H is for Hong Kong

I think that's the first time we've had what is such an obvious title! And it's an odd one today, as it's mostly musing on ephemeral stuff with little of substance, but a couple more HK companies for your archive.

 

Jon Attwood sent me this image of nominal OO-figures, copied from pre-Hornby Triang platform staff. I actually have the three on the right, but in storage, they come in various shades of blue, as here, and usually on/with the base of the second figure from the left, so I suspect the other two have been removed from their bases and given the little clear-plastic patches, while the one on the left I don't have, but he looks to be maybe a conversion?

Now for years I've been trying to ascribe them to a maker, or brand, they are Hong Kong, and I fancy - from the other civilian figures we've seen - that they might turn out to be Blue Box, but so far no banana! The closest I've got is this sheet from the archive, showing sets offered by a Moonbo Toys of Hong Kong.

However, the close-ups are less than conclusive, with the figures in the upper shot looking like they may be painted versions or copies of the Airfix hard-plastic rail workers, from before Dapol gave them landscaped bases, while in the lower shot, they just aren't that clear, but could be the soft-plastic figures Jon's sent, at a stretch?

 

But they also have the look of only being there for the press-shots, and may well have been replaced by other figures, in production, even the ones we're looking for here? 

Equally, I'm not sure Moonbo even made the stuff, as the (Saddle tabnk?) Locomotive 1928, is among the more common Hong Kong trains, appearing in various generic and branded sets, the above, on evilBay years ago were marked-up RBM, and came with card buildings and a mixed bag of mixed-scale farm, of the sort in all those generic Home Farm's and My Farm's.

 

While this one, imported by Janbo Trading of London, is accompanied by a bag of accessories more normally associated with Wild West rack-toys! A log cabin and various bits of greenery, along with a farm windmill!

 

Meanwhile, Kamco Industrial have a similar line, with a similar station, rolling stock is different, and the canopy stanchions are heavier, so I'm not about to suggest that they are related, or at least, not related to Moonbo?

 

The figures however, look to be similar to the soft rubber civilians which came with Blue Box's Airport play-sets, and consequently, there could be a connection there? With the chap in the sheepskin coat and the seated lad (Scooter Rider) being taken from the Airfix Civilians set, probably along with the other three, but it's not so clear with them.

 

I've also isolated the animals and trees, which, again, are standard generic fare, probably bought in, but again, as with Moonbo, they [Kamco] may only be a middle-man, with all of it bought-in? Calf is a Corgi-copy, also copied by Blue Box.

 

To which end, Motron Enterprises (a name which almost says 'shipper/jobber', but they are looking for OEM work?) have the Kamco set, side-by-side with Silverlit/Multimac space-tanks and some dodgy-looking, probably illegitimate die-casts!

 

As to my hopes for Blue Box's involvement, this set keeps turning-up, sans figures, as does a boxed clockwork locomotive, which looks to be HO/OO (the above is sub TT-gauge I think?), but which doesn't have figures either!

 

So, we haven't really proved anything, but we've got it all out there should anyone else like to join the hunt, or join-the-dots. Who made the pale-blue soft plastics, what sets do they go with? Is/are Moonbo and/or Kamco manufacturers, or just jobbers? Are Motron behind Kamco, or vis-versa? Did Kamco/Motron get their figures from Blue Box/are they the same figures as some BB airport sets? Questions, questions! RBM and Janbo are just importers/jobbers.

And with thanks to Paul Morhead and Jon, I think I just added four Hong Kong makers/jobber's names to the tag list while other people bang-on about Wello and Star as if they are the centre of a very small universe!