ABC is for Another Batch of Copies!

Why I haven't come-up with that heading before, given the number of times we've covered ABC here is one of those mysteries only the gods will have an answer to! Most of these are from Chris Smith who seems to have had a good lock-down as far as finding esoteric Hong Kong output goes, as he adds more poses/images to the ABC story and another (earlier?) chapter!

So, that new chapter first; Chris has found some unmarked figures, of higher production value/quality than ABC, but of the same poses ABC use. The conclusion has to be that these copies of UK figures must pre-date the ABC's and make the ABC figures, the poor 2nd generation copies they are.

Lower shot shows two of them with their Crescent 8th Army donors, while the sample also contains a Britains 'Khaki Infantry' pose, standing firing, which we haven't seen from ABC yet. You can see the bases are more substantial than ABC's and have a flat edge.

Here we see three of them compared to the green ABC (middle) and sand figures, at this point Chris didn't have a direct comparison, so they were a 'stand alone' set of 'new' Hong Kong Piracies, but . . .

. . . Chris then found some more sand ABC's, with two cross-over's, the Tommy-gunner seen here in the left-hand comparison shot and the running with bayonnet fitted, along with a grenade thrower - right-hand shot, although these don't have the ABC mark which could confuse, but those ABC US Marines in dress uniform, with the three versions, have some unreadable examples, so I think they all are ABC?

Which gives a [running?] total of six poses in the ABC set, seven with the Britains shooter and up-to nine (or more) if the missing Crescent poses ever turns up in either set, or more conversions/Britains sculpts?

Meanwhile, my only contribution is these two which I found while looking for the 'Zulu' versions a few weeks ago; two marked-ABC copies of Britains running swoppet in solid, but with the feathers (unlike the Africanised version), both of these are rather-poor short-shots, the brown one particularly, but I've never claimed these to be Hi-Fi, just high-interest!

I also had these Britains Herald-clone Union troops come in, they are unmarked versions of those issued within the ABC / HK / CMV 'family', a family to which we can probably add Past the Post, they may all have been independent but they seem to have shared ideas, production values or source material . . . packers, shippers or import agents!

Trees in the background are also courtesy of Chris I think, from one of the lots he's sent over the last year or so, the contents of which are languishing in a group of future 'H is for . . . ' posts, but they happened to be at-hand when I shot the ACW.

So many thanks to Chris for the images, donations and all round support - he found an absolute blinder earlier this evening (25th Aug) which I promptly paid a little too much for, but, well, they're for another day! Cheers again Chris.

H is for Hong Kong, Part 1 - Overview and 'Past the Post'

Note; In the next three posts making this set of articles HK (italisised) refers to a specific company and not my usuall short-form for 'Hong Kong'.

Following on from posts above and the prolific riff-offery of Hong Kong, particularly in the late 1960's and 1070's, here is a quick three-part'er on the sort of products resulting from a bit of piracy of the British producers of larger-scale figures.

Top is a comparison between the ACW figures of CMV and HK (see part three - below). The main image shows from top left to bottom right; two colour variants of the Britains Herald, one UK (black with brown base) ethylene figure the other a Hong Kong vinyl (grey with green base), a Paramount with hollow base and a marked 'HONG KONG' figure (see below).

The second row starts with a HK copy, then three unknown British copies (could be either/or all or none of; Kentoys/Speedwell/Trojan/VP) while the last row is all CMV.

Note that one of the British rip-offs has no hat, while the Paramount is a very different sculpt.

The unknown Hong Kong figure marked neatly on the edge of a quite deep base, with the number '634' on the opposite rim.

Past the Post went with copies of the Monograme GI's (another of the most copied/pirated/licenced sets of figures ever) and an assortment of Indians/Native Americans, all just over 50mm. There were double-decked boxed sets as well and I have eBay pictures of Cowboy sets in the archive.

H is for Hong Kong, Part 3 - CM, CMV, HK

Again in this last group there are similarities and differences that may or may not indicate links?

Three cowboys from 'CM' which I suspect is the same company as CMV, with a close-up of the base marking; an M contained withing a larger C.

CMV copies of the Britains Herald American Civil War figures, Marx Pirates and more Britains Cowboys, again with a base-mark close-up. The pirates don't have the release-pin holes the other two examples do.

HK copies of Timpo 8th Army along with Britains American Civil War figures and Cowboys. A comparison with a Timpo original radio operator reveals how much smaller these copies of copies ended up!

The way the HK is placed within the circle could link it to CM, but the use of a circle in trademarks is so common that it isn't much of a link.