Back to the very lowest price bracket for rack toys with these, which are - without doubt - Interesting Toys. A shilling (1-) was 12 old pence, which became 10 New Pence - I think! Heay, I'm a child of post-decimalization, no good asking me about florins and shit, init!
It seems that these were a 'brand'; for as I find more of them, the evolution of the card art through the 1960-70's is clear and the contents are pretty consistent on colour/style, with a slight improvement in value for money in the later 1970's multi-blister versions.
On the left is the missing set from the Monogram post the other day! The middle is a mix of real low-budget, cake-dec, novelty cack isn't it? Two sports cars, a yacht without a sail, a railway passenger coach and a bottom-voiding ore-carrier! The one on the right is a low-res from feebleBay and is presented as it seems to have a logo, but a bit blurry to fully make out.
I'd like it to be a large 'G' with the lower line being an artistic PMS as that would be the Gardener's firm; a stalwart of the colony's toy industry before 1973, but I know it's just wishful thinking, it seems to be some kind of sea serpent, or maybe a graphical realisation of a Chinese character/pictogram?
These two we've seen before; both two- and three-blister cards with slightly better contents. Airfix guardsmen copies, ex-Giant poses of Trojan/Greco-Roman types (mixed with ex-Woolbro pose Cowboys & Indians! And the MPC mini-plane piracies we've seen before.
A quick look at the figures in the right-hand card might lead you to think they are Britains copies, a closer look will reveal Airfix in the mix, but a study of the figures shows that actually they are copies of the EKO copies of the aforementioned firm's figures, the Airfix poses having the egg-shaped bases of the EKO, rather than the usual square ones of Airfix, and with the crawling figure EKO also copied being present.
Interesting, indeed!
ReplyDeleteGlad you were interested Jan!
ReplyDeleteH