Pirates is for Crazy Comic Piraten Serie Piratas Bucaneros Filibusteros Corsarios Berberiscos . . . and Then Some!

I didn't know how to tackle this lot, and ended-up with far too many images, some of which I know are other peoples, and which have been left out, although one or two have been kept in. Also, in the end I decided to go with the vague order they seem to have been issued in, but it's not necessarily a true timeline, so bear that in mind.

'THE' Pirate Premiums

 

Appearing around Europe in the early 1970's, there were different configurations of them, with the UK getting a paltry six poses which we have seen before, and other people getting the full twenty.

They first seem to have appeared in Spain (and Portugual?) as Arial soap-powder/detergent premiums, where they are subdivided into five groups of four figures, and next time we visit them - when I bring all mine together - I will shoot them in this order;

 

http://chicledunkin.blogspot.com/search/label/Piratas

 

Full translation of that page;

 

Aunque estas figuras son mas grandes que las Dunkin, para mi es una serie totémica, la recuerdo perfectamente de mi infancia......

 

Although these figures are larger than the Dunkin ones, for me it is a totemic series, I remember it perfectly from my childhood...... 

En realidad son figuras de unos 5 cm, 20 piratas que venían en el detergente Ariel en 1971-1972 mas o menos. 4 colores mates preciosos (para mi los mejores del mundo, los europeos son mas brillantes y en america el plastico demasiado duro...) en plastico blando (lo que hace mas dificil encontrarlas sin defecntos) amarillo, verde, rojo y azul.

In reality they are figures of about 5 cm, 20 pirates that came in the Ariel detergent in 1971-1972 or so. 4 beautiful matte colors (for me the best in the world, the European ones are brighter and in America the plastic is too hard...) in soft plastic (which makes it more difficult to find them without defects) yellow, green, red and blue.

En el paquete recuerdo que venia un dibujo de los piratas agrupados en 5 series de 4, Piratas, Bucaneros, Filibusteros, Corsarios y Berberiscos. Si reunias una serie te daban un premio en metálico y si conseguias los 20 supongo que te darian otro mejor.....

In the package I remember that there was a drawing of the pirates grouped into 5 series of 4, Pirates, Buccaneers, Filibusters, Corsairs and Berbers. If you collected a series they gave you a cash prize and if you got the 20 I guess they would give you a better one.....

Debajo os pongo un scan del trozo de carton donde venian los piratas Dibujados, Aunque no pone el nombre de cada grupo yo si recuerdo cuales eran, El jefe de cada grupo es el primero por la izquierda del dibujo. Como veis, el orden en que los puse segun los recordaba no era el mismo del cartón, pero iba bien encaminado ¿no?

Below I put a scan of the piece of cardboard where the Drawn pirates came. Although it doesn't say the name of each group, I do remember what they were. The leader of each group is the first one on the left of the drawing. As you can see, the order in which I put them as I remembered them was not the same as on the cardboard, but I was on the right track, right?

 

Just a note on the first paragraph, he's not saying Dunkin did these in a smaller size, but that they are bigger than the other Dunkin he collects which are usually around 25/30mm and also tend to come in 20's.

We need some pictures here . . . 

In the UK, Kellogg's issued only six (top left image), with Coco-Crispies and Puffa-Puffa Rice (a Quaker Sugar Puffs knock-off!), and the same colours as the Ariel premiums, there are all four versions of Cascanueces in the bottom-left image. The duplicated olive-green figure and the two white ones are oddments who have come in recently.

 

Cereal Offers do them better justice here

At around the same time Americana bubble-gum were issuing them in Germany (and South Eastern France/Italy?), as Piraten Serie, with these two images from old evilBay auctions showing that in addition to the 'standard' four colours, they also got creamy-white ones

The above three iterations were all manufactured by Tito, a premium maker in Portugal, and most carry the Tito mark somewhere, along with the given name. At some point in the late 1970's the mould-tools migrated to Peru, where the colour range got much better!

 

This is my Peruvian sample as they arrived, they are of mixed parentage however, or might be, so these are the notes I made when they arrived, I've listed them alphabetically for now;

• Arrigon (the only figure marked on the feet)
• Al Epacha (Tito mark on trouser cuff, name down cloak)*
• Barbarrója 'Red Beard'
• Cara Cortada 'Scar Face' (letter 'A' is visible, might be bootleg)
• Cascanueces 'Nutcracker'
• Corsario Azul 'Blue Corsair'
• El Arana 'Spider'
• El Bisco 'Biscuit' (no Tito mark, reversed letter 'F' is visible, might be bootleg)
• El Jorobado 'The Hunchbacked' (no Tito mark, might be bootleg)
• El Manco 'The Lame' [hand not foot]
• El Pecas 'Freckles'
• El Pupas 'The Baby'
• El Tuerto 'One-eye'
• Ivan
• Jack el Negro 'The Black'**
• Morgan (no Tito mark, might be bootleg)
• Mustafa
• Papatalo ('The Unbeaten, Unconquered'?)
• Sebastian
• Taric (no Tito mark, letter 'E' is visible, might be bootleg)

* might be Ali Epacha or Al Iepacha . . . 'The Pasha'?
* *Not apparently a racist epithet, the features being clear and of European or 'everyman' appearance, with long straight hair, so; black-hearted, or up to no good!

 

Check Juan's comment below for more on the origin/meaning of these.

 

A similar grouping but I moved them around and swapped a few colours out to make it a better image, a few months later, then kept both for the post anyway! The quality of these is as good as the Euro-issues, but you can see from the notes, that things are starting to go pear-shaped on the tool, specifically with the text and logo-markings, I now suspect these are all the ex-Tito moulds and not bootlegs, as we are about to look at some bootlegs!

At around the same time, some company in the USA, Rubenstein International Inc. (1977) started shipping these fellows in from Mexico, bags have multiple pose duplicates and what appears to be a limited number of poses, but that remains to be confirmed by multiple samples, and I suspect all 20 poses might eventually turn-up.
 

A limited palette of colours includes red, blue, yellow and white, similar to the Euro-issues, but look at the flash and the overall quality, if there are bootlegs out there, these are they, or someone thrashed the tool to within an inch of its life, between Peru and Mexico!

http://vmminiartemonocromaticos.blogspot.com/2010/07/p.html

This guy seems to have only used eBay images without captions or context, so it's not possible to conclude what any of this means, but interesting colours, and suggestions of other issues somewhere, I particularly like the jade-green set of 20 figures. But you can also see the olive and white ones I've started picking-up, so someone around here had issues of both . . . Bonux, Christmas crackers, Maltese festival treats?

It has to be pointed out that the size and levels of caricature of these pirates, means they would mix quite well with the Antipodean Crazy Pirates we saw here

 

But we finish with darker stuff . . . 

 

I was hoping Giselle over at Mokarex would have something useful for this post, as she still owes me about 40 images under the 10-for-1 rule, but her pirate page is shit, she's nicked the Cereal Offers artwork, but all chopped-up and low-res, while she's photoshopped some eBay Peruvian figures which are not the Kellogg's colours, the page purports to represent! Only two of them are right . . . Thieves are thick, you see, somewhere to the left of the bell-curve!

 

But we end with this piece of hilarity from Kent Specher in the 'States, image used for research purposes, with full acknowledgement, wouldn't want to blame anyone else for this dog's dinner of a complete joke.

 

First;  They didn't make tea, they made chicory-coffee! Ersatzkaffee! Then we find there are too many poses, Linde only carried 14 of the designs! Why is there a Tito/Ola ice-cream premium Roman from the Asterix sets in the middle of the already too-big group, at 'K'? And the colours are all wrong!

Unbelievable, staggering incompetence, make it up as you go along to make up for a lack of research; *sloppy* is - I believe - the term used in Pennsylvania! The truth, had he bothered to look for it, is here;

https://www.lindefiguren.at/fotogalerie-linde/piraten/

 

And I've posted links to that site several times I think; most recently when we looked at the spacemen! Again, I've translated the page for English readers;

14 Piraten gibt es von Linde. Von links nach rechts heißen sie: El Bisco, Patapalo, El Arana, El Pecas, Corsario Azul, Tarik, Mustafa, Jack el Negro, El Jorobado, Morgan, El Tuerto, El Manco, Arrigon und Cara Cortada. Der Name ist am Rücken oder an den Beinen zu lesen, daneben sind die Linde-Piraten natürlich immer geprägt. Die zarte Kennung kann leicht übersehen werden. Am häufigsten ist die Farbe blau.

There are 14 pirates from Linde. From left to right they are: El Bisco, Patapalo, El Arana, El Pecas, Corsario Azul, Tarik, Mustafa, Jack el Negro, El Jorobado, Morgan, El Tuerto, El Manco, Arrigon and Cara Cortada. The name can be read on the back or on the legs, and of course the Linde Pirates are always embossed next to them. The delicate identifier can be easily overlooked. The most common color is blue.

Wesentlich seltener sind sie in den Farben gelb, grün und rot.

They are much rarer in color yellow, green and red.

20 Piraten wurden von der spanischen Firma TITO produziert. Nur 14 davon gibt es mit Linde-Kennung. Ob es Al Jepacha, Sebastian, Ivan, Cascanjeces, El Pupas und Barbar Roja (siehe Abbildung) auch von Linde und auch in weiß gibt, bezweifle ich. Die Tito-Piraten wurden in Tüten verkauft. Tito produzierte auch die bekannten Dargaud-Figuren. Die Linde-Piraten waren natürlich im Kaffee.

20 pirates were produced by the Spanish company TITO. Only 14 of them are available with Linde identification. I doubt whether Al Jepacha, Sebastian, Ivan, Cascanjeces, El Pupas and Barbar Roja (see picture) are also available from Linde and in white. The Tito Pirates were sold in bags. Tito also produced the well-known Dargaud figures. The Linde Pirates were of course in the coffee.

And the Linde are logo-marked and likely to be slightly different-sized copies (I don't have any, so I don't know for sure), most of their stuff was copied, as Kent would know if he'd read the series of recent articles in a certain magazine I won't mention, by an author I won't mention either, as neither would want to be associated with this in any way, but Kent knows!

 

What Kent has here, what's in the above image, is either Peruvian  product, from the old Tito/Ola/Dunkin (et al.) group of tools (likely, with the Roman present) or Mexican bootlegs, and which, from the state of it, the colours. and the Roman (!!!!!!), is a test-shot or factory sample of some kind, probably off of evilBay, to which, with no knowledge of the subject whatsoever, he added a shit-ton of text with no research or checking of even basic facts with all the available resources!

 

19 pirates! Not Linde's 14, not Ariel's 20, but 19 . . . and a Roman, in a different size! "Look Ma, I gave them all letters!" But he thinks he can come over here and tell me I've got 'Lots wrong'? Staggering arrogance.

And if you're wondering why some of my Rubenstein images are the same as his, it's becasue we took them from the same seller about a year ago!

Z is for Zoo Quest

Just a quick box-ticker really - not enough to photograph, not enough to say! I looked at Trek from Spear's Games the other day and a similar set with an animal buying/bagging mechanism rather than the stores-accruing of the former marks the main difference with this set from Ariel Games.

Zoo Quest was a BBC TV series most notable for giving David Attenborough his start in presenting natural history programming, and this licensed tie-in game will date from the same time, between 1954/5-1963 I guess?

The 25mm soft polyethylene explorers are the most useful thing here and the reason it's in the collection, they are a tad larger than the Airfix Tarzan figures and while technically semi-flats, th nature of the pose and the depth of the sculpting means they could paint-up quite well with 25/28mm role-playing figures.

I got to thinking about Ariel's title with this game being TV related as was the Gillette Cup televised by the BBC for many years (cricket game we've seen here passim), and it struck me they might have been named for the aerials (different spelling) down-which TV signals were sent?

It turns out that while there's no evidence for such (they were a division of Philmar Publishing, eventually bought by Gibson's), they did produce a large number of mostly children's television program related card games (snap, happy families etc), featuring both ITV and BBC staples of the late 1950's and the 1960's, so it may be the reason . . . I like the idea it might be!

G is for Gem-erations!

I know, one of me' worst titles ever! And I've 'ummed and 'arred about whether to actually do this post at all, or wait until the rest are out of storage, but it'll do for a primer, and there's more to come with these so they can be returned to.

On the left is the first version Gemodels (GeModels, Ge-Models - et al.) footballer cake decoration, he has the little spigot which was designed to take a small football (I've never seen one but they must be out there somewhere). Second from the right is - at first glance - the second version, which was produced without the ball-spike, whether the balls were still sold along-side them or not is open to question, maybe in the small 'set' packets?

The two red ones (type 4 below) appear to be UK-originating copies, perhaps for a board-game; I think a Soccerboss (possibly not/pre- Ariel's version) carried figurines looking like Gem's. These two are quite good copies, but lack the finesse or facial details of Gem originals.

Also while I say cake decoration, it seems from the Gemodels game (Cup-Tie) shown to the Plastic Warrior team that the spigots of version one may be relatively exclusive to that game (no sign of the ball though!), and the latter - spike-less - issue being for onward shipment to Culpitt and Co., and he has paint which suggests a cake decoration; the Cup-Tie figures were unpainted in four colours (red and blue teams, green and yellow goalies)

There were UK-looking copies of the spigoted type 1's as well, they aren't illustrated in this post but I have them in storage and will include them next time we look at these. Type 1's and 2's are quite hard to find, but 2∙1's are even harder!

As well as dropping the spigots, Gem tried over-moulding, and I'm calling them type 2∙1 (for this post; it's more complicated than the small sample we're studying today) and this is actually one of them, I have more in the storage lot so we will return to them for a closer look one day.

Mr. Musgrave was quite dismissive of his firms over-moulding efforts his the interview with PW, but in fact this is a solid piece, which has stood the test of time; I'm exerting quite a bit of [bending] pressure to try to show the join line in the above shots

In order to obtain the upper cavity (red-polymer shot) you can see how the old type 2 mould was broken-up and then reassembled, in the course of the arc-welding (or braising) of what must have been quite small pieces of steel (or bronze-alloy), the player's left hand has been moved-out/slid-accross at the wrist and the right arm now looks as if it was reset by a quack after a heavy-tackle.

That has then been joined or merged (Musgrave tells of both colours having to be simultaneously injected) with the simpler lower-cavity, here shot in white-plastic. However the clear mould line round the whole figure suggests a four-part tool, all very complicated for a 1-inch novelty figure.

Also one of the reasons given for trying over-moulding was to reduce painting, so the fact that the figure has had his collar and cuffs apparently factory-painted is a bit odd to say the least?

The commonest version in soft polyethylene plastic are the second figure from the left shown here, they are slightly smaller that the type 1 / 2's (with smaller bases to match), no doubt due to the 'destruction' of the type 1/2 mould tools in the over-moulding experiments, so quite easy to ID. Loss of both size and surface detail suggests they pantographed their own remaining type 1 / 2's!

Years ago I used to wonder if they were Hong Kong copies, as they remained alongside the real HK copies (third from the left - polystyrene giant) in the older baker's shops, although when I say alongside, some bakers would have one type, some; the other. Also they tended to be glossy, both in plastic type and paint, next to the earlier chalky, matt-painted variants.

Both the gloss paint and glossy polymer changes were down to Culpitt who handled most of this stuff and used a sub-contractor to manufacture and paint - much to Gem's chagrin as we learn in PW's publication - see below.

The three are here compared to a much smaller Hasbro era [brittle type] Subbuteo figure on the right.

But over the years; as the other colours came in, it became clear they were the same plastic as Gem's Pop Group figures or the skateboarders for instance, or late issues of some of the other cake decorations. In all three/four Gem types (and type 3 may have been issued by or catalogued under 'Festival' as well?) there are only the three poses;

Goalkeeper - standing ready*

Striker - kicking with left foot

Running/dribbling - right foot off the ground

* Paint black for referee, add white stick for World Cup referee!

Now, when you find (increasingly 'found') these in those older baker's shops, you will/would often discover the outlet had a whole bunch of the kicking and dribbling poses in say; red and blue or red and white (with contrasting shorts) with green, yellow or orange goalkeepers, but in fact, all colours/poses turn-up, so I'm guessing that elsewhere another shop would be sent green and orange players and red/blue (more probably all-white) goalkeepers?

This applies to the latter Culpitt years though, who were releasing both Gem and HK stock well into the 1990's, Gem themselves had a complicated issuing system, which is reproduced below.

Hong Kong's hard plastic ones (type 5 here) created another pose (b), achieved by varying the running guy (a); firmly placing both feet on the base, closer together. These can still be found around, but - sadly - less and less independent bakers exist, and of those who do, many are new businesses with little interest in stocking this stuff, some can still be found from on-line suppliers.

The 'type 6' is a second set of HK pirates, they are just as big, but skinnier overall and have lozenge or 'biscuit'-shaped bases. I only have the one here at the moment, but there is a bunch in storage, mostly the more conventional red/blue types, this one is a tad older maybe with his primrose-yellow strip! They sold alongside the British 3's and HK 5's.

In a 1979 Ge-Models pricelist shown in the PW Gemodels Special (ISBN 1 900898 32 2,  - and available from the editior at the above link) the sale of footballers (probably/likely type 3's) is broken down as follows -

Ft1A - Footballer (pose 1, plain – hair and flesh painted)

Ft1B - Footballer (pose 1, shorts or shirt painted)

Ft1C - Footballer (pose 1, stripped shirt)

Ft2A - Footballer (pose 2, plain – hair and flesh painted)

Ft2B - Footballer (pose 2, shorts or shirt painted)

Ft2C - Footballer (pose 2, stripped shirt)

Ft3 - Goalkeeper

Ft4 - Goalposts x2

FTT4A - 2 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (plain – hair and flesh painted)

FTT4B - 2 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (shorts or shirt painted)

FTT4C - 2 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (stripped Shirt)

FTT6A - 4 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (plain – hair and flesh painted)

FTT6B - 4 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (shorts or shirt painted)

FTT6C - 4 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (stripped Shirt)

FTT12A - 10 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (plain – hair and flesh painted)

FTT12B - 10 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (shorts or shirt painted)

FTT12C - 10 players, Goalkeeper and Goalpost, (stripped Shirt)

And orders were taken for individual team strips, I believe some of the four chaps in the goal-mouth's are from such orders - but they could as easily be home-paint conversions. I think the type 3 one on the right of the UK goal is the 'stripped shirt' variant, and as the chap below him has shorts in the same green-paint he may also be a factory 'shorts or shirt' job, top left of the four is a mess over-painted at a later date, lower left is a tatty standard or default paint.

To be fair, striped figures, or 'odd' colour-ways are uncommon, with most bakers seemingly taken what they were given (by Culpitt), which as you can tell is mostly 'hair and flesh' [and boots], with 'shorts' as common and 'shirts' rarer paintings.

While we're looking at painting, the 4th red, green and blue type 5's on the far right of each of  their respective rows are all stencil/sprayed against the commoner hand-painting of the rest. And the size of the HK copies is down to their having been copied from type 1/2's before the moulds were lost, to which you have to add deeper bases

Hong Kong play six-a-side on a very odd-looking pitch!

I was regularly buying type 3, these 5's or - occasionally - 6's in retail outlets until around 2010/12, but they are starting to dry-up as the older stores close-up. The HK ones are still findable, and another source for them is catering or kitchen suppliers/shops, although they are all slowly going-under, or on-line only!

We've lost three locally in the last few years (two in Basingrad and one in Aldershot - where I often picked-up stuff), and while a couple have opened in the same period (one in Basingrad the other in Woking), neither of them stock/ed this kind of thing and the Basingrad one has closed already. They did both have Christmas stuff including the Culpitt plug-together 'swoppet' Santa - a couple of Christmases ago though!

The 'Hong Kong' (see next paragraph) goals are really a bit shite, but once they have been anchored in royal icing, or oozed into cream or fondant they are stable enough to survive the whole cake-carrying-in-and-candle-blowing-out shenanigans, I suppose!

And - they only follow the Gemodels originals in not being very good at standing-up, although with the Gem originals it was down to a pair of very small bases! Indeed - the 'HK' goals may be UK-sourced - by Culpitt? They are a very crude moulding in a cheap, bendable polymer somewhere between polythene and polypropylene, and could have been located locally for just over or near cost-price? Perhaps from the same firm handling Gem's moulds for Culpitt?

None of my goals are marked, but then none of my type 2's or 3's are marked either, only the type 1's have the GEM ENGLAND 'post-mark' type moniker on the bases. However I may have some marked ones in the storage sample, I feel type 1's should/may have come with them? If I have; we'll see them next time

Heay - if you're on Subbuteo turf, you have to use a Subbuteo ball, that's the rules, that is! Ooof!

All late production of the sort Cupitt handled or carried with the exception of the Mary (who had a little lamb) figure which is an earlier transitional-piece in chalky plastic but with glossy paint. More of a size-guide than an attempt to prove the colour thing, if I wasn't sure of the origins of the type 3's there'd be more question marks in the text above - and there's quite a few anyway!

Previously seen but new layout; I've yet to see brown-plastic footballers, then neither have I seen red pop'sters, but their drum-kit is always red, so maybe that's why they didn't get red costumes from Gemodel's 'wardrobe'?

As far as size goes, with the footballers' there is quite a variation from the smallest (dribbling type 3) to the largest (Hong Kong goal keepers) giving a range of around 23mm to 28mm with the different bases.

C is for Cricket (Board Games)

Well, a volcano and high pollution levels caused by extraordinarily nice weather have led to ideal if lung-irritating playing conditions at the more commonly ‘wet’ end of the season for cricket (foreign readers - don’t worry, I’m not going to get technical!). It must be remembered that some seasons during my younger days were wet from beginning to end…

This is the offering from Capri, a marketing division of Mettoy-Playcraft (Corgi, Triang et al.) selling (and finishing?) Board games originating with DRG Packaging, one of the large Pulp Mills on the banks of the Thames Estuary and a major player in world paper, card etc…
You may remember that when we looked at the Soldiers of the World premiums we encountered Bowaters, another Thames-side Pulp Mill, who had connections to Waddington’s who ended up owning Subbuteo, from whence the figures in this set come.

The inference being that these big multi-national paper corporations, as well as pulping and processing wood on a global level, along with supplying paper and card, raw and cut, also drove product itself, in order to shift the material they were in the business of making. They seem to have had close connections with toy and breakfast cereal companies, sometimes because they were already supplying board games or cereal boxes, sometimes because they were all members of larger over-arching multinational ‘portfolios’, the various subsidiaries and divisions of which were bought and sold like sweets in the playground…still are, look at the recent histories or either Corgi or Airfix!

So, is this set DRG, or a Subbuteo subsidiary, or a Waddington ‘Budget Brand’ or one of the DRG executives having a punt with a company innovation grant? I don’t know, all I can say with some certainty is that Mettoy-Playcraft’s involvement would have been sought rather than brought, and would of consisted of sell-through for a slice of the take.

The trouble with research into this period is that from the late 1960’s to the early 1980’s, company history is very fluid. At the end of the 70’s through to ’82-ish, you get the toy industry crash that saw 70% (?) of all household-name brands, sold, lost or amalgamated, and then Thatcherite-Reganomic bean-counters moved into the surviving boardrooms, and chucked out the company archives as being either irrelevant to the new materials, new business models (TV, Movie and Cartoon tie-ins) or new corporate relationships or because saving the archive meant ‘spending money on a storage unit we don’t need to pat for’. The Toy archives of the better European museums can tell you more about the Toy Industry in 1907 than they can for 1970!

We’re very lucky that the Corgi die-cast archive fell into good hands, as did chunks of the Frank Hornby/Binns road stuff, while lots of the Airfix and Britains archive material has been sold at auction in recent years, but for most Marques, we’re rather stumbling around in the dark, getting clues from the box sides of cricket games…

As for Capri, these are also known to me as containing figures;

- Conquer Everest, (4 (?) figures, previously or later (?) issued by Merit with 6 figures)
D 403 - Knockout Cricket (1976, same figures as Subbuteo)
- Championship! (4 (?) plastic or 6 card show jumpers)
- Olympics (12 figures, 25/30mm, 1 each of three poses in four colours)

Toward the end of Subbuteo’s pre-Hasbro life, this set appeared, clearly some sort of a one-man band working out of a lock-up in Surrey, RDA Marketing used the same figures as Capri with added Subbuteo sun-screens, a further list of Subbuteo products were offered as mail-aways, I suspect they were ‘helping’ Subbuteo clear old stock, whether they knew it or not, and based in Horsell, Surrey, they were quite near the home of Subbuteo, and round the corner from the PW Editor!

I found a website that details two box-types, but without Internet here I can’t check the significance...was one issue signed by a famous cricketer or had less extras or something maybe? Perhaps someone could find the page and post a link in the comments section after I’ve up-loaded this? As I remember the web-page, there is a small following for this specific game, so it must be quite playable?

I love the little stick-on Union-Jack; as if this set would have originated anywhere else, or - for that matter - export in large numbers to anywhere else…er…except India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, South Africa…I feel a Monty Python sketch coming on…”What have the Romans ever done…”!

Wicketz product listing;

? - Wicketz (1988, contains the same figures as Subbuteo cricket games)
1 - Catalogue
2 - Self Assembly Scoreboard in Black
3 - Self Assembly Figures to Paint
4 - Set of 2 Rollers and 6 Deck Chairs
5 - Scorebook
6 - Sets 2-5 complete

Ariel, who’s address was in Poland Street, London (lots of corporate HQ’s), so probably another ‘Generic’ brand - in the loosest sense of the word - and probably also connected to the pulping mills along the Thames corridor, went with their own figures, but a close look suggests they were sculpted by the same guy who worked the Subbuteo cricketers, in this case almost certainly the world renowned Charles Stadden, who was known to work with both Waddington’s and Subbuteo, sculpted many other games pieces, and is responsible for most of the figurines still found on Sports trophies today, indeed his likely involvement strengthens the ties to the pulpers through Waddington’s?

Other Ariel stuff with figures;

- The Gillette Cup (cricket game, 13 figures in six poses)
- Soccer Boss (160 players in three colours?)
- Zoo Quest (6 player figures)

Comparisons of the various Board Game figures, top are Subbuteo fielders with their ball catcher bases and bowlers and batsmen with gradated bases. Middle shows the Subbuteo figures at the front with the unpainted Capri versions at the back sandwiching the Wicketz figures in the middle, they don’t all get all poses and while Wicketz have gradations on the batsmen, the Capri set have all smooth bases, relying totally on the board for playing mechanism. The Bottom shot has the Ariel ‘Gillette’ set.

Other Subbuteo items, the watchers and roller-man came as a double set mail-away for Wicketz, these are - to my knowledge - the only accessories Subbuteo made that weren’t designed for the Football range which was their ‘Bread & Butter’ (they also made Rugby and Hockey sets)

The stretcher teams are from the football range, but would also be seen at cricket matches, there are three versions, the early ones at the rear having some similarities with the early Airfix Combat Group set (Stadden again!?), front left finds a redesign with the old stretcher case (no red stripes on blanket) and new bearers and the modern team (green bases, right), ready for action and part of a larger set of pitch-side figures including a mounted policeman.

Bottom left shows plastic ‘flats’ for bowlers, with whom you could flick the ball at your opponent’s ‘bat on a stick’. These mirror the original footballers, who were cardboard flats, and the new ‘photo-realistic’ flats that Hasbro use with the rump of Subbuteo to date.

A few other cricketer models, I’ll deal with the bottom left shot first as the others are all the same. We have the two quite common Peter Pan Playthings poses, these are common not because the game sold particularly well (although it might have) but because they are 60mm vinyl and have a high survivability factor. Unlike the little styrene guy between them, probably from a 1950’s board game, to find one with the ball catcher intact is probably a minor miracle! I can see him tuning up severed at the ankles in 50p bags, but as this example, very uncommon. The game he came from is unknown to me.

31st January 2018 -He's now known to be from the  Toogood & Jones / Balyna board game Discbat Cricket Game. 

The other three shots show both early and late UK and Hong Kong versions of the Culpitts cake decorations in approximately 45mm. The Hong Kong production is vinyl again, but mine have been chewed…you start just getting the cake off the feet and before you know it you’ve had a left arm and a cricket bat for tea! The right-hand pair in both the bowler and batsman photographs shows two distinct sculpts, both undoubtedly from Gemodels. Although on the left of each shot, the vinyl figures would have come out last and may still be found in older cake shops if you’re lucky.

The image top left shows what your sick-green cake would look like if Mum invested in the whole grouping, sadly some Mums hated their kids so much they’d save money by not buying the wicket or wicket-keeper, so both items are rarer, that’s before you take into account the size of the wicket and its likelihood of getting lost.

However when I say rarer, I mean in comparison to the other two poses, as all cake decoration production seems to far outstrip demand, mint sets, bagged or lose, turn up all the time, cake decorating shops don’t tend to last long so mint product ends up as clearance, and out-painters often end up with the stuff, as do catering wholesalers, and the only Gemodels stuff I consider rare is/are the Fairy Tale figures and the Scenics – although the model railway world is hiding tons of Gemodels trees!

Oh - You know I said I wouldn’t get technical…well, now that China (and apparently; the US university circuit) are learning Cricket, I’d better explain the rules for those foreign visitors who fancy a go;

There are two teams, one ‘out’ in the outfield, the other; in, each player in the ‘in’ team ‘goes in’ until he is ‘got out’ when he comes back in and another man goes out to be got out, sometimes you get a man left not-out. When all of the in players is got out (except for the one who's not-out), the team that was out goes in and the team that was in goes out and tries to get the team coming in, out! At some point they all stop for tea, even if it’s lunch-time. Simple, makes Baseball look like Brain surgery and American Football sound like rocket science!

[Can’t remember where I stole that from but it’s been around for a while]