F is for Follow-up - Coca-cola Flats . . . not!

Having only just posted the soft, polyethylene (or polypropylene) grey versions of these the other day, I was surprised to find a chocolate-brown one in a mixed lot of mostly modern vinyl from a charity shop a few weeks ago; I hung-on to it, knowing I'd have the rest out of storage any minute and here they all are! They raise several points to note -

So . . . firstly, the new one is the lion, bottom left, to his left and running back up to the top are the grey ones from a while ago and the rest is a complete vintage set in white polystyrene, along with a creamy-white plastic 'Euro-premium' variant of the lioness - bottom right-hand corner.

Secondly, the TRUE Coca-cola premiums (of which I have none!) have deeper bases with title messages running around the rim, ergo; I now believe these probably came first as 'Euro-premiums', and a deeper base was employed for the Coke premiums, making the South African addition (a Springbok) worth its 'premium' price, as it must be a separate, small tool, never re-issued.

Coke's Fanta brand issued 12 birds, with the same heavy bases and also in addition to - or because of the Sprinkbok - Coke didn't use the camel sculpt from this set, presumably/or because the offer was in sub-Saharan Southern-Africa, and camels are from the Sahel and Arabia far to the North?

Link To Thread on STS

But . . . thirdly; the original set's tool (for the other 21 animals) does seem to have been re-used, and quite recently, I've been collecting these for an age, and to find two new types a few months apart, in a new plastic type and colours, looking very new is more than simple coincidence?

I increasingly suspect something interactive (like hollow building-blocks, or Phidal type books, but for even younger readers) however; they might just be out there as Cracker-prizes or gum-ball machine capsule contents?

Last time I was wont to suggest they are recent, now I think they might be, I also highlighted the water-buffalo's heavy base as being more like the Coke ones, but it was always heavier, and lastly I now think these were probably first or stand-alone, not a re-shot of the Coca-cola mould, but rather something in a product mould-catalogue for Coke (and/or others) to pick-out.