T is for Three-ring Circus

Except it's only got the one ring and a small one at that, but the magic of photography means we can have a three-ring circus if we want one!

Bought this at that last Birmingham show in 2011, and though I'd not sorted it, but I had slipped it into the mixed civilian and sports box, mainly because it had come apart so was easy to slip down the side of the tubs with the pack of figures on top of the mixed circus tub! Luckily it still holds together for a photo, and I scanned it flat at the same time.

Three rings; mostly the same-old-same-old copies of Crescent's set, seen before here in miniature and under Maysun and generic HK marks, these are generics, indeed, the performing seal has no marks at all.

But there are other items of less obvious piracy; I love the polar-bear playing the horn, while the animal trainer is looking a tad French or American in origin? I thought the clown might ride the elephant, but actually he only falls off the elephant, but he does stand-up independently, so 'just' a clowning clown!

I have lost track of these, I have a bunch with the unknown dancers, a bunch with the unknown cake-decorations, a bunch with the unknown novelties and a bunch of small-scale/mini's, she has been copied so often it's silly; with Britains, Fontanini and Gem (in addition to Crescent's dancer) to plagiarise, there's bloody hundreds of them!

The day anyone gets a Tiger to balance on four balls for even an instant is probably the day he or she dies a wild and savage death - from a thousand claw-strikes! I think someone misheard an antiques-dealer talking about 'lions-claw ball-feet', too funny? Bear's bloody brilliant!

The monkey can't ride the horse as it's got Crescent's great ostrich-plume 'palm-frond' growing out of its back! However, he does manage to ride the elephant quite well! You can see from these 'bag-opening' mint figures (lots of paint-chips in the bottom of the bag though) that the glossy-plastic monkey has probably been bought-in from a different source to the chalky elephant?

We've seen these two before, they came-in a year or so ago, but they do suggest that the contents list of the above set may be fluid and changeable from batch to batch or even box-to-box?

Crescent clown and 'berserker' conspire to deal with the piracy! And you thought Crescent's clown had a stupid nose!

Because the circus tub was underneath; Not a full set, but under the paint of the bear and the clown are four matching yellow polystyrene (hard plastic) figures who must belong to a larger set.

One's first thought is cake decorations, but they've been glued onto something . . . in fact . . . I vaguely remember removing them from some article or infant toy, I recall the lions paw disintegrated and I had to build it back-up from three crumbly pieces! So there may be something in the files? Music-box, clockwork toy, covered-lid, something like that?

The clown looks well-pleased with himself, but I think the tiger's too close for a clean-shot in the time left-available and a flag saying 'bang' never saved a breakfast from happening - the bear knows exactly what's coming . . . ulp!

Cum'mon lazy-bones', you've got a show to put-on!