Again missed Salute....venue, poor lighting, scrum at trade stands, travel costs, ancient mothers appointment with the consultant all led to yet another non visit. I also have been making too many purchases online as I have been re-energised in the hobby by starting a late Bolt Action WW2 US Army. This will be the subject of the next post, but in a similar fashion to Marvin on Suburban Militarism and his Uniforms of the British Army Cigarette card posts, linking 'painting' posts, I am going to do something similar but with box's of vintage plastic figures.
The First is not warlike at all! In fact a set I never had as a child but one with a complete charm of its own, Zoo Animals No1 . This I spied recently in a specialist toy antique shop 'Hidden Treasures' in Birchington in darkest deepest East Kent. Now this shop is not the cheapest purveyor of model kits and wargames type figures but occasionally a few gems turn up like these! Courtesy I believe of a reclusive collector who would buy many boxes/packets of a single subject when released in the 60's and 70's. I wonder how many similar stashes are out there?!!!
The fellow calls in to the shop on an occasional basis with the latest gems...which have included three show-jumper figures (Rather rare, box art looks like princess Anne) half a dozen Halifax bombers in 2nd boxing and more American War of Independence 'OO' figures still on their sprues in the late 60's type box than you have ever seen in your life(more than any toy shop in the 70's even!)
This wonderful set was released in 1966 in that lovely cream plastic Airfix used at the time which I believe they referred to as 'Ivory' . The set contained 21 pieces including two keepers, two baby Kangaroos, an Ostrich, two waving Polar Bears (saying goodbye to the ice perhaps?!) two Lions, Tigers, two deer ?, two Antelope a Rhino, Elephant, Crocodile and a Dromedary.
I have come across loose examples of some of the animals in boxes of 'OO' figures in tubs at toy fairs and many of them suffer from 'plastic fatigue' but thankfully these are still 'fresh' on the plastic injection sprue gates and are fine. The artwork is superb and very reminiscent of Ladybird book illustrations of the period and I believe is attributable to Brian Knight who painted the new illustrations for the figure boxes released from 1968 onwards and updated the earlier production sets to make them more appealing. Now the question is who has got a complete set of Zoo Animals No2. I have never seen a set even.
I had these that came in a large Zoo set. The base and cages was a vacuum mould one piece in blue. The animals, both sets I believe were in yellow. I think the cage sides were in green and pushed into the vacuum base. I had loads of fun with it, even though it was not one of the military sets.
ReplyDeleteI never had this set, but this shop sounds lethal to someone like me!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great set - love to see these old classics and there is something really satisfying about seeing them still on the sprue. Enter that shop again at your peril!
ReplyDeleteMeant to add - very glad to have inspired you to make these posts!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Marvin
Good photos Dave, an interesting read as ever. Mel
ReplyDeleteSimon , I would love to find a complete Zoo set now, they go for a few Quid , havnt even seen one!Matt the shop is lethal all the time the chap keeps selling them his wird collecting habit, they have 10+ packs of the Zoo animals set! Marvin your blog has kept me going with my interset in military history for the past b18 months a real inspiration and Mel (Mark) keep supplying quality photos mate!
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