You can't beat a fairy-tail for a bit of
ultra-violence . . . actually you can, you don't find things being sliced like
bread in fairy-tales, you need Tom &
Jerry for that kind of shenanigans - but you know what I mean, and the
originals (back in the dark, dank, forest-bound Central European villages of
yonder yore) were full of all sorts, rape, incest, flaying-alive, eating alive,
cooking alive . . . all sorts, and - come to think of it - someone gets eaten alive in this set!
These have been in edit for two years and I
must thank Adrian Little for letting me photograph these two years ago and then
again a few weeks ago, after the first set of images proved really too poor to
use, these are from his collection not his stock, so he definitely went the
extra nine-yards on this one.
Ostensively 'just' an early British kids
interactive set, with which to play-out a favourite fairy-story, probably aimed
at the 4 or 5 - 7 or 8-year old bracket? They look to date to the early 1950's
and while someone mentioned the late 1940's in discussion the other day, it's
unlikely, but not impossible, as all the dates for early plastic have been
pushed back over the years, WHW, Bergan, Airfix, some French stuff, some minor makes, Palitoy &etc.
A colour enhanced shot from two years ago
and the replacement next to it - with the bed the right way round, and it's 'my
bad' it was the wrong way round two years ago as it gets loose and I replaced
it for the shot!
From the left, as factory painted
polyethylene mouldings we have Little Red Riding Hood, a big bad wolf (who
looks sweet, how can you take a wood-axe to that*), granny (spelt
"grannie" on the box - which may be important), wolf-granny and the
wood-chopper.
* He actually looks like my favourite bear
- Mary Plain . . . in Wartime! Who
never managed the same level of fame as Paddington,
despite being just as funny, but she was a tad more poignant, and some of the
subject-matter was probably considered best forgotten by parents in the
1950/60's, allowing Paddington a
free-run at the red-carpet?
The bed is an unpainted, polystyrene,
mould-shot with "MADE IN ENGLAND" inside the cavity, very unlike the
figures.
And this is where it gets complicated! Kent
Spreacher had done a lot of work on sets that look so alike this one you can't
pretend they are anything other than Identical!
Now it's best if you go and read Kent'spiece as it's been 20-odd years in the editing and seems to be the whole story - less
this bit! You have to scroll-down to Emenee.
There's nothing there to argue with there, that I
can see? He's got the sculptor, an idea of the mould-history and the date -
1951, which would tie-in nicely with these sets being 'early fifties' - but not
'late forties'. So one has to assume (for the time being!) that this was part
of the mould-swapping that went-on after the Second World War, and up to the
point when Nixon lifted the tariffs Trump is threatening to reinstate!
We had a long discussion on the HäT forum about it ten years ago and
there's more in Blast Off the space toys
book. Basically there were hideous tariffs attached to finished goods imported
into the US (and elsewhere, before the WTO unreasonable taxes were the bane of
exporters and importers!), so toy companies (specifically - small moulds) would
sent their moulds to their 'oppos' in other parts of the world as there were no
tariffs on lent stuff, only on stuff for sale!
I call them 'oppos' (opposite numbers)
because if the shipping of product was uneconomic they weren't 'competitors' as
such, but they could recoup some of their investment by leasing their moulds
(or charging for a specific tool-run, per unit, as a sort of rent?) to people
who would be competitors - if they were both operating in the same market,
which they weren't!
So, for the time being we'll assume that's
the case here, and the Made in England will be no different to Kleeware putting their mark on the Pyro mouldings they used to borrow. The
odd spelling of 'granny' is a further clue, I don't know if it is or was an
Americanism back in the day (it's getting a red wiggly-line today), but if text
was copied from the US sets . . . ?
Close-up of the figures in situ, how does
that sweet little Mary Plain wolf become that fat old hag in pink? By
swallowing the little old lady in blue, whole and alive!
Kent has listed the basket next to Little
Red watsit, and I think that's likely the case, the Granny-Wolf has no need of
a basket, while Little Red dar-di-dar was delivering stuff . . . food and
flowers - that we know of! But they've both got their arm out so, I guess . . .
play value - switching the basket! Also the Emenee
bed seems to differ just as greatly from the PVC figures Kent reports and looks
to be the same moulding.
Tomorrow, though; it all appears to get even more
complicated!
