V is for Variations on a Theme

We had a quick look at a half-a-handful of these in the final 'odds & sods' post of the football mini-season back in Jan/Feb, and I said I had a few more in storage, in other poses/types, and this post is looking at them and the wider field they open-up.

I think these may be the first version, but they could be the second, or both the lots I have subdivided as 1st & 2nd version could be the same lot, or earlier and later version of continuous production from the same factory . . . it'll get clearer . . . hopefully!

The reason for sub-dividing them is that their bases are very different from the '2's and so many of them have come in without a base (or attendant football) that one feels they may have been kicking-around (geddit!) longer than the 2's?

Also they tend to a glossiness absent from the 2's, but that could be an argument for them being the other way round, so these are my designations for storage - as much as anything else, not biblical commandments!

The [provisional] type two; they tend to a matt finish, have more heavily sculptured base 'landscapeing' and seem to be found complete far more often than the '1''s, however, with Gem (who also supplied Culpitt, the carriers of these Asian-made figures) moving the other way - from matt to gloss - it's no rule of thumb, and only a convenience for sorting.

The type three's are definitely Type 3, being hard plastic copies of the other (PVC) figures, still available occasionally in cook-shops or the smaller independent Bakers, and using only the one clone-pose from the previous series/'s - the number-two shirt. Although the figures swap styrene for PVC, the bases replace the PVC with polyethylene!

As I've presented them above - The base sample for the 1's isn't larger enough for definitive anything, but they are both of the same design with a close-cropped turf. The underside is of high-quality finish, smooth and showing two neat release-pin marks.

The 2's have heavier grass tufts sculpted into their bases, it's like they are playing in a field, rather than on a pitch, and while the two release-pin marks are there, the over-all quality of the finish is poorer or rougher on the underside with little dinks and jiggets or a touch of flash, suggesting a second bash, a few years after the 'first tranche' of the 1's?

The 3's have a more 'mechanical' sculpting of surface detail, and a universal 746 engineer-stamped into the underside.

Assuming there is some connection between the type one's and type two's (which may include them all being the one lot) we can see they probably come from a set of 12 poses, possibly manufactured to fit three base sizes; small (two holes) medium (one foot hole and one ball-hole) and large (three holes), 11 players and the referee with a whistle on a cord or lanyard.

And that I still have to find 3, 6, 7 and 11? Two of which are hinted at further down/below. Shirt numbers can be black, white, or unpainted and one has been painted with another number?

The upper image is from the post back at the start of the year, I'm pretty sure the Newcastle (?) strip is a home-paint and I used him to compare with something that can be a 'Type 4', but with its key-chain/charm loop is far enough away from the other types to be a mere gum-ball or capsule-machine novelty!

He's all-polyethylene and clearly marked MADE IN HONG KONG by the pirate! He's also slightly smaller all-round, so probably the result of pantographing.

The sample in its entirety (30 figures) is larger than have been used in the close-up shots above (20 figures). You can see how the shortage of bases for the glossy type 1's makes it hard to draw a conclusion, but there is a heavy-tussock version of that large base in the type 2's, so a separation is not unreasonable.

The extremely dense (to the point of rigidity) PVC used for both types is very similar to the Macau production used for various figures/toys, so there's a chance that's where they are from, while the type 3's probably originated along the coast in Hong Kong.

These are still to be found occasionally in the retail environment, but are being pushed-out by the new, larger set we've seen three times now, here at SSW, and in three brand-marks; Wilton, Anniversary House and Knightsbridge PME.

They are also shite! Two versions and copying those above - badly - they may extend to 11 or even all twelve poses but I only have five-figures (four poses) in total; one of the left type and four of the right type, as I wouldn't spend 'proper' money on them, so only get them in the odd mixed lot.

The left hand one has a base very similar to the US astronaut cake figures, which mirror the LP robot figures, but without the LP-mark, and also the AWI red-coats.

However they do (figures at either end) hint at two of the missing four poses? These are all breakable polystyrene of eminently poor-quality and - with such a small sample - are only included for completion's sake!