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friendly beasts

1 Freezeuary

Polyesterdelpia Tribune

PROFESSOR BUBBLEBE LOST AT SEA! Monster Sea Reptile Suspected!
          The celebrated Bathyologist and Deep Sea researcher Professor Willis Bumblebee of the Roach Harbor Oceanographic Society has been reported as missing and presumed dead. Along with Galois Galoshglug his partner, the professor explored the deep seas in his famous Benthosphere, recording his adventures in numerous popular books.  His research vessel the Goggle II reports his last transition as
"Observing a large shape like a...oh, oh dear... Gal, I think those are teeth, monstrous huge...uh oh" 
     The expedition's Captain, Whiskerbush McNottlegussy, has stated he made all efforts to recover the spherical diving craft, but the end of it's cable was parted as if cut.  Drag netting produced some animals, even large fish, but the Captain claims nothing large enough to endanger the little globe was caught.  Some crewmen allege large reptile sightings in the area in recent years.
     The Steamer Albatrosaur caught a prodigious 22 foot arthrodire 3 years past in these waters off the Sumatran Coast and Dr. Shrugespy of the Polyesterine Zoological Academy is of the opinion that such a beast could be responsible, though he warns of the dangers of jumping to conclusions.
     Mrs. Bubblebee kindly informed us her husband hoped to find evidence of a monstrous beast of Sumatrian legend, described as a finned serpent of great size, like a giant mosasaur perhaps, 30 foot specimens being common in these waters, and accounted the origin of the natives wild fish tales.  Perhaps the good Professor had his wish?  Unfortunately it seems we'll never know.  The editors wish to add they will be taking a collection to assist Bumblebee's widow meet the somber expenses before her.  Inquire at our office.

Here are some more Russian made orcs and ogres.  I don't have any information about who made them.  They seem to be hand crafted in very small runs.  Includes three female orcs.









































































Scale Shots

UPDATE 10/12/19: New Anti Paladin and sets of 5 Goatmen and Dwarves.


UPDATE 4/7/19:  Even morehansa from Warhansa!  They just released 60mm Conan and Zena figures.   Copyrights?  What Copyrights?  There is also a cool new evil priest and sacrifice. 


UPDATE 2/25/18:  Morehansa from Warhansa!  They have relased new 5 figure sets of 54mm Asterix the Gaul and post apocalyptic weirdos along with a 4 figure set of 60mm ninjas.  There is also a new bad ass 65mm orc gladiator, and  a 28mm scale troll that works as a goblin in toy soldier scale. 

Original Post:


Warhansa is a small company that makes truly outstanding figures. They recently made their first 1/32 scale (60mm) fantasy figures, and I hope they make more.  These guys are a barbarian warrior and some kind of non-human assassin.  The detail is excellent. The smaller blue guy is called the Night King and is intended as a very large figure in 28mm scale. He is about 54mm. The figures are made in small batches, so they are kind of expensive, but the quality makes them worth the price.
I asked them to describe their company and this is what they wrote back:  
We are an international team united by passion to toy soldiers. We have been dreaming of making our own minis since childhood. We started our project 3 years ago. Production is based in Russia. We make miniatures according to our taste in relatively small quantities and gladly share them with fellow hobbyists.  
You can check them out here Warhansa.

Just about every Asian fantasy movie I have seen and story I have read revolves around one or more martial arts masters who's skills rise to the level of super powers. Asians love to mix fantasy with martial arts, and who can blame them.  Martial arts and fantasy are a natural fit.  Part 1 of this post is about ninjas. Part 2 will be about other martial arts figures.
Japan's supernaturally sneaky ninjas exploded into the world's culture in the 1980s and were quickly paid tribute in the form of cheap plastic ninja toy soldiers. The first ones to show up in the USA were made in Hong Kong and China.   Some very nice ninja figures have also come out of Russia more recently.  I see no reason not to include ninjas in any fantasy world.  Having trouble with pesky orcs?  Sick the ninjas on 'em.

UPDATE 4/1/19  


I found a bag of ninjas from 1997 made by Boley that I had never seen before.  They must be fairly rare.  Ego aside, if I miss something like this for 20 plus years, it has to be hard to find.  I also found a few of the unknown 54mm ninja that come with separate weapons that are very similar to the Marty Toy Galaxy Warriors figures.





Hong Kong/China Ninjas




Boley 1997 50mm

These guys are about 54mm if you consider that they are all bent at the knees.  They actually stand at about 50mm.  Four poses.

























Hing Fat 45mm.
The first ninja toy soliders I found were made by Hing Fat, but were distributed by lots of different companies.   These figures are about 45mm.







Photo from an ebay auction.
Photo from an ebay auction.






























Photo from an ebay auction.
























The red guys are copies made by Sopla of Greese.




Photo form an ebay auction.


Photo from an ebay auction.




































































Unknown 54mm.
These 54mm Ninjas are just about as common as the Hing Fat figures, but I don't have any idea who made them.

































Photo from an ebay auction.











































Separate Weapons Variation




























Redbox Return of the Ninja Playset.
This is the only Ninja playset I know of.   The figures are only about 35-40mm and are a little cartoonish, but the playset is very cool.
























GI Joe Copy Modern Ninjas.
These are 54-60mm copies of 3.75 inch GI Joe figures.  I have no idea who actually made them.  



































Other Ninjas.
These are 40mm from Blip, LLC's Ninjas v. Robots set.
These were vending and prize figures.  About 45mm.
These come apart the the waste.  About 45mm.
























Unknown
Don''t know a thing about these guys other than I want some.  Photo from an ebay auction.






























Photo from an ebay auction.







































Russian Made Ninjas

Russia is a little late jumping on the ninja bandwagon but they have made some exceptional figures.
Oritet.






















Tehnolog.













Unknown (because I can't read Russian).   90mm.






























Warhansa 54mm






















Mattel Guts Akido Force - Close Enough.


Mattel called these guys the Akido Force, but they look enough like ninjas to me.

Greek copies.

I recently found out that the bootleg barbarians in my Arco Sword & Sorcerer post were made in Mexico back in the 1980s or maybe very early 1990s.   The figures come with built in weapons and the riders don't the have peg holes in their butts to fit onto the original horses. They were sold in header card bags.  The bootleg sets include all of the figures and one of the two dragons, but no horses.  The figures are almost the same size but with much thicker bases.  The header card is all in English and very close to an exact copy of the original card backs.  
I got these figures in a trade with a collector and artist in Mexico.  I am very grateful to be able to get figures like these that I probably would never have found without help.  My benefactor is Nando Murio.  You can check out his art on pinerest here.  He also sent me an amazing bag of bootleg ninja turtles that includes some bootleg battle beasts.  I will post some pictures in my TMNT post.

































































Side by Side with Originals.










No peg holes in the riders.  They won't fit on the original horses.  

Video games are joining movies and television as a source of inspiration for toys and other swag, including a few new sets of toy soldiers.  McFarlane was the first (and in my opinion still the best) with the amazing Halo Heroic line but others have recently made nice efforts as well.  Over the last few years I have seen bags of toy soldiers associated with Starcraft, Killzone 3 and now Fallout 76.  
These sets tend to have a very limited number of poses and are expensive to buy in the after market.   I don't know if they came with the video games or had to be bought separately.   I have seen copies of the Starcraft Zerglings for sale on Ali Baba.  Chinese companies are already offing to sell copies of Blizzard Entertainment's intellectual property.  The Chinese have no honor when it come to bootlegging, and I love them for that.  I will be ready to take shameless advantage as soon as I get the chance to buy cheap copies of these figures.  I anticipate seeing bootlegs of some or all these figures sooner or later.    
These are all sci fi and post-apocalypse themed sets, but aliens and mutants can work as fantasy monsters.  They may not strictly fit into the fantasy theme of this blog, but I want to post about them anyway.  I can do whatever I want with my blog, so nah.   

STARCRAFT (2016)























KILLZONE 3 (2018)


























FALLOUT 76 (2018)

UPDATE 11/10/2018:
I have come across a new mystery line that includes some knockoff DFC knights.  This is the second mystery line to include bootleg DFC knights. They are marked "China" but that does not say much to narrow down who made them or how they were packaged.  They are just like the older knockoffs.  They are same smaller size and have the same modifications but some of them come in new colors like red, orange and salmon along with the more common blue. As with he old set of bootlegs, here is no copy of the DFC bowman.

The ones I have found came in ebay lots from the UK.  I have almost always found them mixed in with a set of what look like Robin Hood type figures which I first posted in my 45mm Army. They were probably some short lived cheap bag or carded set.  I don't know if I have a complete set of the Robin Hood figures or not.  I suspect there might be one more figure for eight total.  I want to get all the knights in the red, orange and salmon colors pictured and any other colors I haven't found yet.  Please comment if you know anything about these guys.

ORIGINAL POST:

There are surprisingly few DFC bootlegs.  The most common are slightly modified versions of the knights.  These knights are just a little bit smaller than standard DFC knights, and four have slightly modified weapons.  I have found only one example of these figures in original packaging and it is a strange mash up of DFC, Chinasaurs and The Sword & The Sorcerer.  The bootleg knights  also seem to be associated with the little gray figures pictured below, but I don't know were they come from.
I eventually found a header bag of knockoff gray knights from Straco, and a carded set from Gordy with both blue and gray knights.



New colors found over the last five years or so.






The new Robin Hood Guys.



Here are some side by side pictures with the older mystery set which also has Robin Rood type figures but are not as well made or detailed. 






Well matched with the knights. 


Oddly, the salmon DFC bootleg is one of the few figures that came from a USA ebay lot.  The color match is dead on.  



The older figures have similar stands to the DFC bootlegs.  The new guys have flat stands with no ridge.














































Older Bootlegs



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*
I have found these figures with the bootlegs more than once.  So, I think they are related.
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This undated set by Famus Toys has the blue bootleg knights, a Chinasaur giant bird, and the red boarder around the card is the same as on the cards for Arco/Fleetwood's The Sword & The Sorcerer figures. Very strange but very cool.









































Here is a interesting set from Gordy with both blue and gray bootleg knights.  King Arthur and the knights of Justice.   It even includes some authentic medieval razor wire. Dated 1992.





Stracos' set of the knockoff knights in gray.






































Joseph Svec III sold me this odd bag of MPC knights with DFC knights and dragonriders.
I don't know if these are a factory mistake, a bootleg mix, or some kind of strange joint venture, but I have never seen DFC mixed with MPC before.

Miner industries owned MPC.








































































Scale Shot.

They make these Devil figures in Mexico for holidays and because they are cool.  They range in size from 60mm up to 10 inches.  Some are anatomically correct. 























Picture from an ebay auction. 
Picture from an ebay auction. 
Picture from an ebay auction.

Dollar General has a new 10 figure set of mummy soldiers available for Halloween 2018.   There are 10 new mummy figures and 10 skeletons (in 8 poses) which have been around for years.  The mummies are 54mm and the skeletons are about 45mm.  These guys are a little cartoonish, but I like the concept of mummy soldiers.  They are only $1 per pack of 10.  Excellent price.

I posted pictures of the Skeletons a couple of years ago.



























2019 Versions.

I have been looking for this guy for more than a decade. He showed up on ebay in an otherwise average lot last week.  I was all set for an evil bidding war but I was the only bidder.  Lucky day!

Based on the other figures in the lot, I would guess that he is original Hong Kong production (as opposed to the PRC marked figures made in mainland China.)   Like the brown knights, he would be one of just a very few rare color variations to come from Hong Kong.

I can post pictures of this very rare catalog Dragonriders of the Styx playset thanks to David Pietila.  David says it is the Sears version and he should know.    This set seems to be missing the dragon, but that does not mean it wasn't included originally.   This was David's childhood set.  Here is what he has to say about its background:

Greetings,I have found a box of Dragonriders of Styx that has been in storage at my Mother's for years.  Apologies for the pics, but the item is 19 hours away from me. I had someone else send my photos. The box has instructions, I believe there is an order form on the other side. My mom had written on the box "If you boys open this again I will return it to the store." The box is a plain mailer, at one time it had a label that was plain as well. 

This set of 10 soft plastic mythology figures was released as give away prizes in Mexican snack cakes in 2017.  The cakes are called Gansitos/ Gansi Premio.  The company that makes them is called Marinela. The figures are about 35-40mm tall.  They came individually wrapped with a collector card.  They are on the small side for toy soldiers.  Nice quality.  

I've had these for years and tried off and on to find out who made them and what they are called, but no luck at all.  I think they were made in the 1980s, but maybe the 1990s or both.  They are made of rubber and have holes in their butts for pencils.  The little dragon is fairly ordinary looking, but the mutant centaur birdman is one of the weirdest figures of all time.  So, does anybody know anything solid about these guys?









While we are at it, what are these guys?

Publius is a Russian company that makes very high quality, and costly, figures on par with anything else available.  These five dwarves are the first fantasy figures from this company (at least that I know of).  The big (Dwarf King?) warrior is standing on some rocks which make him 58mm.  That is kind of tall for a dwarf.  

The other guys look like thieves to me, or am I just profiling? Who else walks around with a lantern and a hand axe?   I'm not saying that all dwarfs are criminals.  I'm not saying that I would pick up any of these guys hitchhiking at night either.  Some of those Lord of the Rings guys were cool.  These suckers on the other hand are the old school Norse legends kind of dwarves .  .  .  violent, devious bastards. 

Yet another new set from SCS Direct: Humans v. Aliens.  There are 8 figures each of aliens and human civilians.  All but one of the aliens can be used as fantasy monsters.  The humans are just the type of civilians I have been searching for to use in zombie set ups.  The housefrau ready to do battle with her rolling pin is outstanding.













Rosie?

Love this figure!

The Russians with no name are at it again.  These figures are just weird, and I mean that in the best way possible.  The wolfman rider comes with either a giant gun arm or a crazy techno mace buzz saw arm.  He actually makes a better post-apocalyptic figure than a fantasy figure.  He can be a mutant rather than a werewolf.  I mean no offence to werewolves.  Some of my best friends are werewolves.  The evil knight comes with one and two horned versions of his mount (some of my best friends are also evil knights.)  They size out to about 45mm scale.   

Short Boxing Day entry.
Our Holiday was pretty good as we hope yours was also.  Not really had time for a proper entry, just a few quick notes to keep the posts coming.  
The infantry Uniform has been updated and begins issue next month, new features include eliminating the old wool heavy coat in favor of a tunic style, and most importantly an Adrianne splinter helmet. Putees and Trousers are retained and the Mustard webgear. begining next month all new recruits will enter service in the new uniform style.

Meanwhile the latest from the Fabulouth Armee Aerofleet of the Freestate is another attempt by Dr. Brigham Baccalov to breach the rampart of the Ouroboros Range, the vast ring of mountains that encircles the Ornrian diskworld.  Using an army air team, Dr. Bacalov reports having reached dizzying heights of hundreds of meters and still no sign of the barrier relenting.  He also reports the mysterious destruction of one aircraft, and the discovery of large footprints in the snow around the wreckage.  An Abominable Snowman?
we hope for the safety of the expedition, and eagerly await important discoveries.

Recruitment posters going up around the town.  

This morning the trumpet sounded and Colonel Elyard graciously welcomed his new Regiment into existence.  The troops made a splendid display marching from the old fort field where they've been bivouacking in tents, down the Rue Latte.  The local amateur Umpah band played them through town to the square, and with the cheering we barely noticed the occasional dying cat sounds.  The kids were excited and were blowing up brown lunch bags and popping them, like any good holiday.

Colonel Scott Elyard reads the oath and joins in the rousingly patriotic "Clarion of Chanticleer" a fine looking Regiment of Chasseurs, no? It was dreadfully cold however, and we were soon envying the heavy wool coats of the NCOs.  No matter, It was a thing of beauty to see my hard work, Everyone's hard work come together.  With the problems in Wormwood it's clear that one day or other we will need these trained women and men.  They've taken up the hard duty and will live a life of toil pain and sweat that makes my more
Military Police on security detail intellectual efforts pale.  but here I am getting carried away.  Instead listen to the Colonel's remarks;

“The time is now near at hand, which must probably determine whether Polyestrine Peoples are to be free men or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. “The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under the Gods, on the courage and conduct of this army. This Regiment.        “Our own, our country’s honour call upon us for a vigorous and goodly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. “Let us, then rely on the goodness of our cause, and the aid of Providence, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. “The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny mediated against them.   Let your training sustain you, rely now on one another, go forth, and come back not unless with the laurels of Glory, or the Red Badge of your courage!"
Well, I can't vouch for those being the exact words as from my seat it was Impossible to hear him over the wind, the kids, dogs, trucks, and general chaos, but what I have here is clipped from the venerable Forge Reader I copped at my favorite place on the Rue Latte.         Well, the troops are nestled safely in their permanent quarters, the cardboard box with a lable, awaiting the call to defend their Nation, and now I can lay me down to rest of my labours.