Disclaimer
All or none of the figures in this post could (or could not) be by
Airfix, or any of the other manufacturers mentioned in the text. Most of the horses probably are
Airfix, those over-which a question mark remains are pointed out in the text.
First advertised in 1947 these are probably the first 'plastic' Toy Figures produced commercially in the UK as playthings...
Group Shot
These figures (where they ARE
Airfix) were probably pirated from the
Bergen Toy (Beton) company rather than licensed, after Nikolai Kovespachi (Nicholas Kove) came back from his reconnaissance to America sometime in the mid-to-late 1940's. The horse is deliberately different with it's tail slightly to one side and there are subtle differences in those figures which are duplicated, while the Life Guard seems to have been an
Airfix original?
Doughboy in 'Brodie' helmet
This figure may be (and the horse definitely is...) a
Beton product, but he comes within the scope of this article/post and ended up first in line because I wasn't too bothered about the order in which I uploaded the photographs! The horse is a dense cellulose-acetate polymer called
Tenite, and while the figure is similar, he seems more clearly a polystyrene, so late US or European production?.
Staff Officer
Beton called this chap either
M416; U.S. Cavalry Officer, or with a paint change;
M418 Traffic Officer.
Airfix called this the Horse Guard.
Beton Horse on the left with a polyethylene
Airfix horse on the right, The
Airfix horse is marked '
MADE IN ENGLAND' withing the hollow underside/belly.
The red figure has probably only had his paint removed, you can see the figure on the left is suffering a crystalline reaction between the paint and the plastic, sometimes this reaction results in a sticky mess which is better removed.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) 'Mountie'
The Mountie, again not sure if
Airfix produced this one,
Reisler did, and as they produced the Life Guard, it's possible they got their figures (or a license?) from
Airfix which would suggest
Airfix produced a Mountie as well.
Airfix horse again on the right.
The Mountie was also produced by
Tudor*Rose, but as part of their wild West range and will be covered when I look at them.
Later - Yes they did, these are both
Airfix, a later polystyrene one on the left and an earlier cellular acetate one on the right, see below..
Later still (several years later!) -
Tudor Rose didn't do the Mountie.
Lifeguard in ceremonial uniform
The Life Guard, clearly aiming at the Tourist market, all these figures - when originating with
Airfix - were supposed to stand up when removed from the horse, they rarely do! These are probably both
Airfix with the horse in polyethylene and the rider in a styrene polymer.
Hunting party with both poses
The Hunters,
Beton produced a female rider and a Jockey in racing silk, both in a larger size, neither of which - as far as I know - were part of the
Airfix issues and don't seem to have featured in the
Reisler inventory either.
Beagles
2013 - By
Airfix - the hunters were
sold in a boxed set with the two dogs above, these dogs were also sold
in a kennel shaped box with other breeds. Early ones are
cellulose-acetate, these are the later polyethylene run.
The dogs are marked internally in the same manor as the
Airfix horses. The lower two are also ethylene, but in black. It would seem they come in the same colours as the ethylene horses, with some in the reddish/oxide browns.
2014 - Somehow I forgot the Alsatian? Well here it is and there's now a setter on the STS forum thread, along with a red-brown Beagle.
2016 - Now a setter (English? Not Irish...not shaggy enough!) joins the collection with a lurcher/greyhound racing type.
2017 - This has been added to the 'pack'; it's a
duplicate but in nicer condition than the one I already had and it was a
bargain!
2018 - Another random picture that was sitting in
Picasa, it might as well sit here.
Academy Cadet/Circus Performer/Ceremonial figure
This horse is from a different source altogether (the
Woolworths Crazy Clown Circus) but might be an
Airfix original and this figure looks good rearing up on it! These are technically only 'Cadets' but they do look like simplified ceremonials or those generic Napoleonics that feature so much in early toy production, while he also works well as a circus performer!
The following will help identify these figures in greater detail;
Kent Sprecher's
Beton page.
The
Reamsa figure on JC's blog.
Reisler page click-on;
SGI / Riesler then either '
I Soldater og Politi' or; '
III Sportsryttere' below the thumbnails.
Further reading
Plastic Warrior magazine have produced a guide: Airfix - The Early Years, which covers all this early production in some depth.
Any of
Richard O'Brien's volumes on firstly 'Collecting Toy Soldiers' and latterly 'Collecting American Made Toy Soldiers will fill you in on the
Bergen/Beton production.
Indeed, one of the main questions remaining comes from his work if an American reader can help...did Beton use both sets of codes or is one O'Brien's own system?
Added 20th November 2012
And then this turns up! Raising that whorey old question of who copied who? An original
Timpo boxed-set, the horse is quite a lump of lead, and seems to be early enough to be pre-war, except that Timpo aren't supposed to have made lead until after the war...was it intended for the composition range?
And/So; did
Timpo copy
Bergan-Beton, or did the Americans have a stab at a British piece of hollow-cast but in plastic (albeit: cellulose-acetate)
Clues point both ways - The edges of the horse are a bit rough, so it could have been the copy, taken badly and not cleaned up, while the solid belly and hollow-cast nature of the piece would make copying almost has hard - thechnically - as making a new horse pose from scratch, suggesting it IS a new pose and not the copy.
While the figure stares at us inanely, giving no clue as to his parentage, being easier to copy either way, and being as clean a moulding here as he is in plastic?
Also, there were other poses than the Mountie produced by
Reamsa, and other stuff has come to light on this much copied/licenced set, so I will update this post properly one day!
------------------------------------------------------------
November 2014
It seems that the Cowboy was an Airfix pose, so I will have to update the table above, and it means we'll probably end-up with the Tudor*Rose and other figures here as well...
So, a quick correction of the blurb for the Mountie post above and we can look at this little group, late - polystyrene - production with a quick splash of blue on the chaps/boots and brown hats. No Indian? But a cowboy, cowgirl and the Mountie (Royal Canadian mounted Policeman - RCMP). These is also a Hong Kong copy of the cowboy for comparison.
These are the standard
Tudor*Rose horse, not always marked, but their saddles give them away with the arrangement of stars round the edge. All the producers of this horse varied the saddles, and when I get the rest out of storage we'll look at them all in more detail, but for now these are
Tudor*Rose and have two open stars forward of the girth (?) strap and five squashed stars behind.
The
Tudor*Rose mounted cowboys, next to an
Airfix 'original'. At some point these was a re-design on the figure with a more complicated lasso/lariat (can any American reader explain any difference between the two, or is it just preference/local dialect?), possibly designed to damage less easily than the earlier one which was happy to brake if you as much as looked at it wrong and is often missing, especially from the earlier hard plastic figures - from all the makers of the pose.
Below them is a close-up of the full
Tudor*Rose marking in the under-belly of the horses, you can see why I always write the asterisk in
Tudor*Rose, they always put the little graphic Tudor rose symbol between the
Tudor and the
Rose!
Mounted on the
Tudor*Rose horses they make a nice group, but is there an Indian or two? We will look at other peoples Indians in due course.
Added May 2017
Picture replaced a year or so later with F&G-updated captions
The above shot is trying to make sense of
the more common (or what I have to hand!) figures found in the UK, and is
pretty straightforward - apart from all the questions it raises! So don't take
the labelling as anything more than a guide.
For instance, why are the cadets not listed
in the Airfix catalogues referenced
in the 'Aifix Special Publication'
from Plastic Warrior magazine? As
far as I can tell (from Kent Sprecher's site and Ponylope)
Began/Beton didn't paint the trousers on theirs, while these - matching the Airfix Lifeguard would seem to be Airfix? It could be that they were in a
later catalogue? Or that they bought them in from Bergan and painted them here?
Maybe they were for a specific contract
with someone like Woolworth's and never offered by Airfix to the wider trade? They are - dare I say - even the
commonest of the full-painted figures to find over here, with the unpainted
versions (bottom right) equally easy to find - at the right show!
Likewise the two westerners seem more akin
to the Tudor Rose figures and share
the alpha-numerical, single-character codes (white text) on one foot, missing
from the 'clearly' Airfix, indeed
missing an all the other examples. I'm assuming there is not significance to
the codes beyond mould/cavity markers, but it helps distinguish them. While
they share the foot-marks, the painted pair has no locating studs - which
further ID Tudor Rose in hard and
soft plastic, so they both remain a second mystery.
The pink guy is also unmarked, but not Airfix, I suspect 'early Hong Kong
pirate' to be his title and epitaph!
Picture replaced a year or so later with F&G-updated captions
A similar treatment of the horse types, and
again only take the labelling as a guide, also; the hard plastic version of Tudor Rose are absent, but they are to
all intents and purposes the same as the polyethylene ones, with the dimples
for the locating-studs on the riders calves setting them apart from Bergan/Beton and Airfix.
And we have a reciprocal question mark to
the cadet above, in the two tenite type horses top left; which have the sword hanging from
the left of the saddle and the [whatever?] bayonet, truncheon, cavalry musket
hanging from the right. While it's hard to see in one of the Airfix press releases in the above
mention PW publication, all the
other horses illustrated are either hollow 'bent tails' or the later whole-bellied
(with paint) we know are definitely Airfix
mounts.
It may not look like it in the above two
images, but a lot of the horses and riders are not compatible, the fit being
either too tight to go together or two loose for the riders to stay-on.
However, one of the best fits is the question mark cadets, with the Bergan/Beton horse. If it wasn't for the
painted trousers you'd say they were US imports from old lists or since the
advent of feeBay, but they are two common, they must have had a reason beyond
recent purchase for being over here (in the UK) in numbers.
The four main horse types, from the top of
both images; 'Bergan/Beton' with a
part-hollow cavity, this is in a heavy, dense polymer which may be a phenolic
or cellulose-based thermosetting material; Airfix
late with full body sculpt in a lightweight polystyrene - made of two halves
glued/heat-welded together; Airfix
early with hollow body, flat, slab-sides to the cavity and MADE IN ENGLAND
(with a single number), most are a dense'ish polythene but some are a heavier
marbled 'scrap' plastic, finally; Tudor
Rose late soft ethylene with the cavity scooped-out, and a letter 'c' in
this case, others as we've seen above can have the whole logo, some having a
number, others no mark.
It should be pointed out that both the
painted and unpainted cadets (two shots above) along with the painted lifeguard
and the two questionable Wild West figures are all in the same material as the
pair of 'Bergan/Beton' horses, while
the Horse Guard in service/working dress uniform is a lightweight polystyrene
like the later red figures with blue legs.
Helping to prove some of the thoughts
above; here they are on the horses they best fitted, with the question mark
cadets fitting the question mark hoses, the other painted Airfix fitting the bent-tailed horse, those figures were too narrow
to go comfortably on the solid hose, but the blue-legs fitted them snuggly
(conforming to the trade sets uncovered by Plastic
Warrior magazine's contributors), while the hard styrene Tudor Rose (identical to the same
companies soft ethylene versions) fitted the soft plastic horse, it being also
identical to TR's missing [from these pictures] polystyrene
variant.
Another way of tying these together is
matching-up the paint used by the factory/out-painters! The off-white of the
cowgirl's hat is a perfect match for the socks of the cross-over horse (?)*,
while the 'Mountie's ochre matches the saddles of the solid styrene horses.
* I think the soft ethylene horses pre-date
the solid-bodied polystyrene ones, the producing and gluing in two halve coming
after Airfix had gained experience in
tooling-up for their kit range and infant toys, using the material they had
settled on for that core production.
And while I've got my 'thinking' hat on;
the very early 'cigarette-box' ships (miniature models rather than kits) by Airfix were in the same dense
creamy-white polymer as the 'Bergan/Beton'
horse above, but with Airfix
advertising the hoses and motorcycles (which are all polyethylene) as
'unbreakable', I think it looks most likely the cadets and matching horses are Bergan/Beton imports painted to match
our ceremonial cavalry's trousers, but still: imported by Airfix, or someone
like Woolworth's?
These guys all fit the bent tail with the
least common variations of both hose and rider to the right, I only have the
one soft polyethylene figure, and the horse is as stated above a strange brew
akin to a nylon/rayon or early polypropylene, having the rigidity of styrene
but the soapy feel of an ethylene, and clearly being made from scraps, I guess
an experimental mould shot/mould run, considered OK for retail release?
More of the same; if yer got'em, yer gotta'
play wi'um! On the right are the big question marks; both 'as per' Bergan/Beton, neither found [yet] in Airfix paperwork, yet painted to the Airfix pattern, not Bergan/Beton's?
Combining with the few already here (mostly
Tudor Rose), I'm still looking for
the Airfix Archer and Indian holding
a rifle (which he holds higher than the common Tudor Rose version), while I have a shortage of Tudor Rose hard polystyrene horses, but
I think there are a few in storage. Also the spear-chap is (as always) broken
and he seems to be an Airfix-unique
post, not carried-through to the later Tudor
Rose range.
Hong Kong generally seems to have gone off
and re-done them with a new horse (taken from another US donor?) and
upper-torso's from Britains and co.
as seen along the bottom row and in the bag, the painted horse is cruder and a
copy-of-a-copy. The Horse top left is probably from a French rack-toy (called
bazaars - as they were sold in markets), several French brands had similar
horses, usually as wagon-teams on simple polyethylene models. The blue one is a
body-copy and we've seen it before (above a'ways), with the obvious locating
studs on the feet of narrower legs and the pink one is at the start of this
additional section.
In the preparation of this new section, the
very early Airfix Horse Guard started
to crumble like a biscuit, he'd already dried out like old bread and shrunk
like a prune, so - sticking with the food-based metaphors - I coated him in
plumber's sealant and done 'im up like a kipper! Note how handling over the
years had protected the feet and lower legs from the worst of the damage, oils
in the human skin serving to seal or lubricate/moisturise those areas.
This figure was definitely an unstable
phenol- or cellulose-acetate or other 'phenolic' type, some react with their
paint and go sticky, some grow a forest of evil-looking crystals; but in the
end they all start to crack and brake-up. This coating them in plumber's
sealant I've been trying seems to be a good way of getting a few more years out
of them, but only time will tell?
The other point worth raising here - as
I've run out of pictures and it remains unsaid - is that in the Airfix ephemera tracked down by Plastic Warrior, there is mention of a
'British Policeman' (listed with the RCMP 'Mountie'), while Lifeguard and Horse
Guard are listed together. Now, assuming the khaki version of this figure with
the service cap is the Horse Guard (Airfix describe "...the Horse Guards in their more sober Khaki..."
and I've never seen 'Blues' in the same uniform/pose as the 'Royals'), and
assuming that the Mountie is a Mountie is a Mountie; Who's the British
policeman - where's the British Policeman? Did they sell the same khaki figure
as a Military Policeman and barrack-dress Horse Guard, or is there a blue
version of this figure to pass as a civilian mounted policeman?
Also; the Horse Guard is a different
moulding from the US figure (Cavalry officer/Traffic Officer), was the airfix
policeman a copy of this other sculp, and if so why is it apparently so
uncommon compared to the others? And following on from that; there are gaps in
the numbering of these early figures which could be occupied by the two cadets
(painted and unpainted) . . .
Another pair of Lifeguards, the one on the
left in a factory-painted pink polystyrene the one on the right unpainted in a
soft, semi-transparent red polyethylene (already seen above), which I've just described elsewhere
(on the home blog) as cherryaide-red! This is more cherry-cola red!
Another line-up of Lifeguards - to date (2019). I think
these are all Airfix with three early hard plastic (probably styrene) ones to
the left and two later, soft polyethylene, unpainted examples to the right. You
will notice the 'pink' one is redder where the paint wore-off at a later date
on the boot shin and toe, I fancy also that the left-hand of the three is
starting to fade, as with the HO/OO guardsmen; on reflection I don't think they left the
factory pink, but that an unstable additive was used on some batches (middle
figure is fine) which has leached-out/faded from red to pink. It may even be
that on one (large? They're quite common) batch, a second additive - being a
colour-fixative/setter - was accidently omitted?
Now . . . recent (July 2019) revelations in
this quarter's and the previous-but-one issues' of Plastic Warrior magazine (issues 173/175) have thrown new light on
some of the above figures and horses, and while I don't think there's any
serious corrections to be made - as I was always clear to point out how little
definitive evidence there was on either - there is a pinning-down of some of it
to be carried out, along with attribution of the more 'phenolic' stuff to a
'new name'; Fraser & Glass (F&G; courtesy of Mr.Mig Bonnefoy),
which I will probably do by numbering all or some of the above images and
re-annotating them in a piece (below) in the near future. Suffice to say: the
clown-connection hinted-at above somewhere, a few years ago, has been proven
accurate.
As some examples are finally ID'd; new versions
turn-up! These are in the style of Tudor Rose but with a cross-piece or
bulkhead which seems to have the job of preventing distortion or the splitting
you get with some of these. They are unmarked and while glossy/shiny - in a
late production sort of way - are well finished with sharp detailing to mane
and tail and no obvious flash or other blemishes.
My thought is a late re-cut or re-design
(new tool) for Tudor Rose (or one of their rivals), from the late 1970's or
even post 1980? They are too 'professional' for Hong Kong! The riders remain
'unknown' as the horses came in this state; rider-less! But I suspect they will
be one of the many lots of soft-plastic Wild West figures out there; probably
equally 're-cut'?
Recent additions to the pack made this shot
inevitable! Expect another one in about eight or nine years with a pack of 12 foxhounds!
I'm not sure the horse is original paint, he seems a little too good compared
to all the others (made by whoever!), however, the rider is quite well finished
as well, so maybe the really-early production by Airfix; which this is (bent
tail), received a higher level of 'care' from painters than later batches
would? Especially given that the 'Began-Beton
/ Early Airfix?' horse labeled (by me, above) is now known/believed to be F&G! Equally it could be dirt giving
the impression of dry-brushing/shading!
Dogs are all soft polyethylene (unlike the
rider and horse who are polystyrene) with three in black, one white, one cream
and one (latest addition) a mottled charcoal grey, I've never found a
polystyrene one, not even damaged, so it seems - as per musing above - that
they were always PE, possibly because of the tails, which are a weak point in
Polyethylene, and may have proved a nightmare in PS test-shots?
How the hunters and dogs appeared in the
catalogue shown by Plastic Warriormagazine in their Airfix Special Publication.
As stated elsewhere in this post, I assume the six dogs are the two beagles and
four other breeds; Setter, Pointer, Alsatian and one other - possibly a boxer
type although a spaniel would fit equally well?
2021 - It was a Spaniel! A nice Springer Spaniel; favored gun-dog, so another farm/working dog, and that's all four of the non-Beagles.
2022 - They keep turning-up! The darker one was a Plastic Warrior 37th Show purchase, the red-brown came in a Sandown Part lot a year earlier I think!
A whole card, when I bought this, the vendor had about 6 similar cards, the animals - which the original advertisement tells us numbered 12 different - were randomly assorted so that while there were never two animals the same on any card, they were not divided into two sets of 6, which would have made far more sense.
. . . the three brown animals above and the yellow lion in-line with them ARE cellulose-acetate and their bases are the same as the carded ones, so it's fair to assume they are slightly earlier (actual 1947) production.
A close up of the lions and the 'wood-wasp' in the timber-pile; A donkey or ass/mule thing...stripe-less zebra? The dodgy-origin set has slightly thinner bases, however, as the Airfix ones barely stand up, they may be a first effort, but - if that's the case - why didn't the equine subject survive? Also, donkeys and dogs are not really 'Zoo' animals, but rather 'Domestic' animals.
The Logo hiding away in the Jungle foliage, if it's not a jungle, it's a very spacious zoo for the 1950's!! I'm guessing this 'Ape' is meant to be a Gorilla, although it looks more like a Sasquatch I encountered on the Brecon Beacons once!
A Year later the animals were used for Pattern No. 430 Zoo Brix; a boxed set of 6 infant's rattles/bath toys/building-blocks I first covered back in January last here; Bargain! which might be worth a read, however the pictures here are better, I was trying too hard to be clever with the Collage feature last time!
I took these purely to show the size in relation to something more familiar to Airfix fans, one of the dancing para's with his space rifle and pockets stuffed with tissues! What WAS going on with that set, and why did people keep buying it - they must have or they wouldn't have kept churning it out?!
Here's a 'to be updated' chart showing the known poses and their position within the Airfix oeuvre. Which were the other four poses on the original cards? Where does the donkey fit in? Why two Elephant moulds? When - exactly - was the change to all-styrene polymers? Are the Dogs from the same source?
In attempting to answer that last question! 5-06-18 This is the cow (which looks increasingly likely to be also the
bull) from the 'Pirate' set, it was covered with a powdery mildew-like coating
which came off easily to reveal either a factory-painted enamel finish or a
very subtle oil-over-white-undercoat type professional 'flat' paint-job, but it
was not damaged by the mould-removal so it's not clear and I wouldn't like to
call it either way if my life depended on it, but it doesn't and I'll call for
a very good home-paint.
