T is for Tower Fortress (with Soldiers!)

Thanks go to James Opie for both these sets, neither of which is the Giant brand! There were thousands of these Hong Kong sets produced from the late 50's to the switch to 'China' marks in the early 90's as HK geared up for the return of the colony to the mother country in '97.

Very few were ever marked Giant, or of Giant quality, and because Giant was nothing more than an American trade-mark, even when it's from Giant sources, the packaging is as often-as-not unmarked. These two however aren't even of Giant quality.

Bought by Mr. Opie in Islington in March 1967 for the then princely sum of 3 shillings and eleven-pence (no wonder my mother would never let me buy them!), a quite good 2nd generation copy of the Giant fort, with the 'mongol' tower tops and flags, and a set of Greco-roman warriors based on Britains and Marx originals.

Check-out the artwork, a Roman Centurion is yelling expletives at a Mongol warlord while two rather cheeky looking (not allowed to use 'gay' anymore!) Guardsmen smile rather too-knowingly, are they wearing make-up!?!

A year later and Bristol is going all ceremonial, the price was the same (Ah! the days before the oil-crises!), but the card had been changed to a printed courtyard you could set the fort up on, nice added play value but who was going to be that careful removing the staples!

This set includes the guardsmen with separate heads and swivel waists, based on the Crescent 60mm set, and first seen here as 'Royal Guards' (click on 'Ceremonial' and it's the third post down), and the card is sometimes found over-printed with the Woolbro label, under which guise it appeared a while ago (Click 'Carded).

Close-ups of the figures, the ancients are not bad compared to Giant, but the detail isn't there and they are more glossy than the Giant Originals. For those trying to identify all the variations of these, this is the lot with a very small, neat 'HONG KONG' and the chariot mounting-hole blocked up.