I is for Intermediate Scales - 40mm Wild West; M is for Macau

It's also for Injectaplastic of Portugal, Jouets Super Plastic of France, and - as we know them here - Culpitt's the cake decoration people. We looked at them years ago, and as far as the figures go I haven't got much to add, but hopefully the imagery is a little better this time . . . or at least - I think we've seen them before, but finding the old image un-cropped in the dongle folder, I'm not so sure, and  - in case I don't have time to check - I've added it to the end of this post.

So - the Indians or Native Americans first, and the upper row are the earlier versions, the lower two rows are the latter ones, possibly only issued as cake decorations, but the more we learn about all this stuff the more they turn-up elsewhere as something else or claiming to be someone else's!

The separate-based set has more poses and are slightly larger/better etched and - as stated - here in the UK were cake decorations handled by Culpitt, on the continent however they were imported by Injectaplastic of Portugal, and - through their packaging - we know they were made in Macau (a 'free' colony (similar to Hong Kong and just along the coast from it . . . also 'handed back' at around the same time?), they probably also supplied the sets branded to JSP over the Pyrenees mountains in France?

Unlike the cowboys we'll look at in a mo', the Indians are pretty original is sculpt/posing, with a slight nod to other makers in the spear-thrower and maybe the chief?

From an evilBay-lot a while ago, the Jouets Super Plastic set from France, as almost certainly supplied by Injectaplastic, these sets don't have any more poses, but they do have various accessories including both a teepee (or tipi) and a totem-pole, both of which seem to equate to the 'eighth pose'. There was also a camp fire and the fort, along with some rock piles which were issued with both cowboy or Indian cards.

Note the different coloured trousers on one figure, from the 'UK paint-scheme'?

The cowboys; here there are eight poses, and a definite Marx influence to most of the poses, from the larger 4 and 6" figures - much copied, particularly in Hong Kong? Unlike the Indians, the cowboys get different-coloured bases, with consistency between pose and base . . . or at least there was consistency before the green ones which match the Indians started turning-up! They're possibly Portuguese/French examples (?) and the two in the full row always have green bases, so it's not an exact science!

The upper row are darker fleshed (possibly Injectaplastic/JSP) and seem older, below them the full row is Culpitt, then the replacements with the moulded bases and finally a set which seem to have an all-over tan paint (on tan plastic!) before the other-colour highlights to match the usual scheme?

Each generation gets paler flesh . . . they go from the harder tanning of the early figures to almost white!

Backs and bases, the drummer and the native woman could almost be used as pencil-toppers, but I think it's just a material-saving device on the part of the manufacturer?

I may have shown you this already? Anyway; I showed more colour variations but in a less clear fashion and with the earlier figures in the centre of a sort of exploded graphic or pictogram. And with a smaller sample in those days (shot was taken in 2009) the separate base cowboys are a mix of [what might be] earlier and later figures.