B is for Best Toy Ever? . . . Again!

This should be the fourth or fifth time I've appended the 'Best Toy Ever' tag to a post here, and hopefully loyal readers have remembered that after the 2nd or 3rd time, I just decided it was something that couldn't be attributed to any single toy, but which could be used from time to time on stand-out items of particular production-worth or great play-value; here's another one!

Speaking of Adrian Little (as I was at the end of the last post), this was shot on his stall at Sandown Park's toy fair, back in September. The contents are somewhat mixed, incomplete or added-to, but the overall 'thing' is a beautiful plaything, that should have brought joy to an owner back in the day.

I say 'should' as someone obviously looked after this to the point where not much play can have occurred, but the items are too clean to have been on display either, which is a little sad - that such a lovely toy was probably not played with?

The packaging has an undeniable circus theme on the top flap/cover, but the rest of it is more farm or countryside themed, artwork wise, and obviously was a standard, dual-purpose factory box, with set specific inserts.

Likewise the internal sheet of press-out scenic accessories are more rural in nature, but a back-drop, box liner, is - again - undeniably circus in subject matter. Clearly a bit of a curate's egg, cobbled together from what was in the factory or with the printer's, enhanced to tie-it in with the contents.

The cages are manufactured from soft wire rod, they will have been set out on a wooden jig and spot-soldered by hand before painting, and there were more than I photographed, allowing for a decent animal 'holding area' to be constructed for the circus.

The safety-tunnel into the ring is likewise produced, probably being trimmed and bent to shape after the soldering and before the gates were slipped into place. We had a go at something similar at Uni' years ago, while being shown the workshop facilities. I made a shelter/gantry for a bus-stop!

A rather fine elephant, I don't know if it's a baby from the 70mm range, a scaled down adult from the same range, or a 40mm line-specific sculpt?

And you thought a 'Bear Dance' was something Native Americans did!

This must be one of the last things manufactured by Hausser under the Elastolin moniker, using composition animals, especially in this smaller 40mm scale, and with both wood and metal accessories?

A whole pride of Lions to train, there were no tubs for them to stand on, or hoops to jump through, leading one to suspect there was more to collect in the wider range, or that a larger collection had already been broken-up prior to Adrian obtaining his sample?

This mysterious aspect of the 'set' is mirrored in the two figures which are of different scales and styles and the only two present, a keeper and a clown? No ringmaster, no animal trainers? No other performers?

I'm not sure if the clown is sharing his moment in the lime-light with a monkey or a mountain-lion/cougar . . . or even a hyena!

A pair of tigers, a zebra and a camel, all things you might find at an old school circus, but in the case of the later two, more likely to be in the day-time 'zoo' than in the night-time performances, and all things you'd equally expect in a proper zoo. The circus ring is the only plastic component, being a trimmed vac-form, with a drop-in 'gate' section, also vac-formed.

The lack of a tent or marquee is another pointer to this being a part-set, and one wonders if the box (part farm-linked) was actually included in a larger set, for which the other liner has gone AWOL, the contents of the sample can fit in the box but only by ignoring the slots and packing everything loose. I suspect there was once much-more to the whole set, yet it is still a really lovely thing - Best Toy Ever ['till the next one] - Cheers Adrian!