C is for Carpet Warrior Clones

A slightly bitty post this one, as I'd already got some images in the long queue when - as a continuation of the series of Jungle Explorer set's revelation posts a year or two ago, I think (?) - Chris Smith sent me his shots, only for me to take some more, lose the post, find it again, delete the duplications between the two lots and then - the other day - get some more in and take a separate shot which hung around for a few weeks as I couldn't find the folder again! In the end I found it didn't have African, Warriors, Lone Star, Jungle or even Tarzan in the title, but the rather obvious Zulus!

Anywhoos, it means this is a bit of a meander rather than a straight narrative, but I can sneak a separate Charbens shot it, so hopefully some of it will be of some interest to some readers!

We'll start with Chris's main shot as it is a comparison between some of the better clones and the Lone Star originals (which I haven't been able to locate (one reason the post was on hold in the 'long queue'), and may not have, although I thought I had them somewhere - maybe only the Cherilea 'Nubians'?); Lone Star black plastic, Hong Kong clones; brown. In Chris's words;

"Fairly common Hong Kong copies of the Lone Star natives, I happen to like them even though they are turd brown lumps of plastic!"

"I had a single black one then recently got a yellow/cream one so thought I would do a comparison shot it is then I noticed they are a slightly different mould, smaller with a squarish base and Hong Kong mark on the upper surface . While sorting out the best brown copy for the shot turns out I also had a brown one in this smaller size. Thing is all three of these smaller figures are the same pose, okay there maybe others out there but another possible diecast accessory or cracker gift? The black and brown ones are painted, the yellow one isn’t, both the black and yellow have one feather missing."

My sample a while ago now, and I have a few more of the black copies (no originals in this shot, they're all HK), some coloured ones which I think came from the legendary Barry Blood's sell-offs back in 2009/10, and which I also think are where Chris's cream/yellow one belongs, and another smaller black chap (bottom, yellow shield) who I used to suspect to be from a third source; he's not, he's a probably earlier version of the 'monochromatic' ones in bright colours. As you can see i think most poses will appear in all types - see caveat below!

I have had one Lone Star come in with a odd-lot recently and here he's compared to one of the brown ones in close-up, the larger brown- (and black-) plastic ones are the first generation copies I suspect, certainly they are the closest size-wise.

A base comparison; better one coming below.

Charbens only did the three Africans but they go quite well with the Lone Star set having the leg-feathers if not the head-quoits of their stable-mates.

I had a few more of the coloured ones come-in, enabling this better shot of them, I am suspecting the 7th pose (knobkerrie) wasn't copied over to this smaller set, as the Lone Star (8th pose) stomping 'chief' (channeling a bit of native American he is!) wasn't carried over to the larger clones? But, I stand to be corrected on both musings, neither Chris nor I have large enough samples to draw firm conclusions from either absence?

Lone Star originals, Black and brown larger copies and painted and unpainted smaller copies, I can't call the single sample black or brown, he's a dark, damp-looking khaki, while Chris has brown AND black, so they may have had several plastic-colour issues under the paint? It's also confusing that the throwing spear figure is a heavier/larger sculpt in both lines, while the waving spear pose is lighter/smaller in both!

Improved the contrast! Assuming the absences mentioned above are held over time, this gives us a target of 21 (8+7+6) figures to collect to have one of each physically different figure, but many more if plastic colour or paint variation is to be sought to the n^th degree!

Lone Star have a pretty standard mark, for them, the larger figures have a crude and roughly engineer's-stamped 'Hong Kong', most with a mould-release pin-mark, while the smaller figures as Chris pointed out above are marked on the upper surface of the base with a neater stamp; 'Hong Kong', as two small blocks.

Something else I would point out (against an eventual return to them, here at SSW) is that the base markings on both sets above tie them in with the similar Crescent/Lone Star Wild West copies and some Britains/Monogram/Timpo 'Khaki Infantry' clones, some of which we've already looked at here (Past The Post for instance) in the past, so we'll compare that way another day, in order to try separating some of these copies into potential manufacturer 'families'! Indeed I wouldn't be supprised to find some of the above figures (larger?) came from/in those long Past The Post boxes?

That's it, a bit of back and forward, but hopefully something of interest? I think I can say both Chris and I are rather enamoured of these funny little piracies!