T isfurr'Towe! Said Old McDonald!

 With impeccable (and almost psychic) timing, Mr. B sent these from the Big Apple the other day, but I only got around to them on Wednesday (by the time you read this I should have caught-up with everything, replied to everyone's eMails and be firing on all cylinders!); follow-up's to recent posts, I was saving them for the next time we looked at poultry, when I realised I only had two posts for Sunday and one of them was animal shelfies, so it all sort of slotted into place!

Hunson/JPW are shipping these as I write, or they did a while ago, either-way they are still findable on the other side of the pond and cover the four main [poultry] food groups; Chicken, Duck, Goose and Turkey,! Sort of like, ooh, I dunno' . . .  Papo/Schleich size . . . but cheaper!

Brian also sent his Auburn Rubber 'smaller animals' as a follow-up or addendum to the post on such things here just before Christmas and a direct comparison with the Ohio Arts figures we saw on that occasion or; better still 'cos I like a challenge . . .

. . . Ohio art are the left of each pair (obviously; I knew that!), and the Auburn are undeniably the better sculpts! Not my best touching-up of images but it was rushed!

T is for Two - Large Scale Poultry

One of those posts which just sort of grew quietly, organically over time and from the sum of its parts, then presented itself when it was ready to do so! Large (or 'larger') scale farmyard birds, nothing exciting!

I dug the old 'other poultry' box out of the garage and found a Fontanini goose in there! Sorting the TBS stuff into the box and blow-me there was a matching turkey! I have no idea if they are from a farm series or make-weight, non-speaking, bit-part actors in a Nativity set? But they are rather nice, probably not Simonetti's work; they are fuller-figured, and the sculpting 'fluffier' than his stuff tends toward.

Meanwhile I picked these up about six months or a year ago (from Adrian I think), they had a little label in their bag saying Ohio Art and I wondered if they might actually be Auburn, but Auburn's are slightly different, although I guess one influenced the other - were Ohio the plagiarists?

The two lots together; while the Fontanini are big, the smaller birds from Ohio are bigger, you could tuck that chicken under Action man's arm and he wouldn't look incongruous . . . well; he'd look like a chicken-thief!

Not the easiest material to photograph, off-white polyethylene, but I did what I could; they even have the little tick/crab/spider with its six legs!

F is for Follow-up to Flexible Foreign Farm Folk

Following the recent bucket'ess post Brian Berke kindly sent me the off-shoots of his Auburn Rubber 'Dan Dare' hunt, to compare the - believed - Ohio Arts figure with an Auburn original, this is they!

Not only was the Ohio Arts girl carrying a basket of bread, but the original is carrying a basket of eggs; with one of the Britains' girls carrying a bowl of 'cereal' we have a whole, healthy, farm breakfast . . . in polymer! Sausages coming on the 31st . . . !

Here she is with her husband, except that that is an illiberal, patriarchal, old school assumption, worthy only of a reactionary, parochial right-winger! He may be her son, her brother, one of the farm hands or a neighbour; come-over to give a hand at egg-carrying time!

Cheers Brian, another box ticked!

T is for ♫♫♪ There's a Girl With My Bucket . . . Dear Liza; Dear Liza! There's a Girl . . . ♪♪♫♪

This is not the post I was hoping to have here, but I ran out of time again this week and threw this up here so there'd be something for the weekend!

Left to right; Timpo over-mould/swivel-waist; a Hong Kong giantess and what I think is the Ohio Arts version of the Auburn Rubber farm girl - I'm going on Kent Sprecher's comparison shot and the little 'smile' of the apron's hem seems to indicate Ohio along with the cowl of her hat?

I don't think it's a bucket either, it's a basket of bread so what the hell's she doing in the same tub!

Same procedure; Timpo 'solid' from hollow-cast mould; Charbens - likewise but re-cut with a larger base; Crescent (with passing goose!) aaaaand . . . not 100% on this one (there's some mileage for TJF!), early British - for sure - she looks like Hilco? She's similar to the Charbens one, but that sculpt has a solid stool (upturned bucket or log/stump) while this is more like the Britains stool and looks similar to the Johillco lead version?

All Britains, the early one is almost certainly a re-paint, but well matched, colour-wise I think? The rest are later HK vinyl's, indeed the last one (with separate - hinged handle - bucket) may be a China-for-Racing Champions or Tomy effort? Actually one of these only has a basket . . . and that last one has both, I must have decided buckets and/or baskets for the tub; I'll let Ms. Ohio off!

I know I have some of the intermediate Herald stuff (from the Charity-shop bags last year/earlier this year) but I thought I had some with these, I suspect it's just because I sorted tons of them when I worked for a dealer a decade ago (where does the time go!); so we will return to them once they have all been sorted together.

Women with buckets [or baskets!] . . . there's more!