F is for Follow-up to the Follow-up and Interim Non Follow-up! Kain Etc . . .

It's funny, when I posted the Greek carded rack toy set recently (no link, I've re-tagged them all and will put is at the end) I managed to find the original trio, but not the identifier, likewise when I posted the single red one with the Kain mark, I also linked it to the unmarked trio, but forgot it when I posted the carded set.

 

So, this additional group really is as described in the title! So, if you scroll to the bottom of this article and click on the link, you'll get what was a single Kain tag and is now four articles including this one, the other three below this.

This new sample actually came from Cyprus, but the free part which only underlines the Greek connection to these, and among some duplicates are both new poses and new colours against that which has gone before. Here we see the shooters, with a Marx pose, several Crescent poses and what I think might be a French chap, standing firing.

 

Abe' Lincoln and his long-lost identical twin, horsewippin' a bank-robber, all courtesy of Crescent, the green one has the Kain mark, semi-removed; see note below. Numbering has also changed relative to my earlier guesswork, but I've adjusted the original list, another reason to read all four in sequence!

 

Two foot Indians, where the numbering guesswork fell-down as they have high numbers, both are marked, one clearly, the other with the sign of attempted removal. Of course, they are the second and third found, as I had found one previously! One ex-Crescent, the other also French-looking in origin?

 

And the numbers reveal that actually the foot cowboys occupy the low spot where I'd pencilled-in the foot Indians (with a question mark, I always try to cover my arse), while some of the new numbers go way-up, hinting at 30+ figures, but mostly cowboys, so far?

 

And so to the Kain/non-Kain thing. Obviously the 'finger mark' I mentioned on the previous find was actually a strike-through, seen here on the blue one, while the tan/fawn one has a full mark; unfortunately hard to make out, as it was a short shot already, before the last owner clipped two ears off the base!

 

So unpainted Kain premiums, and [then?] a generic rack-toy issue/s, sometimes painted. The Kain mark not always removed properly, but what Kain was or is, I don't know; there is apparently a chain of Kain cafés (in the Athens area?); might they have issued premiums in the past, maybe as kids treats/shut-me-ups?

 

While the numbering may break-down with further finds, as it may be that a few foot Indians and maybe one or two mounted figures were on each tool, with up to four or five tools? Plus the wagon set. In which case, I'll re-do the list with 'known' individuals in numerical order!

In reverse-order of publishing: https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/search/label/Kain

S is for Still 'Q is for Question Time' but C is for Closer to an Answer!

Sometimes these things come fast, sometimes they drip-drip-drip toward the truth, I'm not sure which this will prove to be, but we can add a bit to the three figures originally tacked-on to another post here, in the hope it may trigger someone's memories?

I actually found this in Greece, but with an English title 'Plastic Toys' that's no guarantee of anything, I also sourced an Alamo set in generic packaging from Greece, which was actually BMC! Four cowboys on foot protect a wagon from two mounted Native American Indians. Stapled (rather than heat-sealed) blister hints at age, but it's not empirical.

Colours aren't as interesting as the metallic's we looked at last time, but new poses include a couple more Marx 54mm clones and a mounted Indian, he has both a familiar look and the look of French 1950's hard plastic, which could be another clue?

The wagon is a common design, Crescent, Blue Box, various US makers and Giant et al in the smaller scales, this is the version with a box-seat forward of the tilt and differs from others with an additional towing hitch at the rear. And . . . yet another iteration of 'THAT' horse, which - while Bergan/Beton to us - is actually the old Britains hollow-cast standard!

Foot figures are marked as last time, the mounted figures have a more evenly scalloped edge to the base side/rim, and what looks to be a removed brand-mark, all are numbered, seemingly in sequence with the previously seen ones (by which I mean the duplicates are marked the same!), starting somewhere above ten or fifteen, suggesting earlier numbers may be for another line - WWII or US Cavalry, knights . . . or something else?

How it looks now; the reason I only shot the one mounted Indian from the set as 'new' is that factory-painted versions had since turned-up - in the pile! So we have Marx clones and [possibly] French clones, in a least three issues (one painted, two colour-way runs) which may be French and/or have had a Greek branding/importer.

The card also has a spurious '2' hinting at other card-arts, or suggesting the artwork may have been nicked from something else? And the numbers now found hint at a set of at least 15, in fives, plus the wagon (or any other accessories?), thus:

[11-15 - Foot Indians? (yet to be found by this author)]

0 - 15 - Unknown

16-20 - Foot cowboys
21-25 - Mounted cowboys
26-30 - Mounted Indians

31-35/40 - Foot Indians?

35/40 - 55+ Foot Cowboys ?

 

Unmarked - Covered-wagon and team with driver.

But that is all pure conjecture, the Marx foot figures were a larger set and more/all poses may have been copied, taking the numbering back to 1, 5 or 10 . . . with no foot Indians being produced?

Anyone feel they can add anything, or ID the mounted figure's donors?

Now known to have been Kain premiums at some point, and one of the Indians on foot was here, elsewhere, and a higher number, as are two more, all under both Kain and Make; Greek tags now so you can find them, and more have come in. product issued by Kain is still unknown and cowboys on foot may be numbered from 10 or 11?

F is for Follow-up . . . Kain?

A quickie, but interesting nevertheless, you remember the three numbered cowboys I showed a while ago in a mixed post of Wild West oddities, well, an Indian has turned-up with the same scalloped-edge base and the same number (in the figure range - 10/30's) in the same font (Ariel Round or one of the Hun/Din's).

But this chap is clearly marked Kain? The smudge over the 'K' is where it's caught a finger-nail or something and been scraped a bit flat. I tried Googleing 'vintage kain' and just got loads of fashion pages, so I have no clue as to origins, but it looks like a premium of some kind?

On the downside - he lacks the full-hollow to his base underside and is a Crescent copy, not a Marx sculpt? 

So not a follow-up to Kain, but Kain; a follow-up!

 

Now known to be Greek premiums (product still unknown), there was a latter generic issue as carded rack-toys.

R is for Rainbow Re-issues of Rug-Rats & Ranch Kids

A bit of Marx for a change, and something that really makes you go "Whaaa....?". Kent Sprecher's site explains that originally a few of each mould-shot would be added to a larger Wild West ranch playset, and that sort of makes sense, as does the fact that people like Thomas had sets of kids or 'dressing-up' kids in their ranges, but it looks like a lot of effort to go to for something I wouldn't have thought sold well, but they did things differently in the past!

Boys and girls; that's a dolls-arm in her hand by the way . . . not anything else it may appear to be!

The green chap seems designed to hold something in his raised right hand, which is not a full 'ring-hand' but clearly curved to hold stuff, but there was no stuff with them?

While these two are also foxing me, they both appear to be interacting with absent articles, which from the poses would seem to have been quite large, horses, barrels, tree trunks . . . something like that? The dog goes with the set, the barrel is Britains, late PVC stuff (starting to go sticky) as is the pile of luggage in the previous shot.

The rest of my pose-sample, I'm missing a prone/fallen, baseless Indian boy and the adult who's tasked with looking after them! He may be in the box of unsorted Wild West large-scale we saw in a forthcoming as I was initially sorting stuff out?

While we're looking at Marx, I have these three soft ethylene copies, sequentially numbered on the base-underside, from 17, and managing to look a bit premium/givaway, a bit Italian (especially the bases), a bit shooting-game and a bit US dime-store hard styrene Space-toy . . . all at the same time! They have no other marks and remain a mystery, can you help; do you know them?

 

Now known to be of Greek issue, both as Kain premiums (product still unknown) and as carded generics, with the Kain removed on some and struck-through on others.