H is for Houshold Cavalry (Blues and Royals)

It is I'm sure no coincidence that all three of the 60mm'ish sets of ceremonial foot figures of the British Army's Household Cavalry seem to be rather similar to each other. Produced by (alphabetically); Cherilea, Crescent and Marx - Swansea.

The fact that they mostly come in several variations of paint, plastic colour or plastic type means that with little effort and a bit of judicious feeBaying you could get quite a display of these together in a short time should you wish?

Top we have 'Marching with Sword' and from left to right they are;

• Marx, white hard polystyrene plastic, possibly a repaint.
• Marx, cream, polyethylene, factory painted
• Cherilea, white with green base
• Cherilea, red with black base
• Crescent

Note the mould variation in the two Cherilea figures shown in the swords and the breast-plate straps. The middle photo (again from the left) is showing 'Standing with Sword';

• Marx, cream, polyethylene, factory painted
• Cherilea, red with black base
• Cherilea, red with green base
• Marx Nylon/Polypropylene (?) re-issue (Marksmen?)

Note - again - how the two Cherilea's are different heights/moulds. Finally we have trumpeters, three from Marx, all cream ethylene and a Crescent.
This guy is quite problematical; he appears at first glance to be a factory painted Marx figure, but closer inspection reveals that A) he's made of the same nylon'ish plastic as the re-issue above and B) the painting is 'clean' yet of poor quality, so he would seem to be a more recent tourist item sourced from China, or a re-issue painted by someone who (to be kind...) had little experience of such painting?!!

Finally we have the other member of the Household Cavalry produced by Cherilea, in the chunky-based mounted range,half his sword is sadly still in a Russian gunner somewhere in the Crimea!

These come in various plastic colours and paint schemes, but I've never seen one painted as a Horse Guard ('Blues'), as indeed I've never seen the Crescent figures as anything other than 'Royals', excepting those re-painted by their owners.