M is for Minty'mals

Editing the Land Rover reminded me I was going to post these two, and as the 'Rover post was a bit sparse, I thought I'd chuck these up here as a sort of 'Bonus Post'!

I think these are from Dave Scrivener's collection, in a roundabout way, purely from where I found them and the reason I bought them is simply - they are near mint. An oft misused word, and the paint isn't perfect on the Ant Eater, but these Cherilea animals are notorious for shedding their paint if you so much as look at them wrong, so to find these in such condition is a definite feather in one's cap - and; (Vichy!) that's not me being big-headed, that's me stating a fact and proving it by sharing them with everyone else!

The Otter, as this is smaller than the one I'm more used to seeing I'm guessing (not assuming!) it's from the hollow-cast sculpt, and would be therefore; the earlier, the more common one is much Larger, but I don't know for sure.

Again this is smaller than others I've seen, as a matter of fact this is the first time I've seen either of them in this size. Possibly not the best rendition of a South American ant-eater; it looks more like a hyena with a long nose and very furry tail!

Who remembers David Attenborough standing next to one (anteater, not hyena) and saying something along the lines of "the reason I can stand so close to this animal is that is eye-sight is not very good and it's nearly deaf, so as long as I stay down-wind of it, I can get very close" at which point; as if on cue, the animal turned and peered at the cameraman (clearly up-wind) and flicked it's tongue like a snake, as if to say "...but I can smell you!"

Monday 27th - Looks like they are actually Hillco? Cherilea did a larger Otter, but it must have been a scaled-up piracy or after they obtained Hill's intellectual property?

Because the above is a bit brief, I've tacked this on as an afterthought. Does anyone know why this particular PVC model elephant, marked 'MADE IN TAIWAN' is so blinking common? I think I have a few other animals with a Taiwan-mark somewhere in storage (one of this, one of that), but I've picked up six of these without trying in the last few years, and have a bag-full in the storage unit.

Literally every mixed junk-lot of animals and/or small-scale stuff you see on feebleBay seems to have one, every rummage tray at shows, every animal bag in charity-shops, it's as if there's a secret never-ending supply of them somewhere.

It's not Corgi (nor Dinky or Matchbox), yet at some point was issued somewhere in large numbers. I wondered if it was the Arco pair until we blogged that a year ago, I'm now wondering if it was a popular board-game - long since forgotten - some Tarzan or Daktari-related TV Tie-in? If anyone knows I'd be interested.

And it's perfect for smaller Asian (or the mythical Atlas Mountain) war elephants in 1:76th scale!