H is for How They Come In - Peter

A few days after Brian's parcel, another arrived without warning from North of the river, something some of you are probably expecting as he's scrupulously fair and seems to send parcels together so if he's name-checked at the other place he's shortly thereafter name-checked here, or vise-a-versa!

An interesting sample of mixed 'odds and sods' (which is right up SSW's street!); most of them happy to wear the 'Novelty' moniker. /the contents of the small bag (bottom-left) is now a separate post.

I'm not so sure about the large pink mouse, however the similar mini-bath duck is a happy receipt, so I can't reject his stable mate and one day there will be an overview of all rodents here on the blog (as there - hopefully - will be for everything) and when that day comes he/she-or-it will be ready and waiting . . . for a second viewing!

The three nutcracker'esqe (or 'Babes in Toyland' style-) guardsmen are part of a larger family which hung around in the late 1990's and early 2000's, I've pinned them to two or three brands and - in at least two sizes - they were used in snow-shakers, the sort of mini-trees truckers' put on their dashboards, as novelty earrings and possibly (as here?) cake decorations.

Both the drummer and the blue-jacketed chap were new to me and we will look at them all properly one Christmas, as that seems to have been their destination, whatever the end-use.

The Kinder eggs carried the latest figure type, and they are both nice (well sculpted and approximately 54mm) and disappointing at the same time.

The disappointment steaming from the fact that as stand-alone figures they are all in a silly pose, yet the point of the pose is a bit pointless, you have to balance the 'shield' on the two hands (not easy as a dextrous adult, god knows what kids will make of the job!) and then flick them [the shields], using the over-designed base, at the paper/card flat 'baddie' targets. The hitting of which seems more unlikely than getting the shield to stay put, but maybe I'm just a curmudgeonly old-git and it's easier on a smooth surface?

I had discovered them a few days before Peter's parcel, but typically in situations like this sod's law meant I had found the same figure as two of Peter's so now have three gold'n'green fish-men!

This is charming, possibly missing a few toes, but then he's probably over eighty and clearly survived Corvid-19 so one can't complain! Made in Japan and a fired bisque, hand-painted after firing there has been a bit of rubbing over the years . . . and another cricketer!

Now . . . we saw the female addition the other day and with another from Peter the total's become seven figures in a few months, from one, and five from Peter - here they all are together.

The new one is a second Spanish National Guardsman (like gendarme); an 'other rank' to my previously found officer, but the officer had a cartridge-paper board to his hat (as the Beefeater also has a card rim), while the new addition has the whole hat in the same clay.

He also has a slightly more expressive face, and while - like Erzgebirge - I suspect a regional aspect to the production, equally I suspect a different locale or town/village . . . the clay's a different colour to the other six, as well?

 

11th February 2021 - Now known to be craft figures (artesanos) from Alborox in Grenada

Another fisherman! Sans rod, so I put a 'pole' rod into the hold for the photograph, the original was probably a length of piano-wire with a piece of cotton-tread glued to the tip? Like the Spanish 'toristicas' in the previous shot, he's a terracotta/clay, rather than the bisque of the cricketer, but is also Japanese I think? And he's been glaze-fired rather than painted.

Aaaahh! I'm lovin' this! I already had the archer on the left and had always thought of him as a cartoony/anthropomorphic ancient or medieval type; a warrior archer, if you like, but the new figure from Peter makes it clear there is probably a set of 'sports cats' somewhere, and gum-ball capsule-machine inserts, or Christmas cracker prizes? Anyone else got some?

I shot it without flash (inset) to show the true colour difference.

Another excuse for a group shot was the china cat, which is also a different colour (darker grey), but the flash washed it out, so they look like twins (centre-left), and - as a group -growing ever larger!

I also have plastic copies/versions of the little kittens playing with balls of wool (front row), which are not direct piracies, being smaller, slightly different poses and . . . for another day!

The three Siamese's (top right) are chalkwear (plaster) and named, but I forgot to note it! The two dirty ginger's are Whimsy's from Wade the rest are porcelain 'ornamentals'.

Finally is this interesting chap, a Maori dancer from New Zealand, who has been glued to a paper or card base of some kind, I suspect as part of a tourist keepsake, but has a brand; G.L Models and may have had a second purpose as a colonial war-game figure, he's the right size and material under the paint?

And many thanks to Mr. Evans again, for another collection of eclectic stuff without the sending of which, I wouldn't have been able to share with you!