P is for Potpourri of Plastic Peeps! The Animals

There's always some interesting animals in Chris's parcels, and this one was no exception, with all sorts of critters to look at, farm and zoo/wild, real and imagined, prehistoric and an invertebrate! So let's get stuck in and have a look at them.

These were very interesting, I've had a couple of cursory Google-serches for swappable-, plug-together- changeable- or multipart- Dinosaurs, with no luck, so if anyone recognises them, let the rest of us know in the comments, and they don't look to be that old, in the style of 4D Masters or similar? Fame Master do their lock-together 'jig-puzzle' types.

 

And you can see the complete one looks a tad fictional? While half a kerthunkersaurus and bits of three others, hint at a decent range, where the joining-points, doubling as points of articulation, have identical dimensions on the faces, so all the heads, tails, forelimbs and back-legs can be swapped . . . Intriguing!

These vinyl-like copies of Britains also look to be modern, and probably die-cast vehicle/play set accessories, they are scale reduced, but not by that much and would suit 35-45mm figures?

I may have some of these in storage, under unknown small scale animals, but don't recognise the specific sculpts here, and with two domestic breeds and a lion, probably Christmas cracker prizes from the budget end, and new to the Blog.

 

A mixture here! The swan looks to be an early polymer bath novelty, the hen is a Hong Kong copy of the Britains plastic version of their earlier lead one (legs always break!), and the dog is probably a Playmobil puppy?

 

The green cockerel is one of those dimestore things which I think several people had a stab at, while the black sheep is a US-made item I think, but I forget the maker. Next to the sheep is a Merit camel, with an Airfix sheep bottom left and a daft-looking dog I have no idea on!

Which leaves the hedgehog which has lost it's fur/spines, and I thought it was one I may have somewhere, in better nick, but I think I have a very similar wooden one, from which this may be a later copy, so when I do the hedgehogs, I'll have a comparison between the two!

I know I have these in the unknown section of the old small-scale collection (they're about the same size as the larger version of Matchbox horse), possibly different poses, or additional poses, but what's interesting about them is that they are mimicking sets of real ivory carvings from the 19th/early 20th century, which I think are Chinese in origin and may be connected to folklore or myth/legend?

My father had a set, which he must have brought back from the Far East, I don't know what happened to them, but I know a few legs were broken over the years. The purplish colouring of the manes points to Blue Box, Holly or New Maries? Various cows, rabbits and other animals from all three had the same 'brown'?

 

Another mix, which is all a bit more 'don't know'! The dino' is a party-bag thing, we have seen here before under a couple of brands I think, with another in the pipeline, and the penguin is a white-button novelty swimmer.

 

The elephant is a cracker-charm, the seal an older rack-toy bag figure I think, the lizard likewise but probably more contemporary, and the monkey from a more sizable infant toy of some kind (maybe Playmobil again?). The rhino goes with a set of hollow-bodied novelty animals, we did look at years ago, and I have no idea on the scorpion?

Four interesting pieces, not least of which is the squirrel cake-candle holder, which must be a previously unrecorded Gem or Festival piece, from the same line as the resting Fawn, which is more common, perhaps by coincidence, but which rases the question of how many sculpts were in the set, four, five, six maybe?

 

The Zebra is another possibly Playmobil, but seems scaled smaller, a foal, or another toy line? You can see he stands, or rears up on his tail, while the bear is another American piece I think and the hippo is a resin lump from Scotland!

 

I don't know what to make of these, but they are figural, if only from the neck-up, and novelty, which, given the amount of novelty, cartoonish or tourist stuff in the collection now, guarantees them a place, but they can't go with the cats, nor with the dogs, so they'll have their own sub-zone! But fun, and as with everything else on the page, a big thanks to Mr. Smith for sending them to me to share with you . . . any ideas?

 

Finger puppets of some kind, lolly-covers, badges missing the attachments? I should have shot them from other angles, behind, and with a sizer, it'll give me an excuse to look at them again one day, in the meantime they are about 50/60mm across.