P is for Potpourri of Plastic Peeps! Historicals and Ceremonials

There's no better-or-worse with these groupings, it's just the easiest way to begin the sorting, as most of the large scale collection is archived thematically. The small scale remains mostly alphabetical by company/maker, with only the unknowns thematic, but in the larger scales it seems better to separate them by theme, within which they are all equally valued, and equally useful, in their section of the whole! Today it's the more colourful soldiers from Chris's recent donation parcel!

This was actually a purchase from Chris, which was put in the box to save on postage, and turned-out to be a Reamsa cavalryman, Royal Escort Squadron, I believe, and doesn't seem to have been in the Gormasa-Soldis tranche of reissues? Now he just needs a horse, but as mentioned in related-articles passim, I think I have some somewhere!

 

Novelty Ninjas from Panosh flank a larger unbranded/several branded (generic!) figure, who is a more contemporary (or still recent) capsule-toy type. All three are manufactured in soft PVC style polymers.

 

From the left: a base for the via-Portugal premiums used by several French products, which had here, been paired with one of the smaller Kinder issue figures, which his locating pegs don't fit! A ceramic priest type, from Japan, a slightly damaged Marx Miniature Masterpiece knight - I have more damaged than not, and will have a modelling session with their polystyrene arses one day! Finally, a new sculpt of Welsh lady 'redcoat' to put the fear of god into French marines! She was obviously another (most of the previously-seen were) tourist keepsake, keyring

 

With sizer - a bit blurred, without sizer - a better shot! A home-casting mould Prussian, a naked lead figure around 40mm, he may have had a brand, but with everything that's happened recently that mental note has been lost, and what looks like a French (or Spanish?) copy of a Reisler (?) Band Major, he could be quite recent, he's very clean, and very flashy, almost a test-shot? The sizer is an Airfix clone.

 

Lovely novelty ceramic drummer, about 45mm? He's smaller than the others we looked at a while ago, and we will return to him/them, as more of the others came in a while ago, but have gone off to storage, so a better overview of them - as a genre or trope - is definitely in the pipeline!

 

And a nice bunch of slightly battered Oojah-Cum-Pivvy's, from India, via Shamus Wade, but being terracotta, they will restore quite well, both with superglue and modelling clay, while the powder/poster paint is equally easy to touch-up, so I will get decent samples of each uniform type from this lot. And again, many thanks to Chris for all the above.

O is for "Oojah-Cum-Pivvy"

Which is the word I've been searching for in past posts on this subject, as was also I searching for the name of the importer, who was the famous Shamus Wade, he went on to use the word/phrase for a range of lead figures made by/sold as Nostalgia Models, while the phrase itself has a very complicated etymology (in our family it's always been '[H]oojah-mah-flip'), well worth the crawl through the rabbit hole, and is currently the name of an alternative or 'indie' band.

One of the Oojah-Cum-Pivvy sets, as originally imported by Wade (while he was still in Ireland?), it was a part-set of these, my late Mother found in a charity-shop for me, which made the first post on the subject, and got me paying more attention to charity shops after a bit of a hiatus.

 

But this post has its own chequered history, as the images below are all from Brian Berke, and he sent them ages ago, around April '22, I found them in a folder at Christmas last year, and excitedly told him I'd found this folder with all sorts of stuff in and would move it up the queue, only for life to intervene - as it does - and they didn't get posted that Christmas or in the new year, and while there were quite patches, overall, last year was pretty prolific for publishing, they just never got the attention, so I had hoped to post them over this Christmas, and looked at them a few times, but in the end, it happened just now!

Brian spotted these in a little store in New York (I think, or Connecticut?), and as you can see it's an interesting collection of British imports (Britains and Hornby 'O' I think I can see), and domestic American production including a Comet Authenticast (? Grey overalls) and early Beton plastic, front-right. There's also a rather nice Indian-made chalkware, in the back-right corner.

Which was obviously from this lot, in a neighbouring compartment! And . . . we have a brand! Only the third I think for India, a shameful situation given it's a nation of over a billion, but it is mostly either this craft-stuff, or the more-commercial, imported Western/Hong Kong-China shite.

They appear to be made by Ramdass of Lucknow (I once lived in Lucknow Barracks in Tidworth!), are slightly larger than Wade's Oojah-Cum-Pivvy's and as mentioned, chalkware, rather than the terracotta of the musician sets. They each represent a given trade or function, which is written on the base in English and - probably - Hindi?
 

Here we see the marking, which is simple pen & ink, as per similar figures seen on the blog from both Brian and Adrian, I think. And they are probably decorated in powdered poster-paint, so you wouldn't want to be getting them damp, for two reasons - paint and material!

 

Three more.

The jeweller, before and after having his hand fixed!

Along with a scaler - they are a good 70/75mm, without the bases.

 

I've also had this in the folder for a while, it's an old auction shot (Bonhams maybe?), and shows what are 'composite' toy figures, also from India, being a mix of wood, wire, cloth and plaster or papier-mâché? I love the cushion ticking/fringe on the elephant's howdah!

O is for Older Charity Shop Stuff

These were procured between January and October 2022, and are from a larger folder we will dip into a couple more times to empty, and there's a run-up to Christmas post on Charity Shop purchases coming too.

We're going from the sublime to the ridiculous in this post, and while not ridiculous, this little set from Red Deer hasn't turned-up in either of the Red Deer haunts Peter Evans or me have been sourcing Red Deer from! But it turned-up in a charity shop for less than a quid? Mini-vinyls!

 

This and the next one, were real finds, they were a few quid each, can't remember how much but not enough, maybe £3.50p each, something like that. They are almost certainly ivory, and not bone, they are too fine a texture, and a few years ago they would have been worth a lot at auction, if not thousands, certainly hundreds, especially for this one, as it's a recognisable character figurine of The Mahatma Gandi?

 

But I'm not so sure now, selling ivory without provenance is hard (I've kept the receipts to establish provenance for futures sale), but they are both 'clean' enough to be illegal, modern pieces, which is what the legislation is designed to clamp-down on?

 

This one is possibly a goddess, or priestess, and with a slight patina, could be a little older, I have a fair bit of ivory in the collection from teeny little Indian cracker-toys, and bracelet charms, from before the last war, to Japanese pieces better than these.

 

But it is all a bit of a liability now, it's fine to own the stuff, but selling it and/or buying it can be problematical, so one day it will probably all go to a Museum, but not until I've put them all on an 'Ivory' page in the A-Z's, or here?

 

Santa is a cat person! Hey, it's not the 6th yet, but three folders of crackers, baubles and cake decorations have now joined Brian's nativity shots for an eleven-month sleep! And I can't remember if the Tortoise was resin or PVC, but I thought it was worth a punt?

This was another real find, a cold-painted 'Vienna bronze', probably German and despite the chipping, a really nice piece of antique novelty figurine, and again eminently saleable in the hundreds, so one day I will part with it, to finance a gap-filler/grail piece, but for now I rather like them and they stay!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Civilians & Scenics

I fucked-up earlier; I was trying to alternate between canoe posts and other things (which happen to be Chris's posts for a few more 'moves'), but managed to post back-to back canoe posts, and not notice until a few people had seen it, at which point sliding it back into 'Edit' became not-an-option! No matter, the Japanese stuff is bookending itself now, the rules are only mine and there's no real urgency behind them, so, now, here's a quickie on more of Chris's donation!

 

 

We actually used up most of the civilian stuff with the Introductory post, so this is the rest! Of particular interest is the chap next to the Gondolier (who we've seen before), the new one seems to be in the style of those 1950's Japanese celluloid trinkets, but he's clearly more of a Mogul warrior or guard, from the Indian subcontinent?

 

He also seems to be polystyrene and what I though might be an incorrectly re-glued umbrella/sun-shade, is actually a moulded-in shield - he's missing his weapon (possibly a spear or lance), and is consequently; another of the  'best of donation' figures!

In the opposite corner is a waving boy, also of Asian appearance and equally unknown to me, possibly from a kit . . . did anyone do a 1:48th Saigon Embassy, Heuy kit? Is he from a sampan boat kit? The other notable is the lady in white, bottom right, next to the Frog/Krugozor lifeboatmen.

She is, in many regards, the same as those other two (possibly sculpted by CC Stadden), and would appear to be captaining a longboat? Her arm resting on where the large tiller-arm would be, her garb, very outdoor and foul weather. Did Frog do a canal boat next to the lifeboat, I can't find anything on Scalemates? So, I'm guessing, possibly a generic sold as a ship modellers 'spare part'? Merit maybe, Peco or Slaters?

Other highlights include the golfer keyring, the little chap, bottom-left, and the blow-moulded baby who will join a growing pile of unknown Hong Kong babies, who fill several bags now; smaller, larger, PVC, copies of Thomas, and copies of Britains & Mettoy hospital newborns! To which end - identification - I bought a babies bared crib/day-bed at PW's show last Saturday! I buy (or get given!) this stuff so you don't have to!

Foliage; the rather leery orange seaweed/coral will go very well with the Magic Roundabout trees, in providing alien landscapes in future photo-sessions, which had occurred to Chris when he chucked it in the box . . . something missing from the blog are the bigger set-piece shoots I did once or twice in the first year or so (the Spencer-Smith/Tudor Rose advance to contact, and a similar ACW 30 v 40mm photo-shoot), and which I hope to return too soon, I have plans for a proper photography 'station' with permanent features - but that only raises the constant dusting/maintenance problem!

 

The two halves of fir/pine tree don't butt-up against each-other, as they are identical mouldings with no central line of symmetry, so are probably forward facing snow-globe accessories, or from some touristy box-diorama?

 

The palm tree is lovely, and will need to be compared with all the others, while the separate base version of the common'ish poplar is new to me I think, and they all (there are dozens of slight variants) go back to the Lego poplar I think?

This is also interesting and will hopefully be ID'd in a vintage toy catalogue at some point, it is similar to stations in sets by Kader (before they were a major European rolling-stock contract manufacturer), Moonbow, Blue Box and others, but while their little rural/suburban stations were stand-alone, this appears to have plugged into a larger component or base board, could it be the short-lived Tomy system with Lego compatible parts?

Odds and sods, you can never have too many bits & bobs for completing sets etc . . . and while the highlight here is the Starlux Totem Pole (as issued with 20 and 30mm figures) scaled down from the 54mm range's one, there are other interesting bits, like the plug-in horses-head which I think comes from a Hong Kong (or European?) copy of Timpo teepee/tipi?

The desktop PC eraser, carries a kid's 'wants list' of toys, sweets and erasers on its screen-sticker! While the temporary-tattoo booklet of waterslide transfers will join others in the novelty/cracker-toy zone!

And finally all four corner towers for a post-Giant fort copy, again they have to be compared with all the others to work out where they belong, and I have plenty of little bags awaiting that job, including lots of green and orange tower roofs with various flags, so one day we'll give them the same treatment the black plastic ones have already had over on the But Is It Giant? blog.

C is for Composition Civilian Contribution

You may recall from previous posts on them that I have a bit of a soft-spot for these craft-oriented plaster (today's examples) or terracotta (previously seen) figures from India (which, after 43-years of 'Free Market' Tory policy which "will provide" has just overtaken us in the wealthy country register! Go Brwreakshit!), and these from Brian Berke are a particularly nice example.

I can't add much to the pictures, but they are all annotated on the base, probably by the owner rather than the maker, as they are a tad confusing, I will go through them, two at a time, as much for fun as anything else!

Starting from the left we have a chap described as a clerk, on the base he is further marked Momarir, which seems to have no meaning, Clerk is Kalaraka in Punjabi, Kērāni in Bangla, Kārakuna in Gujarati or Marathi, Klerk in Hindu or Lipikaru in Sinhalese, yet Google wouldn't suggest it as a personal name either? It (momarir) is however 'Architects' in Arabic?

The figure next to him is described as a water-carrier, with Pan-Harin or Pan-Harim in brackets, both of which claim to be Indonesian (under 'detect language') but with no further translation of meaning, pan-harim with an 'm' further claims Turkish as it's mother-tongue! However, water, oil or gee is clearly being carried!

The third from the left is described as a begger-woman (Binka-Rin?), but looks more like a musician or entertainer of some kind, she seems to be holding a form of drum or percussive instrument? Also while plainly-dressed,  her shawl is egde-decorated, qite colourfully ad her undershiry is a bright red, so hardly giving-off an aura of destitution?

The chap in scarlet is annotated as Peon (Chipras-si?), which comes up as a Marathi word, but again no translation and Google's desperate to make it Alexis Tsipras of the current Greek opposition party!

A peon is a lowly peasant in South America, but this guy is dressed as a minor prince from one of the semi-autonomous states, or a palace flunky / senior member of the native-recruited civil or military service in his Delhi Durbar finery - with all that scarlet and gold?

The last two are straightforward and make perfect sense; she is described as Queen (Rani) and a Queen is a Rani in Hindi, while the last chap is titled Washer Man (Dhobi), and you should all be familiar with dhobi wallahs being the laundry staff of the British in India (and elsewhere once the word was assimilated and carried throughout the Empire by the Army) via 1970's comedies, if nothing else, along with punka-wallahs who operated the big sheet-fans!

The fact that the last two are correctly titled/identified and the few other clues suggest to me they might be the cast-name characters in a post-colonial, Indian-written play of the 1950's or '60's which was popular enough at the time to produce a set or two of plaster figurines, but not lasting enough to leave a footprint on Google sixty or seventy years later?

Lovely figures, and from the bases (different design and plaster colour), two part sets? Scaler looks to be a Britains' hollow-cast from set 2095 French foreign Legion. Can anyone shed more light on the various names/titles? Many thanks to Brian - top feed for Small Scale World!

S is for Shiny Shelfies!

While in TKMaxx the other day, I shot these ornamental lumps for two reasons, one being that they cover a subject we cover here, and secondarily to show how a lot of what might be appearing in local auctions rooms as 'apprentice pieces' might have been made five-minutes ago from recycled drinks cans in Mumbai!

By far the better piece and at £12.99p affordable if it tickles your fancy that much, but not something I need, a vague Mosquito look, it would go well with Tintin figures in a display cabinet maybe? It had a stern label stating it's "...not a toy" and is "...for decoration only", which is probably to save TJX Europe from law-suits for broken toes!

This was frankly ugly, and is the sort of hidiosity you might see in the background of one of those navel-gazing movies about the making of the movies where it would be owned by some unspeakable Hollywood mogul who's Bel Air mansion would have been entirely furnished by an 'interior designer' anyway, but then you can say that about a lot of the stuff in TKMaxx's home-furnishing section!

It also looks a bit like some of the designs in that movie with Jude Law I can't remember the name of (the one with the flying aircraft carriers - and Angelina Jolie as a pilot-babe?)? It had the better propellers though, the ones on the 'mosquito' are vary crude and heavy.

Both were marked 'Made in India' which is forth entry in the tag list I think, and reminds me there's still some 'India' in the queue, from Mr. B!

A is for Already?!!!

It is a fact that some shops, particularly larger chains and department stores already have Christmas stuff out and have had for several weeks, TK Maxx have managed to mix thiers in with the Halloween stuff which is a bit odd?

However, I thought this year I might be the first blog to annoy you all with a 'new' or 'this year's' early . . . really early Christmas post, TK Maxx was the venue and among the over-decorated, glass-bead encrusted skulls, I found this chap and just had to have it!

It's stretching the limits of 'toy', 'novelty' and even 'figural', but it's undeniably a guardsman (from one side at least!), gets India in the tag list for the . . . fourth . . . fifth (?) time (as it's made there) and kicks-off the festive season! 130mm, padded cloth, novelty Guardsman Christmas-tree hanger . . . brilliant!

I is for Asian . . . Rack Toys

In the words of he who keeps following me ['very closely'!] "There seems to be some interest in these at the moment"! I'm not sure if these were sold to tourists in numbers; mostly sent to British Asians by their relatives, or collected by them on trips back to Asia to remind them of the mother country, but you see them occasionally at figure shows, car boot's or on feeBay; usually a half-dozen or so (I suspect they came as 10 or 12-figures in an assortment?), and I'm sure there are other poses to find.

We'll start with the girls as for many years I wondered if these were Thai or Indonesian, Burmese or from somewhere further afield (Malaysia?), but one of the deciders for my current thinking - India - was the pair on the left with their distinctive tea-baskets - as anyone who did geography in the 1970's will recognise! But Malaysia is very much in the frame still, especially the checked-sarong guy!

The gent's too seem to place us in India, as while you find tea-pickers in similar dress in Sri Lanka and Muslims in fezzes elsewhere, to find all the costumes in these sets in one place I think you'd need to be in India; the coloured plastic pair are Buddhist devotees, the guy on the left might be representing an educated Anglo-Indian, or someone from the ruling/political class?

The other two I don't know off-hand, but they seem to be more ceremonial or area-specific in their ethnicity/cultural-dress? The above two groups are all flats, around the 60mm area and with 'penny-bases'

Here we have two drummers; one with a matching penny-base but ribbon-twisted to give a level of dimensionality to him, while the other is again a full flat, but with a different base. Both have had drums added with a blob of glue.

This group are from the second bag (along with the 2nd drummer) and there are three more of the square bases and two tatty snake-charmers. I used to wonder if they were from a different set/maker, but I think they are all from the same source and are now kept in separate bags because they won't fit in one, but there aren't enough to move to the tub-stage!

Again, arguing for a different source you might associate the first figure on the left with Burma/Myanmar or Thailand/Siam, but the figure on the other end of the row looks like a sun-roasted, unshaved 'Sahdu', and the only place where you get all these together (with Cobra charmers!) is India . . . or Malaysia? The final figure is a villager with hoe.

The hoe is painted onto the base, while the 'Sadhu' has an axe glued to his shoulder.

It looks like he's killed the poor lizard, so not a Sadu at all! I don't know if he is planning on eating it or indulging in some ceremony with it? Sadhus are supposed to be vegetarian aren't they? Maybe he's a denizen of the jungles or forests of the great wildlife parks or the river-delta's of the North-East and not a Sadu? If the figures came from Malaya, he might be an Iban tracker from the jungles of Sarawak?

I need to do a bit of a mend on this chap, who should be carrying the pole with the two baskets suspended on the cotton-treads but suffered a breakage where the glue was originally placed, he too; has the ribbon-twist to suggest a greater level of 3D!

These two - who came in separate purchases (but one of them with some of the above), are slightly different, with heavier bases, one tapered upwards and the other downwards with a prominent rim. These are the figures which raise Malaysia to the heady heights of SCW's tag-list, although they tend to wear a lower black hat?

As they seem to be copy-versions of the chap in the second image from the top (fez, checked sarong, umbrella) there is a tendency to think they are from another source, but as they are the only ones to turn-up, both in the same pose, and given the two drummers and the similarity between several of the women I suspect they're from the same extended set, but keep them both in a separate, third bag, just to be safe!

F is for Four Wheels Good . . . Two Wheels Better!

Time for an occasional round-up of motor-cycle madness that is those motorised bicycles seen here, or acquired since we last looked at such things; which must be more than a year ago as some of the images are dated May 2017!

Pretty sure this is Elastolin (but it could be Lineol), and almost certainly a post-war version from a pre-war mould, as it has been 'converted' to Swiss nationality (with a new helmet) in order to hide its previous origin or use as a Nazi, or Nazi-themed 'war toy', which was one of the stipulations of obtaining permission for re-starting production under Allied denazification regulations.

Its construction is quite clever, with a combination of tin-plate bike and composition rider joined permanently by a part of his armature making-up the handlebars buried under a composition headlight, something similar is happening at the foot-rest/engine level too.

Photographed at the same time and an early Britains machine, I've Mercator Trading to thank for allowing me to photograph both. This is a standard 54mm to the previous machine's 70-odd millimetres; and - a heavy lump of lead!

This is fantastic! First, it's a tricycle, second, it's another, rare use of the 'Make: India' tag; and it won't be the last - 'Terranova' sent it with several equally interesting stable-mates (who have been near the top of the 'long' queue, twice since Christmas, only to be put off!), so we will see them too, at some point.

Made by Centy Toys (new tag!), it's an auto rickshaw, tuk-tuk,  tut-tut, Tukituki or motorised tricycle, depending upon where you are when you encounter one, has a pull-back motor and - as you can see form the posed Berserker - around 60/65mm. CNG stands for Compressed Natural Gas, which Tuk-tuk's are going over to.

It's one of the great frustrations of the blog that I know what's missing; all the stuff Hasbro and Mattel don't look at, all the Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, South African or Brazilian domestic product, locally produced toys from Ankara, Ulan Bator, Lagos, Mombasa, Tripoli or even Moscow; so it's nice to see one - Thanks Brian!

On the left; also sent in by Brian this shelfie is a colour variation of another, which was sent in by Mr. Berke as well, along with a similar but different design, both branded to FunTastic, with; on the right - an unbranded generic pocket-money toy of the same ilk, these, judging by the size of the hook-slots, being slightly larger that the approximately 54mm reported by Brian for the FunTastic machine.

These are markedly bigger with Mr B reporting that the avocado-green one is suitable for Barbie/Ken dolls, so 5, or 6-inch, with the left hand pair (equipped with child's stabilisers!) in the 4-inch bracket? Neither is branded and all brand-marking seems wholly imaginary!

Been in Picasa so long I can't remember which the new one is! I think it's the khaki one with the brown base? At least two (the motorbikes), possibly all three, are likely game-playing pieces/movement counters and vary between 15mm (orange), HO-OO compatible and near 30mm (the bicycle), with the upper-pair soft-metal flats and the orange one a die-cast mazac type.

Seen before (possibly from Peter Evans), the one on the left (around 60mm scale/size) has been joined by the one on the right (from Peter Evans!), it has a colour variation plug-in head and slightly darker sand camouflage, crude and fitted with stabilisers, it's 'pocket-money', it's rack-toy 'nothing special', but it's a bike, military and welcome here! Cheers Peter . . . for both?

{I Thought we'd seen it before, but I can't find it on publishing, so maybe not . . . I've probably got some unused images somewhere! And I think he's closer to 80mm-equivalent!} 

We finish this round-up with a dearth of 'bikes! I have sooooooomany loose, often unknown seated figures, riders or torsos/part figures in every size/scale and material imaginable. Mostly from die cast toys or long-lost plastic models of motorcycles, pedal-bikes, horses, camels, cows, donkeys, aeroplanes, circus acts, tank turrets, jeeps, fire-engines . . . you get the picture!

These are three of them who have come in over the last few years, and I know what they are so they can close this post.

From Budgie (Morestone (Morris & Stone)), we are looking at three of at least five variations of these motorcycle-riders, and two sculpts; from the left AA Automobile Association) or Dispatch Rider, The [Isle of Man] TT (time trails) Racer and the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) patrol-man.

The AA man got the same paint-scheme as the military dispatch-rider, so it's hard to call, but he is a different sculpt with a smaller 'cartridge-box', so may be the later numbered DR Rider? All three have seen better days and lost their machines, but they are 54mm, plastic figures!

More M'bikes when they've built-up again!

L is for Leader[s] of India

No branding on this as there often wasn't with these terracotta imports, but having only recently watched Gandhi for the umpteenth time it's amazing how easy it is to recognise some of the characters from these crude castings, although castings isn't really the right word, they are hand-sculpts, if placed side-by-side with a duplicate set you'd find each is slightly different, slightly unique.

Box is in the Britains or 'British' toy soldier style, red-paper, laminate/covering but with only small labels on the ends rather than the expansive full-lid labels of Britains and Britain's own!

The funny thing is the printers decorative blocks, which on the Sanskrit label are all neat with all the trefoils facing out; three at each end, but on the English language label, there are four at one end, pushing the long-line down the label and leaving a right buggers-muddle at the other end - an apprentice typesetters' Friday effort?!

The leaders, I suspect at least one is missing but I don't know which one; it's just that a nine-count is an odd number (obviously Hugh!)  and more so with the space still available in the box - you know what I mean.  The set is a mix of pre-Independence leaders 'of the people' (Indian National Congress, Muslim League and minority representatives) and post-Independence Prime Ministers.

The following list is not necessarily correct, nor accurate in name-spelling (or thumbnail-biog's!) and stands to be corrected, but it's the best I can come up with at short-notice, with help both from my mother - who was there (grandfather had a role to play) - and the few illustrations in Alex Von Tunzelmann's Indian Summer and Leonard Mosley's The Last Days of the British Raj.

1 - Indira Gandhi - 3rd Prime Minister of India, Nehru's daughter

2 - Liaquat Ali Khan - Muslim League

3 - Vallabhbhai Patel - Parsee Leader/Representative

4 - Jawaharlal Pandit Nehru (née Gandhi) - 1st Prime Minister [Rashtrapati] of India

5 - Mohandas Karamchand 'Mahatma' Gandhi

6 - Surup 'Nan' Nehru [née Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit], wife of Pandit Nehru, carrying a young Indira Gandhi

7 - Lala Lajpat Rai - Punjabi Author

8 - Abdur Rab Nishtar - Dallit Spokesman (Bengali?)

9 - [Mohammed] Ali 'Jin' Jinnah - Muslim League and First Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Quaid-e-Azam or 'great leader'

Missing but possibly/likely candidates for one of the figurines [missing or] above are;

* - Lal Bahadur Shastri - 2nd Prime Minister of India

* - Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, Mountbatten's replacement as Governor General (Britain's representative) and a possible/likely for 3

* - Madeleine Slade (the Mahatma's English follower) could be a possibility for 6, but it seems her role was enhanced in the movie, over her importance to the historical narrative, especially in the context of an Indian made set of 'leader' figures, produced decades after the events depicted in the movie

* - K R Kripalani was involved in the talks with British Government at which most of the above were also present?

* - Baldev Singh - spokesman for the Sikh community, pencilled-in as an alternative for 7, he would have had a beard though

* - Sheikh Abdulla - Chief negotiator for the Kashmir and other possible for 7

Also I'm not happy about 2, the glasses are right, but I can't find a picture of him in that kind of costume?

2-7 in close-up, construction is similar to my charity-shop musicians (seen here a couple of years back) with a basic wire-armature holding the low-temperature fired, hand-made, clay model together, painting is mostly matt, either poster-paint or emulsion of some kind and the green bases are given a 'posh' glazed-plinth look with a dip in ink - which has also provided for the footwear!

I assume - due to the hand-made/hand-finished nature of these figures, that there would be a team working on them with each worker producing many like-examples of the figure they have practised-on or perfected? And . . . while they are crude and - it's fair to say - very stylised, they are nonetheless recognisable and that's a clever trick, that's actually art.

From left to right; 1, 8 and 9 similarly closed-up on, with a study of the base underside; there are no obvious markings on any base. Jinnah's height and mean-look has been captured very well, as has Indira's appearance and the angry flick of white through the black hair over her brow which I remember from childhood news footage.