T is for Toro, Toro (Taxi)

Skateaway - Dire Straits

So we are looking today at one of the less tasteful subjects in the world of toy figures (as if celebrating war and soldiery isn't itself already too far for some!!), Bullfighting, the slow and tortuous demise of otherwise healthy animals for the enjoyment of the braying masses of Rome and their hideous Emperors...er...except this is here, today, 'post modern', civilised, 21st century, now...

I spent some time on Google trying to identify these, and while once or twice I thought Reamsa was 'in the frame', I think these are actually all Jecsan, I'm not sure on the bull though, and the guy far top-right has a slightly different base?

The three to the left in this one all seem to be Comansi, while the forth figure - on the far right (you have to be pretty far right to torture animals for pleasure!) would seem to be more of a tourist piece, or that quintessential of Spanish toys a 'kiosk toy'. The guy with both arms raised may be missing two swords or 'estoque'.

For some reason which totally escapes me - given we have no bull rings - the Brits got in on the toy bullfighting act, not once but twice? In the upper shot we see two of the Charbens Bullfighting set with their characteristic semi-flatness, while the lower shot shows a couple of pieces from the even less common Cherilea offering...the bull standing in a life-draining puddle of its own blood seeming to sum-up the nature of the subject and my opinion of it.

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