H is for Heudebert

So...I said we'd look at some of the Heudebert flats which came from Brian at the Plastic Warrior show and here is the first lot...a set (or sets?) of farm animals and rural 'types'. Unusual in being soft plastic, which probably dates them later than most 'margarine flats' in the mid 1970's?

I say 'sets' with a question mark, as it seems most of the 'small' animals and poultry are in white or cream, while the larger pieces are in chocolate browns. However The exceptions (cat on pot, or foal) are not found in the opposite colour, so I suspect they are the one set, on two moulding-tools, produced in contrasting colours, but there's a possibility they may have been complimentary sets a few months or a year or so apart?

Equally it may be that you got a white/cream one in  a smaller retail unit, and a brown one in a larger pack? Heudebert seem to be producers of bready-biscuity things, "processed bakery products" these days! It should also be noted that 19 is an odd number, not just on the number scale but also for an issue of premiums, so there may be a missing 20th item from the set/sets, ducks are notable in their absence, as are piglets?

I would tentatively suggest these might have been manufactured by Jean Hoefler, despite being flat, they bare several 'hallmarks' of Jean in design and material. but that's pure conjecture on my part! I haven't put Jean in the tag list for now, maybe a German viewer can help here?

There are three types of base mark (or lack of mark!), being from the top, HEUDEBERT, Made in west Germany and blank. The second being very much on the Jean style.

Colours are from very dark plain-chocolate brown (blank bases) through darker milk-chocolates ('Jean' Germany mark) and pale milk-chocolates which are the Heudebert marked ones.

The 'white' set comes in pure grey or blueish whites and creamier colours with no base mark 'rule'!

The largest moulding - by length - suffers from distortion of the type you get from early removal of the moulding from the tool, before the plastic resin has set properly otherwise known as 'shrinkage'.

One other thing to note is that Heudebert did do a set of hard plastic farm premiums in that typical 'margarine' flat ivorene-look styrene, so these might have been issued from a German production facility at the same time as the styrene ones were being issued elsewhere? Clearly more to discover or tie-down with this set!