T is for Two . . . Birds with one Stone!

A quickie now, as a follow-up to the previous post, where we saw some non-Rado/Ri-Toys figures in a Pikit Toys set, to here where we see a Pikit set which IS Rado/Ri-Toys!

 

On the left; the 8th Army as sold by Pikit in the UK, on the right Germans in the standard Rado packaging, both being scaled-down copies of Airfix 1:32nd (54mm) figures, we know this because [with the exception of the French Infantry] they only ever have the seven poses from the larger sets! It's also easier to pantograph down than up.

 

A couple of close-ups of the Pikit-supplied figures, you can see the slightly hollowed underside to the base and the distinctive H·K mark found on all the figures of this line . . . sometimes!

Because, they can also be found unmarked, as here, where - from the crinkly, cellulose, carded, bottle-bag -  we can guess probably a set of JoMe 8th army, have the blank bases.

 

JoMe (which might be Jo Me, Jo-Me or Jome?) were a German importer/jobber, and from the 'China' rather than 'Hong Kong' on the packaging samples, were a later issue, so it's reasonable to assume the earlier iteration are marked H·K and the latter figures are the unmarked.

 

Another, definitely JoMe set with unmarked US Infantry, you can see how the logo might be interpreted any of four ways! Note how the flash affects the apparent / visual colour of the plastic! That's three birds . . . lucky shot!

 

The German's in the Ri-Toys pack above are also unmarked, but I have both 1:76th and 50mm Ri-Toys with the H·K mark, packaged. the sets copied by Rado (correctly: Rado Industrial Company) ran to eight, all Airfix copies;

• German Infantry
• Afrika Korps
• 8th Army
• US Infantry
• Australian Infantry
• Japanese Infantry
• Russian Infantry
• French Infantry (copied from the WWI HO-OO set, and scaled up to 45/50mm)

with the Airfix Australians replaced in the larger-scale range by copies of the Blue Box Australians, a subject I think we've looked at separately, once or twice! There's a lot more to all this, and we will return to these sets another day, probably on the Giant or What Blog.

Rado / Ri-toys also went heavy on ex-Marx figures, but they seem to have had access to the original tools there, so it wasn't the same kind of Piracy as with the Airfix / Blue Box clones. Marksmen carried a lot of this in the UK, but it too is all for another day!