B is for Biblical Blokes and Babes

A quick look at one family of these Noah's ark figurines, there is another 'family' (single moulding or 'monoblock' figures, unpainted with round bases, but I can't find them, so we'll look at them another time), these are all - with the exception of Noah - taken from the original Marx sculpts.

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.