About Me

- Hugh Walter
- I’m a 56-year-old Aspergic CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds' to remind it why it feeds.

Monday, 3 September 2018
Y/S·N·T - YSNT
The markings on Kinnukiman figures by Bandai, also known as M.U.S.C.L.E. and sold in Western markets by and see; Bandai and Mattel
Friday, 31 March 2017
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Zhenhai Toys - Ningbo Zhenhai Wantang Toys Factory
No. 189 Zhenhai Yufan East Road
Ningbo
Zhejiang
315200
China
(Factory)
Ningbo
315000
Phone: 0086-57486453
Fax: 0086-57486457
See also: Magic Source
0154 - Military Superpower (crude Matchbox 8th Army piracies)
Ningbo
Zhejiang
315200
China
(Factory)
No.1238 Luodong Road
Zhenhai DistrictNingbo
315000
China
(Offices/HQ)Phone: 0086-57486453
Fax: 0086-57486457
See also: Magic Source
The
company is one of the many new names cropping-up (written summer 2016) on
Alibaba and other platforms, adopting the new Chinese directive to create
domestic brand image rather than just sub-contract generics for Western
traders, although it appears to have established a relationship with Magic Source in the 'States. This
Company is reported to specialise in games and 'game sets' for adults and
children, toys and leisure products.
Estimated
sales of $10M-US and a staff of 402 puts it in the medium to large bracket. All
information taken from dodgy click-bait/aggregator or subscription sites found
through Google. There are several other 'Ningbo' plants in crafts, toys and plastics, so probably a State-owned co-op of some kind?
Known Listings
Rack Toys0154 - Military Superpower (crude Matchbox 8th Army piracies)
Saturday, 6 August 2016
Ingo Roggatz - Riezen Farm - Riezen Zoo - ZZ - ZZ Riesen - ZZ Riesen Farm - ZZ Riesen Zoo
Flourished 1973-1990's
See also:
R.
Dakin & Company (San Francisco, California,
USA)Skyline Inc. (
Herr Ingo Roggatz set up as an importer (US
- 'jobber') and/or registered the ZZ
logo of two superimposed Z's in the - then - West Germany on the 19th of May,
1973, the trademark was awarded on the 4th March 1975. The company may be
extant, but the registration of the trademark has lapsed or been surrendered -
"Registration Cancelled"?
Mr Roggatz (or his successor) now seems to
be trading as Nordblume GmbH a
floristry and giftware wholesaler. He originally imported toys, gifts and
general home-ware, a good deal of which came from the - then - British Crown
Colony of Hong Kong, latterly just 'China'. Generics were overprinted or
ink-stamped with the ZZ logo, and two
lines carried the Riesen prefix; Riesen Farm and Riesen Zoo, as a civilian range. The 60mm Wild West were
mould-marked ZZ in raised letters, as was some of the Riesen animal range.
A debate about the graphics of the
header-cards on these bags is ongoing; there were three styles (two farm -
numbered and unnumbered; and one zoo), they all bearing a more than passing
resemblance to the earlier packaging of Storck
Riesen Schocolade, small
chocolate-covered toffees.
The similarities between:
·
Names (Riesen)
·
Graphics (outlined balloon-font
and squashed balloon-font lettering)
·
Target market (children and/or
their pocket money)
·
Time (1970's) and . . .
·
Market locations (Germany and
the USA - also fans of the edible Riesens!)
is beyond
coincidence, the only question is whether there was a link between ZZ and Storck or just some clever scamming by ZZ.
Increasingly it looks as if ZZ were
deliberately trying to link their product to the chocolate candies, although a
publicity or 'premium' link can't yet be ruled-out, particularly when you
consider that Storck were also shipping
their toffees to Hong Kong, where the toy products were coming from.
The US issues were handled by R. Dakin (who claimed to have
"Exclusive distribution in USA…") and Skyline Inc. They both also claimed the products were made (and
'Hand Painted') in West Germany, when they were in fact HK knock-offs. Dakin may only have handled the Farm,
but Skyline handled both.
The fact that one claimed exclusive rights
is probably explained by the way territories were divided-up in the US market,
one taking the West Coast salesmen (Dakin),
the other the East Coast (Skyline),
it's easy to see how Dakin - to
impress customers - would make a claim they knew to be incorrect, as they also
knew their bags would never been (in the pre-Internet age) seen next to Skylines'. It should be noted that the stickers on both sets of
imports clearly came from the same (German or HK?) source.
Skyline were a jobber in similar vein to ZZ, importing/carrying inflatable beach/play furniture, Halloween
trick-or-treat bags, Japanese-made train sets, 'Shrinky-Dinks' and such-like.
Dakin were probably similar at the time, also sourcing stuffed toys and
teddy bears, however they went on to make a fortune off the back of Garfield the cartoon cat merchandise
licenses and became a major manufacturer of soft toys, famously commissioning
the Dakin Building, on the San Francisco
Bay in Brisbane, California…well, it's 'famously' if you're also a student of
architecture or Star Wars!
Among ZZ's
other toys were tin-plate Christmas tree decorations (sometimes erroneously credited to Zimmermann of Bavaria), some ex-Giant product (Wild West) and copies of
British and European 'Cowboys & Indians' (Native Americans) in both 54 and
60mm, these were above the usual HK quality - as were the Riesen range - but if ZZ
were dealing with pan-national jobbers like Dakin,
Skyline and the Rosenberg's Giant, that's not so surprising.
Product Listing
Plastic FiguresGeneric Packaging (over stamped/printed with ZZ logotype)
25mm
- [Carded foot (6) and mounted (6) Indians and 2 wagons] (all mounted on ex-Giant 'Smoothie', with 'Mexican Small' draft horses)
54mm Swivel-waist Mounted Wild West (copies
of Britains swoppets)
- Cowboys
- Indians
54mm Rubberised (or Part Rubberised)
Swoppets
Art Nr. 2707 - Gangsterjagd in Cowboy-City
(3 foot, 2 mounted Britains Swoppet piracies - 54mm)
≈
Nr.2715 (?) - Westernfiguren (Timpo Mexican
copies, likely to be vinyl/polyethylene mix of parts)
70mm Swoppets (copies of Isas)
- Cowboys, Foot (various)
- Cowboys, Mounted (various)
- Indians, Foot (various)
- Indians, Mounted (various)
900 - Horse
Reisen Branded Animal Ranges
Reisen Farm
(Hausser Elastolin 1:25th scale
copies, graphics seem to deliberately mimic Riesen
Schocolade graphics, two sets of header cards, one set numbered
sequentially 36##, the others unnumbered)
Art.No.3602 - Pferd Fressend (horse grazing, Hausser
Elastolin - Nr. 3812)
Art.No.3606 -
Art.No.3609 -
Art.No.3610 -
Art.No.3611 - Schäferhund (sheepdog - Alsatian, x2)
Art.No.3613 -
Art.No.3616 -
Art.No.3617 -
Art.No.3618 -
- Duck (mallard, same moulding as goose -
may go together in one pack)
- Goose (same moulding as duck - may go
together in one pack)
- Horse Prancing
- Horse Standing (Hausser Elastolin copy)
- Heavy Horse
- Foal Gambolling (Elastolin copy?)
- Two Horses
- Goat (Elastolin copy?)
- Bull (Aberdeen Angus?)
- Donkey/Ass (x2?)
- Der
Hahn (The Hens - x6)
- Cockerels (x6, Elastolin copies?)
- Doves (seem to be 20 in 2 poses, Elastolin or Preiser copies?)
- Cockerels (x6, Elastolin copies?)
- Doves (seem to be 20 in 2 poses, Elastolin or Preiser copies?)
Riesen Zoo (nominally
1:25th scale (Elastolin copies) but
some up-scaled Britains copies, graphics
seem to deliberately mimic Riesen
Schocolade graphics)
Art.No.2672 - Das Känguruh (The Kangeroo, Elastolin
copy?)
Art.No.2673 -
Art.No.2674 -
Art.No.2675 - Das Renteir (The Reindeer, design?)
Art.No.2676 -
Art.No.2677 - Die Gazelle (pair, Hausser Elastolin copies)
Art.No.2678 - Der Warter (The Keepers, x2, Britains
copies, enlarged, 1 with meat on pole, 1 with bass-broom)
Art.No.2679 -
Art.No.2680 -
Art.No.2681 -
Art No.2682 -
Art.No.2683 - Panther (unique design?)
- Pelican (x2 ex-Britains mouth open, wings closed pose)
- Sea Lion (Britains copies)
- Giraffe (Hausser Elastolin copy)
- Hippopotamus (Hausser
Elastolin copy)
- Elephant
(Hausser Elastolin copy)
- Baby Elephant (original design?)
- Baby Elephant (original design?)
- Penguins (1 each - x3 poses, Britains copies)
- Zebra (Hausser Elastolin copy)
- Tiger (Hausser Elastolin copy)
- Moose (unique design?)
- Rhinoceros (Hausser Elastolin copy)
- Black/Brown Bear (same moulding as Polar
Bear, unique design?)
- Polar Bear (same moulding as Black/Brown
Bear, unique design?)
- Lion and Lioness (hard hollow styrene
polymer? Hausser Elastolin copy)
- American Buffalo/Bison (x2 small, polyethylene Britains copies)
- American buffalo/Bison (1 large, hard
plastic, Britains copy)
- American Buffalo/Bison (large, prancing)
- Camel (Britains-like, hard plastic)
- Camel (Elastolin-like, poyethylene)
- Flamingos (x2, Britains
copies)
Tin-Plate Christmas Tree Hangers (1990's, also carried by Schilling in the US who work with the Uk's Tobar)
'Series 1' (probably
numbered 1-10 on boxes/packaging)
Smaller Toys
(Chinese (?) re-issues of old Japanese (?) or German penny-toy designs)
10 - Airship 'Graf Zeppelin'
? - Bi-plane (with German WWI balkankreutzen)
? - Monoplane
? - Flying Boat / Sea-plane 'Dornier 18 / DO 18'
? - Military Cavalry Rider on Horse
? - Military Cavalry Rider on Horse
Larger Toys
(same note applies)
? - Horse-Tram / Railcar 'Pferde Bahn15
Altona St Paula' (no horses)
? - 19thC Steam Locomotive
'Nurnburg-Furth'
? - 20thC Steam Locomotive 'DB
1571 Express'
? - Motorcycle and Sidecar 'Sport'
? - Omnibus '103 Nivia-Puder'
? - Fire Engine Ladder Truck 'Falke 13'
Urban (or - in this case - deliberate?)
Myths
In the course of 2018/19 one or two British
and German evilBay'ers started listing ZZ
with a connection made between the ZZ-marked
stuff and [Georg] Zimmermann's of
Zirndorf, (and Nürmberg) a link confirmed as fact by a Detlef Herbrandt on a Hong
Kong toy collector's Facebook page. There is no such connection, the Zimmermann plant closed - under the
control of the grandchildren - in 1972, a year before Ingo Roggatz applied for
the logo-mark and three years before the branding was granted. Further - the
output of the Zimmermann metal works
was general household goods and hardware, with a small number of mostly larger
tin-plate and/or die-cast toys (large vehicles and money-boxes), not the small
novelty tin-plate tree-hangers and plastic figures sourced from Hong Kong/China
by Roggatz.
Links
ZZ on Home Blog
What This Entry Needs
Better understanding of Riesen link/relationshipFuller product listing
Animals linked with correct bag numbers and German language titles
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Thursday, 24 March 2016
20mm Nostalgia Revival - 20mm Nostalgic Revival
British?
Napoleonic
- Wellington in India (Sepoys)
Colonial
- Akalis Fanatics (19th century Sikhs)
Other
- Arqubusiers de Grassin (1740's, Harquebusiers)
- Irish Piquets (1740's, Pickets)
- James Longstreet
- Major Taylor
- Officer in Kepi (2 versions)
- Officer in Hat (2 versions)
- Robert E Lee
- Stonewall Jackson
Other Sourced Vintage Moulds (20mm)
- English Civil War (ex-Les Higgins)
- Seven Years War (ex-Wodensfeld)
- Marlburian Period (ex- Douglas Miniatures/Les Higgins)
Full history
Logo?
Full product listing
2008-12,
(flourished 2010/11)
eMail:
CunnJoh@AOL.com
See also:
Douglas Miniatures, Les Higgins, Niblett
and Wodensfeld
John
'old John' Cunningham - Founder/Owner
This
company is/was (?) obtaining old moulds and getting them back into production,
in the works are/were figures from Douglas
(Crimean War troops) and Niblett's
English Civil War range. Recent emails have proved fruitless and I seem to
remember someone saying the project was handed-over/taken-over by a third-party
so…? Nothing has been announced since 2011, with no new blog posts since 2012
Known Range
Original
Sculpts (20mm)Napoleonic
- Wellington in India (Sepoys)
Colonial
- Akalis Fanatics (19th century Sikhs)
Other
- Arqubusiers de Grassin (1740's, Harquebusiers)
- Irish Piquets (1740's, Pickets)
- Polish Troops (17th century)
American Civil War (ex-Wodensfeld)- James Longstreet
- Major Taylor
- Officer in Kepi (2 versions)
- Officer in Hat (2 versions)
- Robert E Lee
- Stonewall Jackson
Other Sourced Vintage Moulds (20mm)
- English Civil War (ex-Les Higgins)
- Seven Years War (ex-Wodensfeld)
- Marlburian Period (ex- Douglas Miniatures/Les Higgins)
Links
20mm Nostalic Revival Blog
What This Entry Needs
Fleshing outFull history
Logo?
Full product listing
Labels:
20mm Nostalgia Revival
12 Inches Factory
Vordere Esch 4, 72224 Ebhausen, Germany
(and on-line)
Tel: (0049) (0)7054 - 9294777
eMail: 12inchfactory@action.ms
Website: http://12inchfactory.de/
- 169th Infantry Division
- Volksgrenadierdivision Aachen1944
- Battle with the Pig
- Gasmaskenbüchse
- Falaise Pocket
- Installing Glass Eyes in a Dragon Head
- Mg. Gunner Russia 1943 Charkov
- Panzerfaust
- Repaint with Acrylics
- Sculpting BlainVentura
- Tutorial-Handgrenade
- US Medic Tanker 1944
What This Entry Needs
Whatever anyone thinks it does!
Better/definitive product listing
(and on-line)
Tel: (0049) (0)7054 - 9294777
eMail: 12inchfactory@action.ms
Website: http://12inchfactory.de/
Manuel Holz- owner
1/6th
scale action figures/doll modeller, seem to produce some aftermarket parts,
namely; replacement heads along with helmets and Hitler Youth drums. Also there
is a small range of .pdf files which I'm guessing are tutorials on dressing and
super-detailing 12-inch military dolls.
PDF
Documents
- XX Police Division- 169th Infantry Division
- Volksgrenadierdivision Aachen1944
- Battle with the Pig
- Gasmaskenbüchse
- Falaise Pocket
- Installing Glass Eyes in a Dragon Head
- Mg. Gunner Russia 1943 Charkov
- Panzerfaust
- Repaint with Acrylics
- Sculpting BlainVentura
- Tutorial-Handgrenade
- US Medic Tanker 1944
What This Entry Needs
Whatever anyone thinks it does!
Better/definitive product listing
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