Zoo Animals - Error in the 1975 Catalogue

I spent ages editing the catalogue illustrations from the 1975 catalogue the other day, kindly scanned and sent in by Kostas from Greece, they contained a page of my favourite feature from the early catalogues, the painted sets, set-up on a card. However, what I didn't notice - tired, late at night - was that Airfix had miss-attributed the two illustrations, so although I collaged the correct margin entry for each picture, the animals were from the other set!

The errant catalogue entry above; to be fair no one told me they were wrong, and with only 20-odd hits on either thread since they went live a couple of years ago, I'm guessing it's of no consequence to most of you, and I probably could have got away with it if it hadn't been for this pesky Aspergic kid!

Still, I seem to recall other errors in the catalogues and there's the famous Guards box-art screw-up which will appear on the correct post eventually, but as this concerns two sets and one image they can have their own post for now. Both images have now been corrected on the two Zoo Animal's posts below somewhere.

1966; [Civil] Zoo Animals Set No.2, S25 / 01725 / 01725-5 - HO/OO

I have given my reason for liking these sets at the top of the Zoo Set No.1's post (above/'newer post'), really it's about nostalgia, they are otherwise odd sets for a company like Airfix to produce, they make a zoo, something a bit big for a 1960's model train layout - if modelled realistically, yet there are no circus elements, so play-value is also limited.

There are only two human figures and they are both holding a bucket of fish and the range of animals between both the sets is limited. The animals are also for the most part in sedentary poses, yet a lot of people ended-up with a few zoo animals in their 'soldier' box, jar or biscuit-tin, so they must have sold well'ish.

The same two kids who were heading for an early death in Set I are mow baiting a polar bear, who seems to be in the same enclosure the rhinoceros was occupying on the front of Set I. Is that the Taylor and Barratt elephant-ride in the background?

Proving someone wrong on STS the other day; Penguins and polar bears seem to get on fine! But then they do occupy different hemispheres and have no reason to see each other as a danger...don't you believe it - a penguin looks like a little seal and smells like breakfast to a polar bear!

The back of the box, this is later than the one shown in Set I, and has lost it's window - once I've got more boxes up here these captions will have to change, but for now there's just the two, so you can compare between them if you're not familiar with them.

1975 catalogue image and the blurb-panel courtesy of a follower from Greece; Kostas. As I've said before, I liked these catalogue images the best, although like the Set I shot, these are getting a little tatty with paint-chips and needed a touch-up before the industrial photographer got to them, something they didn't get

The medium sized animals from this set are from three continents and have gathered round one of the two trees from the Zoo Play Set. The adult kangaroos rely on their owner also buying Set I in order to be reunited with their offspring...or were they wallabies!

Half the set - in plastic mass - was given over to one item, a large African elephant. Another clue to the success of these sets; many a war-game's 'successor' army was equipped with a few of these. Scenery is the main entrance sign from the Zoo Play Set

Again the child is just a reduced size moulding of the same sculpt, and these gorillas are corralled in the spare fencing (short type) from the Play Set.

Ooh look! Six rounds of breakfast!

Look out, they think we're ready-meals!

Polar bears, and sea lions with some visiting penguins who as I mentioned above are from the Southern Oceans and coasts and only ever get to see polar bears at the zoo themselves!

Lions well enclosed in more scenic items from the Play Set are passing the afternoon in conversation with a hippo and the other baby gorilla. I'm never sure this hippo isn't a bit out of scale, he seem to be a juvenile in sculpting, yet is as big as an adult?

These are mostly from the other set, but it shows how the adults were further pantographed-down to make the 'baby' versions - I say 'further' and the masters were much larger and would already have been pantographed once to get the 'adult' size.

Comparison between the adult and child gorilla and the chimpanzee/benobo from the Tarzan set which we look at elsewhere on this blog, but which adds a few more animals to the mix - despite taking a lot from the two Zoo Sets.

One of each painted to a basic standard, these are OBE's, I hope to get some painted-up one day and I think I have a 'Carthaginian' elephant somewhere to post here one day!

Another angle on the two of each - the two lions from the Tarzan Set, the two from Set I and the two from this set, all chillin' in da' field 'n' shit in'it guy...sstoo hot!

A complete set still on the runners ('sprues') or pretending to be on the runners, I discussed the large ones coming loose when covering the similar shot in the Set I post above and while there will be a lot of duplication on some of these posts (comparing Union to Confederate and vise-versa for instance) you don't need the blurb to be duplicate as well!

 Marx

 Marx

 Preiser

Playset

Factory-painted Hong Kong copies

Piracy; probably home-cast, see Zoo Set 1 for the other pose

More OBE's, I like that he's done the Kangaroos as red and grey! Babies on the other sets post.

A comparison with the relevant figurines from the set of Olà ice-cream premiums from Portugal; The elephants are no more than babies, likewise the diminutive giraffes while the gibbon is a tad on the large size and the lion is huge, the hippo's though help make a fine herd!

 

 

The pink examples here, possibly from Ri-Toys (Rado Industrial Co.) of Hong Kong are taken from both sets of Airfix Zoo Animals, and added to animal sculpts from other sources, this set imported by Pikit Toys of Birmingham, England.

On the left is a poor example of a Christmas cracker or gum-ball / capsule machine prize, it's heat-deformed by being taken out of the tool too early, so I can't tell if it's the Airfix pose or not, it may be the commoner Britains clone, judging by the tail, however to the right are a whole bunch of definite Airfix sculp clones, from similar sources.