About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening 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”. Likewise, 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.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

S is for Self-indulgence

 No toys here...move along...nothing Toy Soldier...keep walking...next stop some other blog...

Still here? Oh well then, I'll try and explain, but really you need to have 'been there' or have to be familiar with the back-story, and I have to be careful what I say, because - unlike some of the staff involved - I don't want to libel or slander anyone.

So, certain things happened, some more stuff happened, I was exonerated in an internal investigation, certain other stuff then happened which was outrageous, I held my ground (with the help of my Disability Advisor and the County Psychologist [try spelling that when you've got bits of brain missing]), leading to a Chief Executive's No. 2 making an assurance that doesn't seem to have been kept, which all came down to my kicking my heels in the studio today waiting for nothing much else to happen as our tutor kept wandering off to 'meetings' - a dangerous thing to do with no cover and a studio full of adult students with 'issues'!

As a result, and because I'd taken all my files off and cleared the PC's history, cookies and the rest of that tedious stuff (registry mend, disc-clean, defrag, etc...), I was mucking about with Google, looking-up Photoshop blogs and AutoCAD tutorials on Youtube, when I put the following in to the search bar....

....and got bollocks up as the first result! Try it, it works, with or without the apostrophe! Like I said, you really needed to be there, just take my word for it, it's funnier than it looks to you - casual viewer! And a half-dozen visitors (by request) will - I suspect - be tickled. I also suspect if you put 'Google' in any random sentence you stand a good chance of getting bollocks, but then everyone knows that!!

Elf
While I'm being self-indulgent, and for the invited viewers in particular, this was done by my mate Jimijames (who sent me the too-cool email the other week), he was also treated pretty poorly by the same institution and is now 'doing it for himself'! If any design company in the Southhampton/Eastleigh area likes the look of this and has an opening for a trainee illustrator I can put you in touch. I think it's very good and given he was 2D Autodesking a few weeks ago, bloody good, but then you should see his free-hand black&white work, sublime.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

EVB is for Beeju

For some time I mistook the EVB logo for the ELM logo of the Marx Hong Kong factory, an easy mistake if you're A) Aspergic and B) not viewing them together at the same time as they are very similar. Indeed somewhere Paul Morehead has an article of mine following up the original Marx/Blue Box article in One Inch Warrior in which I make something of the 'link'...fortunately he's never run it (probably spotted the error!), and if I weren't admitting the mistake, I might have got away with it, yet errors are an important part of research, but only if they are admitted too!

Double-decker trolley-bus, possibly missing a wire power-pickup or two (cantenery)

The first vehicles advertised by Beeju were in the late 1940's, and there are two distinct periods, the - now warped - cellulose acetate phase and the latter polystyrene range which doesn't suffer from warping. The range included larger vehicles for the American market, ships and boats, novelties like clockwork chicks and TV licenced stuff from Muffin the Mule, but by far the largest part of their oeuvre was the approximately 1:76th scale vehicles, which often have little figures attached.

This particular Trolley-bus has the most people I've ever seen in one of these and is an early, warped version. The model seems to have been dropped from the range before the transition to styrene, however another maker, possibly Portuguese did make stable copies, in brighter colours, without figures, in a styrene plastic.

Here we see a picture previously on my Imageshack account and also shown here before (top right) of the later styrene range mostly in military green, but with a few silver versions, along with several of the earlier vehicles which are all stating to distort. My fire-engine is a bit rough and lacks two firemen and the head of the third!

A lovely metallic-green bus which goes quite well with the military range as a troop-transport. I've seen gold ones, and there are others on the Internet, but this is the only green one I've come across, it's missing it's transfers, which tend to wear-off.

This model was carried over to the stable-material period, where - like the late version lorries - it got a clip-together makeover with locating tabs, instead of the glued components of these earlier types.

Monday, February 18, 2013

S is for Achtung! Achtung! Englander Spitfuren!!

And so to Sandown this weekend for the first show of 2013, and thence to what is becoming a bit of a (non) perennial on this blog...the Palitoy aeroplane range, previously covered in these posts;

Palitoy Search Result
 [if you click on this now and read-up the page from the third post down (to this post) it might all make a little more sense if you are unfamiliar with these 'planes]

Wandering back to the table from visiting my mate John's stall, or breakfast (or a fag-break!) I spotted what was obviously one of the two or three I don't have (the others being either version of the Sunderland flying-boat and the orange flying wing/experimental Northrop in the above link, and - maybe - a Hurricane?...read on!), at first glance I actually thought it was another Bolton-Paul, but I quickly realised it had no shake-the-wings-off turret!

Turned it over...'SPITFIRE', definitely one on the wants list, so I parted with a bit of hard-earned and wandered back to show off my trophy to Adrian and Gareth! Being one of the less-deformed silver ones I have previously suggested were actually earlier than the flecked or whole coloured ones, I was well pleased.

Here she is, funny old kite, thin wings, canopy like a Hurricane (you can see where that's going can't you...), odd looking tail, tram-lines running down the fuselage, hardly looks like a Spitfire at all, and arguably less recognisable than the Northrop to the real-life prototype. Indeed; it looks like a generic trainer!

My first thought was that maybe it was based more on the Schneider-trophy Supermarine whats'it (Googles....)..S6/6B, which I vaguely remember ruining an Airfix kit of, as a very small boy (sliver plastic, very skinny pilot), but Wikipedia reveals it to have an open engine cowling and massif, round-ended wings. Next suspect was the Type 224, but that looks more like a Blackburn Skua or Junkers Stuka than this little model!

The moulding line down the fuselage seems to have more in common with the Supermarine Type 322 Wikipedia, but that was a high-wing design with an air-scoop under the engine, but it is a suspect for a British Caseloid employee researching for the toolmaker?

But I'm getting ahead of myself...next trip across the hall, I spotted another one, nice RAF blue plastic, but...wing cannons..."eh'up" I thought, "I've bought a ringer with broken cannons, better buy a whole one!", walking back to the table, I thought it looked a bit more like a Spitfire, but put that down to the cannons, not the wing-shape, as the canopy was the same Kittyhawk/Hurricane looking arrangement...


This is the other baby, she's a much more recognisable war-winner, but still with the shelf down the fuselage and the long, strutted canopy. Researching for this post, I've checked most of the non-float plane Supermarines I could find (and a few with floats!), and the only one close and so far not mentioned is the Type 300 trials prototype for the Mk I Spitfire. In some photographs, taken at a certain angle it does seem to have a canopy that looks more like an Me.109, and in other photographs can look to have thin wings, but neither optical illusion can explain the upper - silver - variant!

When I got back to the table, a quick look was all that was needed to see they were completely different models, and after I'd got the silver one out of it's little bag and run my fingers down the wing it was equally obvious that there were no missing cannons, just no cannons, period - Phew!

This blue one though, despite the faults has the distinct - even 'world' recognised - lines of a true Spitfire, with the double ellipse wings coming together to make the iconic pointed wing-tips, the sharks nose and the little round-ended stabiliser/elevator assemblies.

What to make of this new mystery - well, turn them over and it's clear that the blue one is a re-cutting of the silver one's mould, to be specific, the female part of the mould only. Extending the wings out, adding the cannons, redesigning the tail area and cutting new aileron/flap detailing, while leaving all the 'stuff' from the male part of the mould - the canopy, makers title & marks, tail wheel, wing cavities and nose-shape along with the strange lines/shelves down the sides.

On to the new guesswork - the silver 'Spit' seems to be a conglomeration of pre-prototype sketches, artwork and rumour, possibly married to similar Hurricane sources, probably garnered from prospective drawings or 'recognition' silhouettes in 'Boys Own' annuals, engineering magazines, air cadet or scouting publications and the like from the mid-1930's. The blue one is a corrected later version, using the same moulds - where possible - to give a better outline of a 'plane that was a hero before the last leaf was off the trees in the Autumn of 1940, despite the Hurricane doing the donkey's load. Therefore, my suggestion in the original post that there might be a Hurricane in the range, may have come from sightings of the first version Spitfire, and actually be a red herring, although; after reader Alfred turned-up the Northrop, who knows what else is to be found?

What it means - that my theory previously voiced here on the blog, stating the less deformed (this one actually is quite deformed!) silver Palitoy 'planes are the early ones, is almost certainly the case, that they also almost certainly pre-date the second World War - as issued play-things, that the flecked and whole-colour models are later (with the flecked one probably being recycled wartime production, and the whole-colour being possibly post-war), and that people who insist they were a wartime or post war toy are not seeing the evidence suggesting otherwise.

Also on view this Saturday, the seller of the blue Spitfire had a really nice all-yellow Lockheed, and the seller of the silver 'Spit' was offering a silver Lockheed and a flecked but majority brown Bolton-Paul flying Flak-wagen.

Friday, February 15, 2013

O is for Options

Last post on modern production Dr. Who products for a while - I promise, but this time we're not looking at Dr. Who Adventures Magazine, it's Character Options and their licence to produce 'mini-figs' after Lego, after Hestair-Kiddicraft!

Following the Lego 'collectable' figure sets with figure sets of their (CH's)  own which we have looked at before, an innovation Lego themselves took from the 'mono-block' and 'designer figure' fields, Character Options (hereafter; CH, as I can't be arsed to keep typing a word I've never been able to spell!) have just issued their third series, and look what's in it...a proper 1970's gold Dalek, old school, old stylie, old enemy of the doctor, and if you fill in the stud receiving-holes in the base and give it a wash or dry-brushing it will be the best small scale Dalek ever made by the toy industry.

What it also means - I suspect - is that the Fatlek is all but dead. Explanation;Coming so soon after the Dr. Who Adventures mag issued a set of six on what might be the tail-end of their figure range (I hope not - I've undertaken to collect them for Sam!), we have a company - CH - who probably talk even more closely to the makers of the TV series about how to use and exploit the licence - to the benefits of both increased toy sales and more seats on the sofa at transmission time - than the magazine, taking Fatleks out of their range? It can only be good news for fans of 'proper' Daleks! (apologies for that rather crucified paragraph!)

Musical Daleks! The beauty of CH having utilised Hilary Page's construction system is that you can become your own Skarovian living-suit development engineer, and with four colours of Fatlek issued so far (red and blue in tranche 1, this white one in tranche 2 and yellow ones in a larger set) there is a lot of scope for general silliness! This seasons larger sets include the same gold Daleks, lets hope other colours will be issued by CH - in the mean-time there's always paint, and remember; it's easy to find them by squeezing the envelopes!

[they contain the largest single piece, and it's bobbly...but the new 'old' shape are not as easy to spot as the Fatleks]

Monday, February 11, 2013

T is for Dobbin-burgers

Sorry but I couldn't resist it!

To any Tesco's supermarket executives who may be directed here;

It's HUMOUR! It was bound to happen and it might make you check the sourcing of your 'product' a little more efficaciously!

Another one....

This is going to run and run unless it ends-up in a pre-cooked stew! These came out of a conversation we were having at lunch today (yesterday!), other gems included changing the small-print on the nutrition panels to read;
  • May contain traces of more than one species
  • Meat product of the European motorway network
  • ...Aspartame, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Binding Agent (crin de cheval)....
and products such as...
  • Red Rumble - A 'mixed' meat pizza
  • Lassy-sagne - an honest lasagne 

S is for Stars and Bars and Stripes...

Continuing with the results of a photo session I had a while ago now on some of the Marx Miniature Masterpieces, we come to the American Civil War...The Beguiled, The Good the bad and the Ugly, The Red badge of Courage...stirring stuff from a childhood both more innocent than today's...yet somehow more bloody for having it's violence steeped in historical fact rather than the extra-planetary futures of today's 'gamers'?

The set we're looking at tonight is a mint set and one of three I've documented over the years, the contents barely differ between them, even down to the odd duplications.

There are various boxed sets in the 'Wild West' range and this is one of the more popular - and more common. Costing 22 shillings and sixpence back in the day; Blue and Grey Armies did exactly what it said on the box. Also showing the UK issue paper label over the US/Hong Kong message underneath.

The bag of rip-off Merit fir trees, Marx had a lot of Merit stuff in these sets and while it's difficult to research who copied who when it all happened half a century ago, I've always felt the Merit were the wronged party here. Their (Merit's) barrels are far better finished than the Marx ones, while Marx would have had no need for the mail-tags on their sacks if they came first as military play-set supplies (not that the Marx copies have 'MAIL' in raised letters like the Merit ones, their tags are smooth), so the conclusion is that Marx/Elm or one of the other Far-eastern partners of Marx (there was a unit in Taiwan for instance) were doing the copying.

Artillery and the command/staff elements of both armies - the Confederacy suffer a shortage of gunnery troops, with one of the few duplicates in the set, but have an outrider to deliver ordnance to the battlefield with more accuracy! While the limber riders seem to be shouting obscenities at each other!

 "Can you help me live a little more? I expect good news"

Casualties and Confederates - one of the things I've always liked about this set is that where another manufacturer (most!) would/will produce both sides from the same sculpts in two colours, Marx didn't, and not only did they not do so for the fighting poses, they even produced two completely different stretcher-teams and casualties. And - three different standing firing poses..."With these figures you are really spoiling us Mr. Ambassador"

Clockwise from top left - The accessories, if there is a slight difference between sets it tends to be with the sacks, chavaux-de-fris or - sometimes - the ammo-piles. This set also has less of the small accessories than a lot of the other sets in the range which would get a whole bag of sacks or barrels, or more boxes.

Union cavalry get the advantage every time, having had the foresight to draw their sabres before entering the forward edge of the battle area! Three slight colour/paint variations of the prone figure, you only get one per set though. Finally - the Union foot figures advance to contact together.

This collage is a bit of a muck-up...the lower shot is of the other contents of the set described above, while the upper shot shows the mint contents of the cavalry version of the sets described below, if you can get your head round it! Too late to re-do the collage.

The other popular Wild West set in the medium-box sized Miniature Masterpiece range was (is!) the Fort Apache set, which came in two versions; Cavalry & Indians or; Cowboys & Indians, the only clue to the purchaser being the quite subtle change in box artwork illustrated here. Again we can see how the Swansea sets had the paper slip glued over the US message.

This only really proved to be a problem if you had seen a friend or sibling receive the 'other' set and after requesting the same opened something that er...wasn't! Otherwise the play value of the contents Marx packed into these sets meant that receiving either at Christmas or on a birthday was a real treat. We'll look at these in greater depth another day.

The other common form of marketing these figures (they could be bought boxed singly - like 'Tinykins', vac-pack carded or in card trays) were the crystal boxes that started this little on/off series of posts. As with the others so far posted here I don't have all of them, yet do have a few swaps. Seen here are four of the larger 7/8 item sets; 5 and 6 above and 10 and 9 below with the smaller sets sandwiched between in order - 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

News, Views etc...Painting Workshop and Blog News

A new blog has appeared, being the 'notice board' for Plastic Warrior magazine, and further information on the forthcoming PW show is to be seen there...

PW's Blog

For those across the pond looking for something to do in March, there is a painting workshop being held at the Chatham-Kent Museum, Chatham, Ontario, on Saturday, the 23rd March, 2013...

Painting Workshop

Sadly for us Brits, that's in Canada, not 'the' museum in Chatham, Kent!!

A is for Accompaniment

I was holding this intending to add another figure I got at one of the shows, but then I encountered the original show report post here somewhere looking for something else or answering a question and realised he was Salvation Army, so these can stand alone as a bit of a box-ticking exercise!

These are the Circus Bandsmen from Wendal with a shot of two different base stickers. I don't know if these were also issued by the French 'partner' firm of Quiralu, or - if they were - how they may have differed? Despite being made in aluminium they are really quite finely sculpted figures.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

T is for Transdimentional Hoojamaflip Thingamybob Doobryfirkin

So to our third article on recent developments in the world of 'free' (insert the cost of the magazine and subtract the unit cost here!) premiums given away with the Dr. Who Adventures Magazine. This is the Tardis kit I mentioned in the first post a week or so ago.

This was a brilliant idea, and would have worked well if it wasn't for the poor execution, yet there was only one thing wrong with the execution...not enough paint.

The paint-your-own Dalek issued a while ago and covered elsewhere (click Dalek in the tag-list/index) had two pots of paint that were more than adequate for the job, while the two small pots in this issue (white and black) had more than enough for the job, but the blue was a piss-take.

And the thing is - if you are trying to attract, entertain and retain readers of a youngish age for a magazine that - compared to the comics and magazines of my childhood - is (lets be honest) full of ephemeral shite, you need to make sure the 'freebie' is doable, if craft based, this didn't.

The kit itself is fine, two relatively well-detailed parts, bit of super-glue gel (to fill any gaps), a quick scrape with a scalpel blade and it was ready to go, a kid not needing to bother with the gel, or even glue as the locating-prongs made for a tight fit. But, once a single coat of paint was applied, firstly there was very little paint left, and secondly the paint dried to a high-gloss, semi transparent pale sky-blue! At this point our imaginary 'Junior' losses all interest in the project and faith in the publication....along with his or her non-toy collecting parent!

 Because I am a toy collector I persevered; clockwise from top left...
  • A second coat was extracted from the remains of the pot, with the addition of a few drops of water, it dried to a flat matt that scraped-off with a finger-rub!
  • Black was added to the remains along with a single drop of washing-up liquid and a third coat applied, this is shot without flash and seems darker/more even that it actually is.
  • The rest of the black (I was determined to only use the given constituents for the sake of experimentation), with a few more drips of water gave a forth coat and the half-full pot of white was employed for the massive task of painting the light on the roof!
  • Finally, two shots of the finished article with the stickers applied, I had scraped the pot to touch-up the bits that still showed particularly thin, but you can see from the two shots that it's still very see-through under flash, and not much better under normal lighting.
It is such a shame that the supplying company didn't provide the correct amount of paint, as it would have been a disappointment to younger builders, I'm sure. I will re-paint this one day, and to that aim, removed the stickers back to their sheet as soon as these photographs were taken. Then the CAD-Monkey's turned-up to inspect....they weren't impressed.

The sticker-sheet was most impressive as you can see from the shot I took through a jeweller's loupe, the whole thing is a perfect 54mm accessory as can been seen from the Britains gorilla, and apart from the lack of paint was a very good premium, they just needed to go that extra inch!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

F is for Figures From Freebie post

Thought I'd better put up a bit of a line-up of this growing range, but managed to miss one figure in each line-up! And - as I'd posted pictures of the new Daleks last time; left them off this collage, but you get the general idea, and the others are in the post below if you come to this from Google at some point in the future!

So accompanying a Sontaran child - far left of both line-ups - are a Cyberman, the two Weeping Angels (the only figure set so far issued in more than one pose), one punching and one crying, an Ood, a Silence (lanky-git), the lizard-like Silurian (green - missing from lower shot), a character I don't know (Automaton? White - missing from the upper shot) a Judoon (grey thing in a kilt) and something that looks like Disney's Beast...the Minator?

Above them are a few of the Fatlek Daleks with a couple of colour variations, the blues are elsewhere. Inset to the left; when batches collide, two-tone red, and to the right a comparison between the new 'classic' Dalek and a Fatlek.

Friday, February 1, 2013

F is for Freebie

We've looked at this magazine before and - I'm sure - will do again, but I thought it was time to do a round-up of recent issues and the free gifts of interest to us collectors, as it's a while since I updated the Dalek post that has been getting the odd update on these.

A smorgasbord of issues over the last six months or so which contained figures. Mostly they are figures already issued at least once, sometimes they have already had two outings, while the Fatleks have been issued about half-a-dozen times now.

Still even the Fatleks get colour variations from issue to issue, and you can see here that the 'yellow' member of the team is a bright yellow in one set and a goldy-orange in the other, likewise I think I've got three blue shades in the collection now and at least two reds.

In the last month Silurians have been issued in two shades of green as well. But - look at the hexagonal pack bottom-centre in the collage; new Daleks! More on them below.

Other items which might be of interest to collectors have included the grwo-your-own Cyberman on the left, an approximately 54mm Tardis I'll be looking at in a separate post soon and the 'spinners' on the right above. These consist of standard figures from the existing range with mounting-holes in their bases, but they come with a roughly 1:76/72 scale Tardis and Dalek pencil toppers, both of which can be used as stand-alone additions to the figure range, the Dalek requiring the removal of the pencil spigot and being yet another shade of yellow!

It is a sad fact that the people who issue this stuff probably give no more value or have no more concern for these 'useful' bits as they do for the week-in week-out generic plastic or paper-based crap they put on the covers of all comics and magazines aimed at youngsters these days; rubber or paper masks, sticker sheets, logo-printed note-books, stationary sets, wallets, and so on, with the result that they've never corrected the small size of the Sontarans (the second figure set issued), and are now 'clearing' Sontarans and Cybermen (the very first set issued) covered in a mildew which suggests long storage in the wrong conditions.

Yet...while it appears they are 'clearing' the remnants of this series of figures, they have issued a brand new set...

...so, along with shots of the Fatleks and the Pencil-topper are the new Daleks, coming in six metallic colours, well two are sort of black and charcoal, but I think at least one is supposed to be metallic (graphite?), I thought they were a re-issue of the very first set of these figures, the small goldish-fawn ones from about three years ago, one of which the Philosophical Toad kindly sent me after I'd missed the original issue.

However, when I checked them against the picture in the previous post, it was quite clear these are a larger, better detailed return to the 'classic' Dalek shape, their weapon and eye stalks being particularly fine compared to the original one, so I hope we'll see them again in other colours.

Rather than keep-on adding to the product list on the old post here's an up-to-date version of the 'Master List':

Doctor Who Adventures Magazine
Tying-in with the BBC’s Dr. Who television series, it has some sort of premium/freebie on each cover.
Relevant Issues;
No. 98 - Cybermen (x5, approximately 25mm)
No. 99 - Daleks (x5, approximately 20mm, original type)
No. 170 - Dalek Soldiers (x5, approximately 30mm, ‘Fatlek’ type, orange, from; Premium World)
No. 183 - Dalek Slime (comes in a green Dalek container, approximately 45mm, ‘Fatlek’ type)
No. 186 - Build-your-own Dalek kit (approximately 54mm, ‘Fatlek’ type, silver/black)
No. 203 - Dalek Army (as No.170, but 17 ‘Fatlek’ Daleks in 5 colours, from; HMA)
No. 204 - 16 Mini Monsters/Monster Battle Pack (8 Cybermen - as No.98; 8 Sontarans, both from; HMA)
No. 205 - Dalek Pencil Set (4 ‘Fatlek’ pencil-toppers with pencils)
No. 211 - Dalek Slime (reissue of 183)
No. 223? - Build-your-own Dalek kit (reissue of 186, red/black, Xcel Concepts)
No. 224? - Dalek Slime (reissue of 183/211)
No.229 - Dalek (or other?) Micro-figure (from Character Options) + mini ‘Dr Who’ note pads)
No.237 - Weeping Angel Army (8x 2 poses = 16 figures in PVC/vinyl; HMA + collector card pack)
No.238 - Monster Battle Pack (6x each; HMA Cybermen and Sontarans; 5 Daleks, each of a different colour) 
No.241 - 16 Glow-in-the-dark Who Shapes (Some items of use as approximately 60mm flats)
No.254 - Mini Monster Army (8x each HMA Judoon and Ood, batch: 15885)
No.255 - Mini Monster Army (8x each HMA Silence and Silurian, batch: 15886)
No.259 - Grow Your Own Cyberman (Henbrant 25mm figure grows to approximately 54mm with Cartamundi trading cards, package by Xcel Concepts, batch: 18130)
No.261? - Dalek Attack Set (Xcel Concepts, paint-your-own 50mm Fatlek, 2 paints, brush, bouncy-ball and Dalek key-ring, batch: YBC 086)
No.262 - Ultimate Monster Army (HMA, 5 Fatleks, 2 weeping Angels - 1 of each pose - 8 other figures, batch: 15921)
No.267 - Mini Monster Army (HMA figures - blind assortment with Berkshire Labels Dr. Who stickers and Topps Moshi Monsters stickers)
No.284 - Mega Monster Army (HMA Creative, 5 Fatleks, 15 figures, batch: PR1001140)
No.294 - Monster Spinners (HMA, Silence, Sontaran and Cyberman with Dalek and Tardis pencil toppers, batch: PR1001144)
No.297 - Paint Your Own Tardis (two part kit with sticker sheet, brush and 3 paints, HMA, batch: 1001266)
No.300 - Ultimate Dalek Collection (5 Fatleks, 6 original type, HMA + Cartamundi collector card pack, batch: PR1001596)
No.303 - Mini Monster Army (HMA, assorted, different retailers had different batches, I saw 8x each Cybermen/Sontarans [batch: PR1001598] in a large Tesco's store with a thick layer of mildew and 8x Silence/Silurians [batch: 15886] in a local shop, some magazines had non-figural gifts - all old or clearance stock) 
No.304 - Mini Monster Army (HMA, 8x each Weeping Angels [only one pose; punching] and Silurians)
No.352 - Bumper Gift Set (9 different figures [2 new sculpts], 1 NS Dalek, 2 trading cards, HMA, batch 1004413)

Even if the originating PR/marketing companies don't rate them they make for very good war-gaming or role-play figures, can replace counters in board games and might make for an interesting cake-decoration! What do you do with yours?