Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Hannah Dundee (1993)

Car Boot Haul, August 2015

Its been a while since I've been able to hit the Sunday Rugby Ground Car Boot sales before the Summer season is out.

As you can tell by the distant photo, typical British rain was teased but didn't deliver. The Car Boot would have been hardcore and carried on relocating clutter regardless.

After an hour or so, I eventually left with a handful of vintage toy treasures and knick knacks. Among the loot of 2^nd hand acquisitions the figure highlights included: Hasbro WWE Ravishing Rick Rude, some Smurfs, Dragons of Berk, an old Kenner Proton pack, Yet another R2D2 Happy Meal toy for the army build and a King Kong!

The rest are in the polaroids. See what you can spot...
 

Some other bits and pieces I passed up, because I already had, I don't scalp or just simply don't need. No vintage Christmas Decorations on this visit either. That's a record!

 

Now all that's left is deciding what to keep, what to let the kids play with and what to possibly sell on. Rick Rude is a definite a keeper!

So are these!

CHRISTMAS RUN UP: Kinder Surprise Santa 2014

Hardly surprising that in the 21^st century to see Christmas candy surface in the stores in September. It is after all; arguably a good time to plan ahead and stock up on goods and gift ideas to make December less of a mad rush. 

On a recent school run, I couldn’t help but pick up a Kinder Surprise Chocolate Santa (RRP £2) to see if they are any good.

The formula is simple. It is a Kinder Egg but bigger and in the shape of Santa Claus riding a sleigh. This gives it the edge over any other ‘hollow’ Chocolate Santas out there since a Kinder Egg toy capsule inside. Get the idea?

The chocolate is awesome as always (as the family members who helped consume will also agree) and the surprise inside is also part its own exclusive Christmas wave.

The surprise isn’t a toy as such, but more or less an Ornament for a Christmas tree or a gift tag (as the leaflet suggests). We got the chipmunk in a Santa hat! The best ornament of the bunch is the apparently creepy Kinder Egg man (who is famous for his early appearance in this commercial here.)

For two English pounds you basically get an oversized alternate shaped Kinder Egg with an exclusive collectable inside. This is a worthy stocking filler all in all.

Disney Princess Makeover

I found a little something put by for my daughter a couple of years ago (for until she was old enough to use it). - A Disney Princesses Sketch Book.

The sketch book came from Saudi Arabia through a pal who resided there at the time. As you can see the designs have been altered slightly. An interesting cultural variant on the brand, or makeover rather.

Car Boot Haul June 2013

Car-Boot Sales are always a mixture of good weeks and bad weeks in terms of junk and treasure. I made it out with a not-so-good haul as last week. The haul however has presented some amusing highlights.

Here are 3 of them...

1/ 'Megan Fox'. Mikaela Banes

From the Transformers Movie 'Human Alliance' subline. Based on Mikaela's look from Revenge of the Fallen and very detailed. Quite an articulated figure for its size too. No Transformer robot to pal up with. I am guessing the previous owners kept the car and ditched the passenger.A good deal at only 20p.

2/ Weird Knock-Off Superman.

A reject Man of Steel sporting a very bad paintjob and no cape. Obviously from some deranged alternate universe. It took a lot of zen-like patience to get this bootleg to stand for a photo. Someone had to feel sorry for this mess...I did. Again, 20p!

3/ Transformable Fireman Sam

There is a Postman Part version of this figure which is also very good - and I own one. A great find, as I was after this for a while. Postman Pat now has a crimefighting partner. Once again this was a give away at only 20p!

Car Boot Haul May 2013

Car Boot season has begun again! Even though some parts of England they never stopped.

For the first time this year Keynsham Rugby Club opened its field to host a weekly run of Boot Sales until September. Each week is always packed (weather permitting) and I always seem to come back with some great treasures. As you can see, that's a lot of varied fandom in the picture. Can you guess the characters and toylines?

More haul pictures to come hopefully every Sunday

Taste the Rainbow

Thundercracker in Action-Master form, modelling his 'trousers of doom'. Megatron does not seem that impressed...

Finally acquired this elusive toy of the 90's after a decade long hunt. Worth the wait in gold.... and other assorted colors...

Battle Beasts, Rocky Rhino (1987)

Recently acquired another Battle Beast over the Easter break. Rocky Rhino (aka Greysharp in Japan) of the Wood tribe is a proud addition to the slowly growing collection.

REVIEW: Flingers Michaelangelo (TMNT 2012, Deluxe)

From: Playmates
Retail: Variable
Accessories: 10 Pizza Missile Discs 

The Turtles 2k12 line is expanding, and like with past renditions of the action figures there are the whacky variants that fill up the range quite nicely. Gimmick-based Ninja Turtles are an acquired taste, in which some are fun and some are just downright bonkers!

These new Flinger Turtles have a shooting gimmick. They launch projectiles and look like they are throwing them too. 

First off, Mikey is not really much in the actual action figure department. Most of his joints aside from the arms and head are static and don’t move. The lack of articulation is to make way for the inside mechanism activated by sideways wheels at the bottom of the feet. Anyone who did not like the static bent-knee battle poses on past TMNT figures may not like this at all, but the toy at least stands properly. The idea is to scroll the standing Turtle on a flat surface starting from left to right to make it fire.  The Flinger figures are a bit larger than the average range of TMNT.

The Flinger Turtles are dressed up in home-made junkyard armour (like 2003’s Fightin’ Gear line), complete with ammunition dispensing backpacks. Michaelangelo’s armour is made up of Stop-Sign shoulderpads and what looks to be old baseball catcher padding.

This Michelangelo is sans-Nunchaku, but made up for with 10 rounds of mini pizza projectiles (scale-wise, like a toy version of those small, undesirable Tesco Value range pizzas *bleugh*). Out of the Flingers Mike and Leo don’t have their signature weapons, but instead 10 rounds of disc ammo, whilst Raph and Don have their Sai and Bo but only 3 of a-piece. Leonardo’s disc ammo is a selection of mini-manhole covers (I think hubcaps would have made more sense). The pizzas which slot into Mikey’s backpack fire out from his waist (akin to the classic 1994 Pizza Tossin’ gimmick) next to where his right hand is default positioned, and in turn moves in a Frisbee throwing motion when launching. 

I have produced a small video demo of the firing gimmick on Michelangelo, A random selection targets were found and used. Some of the faces may also be familiar…

The Flinger gimmick is just a gimmick at that. There is no direction, story or objective except for simply fire stuff and leave the targets to the imagination. Some cardboard enemy cutouts with stands would have added more to each Flinger Turtles. The potential is there for a pal and a second Flinger Turtle to invent some sort of 2-player shooting game shenanigans. It all revolves around finding a flat and sizable surface around the house or elsewhere.  

All in all, a fun tabletop toy to cause havoc maybe at dinnertime with, but the individual scale sets it aside and out of place from most of the TMNT 2K12 line. In addition, Flinger Michelangelo is not really a figure, but more or less a ‘missile launcher’ in the shape of one.  Like with the Ooze Turtles before, Mikey (and the others) are a gimmick and don’t go much beyond just that. Still fun though.  

"Allow me to introduce myself...

They call me Professor Coldheart!"

The Force is with me.

Here's me in 1980 with my Christmas Day acquisition of The Millenium Falcon from the old school Kenner Star Wars range.

Before any of my Transformers and MOTU hauls I spent many an afternoon with this awesome craft (I did get a Darth Vader, Han Solo and Luke to ride in it). I remember being allowed to sit up in bed with this before naptime. The gadgets were so cool such as the chess table, the pilot seat and the hidden floor panel. Certainly a toy before its time.

===HERO