F is for Flamable!

Apparently these blow-moulded celluloid figurines can be highly flammable, I suspect that's a 'crossed-lines' thing with old cine-film which was also celluloid, but coated with all manner of chemicals? I can say that despite smoking for 40-odd years I've never had one suddenly combust under my care! Also I think a fair few of these may actually be polystyrene?

The dangers of self-immolation aside, these are a particular niche of the toy figure oeuvre, being almost exclusively a Japanese thing, and relatively short-lived - 1940-50's. Certainly these are all Japanese, and while we looked at my small sample a few years ago, more have come-in and we're looking at them today.

On the left of the upper row are two Royal Guardsmen similar to those we looked at last time, with a small . . . err . . . what? 'Gentleman hobo'? Cartoon character from the '50's? Don't know, but probably a Christmas cracker gift or something of that ilk?

Below them are two cowboys with the same mark although not to scale, and these are the plaster/chalk filled type. I don't know how they did it on the mounted figure; sometimes there is an obvious fill-hole somewhere on the toy, but with this model there is no obvious point for the plaster to have been introduced. With the standing figure it's obvious, he's got an open base with the plaster sanded flat!

Marks on the above figures include a plain 'JAPAN' on the miniature, three 'M's round the edge of a circle with an 'N' in the centre (mounted Guardsman), and smaller 'M' within a 'C' (the two cowboys) and an 'S' in an egg-shaped ovoid itself within an elongated oval on the other Guardsman (different to the previous lot) - I don't know any of the makers . . . yet!

Three Elephants, again the one on the left is a chalk/plaster filled model, the filling prevents the dents and damage these extremely lightweight and brittle novelties otherwise suffer from only too easily.

We've seen the middle one before I think while the one on the right is stylized to the point of being more wrinkly than a really wrinkly thing that's gone to university and had itself elected head of being really wrinkly!

A selection of very small ones, these were probably all cracker or fairground prizes, a forth elephant (I like elephants!), a larger scale sheep, with a similar goat, a polar bear and a rather Sqiudgged turtle . . . or is it a tortoise? The bear is just over 2cm.

This is rather annoying as there is a larger sample of this set in storage (about 12 animals), but somehow I ended-up with the spares here, still they give an idea and it means we can return to them another day, also we saw the bear before - I think! I like bears!

Animal marks, most are unmarked, but the sheep has Japan as do the larger set while the realistically-sculpted elephant has what looks like Tom/Toms, Jon/Jons or Toni? . . . Tono maybe?

Colour variation on the animal set. I like blow-moulded celluloid animals!