Thursday, December 10, 2015
F is for Fake French Flats
Actually a couple of these are the original French food premiums (there's a full set in JC Piffret's Figurines Publicitaires) a book you must have on your shelves if you wish to study plastic shite! I haven't got it in front of me so I can't remember the make/issuer (if anyone's got theirs to hand?), but it matters not....
...as this sample contains vehicles from at least four sets; French originals (green sedan), Hong Kong and China (most of the rest) and an unknown lumpy gold one. They are also a mix of hard styrene, soft ethylene and a harder propylene, so here as a guide only, because they've come-in and because they're plastic shite!
They don't appear do have any base to sit them upright - that would be kinda difficult for a youngin' to play with. Most flats have at least a minimal base so that they can stand on their own.
ReplyDeleteThey are very odd Ed, which is why I passed over them so quickly! They may have had a deep card album you could sit them in, it's not shown in Piffret's book as far as I can remember, but there was a craze for them in the late 60's and early 70's, coins, badges, shields etc...you sent away for the album (or picked it up at a garage/service station or shop/store - depending on the promoter/promotion) and placed the things in the little cut-out indentations.
ReplyDeleteI've had the Sedan before in a British Christmas cracker, so the moulds and their clones have done the rounds! With a French original there is a chance of getting them to balance on the tyres which are slightly flat round the outside edge, but basically you're right, they'd have limited play value?
H