F is for Follow-up - A Shepherd and His Dog

More of a return than a follow-up, it was a while since we looked at this here, and there's as many images this time, but last time I shot it in a hurry at a show, this time it was a cheapie from a Charity shop, so I pawed all-over it before the bulk went in the recycling, leaving me with the figures/accessories

Better shot of the box-lid, the boy in his shirt-sleeves rather belies the older Britains piracy within, which maybe why there's a photo of the game in play as well! A photograph which seems to be using all-Britains products!

It's not clear in these shots I'm afraid, but I can assure you the farmer is the same moulding as the orange and grey chap to his left as we look at them. The crook has been hefted-up to survive repeated handling, but the mould mark visible on the grey base is repeated in the orange figure. Flashing and gate-marks are also in the same places and of the same appearance.

To the left is a commoner, larger copy of the Britians original - who is himself - on the far right, as a late PVC one, made in Hong Kong. The fences on mine are of the same quality as the Merit ones seen last time (i.e. better than all the HK-marked ones in mini-farm sets), but are unmarked, so a possible conclusion is that the Merit ones were probably replacements, although Spear's may have procured two batches, one from Randall's the other HK?

We looked at the other version's set here

Of more interest that the sheep which are 'after' but not 'of' the Britains examples is the dog, which is almost certainly from the Britains mould.

Whether this was with the knowledge of Britains or their HK agents, or a back-door door job at the factory remains to be discovered, but there's nothing in the moulding, nothing in the paint to ID him separately if you don't find him in the box (he's on the right in both shots), and I don't think it's s second case of replacement, this was an unused set.

While I had them out! A living graph of the various Britains sheep generations, oldest on the left, newest (Tomy PVC) on the right! The Spears is to the far left with a resting Blue Box above it. In the 1970's at some point the dog was simplified and given a straighter head/longer nose.

The first generation were better detailed (the grubby one seems to be an owner added over-wash), then they lost some of that etched definition, as such they ran for the longest time, eventualy switching to both Hong Kong and PVC. Toward the end of 'Real' Britians (under/as Britains Petite?) they got a new colour-way, and finally you have the have the new Tomy vinyl sculpt, which keeps only the scale!

Being far more common than Toy Soldiers, these come in with charity-shop bags all the time now, and with some in storage, we'll do a better 'graph' with more stages in the future. My Barny Brown/Peter Cole guides are in storage, they have better timing/date info, than the quick 'overview' here.

Board!

Still bored!