F is for Follow-up - Hong Kong Figures - Firefighters & Forecourt Fellows

Related to the stuff from the posts last week/last weekend, and kindly sent in to Central Planning here at Small Scale World by Chris Smith and Theo van der Weerden; being of similar subject-matter they made a whole post nicely between them, and that was before I checked my unknowns!

Staring with Chris's bits and he has another pose for the probably (almost certainly) Pioneer larger size firefighters, being a chap in an asbestos suit, who - as Chris pointed-out - "...could be used with planes, space or military scenarios.", to which I'd add F1 racing?

Chris also took a group shot with the two poses we saw the other day, they all have the stepped base and I suspect we are still looking fr at least one more (forth) pose?

I've actually found another, similar soldier attributed to Stonegalleon, which is smaller than the two Pioneer sizes and a new pose (may be on the Blog somewhere - early days), but I suspect he's a bit of a knock-off, there was a lot of this around at the end of the 1980's and right through the 1990's before those bicuit-coloured figures (with German firefighters and policemen) took the crown in the 2000's, being used by Chad Valley, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Carama and others here and various brands on the continent.

Meanwhile and the same day, Theo was sending me these and it's easier to quote him here;

"...the Range Rover is obviously a copy of the Matchbox K-64 Range Rover fire engine . . .

. . . has some of the firefighters. The blue firefighter, 2nd picture, came in a box with 3 other firefighters, a fire engine and a police motor.

These were made by Jimson of Hong Kong. 

As you can see in the picture the kneeling fireman is holding a radio of some kind. . . .

. . . So I think we got at least four companies who made these figures. Sun Fung, Jimson and two unknown."

So; if I've understood Theo right, the ones I've Numbered 1 are Jimson, then there are copies at '2' and '4', the 2's being better-quality than all the figures we looked at in the Sun Fung post, while the four is on a par, and another sub-piracy.

I think I'm also right to say the Jimsons are stiff, but bendy PVC, while the 2's are hard polystyrene, and the 4 possibly softer polyethylene? And I've called him four for this post for a reason we'll get to in a minute, but he may have come after some of the figures we looked at the other day!

Theo also scanned the Matchbox (matchbox, matchbox, matchbox; whoever said it was Corgi is an idiot!) range-rover which Sun Fung copied so we can picture it better!

Meanwhile, I've found a Jimson firefighter and a set of similar garage/service-station staff/mechanics, but this time - fully-painted; they are (the same?) dense PVC, with the detail lacking on the sub-piracies we saw the other day.

And the most important element of Theo's contribution . . . it's a radio! A giant radio, which after sub-pirating became a blob, and he's kneeling next to a box, not on debris!

I also have a few of the polystyrene ones, they hold some of the detail but they are copies, not just a different material run through the same tool.

Another vinyl one in an alternate colour and some copies which are well made in a softish vinyl-rubber, they could be any of the companies mentioned in the last few days (Pioneer, Realtoy, Smart, early Supreme et al.) or another one altogether; New Ray must have churned-out some early stuff before they became a 'known name', but equally they could be the originals (which is why they got the '3' here, over Theo's singleton). . . they look almost US production, like small Auburn or someone (I know they're not Auburn, just 'painting a picture'!)?

And Chris also sent two more of the (possibly early Supreme) construction workers, of which I love the guy with a spade, he's doing his stretching exercises so he doesn't pull a muscle later - very wise!

Cheers to both Chris and Theo; Jimson ID'd and yet-more questions go in the pile!