How do you tell when a (fixed-wrist) klicky was manufactured?

[Daniela]

WOW GRaham, this is phantastic! 

A real gem of researching and working out!

I am deeply impressed!

[Birdie]

 

This is brilliant, Graham!!!

Thank you so much for the research and the clear and helpful instructions on how to spot the differences.

 

If there were a possibility of getting a Playmo-degree through research, you'd be able to present your Playmo-PhD right now 

[GrahamB]

Thanks for the comments. I have been fiddling with this for a few years now, after seeing Littledive's Klickywelt post on the subject, in which he said "When and how long the figures were produced, is still being discussed or investigated." Well THAT was a challenge!

I started with my own (smallish) collection of fixed-wrist klickies, but when I realised that they were a mixture of German klickies and Playpeople (made under licence in the UK by Marx Toys between 1975 and 1980) and the two sorts have different patterns, I screamed a bit, then set about buying lots of old klickies from German sellers. (600 was the number I stopped at, there are a few more lying around I didn't include  ). They are quite easy to come by and quite cheap, apart from the very early ones. Not surprising really, as 320 million klickies were produced between 1974 and 1980!

Tahra: you did well; see the third post for the answer!

Heather: it's here on PF, it will be on my website shortly. I'm happy for you and anyone else to use it elsewhere. The two PDF documents pretty much stand alone.


I should add that I dismembered all my klickies and recorded details which can't be seen from the 'outside'. It's quite interesting if you are a nerd like me! But with over 100 distinct combinations of parts, it complicates that timeline somewhat so I will save it for the future....

[StJohn]

Great contribution. Many thanks, GrahamB!

A minor addition:

I have an odd fixed-wrist klicky on my hands, with the following features:

1.Head: here lies the problem
2.Skeleton: O
3.Soles of feet: R open ‘b’ on left foot
4.Bottom: sos F and a number in squares [11]

I attach some pictures of the head. Moulded, but in an odd shape. There is no hole at the bottom of the skull, so presumably no keychain klicky. It is a fine, sturdy figure, probably not a reconfigured custom. I think I have seen this only once. Any thoughts about the head?





Best wishes
StJohn

[tahra]

Found one of those in a lot recently.. I think I noticed in the washing... I had never seen it before..

[GrahamB]

I too have a couple of those. My guess is that they are keychain heads which were used to make standard klickies, using up surplus stock. Since no keychain was ever fitted, the hole isn't there. Perhaps fitting a keychain involved drilling a hole through the hair and into the base of the head, then screwing in the chain attachment. If the hole was not drilled, the klicky would look just like a regular one and could be packed into a set. I don't think Geobra could be cavalier (wasteful) with excess parts back in those days, so it's likely they used surplus parts up. This would also explain why sometimes 'older' klicky parts show up with 'later' ones, such as Flat-edged feet with Molded heads (types 3a and 4a in the chart, MMFs and MMFd).

Mine are types 9 and 10 in the chart (MORono and MORnon); yours, StJohn, is type 11 (MORsos), meaning all three would date from 1978 to 1981 if they fit the pattern -I didn't include either of mine in the 600 on which the table is based, though. Collector shows five fixed-wrist Keychains (none matches my two klickies, nor yours StJohn), four dated 1978, so our keychain heads would fit the timeline.

Anyone with a fixed-wrist keychain (Sylvia?) might be able to help here. I don't collect them, but the few I have don't have this head type, there is a central column into which the keychain screws.

Any more details on yours, Tahra?

Thanks StJohn, great photos!

[tahra]

Anyone with a fixed-wrist keychain (Sylvia?) might be able to help here. I don't collect them, but the few I have don't have this head type, there is a central column into which the keychain screws.

The ones I dechained were like that too - the inside of the head is different.. Don't think I ever did that to a fixed wrists one.. no idea if I have any (to dechain or mount3, if so - we don't do keychains )

Any more details on yours, Tahra?

Now I can't find the pic...

[klickyklack]

(oops, necroposting again, sorry!)

WOW!  This is fantastic, thank you for your research & dedication Graham! Needless to say my small crew of fixed hand klickys are going to be experiencing a lot of bending over & scalping for examination over the next couple of days.

Question re. frames.  What if the frames are neither matched colour OR white/off white?  I have 2 all yellow guys that I've been wondering about (moulded head, no ears, ONO frame, closed b, rounded edge? type 7?) but they have black frames. 

[GrahamB]

Black frames were found on some Playpeople klickies assembled* by Marx Toys in Swansea between 1975 and 1980.

All Playpeople klickies had fixed wrists, so it's quite likely that if you get fixed-wrist klickies from a UK source, they will be Playpeople.

Playpeople klickies are not really that much different from German klickies of that era, but if such things are important to you, I believe it is possible to distinguish these klickies from German- (or Malta-) manufactured ones, by looking for one or more features (e.g. black skeleton on a figure with non-black torso and/or non-black legs), but I haven't got around to posting all the features to look for on here yet (Interest in Playpeople PM is strictly a niche interest, restricted to Brits, apart from the dark blue British Bobby figure with helmet, unique to Playpeople, which seems more widely valued by collectors outside the UK), perhaps I should do that....

Some colour combinations were unique to Playpeople klickies too, see here.


*I have been unable to discover whether Marx Toys actually manufactured any parts; I suspect they assembled klickies and sets from parts manufactured by Geobra in Germany and Malta.

[klickyklack]

Black frames were found on some Playpeople klickies assembled* by Marx Toys in Swansea between 1975 and 1980.

All Playpeople klickies had fixed wrists, so it's quite likely that if you get fixed-wrist klickies from a UK source, they will be Playpeople.

Playpeople klickies are not really that much different from German klickies of that era, but if such things are important to you, I believe it is possible to distinguish these klickies from German- (or Malta-) manufactured ones, by looking for one or more features (e.g. black skeleton on a figure with non-black torso and/or non-black legs), but I haven't got around to posting all the features to look for on here yet

Thank you Graham!  I think I'd done a search for black frame & nothing had come up, I should have looked for black skeleton!)     The link to your other thread is most helpful!

The Marx ones feel very different to me than the German klickys of the same era, plastic feels lighter & more brittle (more like the feel of the 1974 ones, or maybe I'm imagining this!?).