H is for How They Come In - Week 18 - 3 Prehistory, Wild West and Civilians

Let's get straight into it . . . lots to cover!

Chinasaurs! The two oxide-brown ones and the yellow one are variants of my favourite silicon-rubber set from my own childhood, so well pleased to get them in the post! I think the pink one goes with them but I don't remember having him when we were kids. Meat-eater gets the ice-picks!

Sliding forward a few millennia's worth of millennia and we see the rise of the hairy-pink monkeys, who, I'm sorry to report have rather taken the role of T-Rex with added fire . . . power!

The three little ones (Tim Mee clones - possibly (from the quality) licensed/permissed) are or were Toy Major and came in the same sets as the TM versions of the Hornby Battle Set's figures (which Toy Major (or their contract manufacturer) would have supplied), indeed, I think these may even be from The Hornby take-off of Jurrasic Park?

That all got too convoluted! The three in front are ex-Tim Mee sculpts reduced-down in size, possibly with permission and were issued in various carded sets by Toy Major (TM)™ and/or their associates and a Hornby model railway playset . . . period!

Behind them are - either side - figures we've looked at before and will return to at some point, while in the middle is the Safari cave-man engaging some mega-fauna in a bit of extinction!

The Horse we saw earlier; it has some of the lines of Texas sculpting but isn't a known Texas thing; however Italy or Spain is a likely origin? The 'big guy' is Phidal-like or Disney-store, and presumably from a Pocahontas play-set of some kind?

The brown-pair are lovely - for sub-scale/sub-standard clones! I think probably Christmas crackers, but that would mean 'capsule' elsewhere? I may have some more somewhere (it's the sort of thing I have spirited away over the years), if I find them we'll have a closer look.

The Totem pole is very interesting as it's a Comansi sculpt, but unmarked and hard 'styrene. It also has a small cavity at the base-rear, which would seem to facilitate the insertion of a card-holding peg, such as used by S for Star/Star Toys and others, so a larger set of theirs?

The running cavalryman is nice, modern I think and slightly damaged, I dare-say they are out there somewhere in a tub of 100 - Hing Fat, Americana? Someone like that, but I don't know offhand?

Three late rack-toy clones, but different for being Timpo 'swoppet' copies rather than the usual Airfix (or Jean!) clones, another of the premium-looking 'unknown' ones, a Texas backwoodsman/cavalry scout rider, Siku smoker (larger size) and Toumoulage archer.

In front is a quite unusual figure who has a plug-on base in the style of Timpo or that Brazilian (?) lot who copied Britains, but he's a relatively original sculpt, probably European anyone recognise him? All polyethylene and seems to be factory paint and (because I've learnt to turn my figures upside down, and read!) he's not marked 'Nardi', 'Italy' or even 'W.Germany', having a smooth underside to the base.

There was lots of Wild West in Chris's parcel, I've just shot a few of the interesting pieces for now, you may have spotted in the first post, several Lone Star shooting-game figures; I'm going to save them until I have a full set in both colours, as I've blogged them here several times now and PW has published the full set.

Civilians; a lovely soft-plastic Hong Kong copy of the Gem golfer, usually HK copies of Gem are hard polystyrene? Then an unpainted Dinky road worker, probably ex-outpainters leftovers, as they are usually painted?

Two little girls I know nothing about, the same lifeboat crew as I think Chris sent before, but complete and I have since confirmed that they are from the Frog kit, the tool for which seems to have ended-up in Russia. Nice copy of the Corgi safari guide, seen here before but only as a chewed/broken example!

Equally nice rubber fireman, who is very similar [in material] to Auburn but smaller? I guess some US maker and I'll try to find him before I do that page - which is still happening! In front is another PVC figure, a petrol-attendant, but kneeling, so probably included in a racing-car set?

Finishing-up with some footballers, the small one is from the least-common type of Gem copy (this one is 'styrene) with the oblong base, the other two (not necessarily on the right bases) are from a recent part-work (I think, I did find them the other day or Chris sent me a link?), anyway they are rather nice and - obviously - personality-specific sculpts.

Thanks again to Chris for sharing these with the rest of us and there's more to come - sci-fi, fantasy and TV/Movie next!