HCF is for Heavy Cob; Flocked

51! - I picked this up in one of my regular trawls of the charity shops a week ago, it looked like it ought to have a wagon attached, but I'm not so sure now?

Made by (or claimed-by) HCF who have appeared here on Small Scale World several times, they (HCF) obviously cornered the market in novelty tat - badges, Robertson's Golliwog pencil sharpeners, Star Wars erasers, 'Battleground' rack-toys and with the lovely flocked Paddington's - flocked novelty tat . . . the flocking flockers!

It's certainly the sort of thing you find attached to kitsch, wheeled, mantle-shelf 'ornaments' or keepsakes (you know the type of thing, a wooden and plastic Spanish two-wheeled 'tumbrel' with a glass or ceramic sherry-miniature in the shape of a barrel) , and is the same kind of heavy horse, but there is no evidence of it having ever been attached to anything, no glue-remnants on the reins, no damage to the six rings at the end of the chains, no signs of side-poles or ropes.

So my suspicion is that while it may have been made for (and occasionally/originally sold with-) wagon models, this particular one was probably sold in canal-side or other waterway gift shops and visitor centres, as a stand-alone, tourist trinket of a long-boat or narrow-boat 'tug'?

It's construction is quite complicated; the base is a blow-moulded farm horse which - once it has been flocked - takes various glued or pierced additions such as faux-leather PVC (the same stuff car-seats were made of), PVC tubing, cloth scraps, steel rings, brass studs, alloy chains & mouldings (the large buckle), card scraps and some paper stickers - the only item obviously missing is a balancing gold star over the right hand side's eye-blinker.

Comparison with a rather chewed Timpo horse I happened to have kicking around (I won't tag it, it's purely for size); the real reason I grabbed it is - or was - because while most of the mantle-wagons are 1:large-scale heaps of wooden and polymer shite, this is basically a blow-moulded, tailless, piracy of a Britains cart-horse and near to 54mm . . . bargain! Indeed, the one other thing which may be missing (other than a possible whole wagon!) is a 'real' hair tail, although there's no sign of there having ever been one?

I suspect HCF are/will turn out to be also responsible for both the un-flocked and flocked Womble pencil-tops/figurines you see from time to time.