars and GI Joe knockoff vehicles. The online listing gives the sizes as 3.5 and 5.5 inches, both a little smaller and far bigger than "standard" figures

And then there's this. Just... no. Dear Logos, no.

That's all for now. As usual more to come, but boy, have I had enough. 

Timmee Tuesday: Dino crossover!

 

I'm back with another post I'm telling myself will be short, and I decided this blog is overdue for more Timmee. I looked through my collections just to see what I could find, and what I settle on was a collection of dinos I picked up a while back, part of the long line of Timmee reissues over the last decade. To get things rolling, here they are with the Battle Mountain.

As with most Timmee products, I vaguely remember having some of these mixed in with other small toys. The ones I most clearly remember are a sabertooth, an ankylosaur and a stegosaurus I could probably find. They seem to have been first made in the 1970s, which also seems to have been when the Processed Plastic parent company started putting the Timmee name back on new products. It's not entirely clear if they were made before or after the Galaxy Laser Team, though I suspect they came from earlier in the decade. The overall style is about right for the early '70s, before more newfangled ideas about dinosaurs emerged. Here's a pic of the most orthodox of the group, the tyrannosaur, duckbill and sauropod.

"Have you heard of the one true Godzilla?"

As usual, a number of the sculpts aren't actually dinosaurs. There is a Dimetrodon, which famously is more closely related to mammals than dinosaurs, plus the sabertooth cat and a wooly mammoth. It's with this group that the set starts going off the rails. The Dimetrodon is ordinary, the cat is okay, though the teeth make it look more like a giant beaver (which did exist). But that mammoth is just not right. To me, it looks more like the Space Jockey from Alien than an actual animal. Here's pics to show what I mean.

Something else that may be evident is that many of these sculpts look strangely narrow when viewed head on, a pattern already in evidence with "army man" figures. For toy soldiers, this can be traced back to a time when they were literally flat, leading to recurring poses that had the figures in profile or turned sideways. The designers at Timmee were presumably concerned with saving plastic and also simplifying the molds. Here's a lineup of the most pronounced examples, including the stegosaurus.

The remaining sculpts are all quadrupedal dinosaurs, and these are in many ways the most unusual. By comparison, the carnosaur and duckbill were based on standard reconstructions, with perhaps some further influence from the man-in-suit effects of the kaiju movies. Here, however, the sculpts are quite different from how the dinos were reconstructed before or since. The Triceratops is the least objectionable, evidently a copy of a Marx design, with the already wonky original head looking squashed. The stego is seemingly ordinary, except that it has a longer, curved neck compared to the actual creature. The ankylosaur, however, is even more messed up than the mammoth. Here's a pic og the group and a closeup of the ankylosaur.

That's it for this group, and I'm wrapping things up. These little guys were a fun little find that I'm glad to have. What they really represent is a transition in how dinosaurs were portrayed, from the very stately poses of the Marx dinos to the lively raptors of Jurassic Park. For that period, these are one side of a spectrum that the patchisaurs were off the other end of, no longer committed to strict realism but still intended to portray real creatures rather than the denizens of a Godzilla movie. They may be forgotten now, but the world wouldn't be the same without them.

That's all for now, more to come!