Let's Chat: Play Along Toys AOME LOTR Heroes and Villains of Middle-earth - Aragorn *Sneak Preview*

Here's a sneak preview of a Play Along Toys AOME LOTR series I haven't yet blogged - Heroes and Villains of Middle-earth. The photos have been sitting on the computer for the last eleven years and I just never did anything with them!

As for the chat, I wanted a more peaceful scene of Strider simply walking through The Shire, keeping an eye on things and enjoying the peaceful feeling The Shire leaves people with.

Ed

Marx No. 2 Hybrid Tin & Plastic Wind-up Tank

Found yet another set of unposted photos. This time it's a nice hybrid tin and plastic windup tank from Marx - the No. 2 tank to be precise. The top half is plastic while the bottom half is tin-litho. The turret is fixed in place and does not rotate, nor does the gun elevate. The key too is fixed in place and cannot be removed (at least on my sample). It measures 5.75" (14,60cm) L x 3.5" (8,89cm) W (width of hull w/o key) x 2.625" (6,66cm) H.

Ed

Marx Repo Studebaker Military Police Car

Back in 2016 I went through a round of posts centered on Marx Army vehicles, many of which were the smaller ones often found as flat car loads. Among them was this 1950 Studebaker Army staff car.

Fast forward to last year (or was it the year before??) and I picked up a modern remake of that same auto. At some point during the 80s(?) a reproduction of the Marx classic Studebaker was produced but it was in fact an all new design with all new tooling. The story I seem to recall was that the individual who designed it wanted there to be enough of a difference so that the repo wouldn't be confused with the original. Well, he got that right, because the repo is an awkward looking, odd facsimile of the original. That said, apparently the tooling for the original Studebaker is lost while the tooling for the repo remains, so we collectors still have something to fall back on.

The car I'm highlighting here today is a custom job bought off fleaBay (unfortunately I don't know who the seller was). Unlike the original which depicted a staff car, this one is more along the lines of a Military Police squad car and sports a siren on the right front fender and a spotlight on the roof. Even though the car looks nothing like the original, I still like it and have several of its civilian counterparts in the collection.

Ed

TOYSCAPES: Moonbase

As it's been a bit busy here this week, posts are gonna be sporadic. I'll try to at least get one a day though. Much of what I'm doing is taking photos for the next round of posts as well as playing with Chat GPT. I have a few new toys to show as well as a ton of older stuff that just never got photographed.

Today's photo is kind of a study of my new Moonscape diorama base. I placed a Tri-ang Moon Base HQ on it and a Tri-ang Series 2 Rover and took a few snaps. The black backdrop turned out kind of crummy - uneven lighting - so it got swapped out using Photoshop and then Mother Earth got added in the sky. I think the final image turned out pretty decent, how about you?

Ed

Ideal (?) 155mm Self-Propelled Gun - Maybe Not - Let's Try 'Amloid'

After posting photos of my SPG (self-propelled gun) into several facebook groups yesterday I got a lot of very good responses. It appears that my toy was made by Amloid and is a pretty good copy of the earlier Ideal SPG. Let's look at what makes it different.

Ed

Amloid

My toy:

-Non-firing

-Two hatches on turret

-Shell stowage rack is closed off

(Also, here's a link to a YouTube video showing the Amloid version)

Ideal

Check out this copy of the Sears Wishbook from 1964. The reason I couldn't find my toy when perusing my copy of 'The Big Toy Box at Sears' was that I was looking for a single piece - the tank. As it turns out, it was part of a larger set, the Anzio Invader landing craft.

You'll notice two differences in the ad as compared to my toy:

-It fires shells

-It only has one hatch on top of the turret

Photos culled from fleaBay show:

-A single hatch on the turret

-This toy still has the original Ideal sticker

-Notice as well that the shell stowage rack on top of the hull is open, allowing stowage of the shells.

In addition, some fb members stated that these came in various combinations of silver, red, and olive green

fleaBay photo

fleaBay photo