L is for Looks Like Wing Lung . . . But Isn't!

As we saw yesterday, Matchbox figures became ripe for piracy as soon as they had been released, taking the pressure off old Britains and Lone Star sculpts and joining Airfix as the origin of choice for copyists in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and increasingly by the 1980's - Mainland China.

With the bulk of my Matchbox copies in storage the figures we are looking at today are all contemporary or very recent, we did have a brief look at older, larger US clones here and the small scale Airfx/Matchbox mix from the 1990's here  while the rest of the figures below are labelled for known sources, where known.

The ones labeled 'USA' came from Brian Berke as a loose sample, but seem to be the same figures as the Funtastic for Poundland ones this side of the pond. The lower insets show how Ocean Desert Sales tampo-marked the base of one of their figures, and a swirly-marbled one.

The grey one is interesting, but his origins remain unknown to me, I'd guess either a small quantity issued as accessories with die-cast toys, or a modern'ish 20¢ price-range capsule/gum-ball prize. The small scale Wing Lung's we looked at yesterday are a tad smaller then the Red Box PVC-rubber chap.

On the left we see the Ocean Desert Sales figures compared to a better sample (both from Brian) in a dense PVC. The sandy coloured ones have a wider pose range and are pretty good copies, the Ocean sculpts being manufactured in a tinny-ethylene and skinnier. Note the guy being shot; the sandy one has a descent Tommy-gun sculpt to let go of; the Ocean guy is dropping a flipper!

To the right are the (known) poses/colours of the smaller figures, except Red Box's Motormax, who I know carried five poses (issued paired in tens) but they are in storage. They also come in various paint styles and I think another 'brand' source is ID'd in the archive.

The Ocean Desert Sales in their bag - Federal German 8th Army! And the full set of Wilkinson's ['Wilco'] figures which I think we've looked at before? We've also looked at the Funtasic and 99p/Poundland stuff quite recently so check the tag list if you missed them first time round.

Brian's sample of loose figures from NY, NY, and two compared to the Chinatroop cheapies which came from Peter Evans and are a slightly smaller copy/sculpt.

The sample from Peter Evans, I'm not 100% sure the two trucks were in the same set, but I seem to have photographed them in sequence and then included them in the collage without paying attention!
The little boats would paint-up well for war gaming, but the drivers/pilots (? Captains!) are a bit wooden. The map is fascinating, trying to tie-in to the Afghanistan 'adventure'.

There are a few non-Matchbox poses in this sample including an ex-Galoob Space Marine and some ex-Airfix chaps. The helicopter too is not that shabby, and a paint-job would bring it to life.

Finally, this came from Toysmith-via-Brian the other day and shows some quite good versions of Matchbox US Infantry clones, the window-box is very similar to the box the Funtastic smallies came-in over here. The figures are clearly marked MADE IN CHINA in the bases, and I find the need for a storage bag a bit ironic . . . "rip that box to bits and get it to landfill ASP kid, stuff the environment!"