R is for Revolutionary Round-up!

We have looked at this topic several times, but there always seems to be more to look at or more to say, and as I still haven't got round to the muted 'bicorn/tricorn hat' page (despite my having seen the box pass under my nose back in the summer) we might as well have some now! Actually the box may be get-at-able, so I might get it done while I'm twiddling my thumbs in the new flat?

These came in as part of a loose lot I think (it was a while ago now!), and as we'd only seen the lovely boxed set Brian Berke sent to the blog, a few years ago now, I thought it was a good excuse to photograph them again, only closer inspection showed them to be another set altogether!

And I was going to post the link to Brian's set, but instead here's the 'Spirit of '76' tag link, which if you click on it, will give you the previous five posts on the subject, under this, which you can then keep reading, before carrying-on down to the bottom, in the hope it all makes more sense, as it's been confusing me!

These are larger than the Award International ones Brian sent, at about 60mm compatible, albeit with the same deep bases, and smaller drums, proportionally. With them came a mini flag-waver and the LibertyBell, both also cake decorations.

The vinyl set seems to have bee issued in various brand-marks, all carft/cake decoration importers; mine on the left, Brian's posed-set in the middle, and two others, the Super Minis is a dodgy-packed one with two fifers and no boy-drummer, while SSCO are quite a common brand over The Pond with a fine assortment of figures, some common (Wilton/Culpitt types), some less so.

This apparently 1976-branded 'brand mark' carries the smaller ones I've now tracked down, and what look to be copies - in polystyrene - of the previous baseless PVC set. It's this brand which also carried the two smallies above, there was also a patriotic bride & groom set in period garb, a Bettsy Rose sewing the flag and a Spirit of '76 trio, all done as short-fat-kid caricatures.

I collaged the Lido AWI drummer on the end, as he seems to be channeling the same trio!

Indeed, one of the reasons for all the confusion is that the painting by Archibald M. Willard provided the source material for many bronze, spelter, mazac/Zamak or similar metal statuettes, and there were (are!) a lot of ceramic versions, in both cases some historical, some rushed out for the 1970's celebrations (which I remember being almost as big over here as it was over there?), and the plastic's seem then to be copies of those copies . . . all the ones with the deep bases being copied from the ceramics. Two from evilBay seen here.

Well, by now I had a folder with AWI in the title bar hanging-around and started to shove all-sorts in it! So these got added; on the left a carded clone (no evidence of it being Star Toys, but they were one copier) of the Shell/Innovative set which we have also looked at here previously, and which explains the 'other' cannon, which I mused-on in one of the more recent posts, with, on the right, an artillery piece (which might also be from Brian?) in the style of pencil-sharpener artillery, but sans sharpener and able to fire pellets, branded to an Edge Mark 

Then this came in only the other day in a lot of mostly machine-guns! "It's a colour variation of the Brian set" I thought, but no, it's a sixth set of sculpts altogether! The younger drummer in the 60mm set has a full gap between his legs, the 54mm version Brian sent is filled-in with sculpted tree-trunk, while this chap has a part gap, part trunk arrangement, he's about the same size as the Award set though.

So, for all my efforts, and Brian's donation, I've only three-and-a-third of the six sets I now know are out there! And only five-and-a-third sets are illustrated on the Blog . . . so we shall return to them, again!

Knowing where the growing-contents of the folder was going I picked these up when I saw them going cheap, not very well painted (compared to say; King & Country) they are the 'wullumbriton' set (not really Britains!) in factory-decorated, poured whitemetal, and I wouldn't dream of paying full price for this attic-filling shite which is 80% packaging by volume, and 90% thin-air by pricing!

Brian also sent this a while ago, with the museum-visit stuff, some of which we have seen, some of which is waiting for that 1650-1800's page of big-hats! The government forces had drummers too! Better painted than the wullumbriton ones as well, but in the glossy 'toy soldier' style.

To finish; I have the painting-guide postcard for the Old Guard Inc., recruiting vignette/diorama The Raising of a Regiment 1776-83, in the archive, designed by Andrew Chernak; the figures could be painted for either side, but here a farmer has just signed-up for the armed insurgency and a backwoods hunter is contemplating the taking of sides!

Note how the reversed jacket colour/facings of the declared American drummer make him look quite British, something the French drummers 30-odd years later would also experience, were they more likely to survive in the fog of war as a result, or more likely to be shot by their own side, stumbling about in the clouds of musket smoke?

News, Views etc . . . Barney's Back

And firing on all cylinders with two post-holiday messages and a sale! On thursday this message;

"Dear collector, a belated Happy New Year to all our customers and friends across the World! I'd like to thank Aaron at Dorset Tech for updating the website, which had not been fully functioning since December. The landing page has been updated to include the date for the upcoming Plastic Warrior show in May*, where Herald Toys and Models will have our usual array of vintage plastic toy soldiers and models. This month we are continuing to add figures from the extensive Manhattan and Wiltshire collections, some of which will also be available via our eBay shop. We are always happy to try and find that elusive figure or model you're looking for. With all best wishes for 2023! Barney."

And today this news arrived;

"...our January SALE is now on amongst several categories including ACW, Battle of Waterloo, Cherilea, Crescent, Lone Star, the Roger Saunders and Wiltshire Collections"

So I advise getting over there (Herald Toys & Models) and seeing if there's something which tickles your fancy!

*Saturday May the 13th, The Winning Post, Whitton, Twickenham, London, TW2 6LS, UK

C is for Christmas Present . . . to Myself!

Did I already have a Christmas present to myself? Well, obviously it was a good Christmas! I'm only posting these as I haven't time to post what I was going to, and the final Sandown post has been declared 'Rump Post', broken up and sent back to the mixed files by subject!

These are the Gilbert C15th Musketeers, although which is which I don't know and as they all have mustaches I can't even guess at a younger-than-the-other-three one, who might be considered to be d'Artagnan!

Other colours and clear evidence (Top left) of multiple cavities, most are missing their swords which are just stiff wire heat-stuck into the gloved hands. I will replace mine in the fullness of time ad try to get a post out of it, I even found two lengths of case-hardened, gun-blacked piano or harp wire with a light dusting of rust on, the other day; just the thing to do the job with!

Bearing in mind that the Crescent's were 'small' 54mm when we measured them a while ago, it's still fair to say the Musketeers are a 'large' 54mm, heading toward 60mm in this chaps case, with that flouncy hat-brim! Can you believe the real musketeers were 400-odd years ago? It flies-by so quick . . . anyway, that's them, box ticked!

 

Now identified by Brain Carrick as Rene Fisher (RF), not Guilbert, But I have picked-up a couple of Guilbert by accident, along with two more lots of these and a pair of Ludorev, so there'll be a 'corrections and clarifications' post in due course! 

H is for How They Come In - November Sandown Park - Dave Pomeroy

So, I didn't get the Dave Pomeroy stuff I'd meant to in the autumn/early-winter for a bunch of reasons, but I managed to pick it up just before Christmas, probably paid too much for it in the end, but heay! It WAS Christmas and the seller was a nice chap! But I had picked-up a few bits at the last Sandown Park show, which we are looking at now, and we'll look at some other stuff later, but probably much later?

A couple of bits of lead, obviously home-cast, the baby is taken from a set of rubber babies which came in pink or brown and were - I think - premiums of some kind, or early blind-bag stuff? It's all in the files and I can't be arsed to look it up just now! But I have a tub of them somewhere, so a future post can include a comparison with this one.

The Napoleonic head is probably taken from a Historex moulding, and may have been cast for Mr. Pomeroy's own modelling activities, although there is a fair bit of this stuff in the main purchase so he may have been working on a range for Lines (Frog?) or involved with the Airfix 54mm Connoisseur range or Multipose?

Mr. Periwinkle Pennybrix, who, not unsurprisingly was the character-mascot for Tri-Ang's Pennybrix building system, a simplified version of Hestair Kiddicraft's mini-bricks (as stolen by Billund's Lego), with sheet roofing like the contemporary Airfix Betta Builder.

Periwinkle had a couple of pals, Mortimer Mole and Freddie Fox, and above we see a Periwikle which has been part painted, and two Freddies one shot in the same colour as the bases, the other possibly a test shot? In the Pennybrix sets they were all fully painted.

A set of Spot-On's 'Tommy Spot' figures also cast in whitemetal, might be test shots, maybe for further conversion work, there are various cut and filed castings among Pomeroy's stuff, and it's hard to second-guess what was going on, while he was also a hobbyist in his own right, for the fun of it?

From the left we have Tommy's father, the burglar from a police vehicle set, Tommy himself and the Policeman drawing his truncheon and blowing his whistle, both mouldings were also used in a Sweeny* board game by Omnia.

*Cockney rhyming slang - Sweeney Todd  = [the] Flying Squad (of London's Metropolitan Police)

A selection of resin pieces Dave was working on, some we saw last time like the Budda, who might be using a hookah-pipe or a pestle & mortar? I suspect the London Taxi is from a board game, as is - probably - the buglar; was there a non-Sweeny 'Cops & Robbers' type game aimed at younger players?

The Pinocchio is polystyrene, factory-painted and seems to have been removed from a toy/vehicle and may be a rival's finished product . . . Marx Swansea? The policeman looks like those unpainted figures which I suggested were key rings and which subsequently turned-out to be so, but he may be intended to go with the burglar?

Thinking-back; the unpainted key-rings probably came from the same person who gave me the original samples from Dave Pomeroy, shortly before I met him, so that would all tie-in nicely, and suggest Tri-Ang and the Havant Minimodels plant did anonymous contract-manufacturing for third parties? Hardly a surprise - spare capacity, easy cash with no in-house marketing and tax-deductible tooling-costs!

Which leaves the bust? He/she isn't one I recognise from the various cereal-premium sets of the time, so it might be a dolls-house accessory (mantelpiece ornamentation, for the use of), or a counter from a board game - there seems to have been a lot of board-game stuff coming out of Havant?

Now these are a mystery . . . various parts of various characters from Disney's Jungle Book, each of two parts, but not enough parts to do all the characters in each available colour, and not enough parts to do one or two, completely, at all. Also; they're in the style of cereal premiums, but much bigger than you would normally find such things?

There are two Mowgli characters; standing (top left) and walking (bottom middle), with models of King Louis (centre, two colours), Shere Khan walking  (bottom left, three colours (including Bagheera black?) with a painted yellow one), Bagheera sitting (top right), Baloo (three colours, bottom right), Junior (or Hathi Jr., top centre, two colours) and some kind of grinning gopher (middle left, two colours) . . . who is probably meant to be a mongoose? I don't remember him from the movie!

I'm leaving them in the bags for now, as if they turn-out to have been a commercial thing, I'll try to get a few of the missing halves and blog them fully when the sample is better, if not they will still make an interesting post with more imagery another day.

But, on the subject of commercialism; Google just throws up loads of Bullyland/Applause type vinyl-rubber figures, with a Maccy-D's set of kids-meal premiums, as does feeBay, but over there I also tried obvious individuals like Kaa (below) without the 'vintage' to maximise the search results, with no better success, so there's a possibility these were either quite a short-lived thing, or a cancelled thing?

So to Kaa, the snake; where the link to Dave Pomeroy's input is stronger, with a pre-production example which may be handmade? The Malachite-green one is straighter, has finer-etched details and two flat-spots to help him (more recently voiced by a woman!) stand up, while the muddy-jade one seems to have been manipulated with heat; a blow torch or something, and is clearly a stage on the way to the green one.

Imagine a sort of stretched-sprue (runner!) effect, but with heat-proof gloves and a thicker rod of material which seems to have been rolled-together from various recycled polystyrene scraps, with a  thick head-end and thin 'tail', being formed with the application of heat and force! If the green one is the finished article (which it seems to be), it is a single solid molding unlike the two-part press-together 'kits' of the others above.

And, as I say; nothing on Google, nothing on feebleBay and nothing on Cereal Offers, does anyone remember these? Are they or were they common once or are they pretty unique? Were they giveaways/premiums or was there a big-box model kit with simple construction for little hands? They seem (with the exception of the pre-prototype Kaa) to be from [a] professional mould-tool [/s], and any further information would be gratefully received here.

H is for How They Come In - November Sandown Park - Transport Toys

I seemed to end up with a lot of wheeled toys at the last Sandown, which isn't that odd, as - for the longest time - it was primarily a die-cast and model-railway show, albeit now groaning under the weight of glossy new production for kidults and a ton and a half of Lego, Barbie and action-figures/LRG's, but I usually get the odd vessel or vintage plane, however the last show only produced a clean-sheet of wheels & tracks, with a post's-worth of land-based stuff!

I think this is APS-Politoys, but possibly via France where someone else carried it, it's in good nick, but missing it's five crew, however you will have seen loose crew going through the Blog over the years, from show-grabs, Chris, Peter, Michael et al., or the odd charity lot, so I'm sure I can crew-it-up, either with the Texas plug-foot types standing, fighting, slightly dancing-loons, or a fuller complement (3) of the plug-arse seated pose, of which there was one in Chris's last donation I think. Two of the locatinn holes are in the deck/well so will need standing/kneeling figures.

It's also quite a good model, until you get to the rear ramp - which is totally fictitious - and then realise it's the rocking-horse shit-rare 4x4 hens-teeth model, never photographed in the wild! There will need to be some hot-water action around the windscreen, which will probably require a balsawood former to hold everything in shape as the water is poured and allowed to cool?

A bag of small-scale AFV's also came home with me, but I can't now remember if Adrian gave them to me, or if he gave me some and I bought the others, but thanks to him anyway, and by maker we have a Kleeware copy of the smaller Pyro wrecker-truck, attending two late-production Beeju army lorries, one each of bonneted and cab-over-engine design, and both lacking their bodies.

However, I have a tub of smashed-up Beeju somewhere, where I know the problem is mostly broke chassis, missig wheels or cracked cabs, so I will have bodies for these in the fullness of time, and they are very useful additions.

While this lot of Tudor Rose gives me my first 'beetle' lorry with no marks or paint, all my others having either a painted roof and/or thermal-printed red cross or allied star, this one is as clean as a polished whistle! The 'Amphijeep' is also a good'un, albeit missing the windscreen but having a good aerial and both crew not mucked-about with. The Willy's is the same, just needs a windscreen off a bashed donor and I have a tub of broken TR's as well!

This was lovely, and quite cheap, it's 'only' Hong Kong, and unbranded at that, but look at the little figure! It's got a little figure with swivel-arms . . . get in! It's also in remarkable condition for one that's had so much play nearly all the silver paint's worn off the track-guards

It's almost a space-bulldozer with that light-up engine-bay and 'glass' bonnet! Lovely thing, but the tracks are thin and saggy, although still supple, so something will need to be done about them; involving old inner-tube I suspect! I have a selection of such tubing, for such jobs, but it might be easier to place tyres cut from cricket-bat handle rubbers over the wheels, to grip the insides of the track?

A small lot of Paramount farm were also procured for a few shekels, a rather grubby tractor from one seller and the rest from another, I had thought the trailer was new, but I think it's the standard one in FIM-2, of which I've only had the rear axle for years!

The tractors after cleaning! Actually I only had to clean the pale-blue one and I can't castigate whichever kid 'coloured it in' with Biro, as I have several memories of doing likewise as a small boy once I'd discovered that Biros worked on plastic! Note how the colour of the background (two right-hand images) totally changes the camera's view of the colour of the tractor!

Close-up's of the new trailer, the other one was a tipping model which we looked at here, thirteen-years ago, and a rather similar view of the rake-harrow I'm afraid, both clearly marked Paramount. There is a load of stuff about the European angle in the long queue, but it came in while everything else was happening and I've done little with it and lost touch with the contributor, but it'll all come out in the wash!

I did ask a few members of the old guard if they had a brand for this, and they didn't, so any help gratefully appreciated, I wonder if it might be Easter European, both because it's quite a heavy moulding, although nicely done, the single moulding of wheels and axle and also the silver plastic, but whoever made it, it's a perfect 54mm piece with a nice selection of accessories.

Pretty sure it came from Steve Vickers who had several I think, and he's on feebleBay as stevevickers if I recall matters correctly, so if you want one; try dropping him an eMail over there.

Marx AWI - cheers J - http://marxwildwest.com/revolutionary%20war/revwar3.html#cannons

The rest! The three multi-wheeled AFV's are from the 'robots' we had from Chris a year or two ago, which subsequently turned-out to be Bi-Trons,(Pikit Toys in the UK, Gordy in the 'States I think) the turrets of the near micro-armour can be attached to the stud-holes in the backs of the Robots/armour-suits. There is now a full set in the queue, and elements seem to be knocking-off Tomy-Takara's Votoms which we looked at here; geddit - bi-tron/vo-tom!

To their right are two shots of what must be an air-force/airfield tug-tractor, but by whom? Around 1:48th scale, Revell often had ground accessories in their kits (bomb trolleys, missile trolleys, crew-ladders and the like), so did Aurora (who also liked bright-colored plastic), while Monogram should join a list with both of them in it! But importantly - when buying this type of item - it's been put together well with no glue smears or obvious missing/broken/left-off parts.

Final shot is of a Wiking tractor (I think; it's been off to storage awhile ago without me taking notes . . . doh!) and a small truck, which is probably a German premium from Siku, Manurba or similar, but unbranded by whichever food, washing powder or tobacco company actually issued it.

H is for How They Come In - November Sandown Park - Marx Mini Space Sets

This was going to be a box-ticker for the two new sets, as I thought I'd posted one years ago, but I can't find the first on the Blog, so maybe I didn't! Or it's just not tagged right? Still a box ticker though, as Ed's done them in greater detail, but I'll put the link at the end so you at least scroll through these first!

A bit of a Christmas present to myself, as they weren't cheap, but you do go to these shows hoping to occasionally find something more 'grail' and less 'run-of-the-mill', so when I saw them I pretty much had to have them, and when I suggested a reasonable discount for the pair the seller was happy to go with it and they came home with me!

Originally 2000-Yen (about 8-quid/$10 in today's money, so back in the day - bloody expensive!), the 'Monument Valley' vignette has a hideous carbon-footprint and what is probably one of the better of the vehicles in these sets, but when I say 'better', most of them are considerably more naff than the cheapest LB rip-off cake decoration ones, mostly they really are a bit tacky, in the unloved 'rush-job' meaning of the word! The Space Tank (below) is probably the best of a pretty rum-bunch!

Ed's sets have different contents, so while there seem to be three backdrops (desert, temperate/tropical and frozen), there are more than four or five (?) contents, each being sewn/glued-in, in batches I would imagine, with the contents/vehicle type/figures being changed as stock of one particular piece ran out?

The 'Green Planet' vehicle is even more basic, and like the other sets comes with scaled-down space figures (usually three, but I've seen four and two) from Marx's larger-scale ranges, and there a lot of variety between them with some hard 'styrene, some soft 'ethylene polymer, and white, silver/gunmetal or orange plastic, painted or unpainted.

This is an old evilBay image of the best vehicle I've seen so far (which may be the missing set of mine? It's definitely the 'ice planet' backdrop of my first set, but I can't remember my vehicle . . . might be the Matt Mason 'walker'?), a real space-tank, which looks to be based on the Marx unnumbered 'poly' tank chassis, Moonbase looked at another in depth, a while ago, from Arto in Finland, so they got around a bit!

Anyway, Ed Burg looked at more of them awhile ago, with more close-ups, set variations, box-types and comparisons with the larger scale figures, so head over there as well. When I find the other one, we'll have a proper look at the three for a better box-tick!

H is for How They Come In - November Sandown Park - General Purchases

So, we're back to the 12th of November last, to look at my plunder pile from that final BP Fairs show of the season (round here, I think they had a later one at the NEC Birmingham), which was better than the previous couple I think? It's marginal, and some sellers always have better days than others, but the buzz seemed to be back to pre-Covid levels, if not pre-Brwreakshit levels!

A fun bag for pennies; these are probably all Dulcop Charlie Kit figures, but could equally be copied piracies from Hong Kong, the Soviet Union, Hungary or elsewhere as they all had a pop, and might be Kinder specific production, rather than the mini-boxed Charlie originals?

Clockwise from top-left; The workbench might go with one of the Charlies? I hadn't considered it before, I have one with half the vice in the odd accessories zone, it's been there for years but I never really gave it much thought but there were a few other bits in the Charlie bag and this might have been one of them? Next to it is a winding mechanism . . . from a  Kinder toy?

Three hollow-cast figures I nabbed from Mercator Trading's cheapie-tray, two sailors and a highlander, makers to-come when I've checked them against Joplin's book and re-Blog them in something more thematic!

A large Easter chick in two-part glued polystyrene, a Roche Fees premium lamb and a Ripley from Alien, who I thought might be 3D printed when I saw her in a rummage tray, but who seems to be more commercial? If she'd been resin and grey or white I might have hazarded the guess of Reaper Miniatures, but in this rotten-lettuce green polymer she remains a question-mark for now, but a really nice figure around that 28/30mm size.

Finally a bunch of animals including a Kellogg's Rhino, and a Merit bear, except I recently noticed Merit seem to have provided their circus/Noah animals to a Coco-Pops cereal premium line (also Kellogg's) toward the end of their existence, which may explain some of the colour variations?

From the left; Cofalu/x French Foreign Legion above ann Auburn Rubber farm maid, late mono-coloured Comansi G.I. and a open-bottomed crate from a large-box or rack-toy play set, I suspect.

Two late Hong Kong'y versions of Waddington's Little Bighorn cavalry officer, with below a selection of die-cast 'mocherette' figures (one Kinder), an AHI sourced Japanese copy of an SAE crusader, a war games grenadier and finally, the laying figure seems to be a civilian sailor, possibly a copy of a plastic kit figure, but just what you need for a Craftline balsa-kit!

To the right we have two of the Jean Napoleonics, I recently learnt were imported into the UK back in the day, in this unpainted state by Plastic Warrior magazine, both above a pair of the Starlux farm we looked at the other day! I have seven of the eight Jean's in the stash somewhere, but I can never remember which one I haven't got, so there are various odds kicking about now, in the hope that one of them is the missing one!

Two aluminium bears, being early- and late-version Wendal's; Wendal removed the bases from a lot of their production (where technical properties allowed) to reduce the amount of material and therefore the unit-cost. Along with a Commonwealth horn-blower ('Miss Switzerland') who once had full paint!

I also picked this up, it's a colour facsimile rather than an original, but it'll look good on the wall of the planed work-space in what should be my final stop in this world! Already mounted, once it's trimmed and framed it'll look better than this slightly curved state! Of note is that both sets of Deetail Germans are present, but the Japanese have been dropped.

H is for How they Come In - Peter III

Difficult one this as I wanted to get Peter's stuff out once I'd done Theo's and Chris's donations, but I still have a Sandown and a London show in the queue, which should go in that order, but these bits were given to me at the last, recent London Toy Soldier Show, so slightly out of sequence . . . like anyone but me cares about the order of posting!

It's alright! It's still twelfth-night, so we're OK for a bit of crimbo stuff; just! I thought these (upper shot) were a set of three we looked at a year or two ago from Poundland (I think), but they're not, they were all white with touches of black for eyes, these have a full three colour paint-job, with black, red and either flesh or orange, but also a trio and also poured resin, I don't have the brand/maker?

Below are two tree decorations who happen to be the two 'King's men' from a Humpty Dumpty set we will look at again soon. Not clear in this shot are the wire twists set into their backs with which they were attached to the Christmas tree branches.

That blue horse I mentioned a few days ago, he goes with one of the Kinder Frozen sets, next to him is a rather nice novelty skeleton, who actually comes in four parts for a bit of jiggle-action! Along with an Alien 'baby'!

Below them a Timpo FFL-clone and an assault jet-ski! Not sure if we've seen the jet-ski before, but if we have I don't think it had the steering-handle attached?

We've seen a mate of the policeman in a past post I think, I've certainly united them in the last few days, but his 'oppo' might be in one of many charity shop purchases who's photo's are all still in the long queue! Two wrestlers, a Tomte Laerdal jeep with air force types (well they have to be in that colour!) and a handful of useful bits.

Those bits including another of those ubiquitous 'toy town' guardsmen, ubiquitous in the 1990's novelty production industry that is! A Crescent circus horse-clone probably from Maysun, a baby and a clone of the Dinky (or Corgi?) construction vehicle driver.

I've realised, over the Christmas break, that as well as hospital sets, dolls houses and rack toys (baby bath-time type sets etc.), some of these 'odd' babies are actually from Nativity sets, where they get dumped naked in the manger or basket-passing-for-a-manger!

First two on the bottom row here (baby Daisy & Goofy) are Heimo/Bully/Dunby-Combex-Marx types, but the first upper pair are less clear; Donald has a large cavity in his back, and is probably from a die-cast Disney related vehicle of some kind - I have a book on them all somewhere, I'll see if it's in that. The Mickey soldier is a relief flat, possibly from a fridge-magnet, or a hair-clip?

While the two to the right of each row are more of a mystery, I think the upper might be the wolf from the Three Little Pigs story, but doesn't tie-in with Disney's; the hat's wrong? And below him is . . . Figaro? Not sure about the hat again, and the dungarees? So I wonder if they are from another cartoon altogether . . . anyone know who they are; maybe French or Italian kids TV characters?

Thanks as always to Peter for these, they all add to the whole!