I is for Is Nothing Sacred!

Well; what to make of this when you first see it . . . from Hong Kong, to Italy, to Germany, to the Potter's Sandown Park toy fair and then . . . into the stash! Where it should be safe for a decade or two.

Yes; it is exactly what it looks like . . . almost! A Hong Kong copy of a Britains Mini-Set, apparently made for an Italian importer/jobber; GIG, which as several Italian toy firms both old and current have a Gio...g... in their long-titles is no real help, but as none have turned-up in the US or UK, the inference has to be an Italian exclusive, as some Baravelli (or Solpa in Greece) stuff is relatively unique.

The still extant GiG were importers of more universal/generic 'army men' at the same time they were carrying the Galoob Star Wars mini-figures and LRG knock-offs, they fit the bill, and I suspect are the same company, despite the different logo-font?

The Britains original as advertised on the retail shop door-card (left) with errors and in the catalogues (right) with some errors corrected (shield/bow hand), and a headdress which better resembles the sticker actually issued, however the rear Indian is still not crouched enough.

The clones, rather obscured by the packaging - one day I may open it carefully, but I'd rather look out for loose copies now I know they're out there! The cowboy is coloured more to match the other Wild West Mini-Set, but the Indians are a good likeness and they got round the sticker-issue by painting-on the headdress.

Britains set less the small dead tree/shrub for which I still need the base! These are a funny thing and worth a bit of pontification;

As a small-scale-only, private collector for the longest time, usually on a low budget, I have picked-up most of them (no tractor and the footballers are a bit slim-on-the-ground!) as bits & pieces in job lots over the years, these are from a bagful' with lots of figures, two trees, a little tree, no outline base and a shortage of individual-bases in all colours, I'll get the missing bits in the end, but . . . with three base colours, there must have been quite a bit of production.

Now - once I'd become more involved in the public hubby, it became clear from their dialogue that I was in 'competition' (to locate/purchase) with the 54/60mm guys, who had come down a scale and 'rated' these because they were Britains AND because 'They weren't very popular and are really rare - especially the late six', but actually they're not!

Even the second tranche can be found (I saw three tractors on the weekend just gone - two on one stall), and as bits there are a few at every show I attend. The boxed sets, or even complete sets are hard to find intact due to the number of small pieces per set, so their premium price might be deserved due to rarity (but there's a lot of ex-shop stock around still), but overall, I think they have been appended a mythology (and value!) they don't actually merit.

Funnily-enough, or ironically; if one set seems rare, it's the second diver set (with shark), which we (my brother and I) had as kids!

The clone's tree is slightly smaller, with simplified branches, but a bigger vulture! The 'outline' or containing-base is a lot larger than the Britains one, which was quite tight from the outer-edge to the individual-base edges. The vulture is also painted, unlike Britains', and with a green tree; the copyist has almost made a better set!

There were colour-variations with the Britains figures too, again pointing to a larger volume of production, if not actual sales.