H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Animals

So, to the interesting, odd or novelty items among the many Chris sent to the Blog, and I hope I've picked the right ones as I know Chris follows what I pick-up on for these posts!

I shot this bear seconds after opening the parcel, and them shot it again a few days later! I thought it was from one of the Hong Kong circus sets (and it may be) but realised it made an excellent cocktail-glass hanger! It is a variation of the skiing bear seen here previously, but without the receiving-holes for poles or skis.

The glass in the middle is a particular favorite of mine; now inherited, it's very thin glass (there are only four left, I think there were eight when we were kids?) and has been decorated with copper-wheel cutting, so quite old school, and they've always come-out at Christmas-time for the mulled gluhwein, a job they will retain until I cease to breathe; I like a hot-toddy by the fire on a cold day!

But that bear, though - brilliant!

Farm; The two vignettes on the left are New Ray I think, I didn't check, but of more interest are the 20mm'ish (sheep's over-scale) animals to the right, they are made of a very soft silicon rubber, possibly railway accessories, possibly something like a Polly Pocket - or knock-off of such, and I think three came from Chris and I already had the B&W cow hanging around from another origin (even a previous lot from Chris or Peter evans?).

When that happens (a 'new' thing happening multiple times close together) it's often a sign they are recent (last 10 or 15-years) and starting to come on to the secondary market, anyone know where they came from? The two lots are totally out of scale, mind, the New Ray's are a big 54mm - the four little animals wouldn't make-up one of the foals!

Later the same day - They are probably Kentoys (HK/China. 1990's) should have guessed from the bases!

Dinosaurs and monsters; the Stegi' (new to collection) and kerthunkasaurus (chewed!) are from my favourite range of childhood silicon-rubber dino's, while I think the trio of hatchlings are a recent/currentKinder thing? I don't know anything about the dragon who may have been marked (but has gone to storage) while the other two 'Gygax' Monsters are probably Holly Toys, but I haven't checked them yet and others made/issued them; LB/Lik Be, Agglo etc. . . read here first!

There is a post coming on them but not for a while now given circumstances at present, suffice to say they've been over-mythologised, over-rated and over-priced, but it's very kind of Chris to send them to us, and this isn't the first time he's done so.

From Chris - "The three dinosaurs on a base I think are from the “Ice Age” franchise of films, Sid the sloth hatches them and becomes their foster mother" Cheers, totally missed Ice Age and most of the Madagascar franchise!

A fine 'Disney'eque' fawn cake-decoration on the left, and the rest of the animals on the right. The purple elephant's head might be from a Duplo knock-off, but that might just be the coincidental shape/size of the locating stud? The blow-mould fawn looks even more Disney, and was probably flocked originally?

The RAE horse has been seen here before and I now think they were the Arco Noah's Ark animals, but from before Arco were handling them, I'm not sure but a few eBay listings of boxed examples would seem to be showing the same animals as later included in the petrol-station premium set, I'm not 100% sure, but confident it's the answer, read here first!

The little blue bear is also interesting as he's a scaled-down HK copy of the Merit Noah/circus-train animals who were - I think -  copies of a US makers animals! The white duck could be modern China or 1970's Macau via Portugal, he's very good! And the large rat boar/wild pig [I shot it at an awkward angle!] (top left) is a nice example of a fake Japanese Netsuke, while the vulture may be from a Wild West thing?

An eclectic bunch; the damaged cicada is interesting for being a copy of an older tin-plate clicker/penny-toy, although - in plastic - it doesn't click! One of the frogs will need cleaning, I don't think that black paint is original, the whale is different in brown polyethylene and they all have their place!

While saving the best for last - that is my finger in the background! This exquisitely decorated gecko or chameleon is no more than 5-milimeters long? About a quarter of the size of the similarly rubber Schleich-Mini's, I can only guess or ponder that it might be a 'companion' animal from a larger doll or action figure set? Does anyone know anything about it, are there others, are they all this small? It has a babyish or cartoon look to it, is it a character from film or print media, I've missed?

Thanks again to Mr Smith for donating such a bunch of interesting things, love the hanging bear, quite stunned by this tiny blob of green silicon.