A pictogram of this particular 'family' of
Noah and his kin, with probably newest at the top and oldest toward the bottom
. . . at the top we see the same Noah we saw earlier this morning, with the
wife he is sometimes accompanied by, having no base and a pair of healthy feet,
if rather chunky on her, having been added to a sculpt which didn't originally
have them; they being covered by a flowing dress/toga!
Below them are a late set of the plug-based
figures, six poses with simple paint, these are all copies of the old Marx poses, unlike the Noah. Further
down are earlier versions with other paint schemes with an extra colour (belts,
collars etc...) and - finally - a third version of Mrs. Noah, having her
base-plug spigots closer-together.
The blue guy, extreme left is another pose from
the next shot's full set . . .
. . . which seem to be from Blue Box, or at least Tai Sang, having the same base marking
as their cowboys, knights and the equally pink-plastic road-menders we looked
at a year and a half ago in the Lucky
figures overview, where I seem to have awoken the Vichy (and others) to Scalextric!
Because I'd half done this article before
things started coming out of storage the 1st image above was going to be tacked-on
to the earlier post as a vague comparison, but then I found - and photographed
separately - these two lots, being a whole set and the bag of 'bits &
pieces'.
We now have four men and four women, all
from the original Marx Miniature
Masterpiece sets but in soft polyethylene. These are probably the older
sculpts with the changes to bases, Noah's wife[s] and the invention of the
older Noah being later developments.
Above; Classic Blue-Box base mark, below; three versions of Noah's wife.
While Blue
Box did mark-up some of the better Noah's Arks, with these figures, I
wouldn't mind betting the parent (Tai
Sang) is behind most of them. This is not to suggest they are all made by
them, but that they had a hand in their constant production (and changes) for
the many European/US importers shipping them. Most of the animal sculpts used -
whether good or poor - have their origins in Red Box/Blue Box stuff and all the figure generations have a lineage
from these.
I'm sure also they wouldn't want to be
directly associated with a lot of the sets, some of which are complete shite,
but when you go on the HK-Chinese social-media sites researching toys you find
that while they often mention Marx
and sometimes mention firms like Harbour
Lights, Herald Holdings or even Soma, it's Blue Box who get the most mentions (not Tai Sang, the buildings all had Blue
Box on them!), and that's because they were one of the power-houses in the
colony and would have many contacts (and contracts!) with the shippers,
FOB'ers, importers, exporters and others who seem to have been copying their
animals, figures and large cubit-by-cubit vessel, willy-nilly? I think there
was a nod and a wink tipped from Tai Sang
for most of these sets? There's another clue below.
These are copied from the missing
(unpainted) figures and come from Pagget
Brother's take; Cat No.5009465 - Noah’s Ark, which I obtained back when I was a
small-scale collector, so I fear the contents went to the great polymer god in
the sky, many moons ago! However, note the strange protrusions on the base of
the Noah figure . . .
. . . which seem very similar to the
protrusions on the bases of the two foot figures associated with the Einco bagged Indian Village set. That set came with the horses I call 'Pony',
which also come in Ri-Toys branded
sets (without the foot figures!), Rado
carried a lot of the copies of Blue Box
(including the French Resistance figures!) and ran the old Marx moulds for Marksmen
until everyone piled-in and the market collapsed! It's another clue see; Marx-Blue Box-Ri Toys . . . wheels
within wheels!
By the time you read this I will have posted two articles on the small-scale HK 'But Is It Giant' Blog pertaining to these Indian figures.
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