F is for Five Do Follow-ups

Tying-up a few loose-ends from posts recent or not so recent, with the help of various contributors, bit of an eclectic line-up, but that's very much the nature of the Blog! I'll do them in the order they've come it, most recent first.

Theo van der Weerden sent this last week as a follow-up to the previous week's post on ceremonials, four more of Athena's models of Greece's finest in their finery! The two on the right are the same as two we looked at the other day, but the two on the left are both colourways of another uniform type, and also show two of the other plug-in arms these figures come with, being the standard bearer and 'sword downwards' arms.

The sword might be meant to be held against the waist/thigh, but their definitely had their hands through the hilt, so it may be more significant? While - having handled many more of these than I have got - I know the flag-staff is very thin polystyrene, and you don't often find it in this condition . . . it's also the spear issued to Athena's ancient Greek warriors.

Ha-ha! A few weeks after I'd Blogged the weird composition hedgehog in Chris Smith's donation parcel, look what I found on a shelf in the legendary Peter Evans' abode, and which he kindly let me photograph - a whole family of them!

Peter did tell me what they were, but I immediately forgot and had to Google them . . . trying 'Belgium' and 'Holland TV Hedgehog' with little luck I broadened my reach and found this;

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=951

https://housefulofhedgehogs.typepad.com/houseful_of_hedgehogs/2009/07/mecki-micki-macki-mucki.html

So that's them then! Mecki (and Macki, Micky amd Mucki) the hedgehog[s] . . . Brilliant!

These came in a while back, the Coke-Cola/Fanta premiums (sadly still no springbok) but with the remains of paint, heavily worn, they were clearly much-played with and I initially assumed they were home-painted, but given the un-Coke-marked ones have started to turn-up in other colours and more modern plastics, it's obvious the tools have had a good life, and I offer them here as a maybe factory-painted issue, maybe home-painted curiosity?

Around the same time and while I wasn't Blogging; Chris Smith had also found the hunter that goes with the Hong Kong African's he (Chris) had already helped with, back in the Spring.

Because I had already got the show-reports done (with my similar find), these got put to one side, but I shot the bases to show the smoothness and the translucence of the brown figures, where not enough pigment has been added to the neutral granules (cost cutting), rendering them 'smoky' in the thinner sections.

Finally Brian B sent the figure on the left ages ago and I didn't add it to the recent post on them, as that was plunder . . .  while the old feebleBay image on the right shows what might be the same set but which is I suspect a 5th generation copy (compare the dickey-bow) of Brian's 4th, against the 2nd/3rd generations we saw last time (larger hats), of Fontanini's originals. Although with both Peltro and Kinder (among others) also copying them, whose generation of copy is which generation, is a moot point!

Many-thanks to Brian, Chris, Peter and Theo for the input.

F is for Follow-up - Coca-cola Flats . . . not!

Having only just posted the soft, polyethylene (or polypropylene) grey versions of these the other day, I was surprised to find a chocolate-brown one in a mixed lot of mostly modern vinyl from a charity shop a few weeks ago; I hung-on to it, knowing I'd have the rest out of storage any minute and here they all are! They raise several points to note -

So . . . firstly, the new one is the lion, bottom left, to his left and running back up to the top are the grey ones from a while ago and the rest is a complete vintage set in white polystyrene, along with a creamy-white plastic 'Euro-premium' variant of the lioness - bottom right-hand corner.

Secondly, the TRUE Coca-cola premiums (of which I have none!) have deeper bases with title messages running around the rim, ergo; I now believe these probably came first as 'Euro-premiums', and a deeper base was employed for the Coke premiums, making the South African addition (a Springbok) worth its 'premium' price, as it must be a separate, small tool, never re-issued.

Coke's Fanta brand issued 12 birds, with the same heavy bases and also in addition to - or because of the Sprinkbok - Coke didn't use the camel sculpt from this set, presumably/or because the offer was in sub-Saharan Southern-Africa, and camels are from the Sahel and Arabia far to the North?

Link To Thread on STS

But . . . thirdly; the original set's tool (for the other 21 animals) does seem to have been re-used, and quite recently, I've been collecting these for an age, and to find two new types a few months apart, in a new plastic type and colours, looking very new is more than simple coincidence?

I increasingly suspect something interactive (like hollow building-blocks, or Phidal type books, but for even younger readers) however; they might just be out there as Cracker-prizes or gum-ball machine capsule contents?

Last time I was wont to suggest they are recent, now I think they might be, I also highlighted the water-buffalo's heavy base as being more like the Coke ones, but it was always heavier, and lastly I now think these were probably first or stand-alone, not a re-shot of the Coca-cola mould, but rather something in a product mould-catalogue for Coke (and/or others) to pick-out.

Q is for Query - Coca-Cola Animal Flats?

I saw these in an otherwise nondescript bag of mixed animals in a charity shop the other day, and recognised them, but also didn't - if you know what I mean! Like the other set of animal flats I've posted here recently a couple of times, the originals of these are well known and well covered on the web, being the Coca-Cola/Fanta premiums. They were re-shot at some point in the same cream/off-white polystyrene, with thinner bases.

However these are in a softer yet dense polyethylene or polypropylene, and a more obvious darker grey than either of the off-whites of the Coke originals or my thinner based copies. I don't have much else on them hence the 'Q is for . . . ' title-bar, but would guess someone like Tom Smith for Christmas crackers, or something like Tupperware/Airfix cubes maybe, although the giraffe is tall, so maybe not cubes, a book with play-set, a simple zoo, something like that?

They are clean, only the four and came-in with some totally unrelated stuff - china vinyls for the most part and a Chinasuar! Indeed the newness of them and the post '97 nature of the rest of the bag could be a sign someone's been running the tool recently? I don't think so but you never know!

This shot shows the thinner base matching my styrene re-shots, the Coca-Cola ones had a heavier base with the company's logo or animals name (I can't remember) running round the edge. The water-buffalo however has a heavier base, more like the cola premiums. They are also lightly striated with a second colour's - black - streaks in the grey polymer.

G is for Gratefull for what you've Got

So, you've unwrapped your pile of high-tolerance production, injection-moulded plastic shite and/or given a like pile to offspring, nephews or other younger members of you circle...spare a thought for those less well-off...

What an African child - converted to the Western Church - might find under his tree this Christmas, no actual tree of course, and he probably made it himself, or had it made by an elder sibling...if they didn't sell most of them to fat European tourists in ill-fitting khaki-shorts to get some hard cash in a usable currency!

Made from a Doom insecticide can with twined Coke-bottle tops for wheels, the ingenuity involved (and probably a bit of blood!) in these is lovely, no glue, no welding, no screws, nuts/bolts or nails, everything holds everything else in place with folds and bends.

There was a popular musical video in the run-up to Christmas showing on the soma-channels which showed one of these with rudimentary steering (lots of 'give' in the wheels) and a wire attached to the roof so it could be pushed along like a Fisher-Price puppy!

This could, however, be the future of toys here...the jobs aren't coming back, indeed Chinese companies are already moving production to Africa to avoid upward wage-pressure at home! Political ignorance is allowing the Right to dictate increasingly draconian policy, and the idea that Western civilization hasn't had its day is risible. 20 years from now things like this may be under the trees on our sink-estates, if they (the estates not the toys!) haven't all been sold to Arab investment companies and Chinese sovereign-wealth funds?

U is for Unknown Flats

Well there were a shed-load of unknown trees in the last post, so we will stick with unknowns for a few days, looking first at Flats. If you think you can identify any, you can comment here or email me.

These are very similar to the standard European flat of the 1950's and 60's, but are near full-round rather than FLAT flats, if that makes sense. I suspect they may be early British cereal premiums, any ideas? 40mm, polystyrene hard plastic in a faux ivory colour, they may be Salvation army band, but I think they are more of a civilian concert orchestra type set-up, or part of a circus.

These are a good 20mm, semi-flat, soft green plastic with Airfix hunter for scale comparison. All four marching figures are slightly different and they seem to be Garibaldi types OR Spanish Civil War? I have another similar sized sample, but with two vignettes, one of which - I'm sure - is different, however - yes! you guessed it - I can't find them!! [Update - I found them, they are by the same company, but are Wild West, they contain several vignettes, and come both in the same green and in blue, I will therefore post them separately another day][Second update - both these and the wild west set are by Serjanboys, a Spanish 'sobre' manufacturer similar to Montaplex]

The real reason the Hunter was dug out; this set is again similar to European margarine or tobacco premiums, but are in white plastic, not cream/ivory, also they seem to be in a phenolic resin or Bakelite type material and came in a very large sample, suggesting old factory/out-painters/shop stock from here in the UK. A vague memory prompts the thought they were given away with biscuits in the early 70's. [Coke-Cola copies or reissues with thinner bases, a world-wide series of promotions, quite common, except a Springbok added to the South-African promotion...I'll come back to them one day]