I is for Indian Camp Set

I bought this the other day offofov evilBay, I'd had it bookmarked for some time, a year or so, and thought well, if I can't celebrate Brwreakshit after all, I'd better get myself a prezzie or two instead! I don't know if the seller has loads or if no-one wanted this one, but for a generic pocket-money rack-toy I thought it was dinky and inexpensive!

How it was presented on the feeBay, contents had come loose due to perished rubber-bands, but it was otherwise in one piece and an interesting combination of Britains piracies, a Jean-copy totem-pole, scaled-down, and the tee-pee.

The remains of the elastics along with the marks on the three brown pieces, all having a simple HONG KONG. The tee-pee has a MADE IN HONG KONG, which is double/part-triple stamped on the inside of the rear wall of the tee-pee, and almost impossible to photograph, so you'll have to believe me (except TJF the poor love; he'll have to wait until someone he trusts holds his hand and confirms the detail!), but as a small scale collector, for years, over years, I'd hoovered-up about ten of them, loose, and I can assure you they all have the same mark.

Put together, as it was before old-age attacked its integrity - lesson for us all there I fear! I've seen the other bits before but the Jean rip-off is new to me, it's quite reduced in size I think (I'll do a comparison at some point) and painted, but then so were early Jean issues. I'll be looking for a loose one now as having put it back together I can't put it in the side-collection of totem poles.

All back 'in one piece' on the right; when I take these apart I ease everything off the opened staples, leaving them in one side of the card, and making a note of which-way round the bag was and where the folds were.

When I put it back together I ease each layer of the bag onto the staples, ensure any folds in the bag have laid-flat correctly, then slip the other half of the card onto them and close them (the staples) down again.

The main image shows what was probably an [earlier] donor for this set's 'second-generation' copy teepee; it's larger, has different painting, better etching of detail and a HONG KONG mark on the outside rear. We have seen later, mono-coloured versions of this tent from Rado and someone else here in the past, while full-size copies also exist.

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to me,

Brwreakshit's been-kicked....further down-the-roaaaad!

Happy Birthday to me!

And it was days ago so none of that mawkish shit in the comments! But I'm off the hook now, it can be someone else's day, if it ever happens!