SF is for Semi Flat!

We saw some of these previously, briefly back in a show-report, others further back (2012?) and several from Ervino (who was going to do a post on them and may yet, but I know 'real life' intervened, so we'll see?), anyway I thought I'd get them all together in one place!

Torgano's late version (1970's) 'spacemen'; taken in almost equal measure (but really only as 'high influence') from the Thomas/Poplar sculpts and the slightly earlier Lido 'Captain Video' figures and a third source, yet to be identified - if they aren't original sculpts?

Here it's the two gold ones which have the Thomas Toys DNA oozing from them, while the pair in the middle and the one on the far right have shades of Lido's fighting robots about them, the other figure is not so easy to place?

The figures were sold as rack-toys in the 1970's on roughly A4-sizes carded sets which often had an added novelty; here a cap-rocket, elsewhere a bullet-firing gun (to knock them down) or a parachute-toy space-ship, and often seem to have carried a phantom branding such as 'Balu' or here 'E Ora Giochiamo' (And now let's play?), other cards were bereft of words, having just playful graphical stuff.

These are all in off-white and include two examples of the sixth pose, which has the Thomas helmet but is otherwise the other 'original' pose. they are all fairly well-sculpted but tend to a flatness in the design which I hesitate to call semi-flat, but they have - undeniably - been flattened to ease manufacture . . . and give me my title, so yeah! Semi-flats!

I've been told these are Torgano too, but earlier. Unlike the soft, polyethylene figures above, these are polystyrene and manufactured in two parts; figure and base, before being glued together firmly.

The red one was reported by Ervino to be Torgano also, but would appear to be from a separate line, being a new pose, he's really flat and a single moulding of what is probably also the harder polystyrene

One of the Torgano's compared with his near stablemate - Cromoplasto; although the painted figure would have been more contemporary with the two-part 'styrene ones, from the previous image, I suspect?