Useful items for sixth-scale environments (continuously updated)

Not bad bike — looks like something we’d find here in the States from Hobby Lobby.

Stryker2011 wrote:Not bad bike — looks like something we’d find here in the States from Hobby Lobby.

Agreed. Although most of the Hobby Lobby bikes are either a little undersized or too much art, too little realistic model.

This is the site and seller. Some new big tractors are available, I have asked for the scale. They seem to be similar to the Piko/Anker Fortschritt which is about 1/9th scale.

https://www.marktplaats.nl/u/jan/22051840/

I got my bikes. Meanwhile the seller has posted a new German WW2 sidecar. Not cheap though.

The tractors are probably 1/9th scale, too small. The motorbikes are all "near" 1/6th scale, usable.

I didn’t buy these today as I ended up getting other things, but I saw these little plant pot decorations in Asda today which would make perfect 1/6th scale household decor. They’ve got a whole host of tiny garden gnomes too, but they’re a little tacky for my taste.

Another source : oversized Playmobil objects.

Though these figurines below were not made by Playmobil.

The TBleague figure is wearing a mix from the  'Big Jim" and "Old Shatterhand" range of clothing.

Yeah, Playmobil has some really nice stuff that works well in 1/6th! They offer a spares service on their website - it’s a bit of a faff to navigate as you need to manually go through every set and add individual items to your cart, but it’s a good way to get some useful accessories.

Great selection of stuff! love the bikes

Interresting point about Playmobil -- it would not have occurred to me. Nice finds, Christine and DarthJ.

Those are some cool bikes. I didn't know playmobil offered a spares service but I guess that's common since I haven't seen playmobil since toys r us left us.

I would like to add that the lego store also offers a spare service, some of their pieces are useful for custom work, their chains could also work quite well for our scale since chains are like beans, they come in all sorts of sizes.

More keychain and other promotional items.

Very nice finds, DarthJ. Definitely appropriate for our scale.

Ok, so you all already by now know of the Zuru Mini Brands and Toy Mini Brands miniatures:
ezgif-6-307e174a1863 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
minibrandsseries2-1598987447 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
ZURU5SurpriseMiniBrands by kraggy2011, on Flickr


Most will likely know already about the Micro Toy Box branded equivalents, while some of you UK collectors will also know that Marks & Spencer also did 2 waves of their own miniatures.
ezgif-6-2a08c40f8666 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
ezgif-6-61ba4282891f by kraggy2011, on Flickr


What possibly most of you may not have seen yet is the recent Asda supermarket brand of miniatures simply called Asda Mini Collectible.

T_5057172144426_T1 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
8am1B2k by kraggy2011, on Flickr

These come semi blind boxed (I say semi as you can peek through gaps in the side to see what minis are inside, and they are themed so if you can see one you know what the other is) and the packaging also acts as a prop (well, 2 actually).

Once you remove the cellophane wrapper you will be able to unfold the cardboard wrap that has all the info and shows the full set. Inside that you will find the plastic part of the packaging which is actually a shopping basket. inside that you will find 2 miniature grocery items plus some extra plastic parts.

20211101_174426 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174916 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174616 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174641 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174716 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174737 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174807 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174700 by kraggy2011, on Flickr


Like most other lines of miniatures the scale is all over the place but I have to say that most are usable for 1:6 purposes. The basket also works great for 1:6 though it not an exact replica of an Asda basket though there is a good reason: it can be transformed into a store display shelf!

20211101_174550 by kraggy2011, on Flickr
20211101_174413 by kraggy2011, on Flickr


The shelf configuration is actually better IMHO than the basket configuration. Though short/small it is actually usable for 1:6 as one of those small endcap display shelves that are usually raised up a couple feet with risers in stores. I can see these repainted to be pokemon card store display shelves or similar. The fact a Supermarket own brand product had this much thought put into it is actually quite impressive really! Every mini you buy gives you one basket or shelving unit depending on your preference so far more useful than the Zuru Mini Brands packaging which has no use at all.

20211101_174349 by kraggy2011, on Flickr


These are found in the toy aisle in Asda stores and cost £4 each, so not cheap but definitely within the limit of fair.

20211101_175100 by kraggy2011, on Flickr

An Australian supermarket did a similar thing. The problem with all these promotions is that every item is a different scale. It varies from 1:2 scale to 1:12 scale. The ones that are 1:5 to 1:6 look ok but the others aren't much use.

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t646-australian-grocery-chain-store-promotion

Yeah, the ASDA ones are unexpectedly nice! They’re much cheaper than the mini brands and I like that there’s significantly less plastic packaging involved as well.




I wish Tesco would get in on the trend as that’s where we do our weekly shop and I’d love some tiny versions of the stuff we buy. (Of course I could just make my own, but some of the containers are tricky to make!)

I bought a couple of them recently, along with some of the mini brands (containing some U.K. exclusive products) and a couple of the ‘Real Littles’ shoe blind bags. These ones work well for Ken sized feet but can fit Barbies with some socks on. They’re rubbery plastic but could look good with a repaint.

If you don’t mind me prattling on, I did an unboxing video on Instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CTPTcA4oloU/?utm_medium=copy_link

Lynkhart wrote:Yeah, the ASDA ones are unexpectedly nice! They’re much cheaper than the mini brands and I like that there’s significantly less plastic packaging involved as well.




I wish Tesco would get in on the trend as that’s where we do our weekly shop and I’d love some tiny versions of the stuff we buy. (Of course I could just make my own, but some of the containers are tricky to make!)

I bought a couple of them recently, along with some of the mini brands (containing some U.K. exclusive products) and a couple of the ‘Real Littles’ shoe blind bags. These ones work well for Ken sized feet but can fit Barbies with some socks on. They’re rubbery plastic but could look good with a repaint.

If you don’t mind me prattling on, I did an unboxing video on Instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CTPTcA4oloU/?utm_medium=copy_link

I forgot about the mini shoes, we got maybe 3-4 of those but none were the ones we really wanted so held off buying more. The Asda mini's have the massive advantage that you can definitely tell what is in most of them so very little chance of doubling up. I quite like them.

For those wondering, here are the pairings. If you can spot one item through the gaps in the side you will know what the other item is as they are themed.

Still kinda on topic, I have recently been acquiring (finally) the HT box art magnets from Asian sellers. I have all but two sets though: the Batman themed set and the Hot Toys Christmas VIP gift from 2009 that had the flat-packed paper/card bags with gift boxes. They are too pricey on ebay etc so if anyone can give me pointers to more affordable options for sale/trade please LMK. Thanks.

I wish we had these here in the States. Great finds, jaztermareal and Christine. Christine, those were some thoroughly enjoyable Instagram posts.

GubernatorFan wrote:I wish we had these here in the States.

Zuru does similar promotions in the US. Don't know which supermarkets are involved.

https://zuru.com/post/2129.html

Yes, I got some of these, but they were not very useful. You guys seem to have access to far better stuff.

Unfortunately, I've never seen this type of thing available anywhere here in the US (maybe I'm not shopping at the right sort of stores...?).

well, to be fair, you guys in USA did get the Star Wars skulls, we never got them here in UK. Would gladly trade haha!

Stryker2011 wrote:Unfortunately, I've never seen this type of thing available anywhere here in the US (maybe I'm not shopping at the right sort of stores...?).

From what I’ve heard the Mini Brands are available at Walmart and Target I think?
And yeah, you guys are waaaay ahead of us when it comes to most of these things!

More storage boxes from a supermarket bargain bin.

Nice find, DarthJ. Hope to spot some of those one day, to get some variety. It's been a while, but I find these even more realistic -- and they are also certainly practical --

Everyone likes to indulge in takeout every now and then, right?

With that in mind, here are some templates for printing out and putting together:

Chinese Takeout Boxes

Pizza boxes

Paper bags

Might take some experimentation to figure out how to scale them correctly when printed, but I figure these can be super useful to some! For the pizza box I'd probably recommend you trace it onto thin cardboard, for the Chinese takeout I'd recommend printing on cardstock, and for the paper bag I'd just trace the template onto a paper bag and cut and glue. Great for stakeouts and impromptu dates

Thanks for the templates, Faster Than Life, they are definitely very useful items. I happen to have a Chinese takeout box from a Lost Boys set (I think), but still good to have if I want to make more.

More paper printables here:
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t632-printable-vietnam-era-prc-25-spare-battery-box
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t940-paper-goodies

The shopping bag templates work well. I use old broken yo-yo strings for the handles.