S is for Swansea

Still haven't worked out why that post migrated the other day, which is a worry as I want to add some more content to the Airfix blog, and if it's unpublished preloaded pages are going to migrate when I set them live I'm going to lose the chronological order I set when I created the thing...doh! At which point I may just bring it all over here to join everything else?

In the meantime, here's a great favourite of mine, the Marx Noah's Ark from Swansea...

The granddaddy of all those Blue Box and other Hong Kong Arks - some of which (post Blue Box versions) were still available from Bible shops a few years ago? No, not really, the HK ones are mostly based on the Miniature Masterpiece version.

This differs from the small scale one and the wannabes by having a set of wheels hidden in recesses which become 'Feed' and 'Water' stores from the inside, a more ornate ramp (some of the HK ones don't even have a ramp!), sloping gable-ends to the roof and it lacks the sliding door of its diminutive brethren.

The animals are similar the the US 54mm set, but are not quite the same, having the same poses but a smoother finish. I really like these, they have a lot in common with the Kellogg's ones we looked at HERE, and when I first encountered these I though they were the unknown big-cats in that post, but again these are too smooth!

It's worth looking at THIS Merit post as well and comparing, as both are clearly the same beast; aimed at infants, lots of large colourful pieces, educational, biblical (still 'good' in the 1960/70's!) and tons of non-warlike play-value.