Q is for Question Time - Highlanders

These are odd, I had five in storage and picked-up a couple more this year somewhere; PW's show or Sandown Park? I have a feeling someone once told me who made them or where they come from, and they are similar to the Toyway vinyl run of Timpo solid late version combat highlanders (a dense, glossy-painted PVC), but obviously these are parade/musician types with smaller bases.

Upper shot, let top right - the four poses so far discovered by me (that's not a 'discovery', they do turn up and I'd seen them before with dealers and so on before I started collecting larger scales a few years ago); Drum Major (Pipe Major?), drummer, bass-drummer and piper.

Lower shot - there are several tartans on display, leading one to wonder if they represent real or generic cloths and might be touristy things. I seem to recall Britains collectors saying the all-green one (second in) is Black Watch, but I'd need to gen-up properly before attempting the others!

I love the little 'big' cat's head over the shoulders of the bass-drummer! The bass drummer needed a hot-water treatment before he would stand-up properly, and follows the pattern of most similar figures in having the drum affixed by a long, integral spigot spearing the drummers chest!

These two drummers are actually different mould-cavities, note the thicker base on the right-hand example in both pictures (yet he's still also slightly shorter) and the yellow-weave stencil of their tartan is slightly different too, suggesting they may have been sprayed together while still on the runners?

I'm not sure if the left-hand drummer is a repaint or not (again the thinner-based, taller moulding), looking at the little area of waist-band between the halves of the jacket, there's no sign of a previous scheme so I guess the kilt is genuine, but I suspect the white may have been touched-up by hand . . . including the eyes!?

The most recent piper (right-hand of pair) has a deposit/film on the base which seems to have been some reaction in the factory, as it's under the green paint, and doesn't scrape off with a finger-nail. Perhaps someone sprayed a mist on the tool to cool it and it puddled on the flat area of the base? Too much mould-release lubricant . . . something like that?

Anyway, that's them as I have them so far, are they Toyway, or the same HK lot that did the Salvation Army bands, someone else . . . anyone know? And thanks to Chris Smith for the latest additions.