F is for Farm Friends - Odds & Sods

I haven't photographed my LB (or other) farm 'funimals' yet, and with the bulk of them in storage that'll be a project for another day, but I have found a few bits around and about, which we're looking at here, with one or two shots I have taken while sorting or whatever.

 

Pretty sure these are all Lik Be, as I said in a previous post, there are more than one sourse of these cartoon animals, and different sets (like the band, and the circus sets - smaller animals riding/climbing on larger animals while wearing hats!) within makers, and many similar smaller sources, so it's not an exact science.

 Even within the oeuvre of LB's offerings, where the A/B- coded numbering helps, it's complicated by unmarked examples and the fact that the winter-sports funimals, band, cake decorations, dinosaurs, cavemen, wild west and 'Gygax monsters' (six posts - coming soon . . . I hope!), are also within the list, quite randomly, although usually in blocks, with the unnumbered fishermen, spacemen, astronauts and robot/aliens and others, probably accounting for some of the gaps (also blocks) in the list!

 

Colour variations of the rabbits we saw in the other post.

 

One shot I did take, to show colour variations of the pig!

From Mike B's catalogue image, the trio of chicks is sometimes broken-up and sold individually, or as individuals, I should say, the other three are from a sub-set of more anthropomorphic animals with items of clothing or human accoutrements. The farm boy on the music box will be a hard polystyrene version, and came a little later than most of this stuff; in the mid-1980's

A better sample of the farm range, with both cows, both donkeys (one with loud, pink-paint detailing), separated chicks (two of each), the goat and an adult duck, who's huge! If I recall correctly, the seller had multiple sets, but had opened one for the sales shots, but it was before I was an active buyer on evilBay!

The set we looked at in the previous post, but I think this was the seller's image, although I take similar images, I rarely use the same colour of both surfaces, and try to hide gaps! But it worked, as I bought two of them, a few months apart!

This is from the 'box'-something guys in Germany, still available, but, after a few successful purchases from them, it all went a bit pear-shaped - after Brwreakshit-proper (Boris the clown's 'deal'), they cancelled an eBay sale, didn't reimburse me, and bombarded me with eMails, in German, trying to get me to make an off-eBay sale (against feeBay's rules) elsewhere, so I've never bought from them again, and they got my fifty-odd quid, but have lost more over the subsequent few years? Branded to both Wello and LB.

The 'farm kids', there are a rarer farmer and wife, who are more realistic, still cartoony, but slimer or more proportionate, and so go better with the tractor driver, found in a larger set or sets - no pictures yet!

A tragedy! Some people shouldn't be on feebleBay! This was the sum-total of the sellers images? They look to be two further examples of the same sized card as the Wello-contracted set above, but this time all-Lik Be. And that says "Paint High Impact, not Taint - Ooh-missus!
 

I'm not

 

I'm not going to look at the other vintage makers here, but this is the modern take from someone called NPRC (somthing-People's Republic [of] China?) on Amazon, clearly a made-up-name! Twelve animals with more than a hint of homage to the oldster funimals, Lucky Luke and a bit of Hanna-Barbera!

S is for Seasonal Selfies

I haven't been so hot on shelfies this year, but to be honest, when I HAVE been out, I haven't noticed much change, or activity in the retail environment, beyond the slow death of the High Street which predates the stagnation of SarsCov-2 / Covid-19?

However I did manage a quick tip to Basingrad about four weeks ago, and shot a few shelfies which may be of interest to some.

The main seam I mined was B&M Stores where the stuff was mostly generics sub-branded to them, and while these aren't the best images; you can see the main elements of this knock-off Jurrasic Park play set are six mini-dino' models, a larger T-Rex and a bitey-head thing!

This was fun if only for having an all-new sculpt of a WWII German Tiger tank (around 1:48th) desperately in need of a re-paint, along with an 88mm FlaK-gun on a truck, on what's best described (with all fingers crossed) as a naval or coastal mounting! It's closer to 1:35th scale. The set has no figures, so is of limited value, if 'value' comes into it at 15-quid!

These - at first glance - look like the usual Matchbox and New Ray copies, but are actually closer to 65/70mm and new sculpts, there is an equal number of green ones shaken-down below the paper insert!

A display of over-blown, unnecessary, ornamental Christmas stuff along the lines of Lemax (and other) crimbo villages etc . . . and of all the stuff in this post, the least likely to still be available at time of publishing, but they'll be back next year, B&M tend to carry lines for two or three years, from my observations?

While it's fair to argue that on one level all Xmas stuff is unnecessary, I find the piles of mawkishly sentimental, faux-Victoriana, poured-resin shite  to be about the worst sinner on a dying world, but nevertheless; it is a source of figures, for figure collectors! I could find hypocritical room for the animal bandstand (at sale prices?!!), the elephant with bass/cello reflects an old Lik Be sculpt.

I also found a soft-spot in my armour of cynicism for this polar-bear with passengers, not that I actually bought one, like all poured resin (or whitemetal) it's hideously expensive for what it is and/or how it came about!

Leaving B&M, I only found one thing in TKMaxx worth shooting (no Phidal at all this year), which was this Redbox 'Motormax' Police Station Playset, or actually RBI (Red Box International) as they are calling themselves these days, following their Tai Sang sister-company Blue Box (BBI)'s modern naming-system and corporate structuring!

It's four new poses of US-style policemen! they were about 50mm I think and there's far more play-value in this set than the military one with the Tiger, above. That's it really, we have looked at Christmas shelfies from Poundland and Wilkinson's here as Small Scale World this year, I have a post to come from Poundland, but there was nothing of toy-interest in Wilkinson's (Wilco).

D is for Dancing Dancers Dance a Dance!

I have Adrian little to thank for the first two lots here, he; having found the Fontanini set and knowing I'd be keen, put it to one side for me; also chucked the other in the small-scale scruff lot he had for me, in fact it's probably the more interesting of the two, Fontanini may have the following, but they are mass-produced and a lot of the mould-tools went for not just years but decades, while the other is less likely to survive in any numbers.

Depose, 'Italy' and the spider/tick/beetle/crab-thingy mark these out as Fontanini, even if you miss the 'antiquing wash' clue! All six poses in what I think is the smallest size they came in, around 54/60mm compatible given the deep baroque 'regency wig' (my moniker for them!) bases they come on, I'm not aware of a painted 45mm vinyl-rubber set?

Having forgotten I'd shot the first two images above (for an 'H is for How They . . . ' post), I tried shooting them again a few days later, suffering from light problems and collaging the best of a couple-of-dozen poor shots, these are they!

This is the more interesting of the two additions, marked to Peter Pan Playthings (who made a mix of 'general' toys and the odd board-game and are one of several PPP's in the archive!), and carrying a magnet in her heavy, drum-base, she's likely to be form either a novelty pair who dance-round each other's polarity, or a wand-controlled magnet game, like Merit's Driving Instructor game?

She's 40mm in total, 30-mil' without the base and a hard polystyrene against the soft polyethylene of the Fonatnini's.

I was kindly allowed by the staff to shoot this in British Heart Foundation's Farnborough store back in July, after pleading poverty! It was in the 'smart items' cabinet so I wasn't able to handle it, but I think it consists of a head/torso assembly and two legs sewed into the pink dress.

Later versions of these things (this combines all the tropes - music box, manicure/pedicure, dressing-table and jewellery/make-up storage) tended to have the same copies of Britains (or Fontanini's) dancers as were also used as cake decorations, all from Hong Kong, and while I suspect this may also be sourced in the colony, I think we're looking at the late 1950's and a more unique sculpting?

Also, it would appear there was nothing new in Ms. Madge Ciccone 's pointy, gold brassier, but it was nice of her to reprise the apparel! Thanks to Mercator Trading, the British Heart Foundation and Madonna!