These are they, and only the four have
turned-up so far, now, this post was originally going to be entitled B is
for Brent, Not!, for the simple reason that if you saw these alone, being
maybe not that familiar with actual Brent,
you'd be forgiven for thinking they WERE
Brent.
Points of similarity include the early war
uniform with respirator-case on chest, the brown/green, contrasting-blob,
paint-job on the bases and the nails/panel-pins for weapon-barrels.
But, Brent
use the heads of their nails for muzzles/flash-eliminators in both sizes, this
outfit hasn't; the uniforms date the figure manufacture to the war, not
necessarily to a maker; while a lot of toys, both sides of the channel and the
pond had contrasting-blob paint-jobs at the time, reflecting the types of
camouflage found on vehicles since the First World War, and - at the time these
were made - being applied to military installations, civil port and aerodrome facilities,
hangers and whole factories the length and breadth of the land/s.
The front bi-pod is certainly Brent-like, or after-Brent, but Brent never marked their figures (or I've yet to find a marked one)
while these all have a proud 'BRITISH',
prominent on the edge of the base.
When he saw one the other day Chris Smith
made the acute observation that they look a bit like the Lilo plastic lumps of the post-war, beach-toy era, and I think he's
got a point! Not maybe the firm; Lilo
(PB Cow & Co., traceable to 1815)
were a rubber manufacturer, and even if affected by wartime privations, would
have been too busy with respirators, rubber boats and life-preservers, to have
the time or inclination to tool up for a few composition toys in an unused
corner of the factory - and these are - overall - a better quality finish than Brent's production, partly due to their
size, but nevertheless, decent tooling would help and that didn't come cheap.
So it's probably that the same unsung
sculptor jobbed both sets of figures, particularly as the Lilo figures (which
one would probably place after 1947?)* have the by then anachronistic uniform
also seen on these. Certainly Chris's observation holds water - I'll tack the Lilo figure on at the bottom to compare.
* Graces
have them exhibiting at the 1947 British Industries Fair, they had registered an inflatable
air-bed in '36, but went on to become leaders in Air-sea rescue equipment
(above mentioned boats and vests), as well as manufacturing parts for the De Havilland Mosquito, the air bed is
in the '47 catalogue, and advertised in a beach-setting in the '49 (which does
list "Toys & Games"),
but (polyethylene?) plastic buckets don't appear until '52, a more likely date
for other beach-toys which may have included the military figures, but Garratt
(JG) does recon '49.
The opposite of the shot we looked at the
other day; Brent's 60mm 'big-boy' is dwarfed by the unknown 80-mil giant, who
is arguably better proportioned and has ears . . . and fingers!
The Lilo's
(also around 75/80mm if memory serves?) in my collection, sorry; it's an old
image we've seen before, but I've brightened it up a bit. To back up Chris's
theory, he has the same Chuchillian 'boiler-suit' (so do the Brent's) and the weird 'step' in the
respirator-case the unknown composition's also have, but the Brent's don't - in either size . . .
. . . while against; the Lilo has finer detail and almost no
puttee, but it's a different technology and - if it is the same guy -
the sculptor presumably had the best of half-a-decade to improve his
style/technique?
And maybe he was going for a
bloused-trouser end; there was a lot of it about at the end of the war you know,
I think we got it off the Yanks? Bloody Yanks - coming over here, teaching us
how to dress properly and dance the Swing; it was a slippery slope that's ended
with Boris's daily-lies and Brwreakshit!
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