Preparing stuff for a future page...actually: preparing stuff for the existing HK Khaki Infantry page and the
Airfix Blog, I kept getting confused by shots in two folders, eventually I 'realised' I'd shot the same set twice..."But hold on" I thought..."One of these folders is for the
Britains/Crescent stuff, the other is for the
Airfix stuff...what's going on here?"
Well, those naughty pirates in 1950/60's Hong Kong were plagiarising each other with some skill and confusing me years later, so as an exercise in how devious they all were - I give you:
Army Moving Parts Vehicles...parts I and parts II!
Side by side and a quick glance...they're the same set aren't they, artwork's a bit fuzzy on the right-hand one...or a bit sharp on the left-hand one, other than that, the same set. Aaahhh! But....the figures are different? Must have run out and bought some others in, to finish a contract?
Well, maybe, but it's a little subtler than that...everything is different...everything! Upper shots and left shots below are all of the left-hand set, lower/right are the right-hand set...
The mini
Humber trucks are two different sizes and equate to two different classes in the posts I
did on the subject, the left set having the little spoke-wheeled ones with black plug-ins (my 'Type 4'), the right set having metal-axles and solid wheels with green plug-ins (my 'Type 6A').
The artwork is done using different printing systems, one litho-plated, the other a form of three-colour screen-print, the artwork and font copied none-too-accurately, with only one having a stock-number.
One has the 100-figure card copies of
Airfix, the other having copies of
Britains Lilliput 'Trooscale' troops.
But this is where the depth of the piracy becomes obvious, if not incredible....the same two aircraft types, placed similarly on the card, but from two sources, the one pair being well detailed with stars on the wings, the other pair blob'ier with HONG KONG across the wings. That's a lot of effort to go to for what was probably little reward. But - any reward is worth whatever it takes!
Wheels and tyres...different!
Axles and chassis - different! Marks...
...gun-mounts, guns, even (slightly) the drivers; all different.
A close-up of the two artworks, this isn't based on photography or photocopying, this is carefully copying everything in the original...poorly!
I suspect the one on the right is the original, probably locked into an exclusivity contract with a Western importer/jobber, the one on the left was copied to be hawked round the toy centres. We'll never know, but it's a fascinating example of how they worked in HK back then...no honour among thieves! More on thieves in a week or two...
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