T is for Two - Catering Novelties

A couple of oddities from the collection now, both from what is strictly called crockery! One from years ago and the 'small-scale-only' collection-days, the other a pretty perfect 54mm and given to me by Peter Evans - the other day.

This came from a Euromark picnic set carried by Tesco supermarkets about 18-years ago (item dated 2001) and was rescued by me when it started leaking! Let me explain; they were double-skin plastic mug/cups with a twin-liquid filling and these roughly 20mm-compatible Simpsons characters in the liquid which sort of bobbed about at the boundary between the two liquids - one blue (heavy spirit?) below and one clear (water or light oil?) above, they are weighted with steel bearings to keep them the right way up.

Anyway, one of them started leaking on the shelf and I (night-shift!) offered to take it out to the skips after it was written-off, and left it to drain under my car in the staff car-park for later retrieval and recycling into the collection! I haven't the faintest idea what the three-eyed sharks are all about, but assume a specific episode of the TV cartoon?

There were other figure designs and other items of crockery involved; bottles, flasks &etc.

Previously seen - complete - in Plastic Warrior magazine, this Reiko Kaneko-designed chap seems to have been clearly based-on the old Britains Deetail Japanese office, but that's probably more of a co-incidence than an actual relationship.

He started life as one of a matching trio, all arranged in a ring facing inward as an egg-cup! The egg rests on the three fists and is held in place by the heads/swords. It should still be findable on the Internet, I'll try and find it and post a link. [Seems to be off the market, but this is it]

On the matter of the soldier's uniform; he's sort-of half WWII Japanese-looking (Katanga sword) and half Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese forces (belt-yolk and helmet), so it's a wonder he got past the checkers (he was designed in Japan, made in China), as he's more Nationalist than either revolutionary Mao'ist forces or Japanese invaders - just the sword . . . and water-bottle?