Strangely, the second most visited post ever, on the blog, with over 7000 direct hits, is
the lazy-post on Rhinoceri I shot the same day I shot the first of these images, and while I suspect bots have more to do with that record traffic than humans, it is true that the Model Animal collecting fraternity is much healthier and more numerous than the Toy Solder brotherhood, so the odd animal post doesn't hurt!
No order or specific narrative, just a bunch of Hippopotamuses, with a few notes, another lazy post! I was, at the time (2020) combining the attic stuff with the storage stuff, which I had dug-out of the garage, looking for something else! And it went something like this;
Probably the storage lot, but could be from the attic?
Probably the attic lot, but could be from storage!
Combined; I then remembered there were some
Britians ones in a box of
Britains farm and zoo somewhere . . .
Which also gave-up another
Charbens and a late blue-polymer
Timpo, requiring a slight reorganisation, with the China-vinyl types to the left,
Britains copies (
Blue Box,
Redbox and
Holly etc.), scaled down, next, with two
Charbens, a small cracker type 'ivorene' and three more origianl Hong Kong's in front, down the middle, then the common Hong Kong, in four or five sizes (
Arco,
New Maries,
RAE, etc.), with
Britains and
Timpo to the right.
At some point this little chap arrived, 'China'; I think, he has stuff on his belly, but I didn't note it at the time! Not
Safari,
K&M/WR,
Schleich or
Papo, as far as I can tell, but seemingly quite up-market?
Yowies maybe . . . also in the queue, several posts!
A few were elsewhere, like the two brandings of big-blue eraser,
Tiger Stores and
Royle Kids, several more China/HK types to the right, the brownish-gray one seems to be a version of the
Toy Major sculpt, while the other two are older HK 'ethylene's. The silver one, who's hollow, and a paired Hippo/Elephant to the left, complete that additions-shot!
That pair raise an interesting point, as they clearly go together; same plastic type and colour, same paint, but are marked differently, which is something you need to look out for with all sorting/attributing of Hong Kong stuff, the stamps used are two, one '
MADE IN' and the other '
HONG KONG', with the engineer stamping them above/below each other on the Hippo's belly, but in a vague line along the Elephant's spine.
These were also in storage, and while the
Topps were in the 'minor makes' zone, they have since been added to with a few more, there are 24 in the set;
Baby Animals, the other bag is from the unknown zone, and were kept together, as their marks are wholly inverted! The Foal and Camel being
Tai Sang (
Blue Box/Redbox) knock-offs.
The one in the bag, seeming to be the donor for the cruder, flat inside-legged hollowed-out copy in silver, from the unknowns, not that he/she/it's particularly 'known' either, it isn't!
Seen before in a plunder or donation post? I think this one's
Marx, but probably from an animal transport or circus truck of some kind, and maybe from back in the tin-plate vehicle days, although the animal is actually two polystyrene halves, glued together.
These were taken from the old fridge before it went to storage, on the left poured-resin, on the right routed wood and both magnetic decorative items.
A dark grey
Britians baby and a pair of Hong Kong jobbies, taken in 2022, they may have been in one of the big donations from Jon Attwood, so many thanks to him.
That's it for this casual stroll, there are lots of named ones in with their other animals, and all the mini tub/tube/toob and pocket-money stuff is elsewhere, the vinyl minis, and the small-scale, flats and novelties are all missing, while a few more have probably come in over the last 3½ years, but hopefully, there will be a Hippopotamus page one day, with all of them!
