No. 214A Vanguard (Unk Mfr - Hong Kong)

Here's a mini-series I got finished photographing just the other day. Back in the mid-2000's this set of three snap together kits were fairly common on fleaBay but they've all but dried up now. It took me years to finally acquire all three but along the way the boxes got separated. All that changed this year when I made a concerted effort to locate them - the last one being found only last week (BTW 'concerted' in Ed's world means I may or may not decide to go out in The Cave and actually go through boxes and look for stuff - but at least I'm thinking about it!!!). This small series of kits was apparently based on more detailed Japanese Midori kits from what I can figure out - although these are not actual copies. The set includes:

Echo Car

Moguras

Vanguard

These are not necessarily easy-peasy snap-together kits either because of age and perhaps swelling of the plastic, or poor design. Along the way I had to scrape, ream, file and otherwise coax pieces into place and one of these ended up having the connector pins between body halves broken off. The friction motors are nice but because they need to stick down below the level of the tank treads in order to work, it makes the whole assembly lift up in the rear.

Ed

All three built up

(L) Echo Car (M) Moguras (R) Vanguard

Vanguard

This measures 3.5" (8,89cm) L x 1.75" (4,44cm) W x 1.5" (3,81cm) H

Oh Crud - Holy No Post Batman!

So I'm sittin' here fat, dumb, and happy thinking I won't need to post anything today. Then I realized the two series I had going ended yesterday! DOH!

ummm, stay tuned to this station!

Ed

Hardee's Fun Meal Pack HB - Productions - Flintstones 30th Anniversary (1991) - Pt 7 (Final) Some Scenes Showing The Hardee's Figures in Use

These photos were taken back in 2011 on my old train layout. At the time I only displayed three of the five Hardee's figures on it and those are the ones shown here today. These figures would look great in a diorama, and the old Marx Flintstone houses are a great match in size to them.

Ed

An overview of my Town of Bedrock

Pebbles is outside on the phone, while Fred is inside watching TV

Fred is not displayed out in the open as the photo would imply, but rather inside his house which was removed to take the photo. Unfortunately the only photo I have of him inside is a tad blurry.

Barney enjoying a summer day grilling in the backyard

Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 108 (Final) 80mm Ringhands Recap and Pose 4 White

I was about halfway through with this Payton Products series when I decided to go ahead and buy some of the 80mm ringhand figures I saw popping up on fleaBay. Why? Wellll, I was already collecting ringhands from various other manufacturers so it seemed like a logical extension of the collection. Payton also made 5" GI's and larger blow mold types, but none of those interest me. The latest job Lot, which I received yesterday, included a HTF white colored figure and now I believe I can tell the whole story of these 80mm figures.

Ed

Size: 80mm works for me

There were four poses molded in a durable soft vinyl plastic - no other poses have ever turned up in listings or webpages that I'm aware of. Noted collector Kent Owen Sprecher has also only listed the four on his Toy Soldier HQ website.

Five colors: Olive green, metallic blue, light blue, bronze, and white.

It doesn't appear as if Payton made these in the brighter, more garish colors like red, yellow, or grass green however, I'll be on the lookout for any other color variations.

Weapons and Gear

This is something else I'll need to be on the lookout for. 

Known to-date: 

Rifle

Submachine gun

45mm pistol

Helmet

Web belt with pistol holster

Web belt with canteen

Submachine gun (aka grease gun)

White Pose 4 w/o Gear

I decided not to photograph him with gear as the peg on his chest meant to hold the weapon in place was giving me grief and I had a duce of a time trying to fit the rifle in place.

 

Tiny Boats: Ferrero Kinder Surprise Egg Speed Boat

First, a bit of an update on what's next here on Toys and Stuff. I'm expecting delivery today of one more Payton 80mm ringhand GI and that series should be wrapping up tomorrow.

Next, the series of Hardee's Flintstones fun pack toys is finishing up tomorrow as well. That said, I've been preparing a ton of photos for at least three more Flintstones related series anda large Forces of Valor 1:32 scale Army Man series. In addition, I re-discovered a stash of 32 Burger King Star Wars tie-ins that I'll be photographing shortly. As well, there'll be some more space toys to present as well as some other cool stuff.

I done been busy!! LOL

Sooo, while perusing my hard drive I came across these photos from a couple of years ago of a Ferrero Kinder Surprise Egg speed boat. For some reason these never got posted when I did my 'Tiny Boats' series last year so what the heck, might as well do it now. I don't remember when I got this thing and don't know anything more about this particular Ferrero series (they generally do everything as part of a series), because there was no accompanying insert that comes in nearly every Kinder Egg toy, but here it is. It measures 2.25" (5,71cm) L x .875" (2,22cm) W x .875"(2,22cm) H.

Ed

A GIANT of Hong Kong 25mm astronaut is posed here (because he was handy when I took the photos) to show size comparison.