F is for Follow-up - Gem Models

A couple of things which have either been raised in the past as being 'in storage' or coming out of a recent Gem post, and starting with the recent post . . .

How they come in!

. . . I got a Tom the Piper's Son figure at the last Sandown Park show (next one's only two weeks away), and had totally forgotten when buying it that I already had one!

Fortunately, the one I had has the other piglet! So now I have a small convoy (or patrol?) of Tom's stealing pigs, with the new on having a piglet looking to the left (looking - in fact - rather surprised at its predicament; it has to be said!), while the older one has a piglet looking forwards.

The third piglet I'm not sure about, it's overall quality and finish is just a cut above the normal production of Gem/Festival, and I'm not convinced it's Gem at all, it's even finer than the other farm animals, it's feet-bottoms are neatly flat to the same plane.

I have been assured by a collector of some repute whom I respect greatly for his knowledge, particularly of animals, that it is Gem and it's also in the PW Special on Gem, as Gem, so I've put it in the Gem box, but with a note stubbornly stating I'm not 100% convinced!

It's hard to explain, but the quality of the sculpt is just way above the normal output of Mr. Musgrave, it's more 'manufactured' or engineered than the other production; comparing the piglet to the other two is like comparing a Marx 54mm GI with a Gem snowman, the etching is fine-lined and the surface smooth against the rougher, hand-finished effect of the other two . . . if that makes sense! Anyway; I'm giving it a big question-mark until I know the context that lead to its being voted Gem!

Arguing against myself, the candle-holders of Festival, particularly the racing cars have similar high production-values, and the later Festival-for-Culpitts slot-together Santa is equally commercial, so maybe this larger piglet is from that 'tail-end' era?

I think I have referred to these several times while looking at other stuff, or even smaller numbers of these? The A1 - Spaceman from Gem, who I've always thought of as a spacewoman, and the fact that the catalogue says otherwise won't stop me thinking of 'her' as a space-babe!

Now, I think the order of the above is two Gem-for-Culpitt/s on the left (chalky, marbled, more paint - black lead in icing . . . Mummmm . . . Nom-nom-Nomnivore!), two Culpitts under licence from Gem (minimal paint, shiny ethylene, less shrinkage) in the middle and a Culpitt copy (with or without George's permission) on the right?

It must be said that there are size variations of other Gemodels stuff though, so they may all be from the one place. But I suspect it was reduced in the 1970's to run-through their (Culpitt's) packing-line and fit their new plastic counter-stock display units and revolving catering-shop dispensers; both of which had small compartments.

Most of the height loss has been achieved by removing the middle-depth of the base, but deeper sculpting of the harness and air-lines, along with feet further apart (and a saggy bottom!) suggest a copy rather than a pantograph or a chop to the tool.

That the copy is so similar would suggest it was with Musgrave's knowledge, if not involvement.

The fact that they all look slightly different sizes in the first shot is down to slight curvature away from the blue figure caused by holding the camera too close and at a slight angle.