M is for More Balls - Bouncy Balls!

A bit of an image dump today, as we roll-up, on the balls! The first tranche are quite low-res, but illustrate a few points about how this stuff reaches the stores, while the others just show what's out there, often in the few remaining, smaller, independent Toy Shops, often in smarter towns (Farnham!) or the up-market or 'nice'  areas of larger conurbations. These are also exactly the kind of novelty you'll find in Gift Shops and Garden Centres.

 

I can't remember the company's name, but this was an online, trade catalogue for one of the Chinese factories, I think they might have been called Superball, rather unimaginatively, but here we have Wild Animals on the left, Farm/Domestic on the right.

 

Guinea Pigs & Otters!

 

Panda's and Dinosaurs, and, not those carried by Keycraft Global.

 

On the left Fishes, with a few cetaceans and penguins mixed in, on the right the set which Henbrandt obviously carried all those years ago, with plain, 'slush' and iceberg balls, and a crab?

 

While these last two are larger mixes, with fish predominating in the first set, and turtles/crabs (bottom feaders, shore/beach dwellers?) the second, but with cetaceans, sharks, fish and the odd polar animal mixed in. The point being that you (Henbrandt, Keycraft, Playwrite, Ravensden . . . whoever) go to the Chinese manufacture, and get a tailored selection, which suits the needs of your perceived customer base, budget or forecast trends.

 

The Playwrite (WH Corneilius - WHC/Success) catalogue from a similar time (2006), showing that they were carrying animal faces and insects, in addition to the more obvious stuff, as seen above. This, and the next two images, should enlarge properly.

 

Ravensden catalogue from the same era (2010's/20-teens), also has a full range of subjects, including some familiar looking ones, either from the recent, previous posts, or from the trade images above. And between them all, there must be a couple-of-hundred of these incredibly small sculpts, most of which are quite well done, and nicely decorated, down to species/subspecies identification, in some cases.

It's worth noting most of the above are either clear/tinted-transparent balls, or the bi-coloured, half-opaque ones, there are few of the background discs which were a feature of most of the Henbrandt imports. There are a few more in the last post of this series.

H is for Hippopotami

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!

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Kinder Animals

I put these on the animal forum, in two tranches, some quite a while back, some more recently, but good to get them off the PC and onto an archive dongle! Kinder animals, older and newer!

 

1980's, I think these were from a set of four buffalo - African (black), Asian 'Water', N. American Buffalo and Wisent, but which is which (on the green one), and whether that's a true fact (set of four) are both open questions! Simple four-part clip-together toys.

 

Also the 1980's or maybe the 1990's, lift the tail and the head drops, push the tail down and the head rises - clever!

 

Deffinately the 1980's, I had one for a long time, which came with my packed-lunch egg! I lost a hoof, and it was years before I found another one! This is a polystyrene, ten-part, clip-together 'kit'.

 

A more modern take on the giraffe, his head also moves, but without the complicated hidden-gear mechanism.

 

These last four are more contemporary; since the late 2000's Kinder have had an almost constant series of animal sets, some more realistic, some more cutesy, some downright cartoony, but all under a theme-umbrella of wild-life, endangered, save the earth, kinda' stuff. The reindeer may be from a Frozen line?

F is for Follow-up - B&M Stores

 As a follow-up to this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/12/s-is-for-shelfies-b-stores.html

 

I did go back and get a set of the mini-animals;

 

12 Dogs.

 

12 farm animals, including another dog!

 

12 wild / zoo animals.

 

12 Dinosaurs.

They work out at less than 10p each! The dinosaurs are much-of-a-muchness, I've got worse, the wild animals are more hit-and-miss, while the farm animals have their scale all over the place, but are mostly reasonable sculpts, the dogs are probably the poorest of the four sets.

 

Two of the poultry were designated to carry the consumer information for the whole set, while a comparison between the farm's collie-dog and the dog's Alsatian, reveals the different levels of expertise in two sculptors!

S is for Seen elswhere - Siberian Tigers

Well, some of them were, which was useful as Taos managed to ID one for me! Not an overview, there are dozens and dozens when you know what to look for, not all mine, a few more have come in, and some were still / are still in storage, and no real narrative of any consequence making itself obvious, so enjoy the eye candy!

 

It's huge!

 

Nayab from both sides.

 

About 1:10th scale? Too big for Action man?

 

Chasing tails!

 

Needs a meal too!

 

Unknown recent addition?

A bit bigger than the Schleich cub.