A is for Athletes - Vintage Plastic Olympians

Don't blame the Thumb; in the end I just ended-up having a slow-one, last week!

We looked at these briefly and with a dodgy image - if I recall correctly - way back at the start of the blog, and at the time I didn't have many of the larger ones, a situation which has now changed so we'll look at the larger ones now, and re-inspect the smallies another time.

These are my largest sample but not the first (which were the Pepsi-Cola premiums), indeed, while they may be among the first of about eight/ten Hong Kong piracy sets, which come in various sizes from these 50/54mm figures through to 25mm capsule/Christmas cracker types, they may equally be one of the later sets in this 50/54mm sizing, being thinner (and newer-looking - because they were mint!) of my three samples.

There are ten poses in the original set and I think it's fair to say most of the copy-sets will run to all ten, but clearly don't always come in sets of ten, so until you find all ten with matching marks, you can't say so for definite - so I 'aint!

Marked MADE IN HONG KONG with a number-code equating to a cavity mark which will probably be No.1440-to-1449 in an oblong inset panel, making them far easier to differentiate than the next two lots!

All the sets - in all sizes - run with an Olympic-ring/five-ring trope as a base, the gimmick being that the rings are arranged differently depending on the pose, to ensure they stand-up!

The card, which as well as an interesting, almost political, choice of flags along the bottom boarder, has three sports which aren't represented by the figure-poses in the set, and one of which isn't even an Olympic sport - motorcycling! Oh - and the women (two poses) don't get a look-in!

These are the next most common type (as found by me; it's not a scientific fact!), and I would be tempted to say they are nicer than the previous lot, but I think that's just becase the first lot were mint and a bit shiny, while these are played-with and have the detail picked-out with the patina of age? An eighth pose is found with the weightlifter.

A neat but slightly larger MADE IN HONG KONG placed in various shapes of recessed 'cartouche' panel, some of which are far larger than they need to be, The footballers cartouche manages to break the edge at two points which might have weakened another poses base, but actually the two weak-points are joined above by the players foot, so there's no likelihood of the base breaking-across, which is clever, if unnecessary?

I also have these two, he (ninth pose - boxer) has a thick base like the other sets, hers is much thinner, they are from two production-runs I think; she is a wishy-washy polyethylene, he's more 1980's Hing Fat type polymer! And they both have a heavier countenance, which might suggest they are the oldest and first?

They both have a now larger MADE IN and a smaller HONG KONG, and comparing the diver with the previous lot, it looks like they will all (when found) have the same ovoid recesses for the mark.

The pair in the middle are the bagged-set (I didn't un-bag it; it was falling-apart when I found it!), with examples of the second set (far left) and third lot; far right. The missing pose in this post is the sports/target-shooter in baseball cap, who I may have in another tub - as my only Pepsi original?

At gunpoint and allowed only one choice - I'd say - from the top; 3rd, 1st and second versions, but there's no accounting for that order, beyond hunch?