B is for Bouncysaurus and Buffalo, or is it Bison

Nah! Yer wash yer'hands in a by'son! An oldie but goodie! And it could be a wisent!

These are funny little novelty items, I bought a fair few about 10-15 years ago, mostly from a party shop down near Eastbourne somewhere, but a few nearer home (somewhere in Aldershot - I think?), there are Soldiers, footballers and tiny little sky-divers around 1:300-compatible in formations, a nice set of Arctic/Antarctic mammals (Killer-whale, dolphins, seals, sea-lions, walruses &etc.), fish and something else I can't remember because they are all in storage! No matter we can look at them again one day, and in the meantime these were on Clearance at the Toysaurus for a quid the other day.

What looks like a Gaur (or poorly sculpted Wildebeest?), the Bison/Buffalo/Wisent type, and a crested dinosaur, now imported by AI&E of the Netherlands. The dino is in an all-clear, hard-silicon or Whan-o secret-formula type polymer, while the two ruminants get a background of coloured flecks which are magnified into a washed out swirly-greenery effect.

One of the lots I bought way-back was an end-of-line, so I talked the shop-assistant into letting me keep the tub, as a result most of them are kept in the tub, but I always cut a few free - as samples - for future posts like this one!

You can see how much the magnification-effect is, when you release one, they are actually very small, but equally at home with Airfix soldiers and their ilk; here shown with Atlantic buffalo. Atlantic did two sets of these, one set slightly smoother (illustrated) than the other, add the bouncy-ball one and a couple of Priser's and you've got a fine heard with few duplicates!

You can also see the layering involved in getting the various elements in place. The skydivers I mentioned above are palced in their pairs, or diamonds or circles around what would be the 'Tropic of Capricorn', while below them (at the 'Tropic of Cancer') is a small disc with an aerial photograph of a landscape 'far below'. Others have both a whole-coloured and clear halves. While the soldiers and footballers are a disappointment freed of the ball, as they have no base!