S is for Stagecoach by Cofalu

Well, as I suspected the carded set I bought the other day WAS another example of Cofalu, or at least I'm as sure as I can be given that they normally have 'Cofalu' on their packageing and this is not given a makers name. This could be because it was part of an order for a chain of stores who wanted 'generic' packageing?

As it arrived; the bases are unmistakably Cofalu, and while the general 'look' of the packaging and colours of the figures have the appearance of Hong Kong production, they are not marked and HK companies were usually quite keen to mark themselves. Also you could say the same about late production by numerous European and other companies; Comansi/Novalinia ended up using florescent plastics, Remsa and Jean both went for bright colours as indeed did MPC in the US., while Heller/Humbrol chose some wacky colours for Airfix re-issues in the 1980's.

It was what they thought might be the answer to attracting kids who were gravitating to other things, and the main reason most of them went bust/disappeared/bought each other out between the release of Star Wars in 1977, and the final desperate wave of closures in 1980/81.

The card was so far gone, after I'd got a few Photographs saved to disc, I took the contents out and started the fire with what was left of the packaging. Sacrilegious - I know - but sometimes it 'ain't worth the effort!

The Stagecoach, even in a mint set it's missing the lantern not visible to the purchaser, and one piece of luggage (the largest) both signs of a company that is desperate to save money by any means? The horses are crude copies of the Jean horses and I say 'crude' as they are worse than the Blue Box Piracy's!

The guy waving his pistol, who we looked at the other day in red plastic, is - I think - a variation of Cofalu's own Circus animal trainer, made as a food premium, but don't quote me, I'm not that sure...I'll try and check that one! The red plastic Indian here looks vaguely like a Domplastic moulding?

Since writing the first article on Cofalu the other day and doing a bit of research, I realised that one of the figures to have come in in a recent mixed lot was an early factory painted Cofalu cyclist, they did quite a bit of 'Tour de France' type stuff.