T is for Two - Indian Canoe . . . s

These arrived yesterday, hot-foot from New York in time for Rack Toy Month, and caused a bit of a quandary as I am working on a larger overview of canoes, to which Brian has already contributed nearly a hundred images, and while I fancied a 'T is for . . .'  post, I thought I'd better save these for that postponed 'season', however, Brian also suggested they should be Blogged now, and checking his images I realised we will see them lose, later, so here they are as a bit of a rush job, in the rack-toy bags with header cards.

This is a dinky little thing, and going on the card art, possibly quite early? A hard polystyrene canoe with two soft ethylene crew; one paddling and the other getting belligerent in the stern . . .  well either that, or having a dance-off/sing-song, which is not to be recommended in a lightweight, flat-bottomed vessel!

Novel addition here is the carpet/floor wheels, two pairs, forward and aft, and the fact that the figures are specific to the canoe, being plug-ins. The boat-wobbling loon is a Crescent copy, while the captain of the vessel looks more unique, having some points in common with the flat copies of Gibb's Indians or other figures in this old post also out of Hong Kong - his oar is a short-shot, but you can paddle with a stick, it just takes longer!

While this one is so long I couldn't find a decent background (in a hurry - hedging all day!), so shot the card separately and the canoe just fitted an old foolscap folder cover! It's eleven-and-a-half inches (29cm) long, a proper canoe!

A bit like the 'thing' that most 54/60mm toy figure totem poles are better scaled to 1:76th/72nd scales, so most 'big scale' toy canoes are a lot smaller that they were in real life, although some were one man, so it's not so clear . . . but this beast is definitely a 'war canoe' . . . you could pack eight Timpo Indians in it at a push!

The crew include another copied Crescent figure, a Britains clone and the paddler who I used to think was a Cherilea or Hilco (?) sculpt, but he keeps turning up and might be of German origins? I'll do the research before the 'season' and we'll nail them then! He has a separate paddle, and they too are plug-in, but brittleness has removed the plugs of the two fighters, or removed them from their plugs which are still in the receiving sockets in the hull of the boat!

And many hanks to Mr Berke for the timely donation, the rest will be in an 'H is for . . . ' post at some point, where I have 12 or so articles waiting now!