About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Monday, October 17, 2011

F is for Further Follow-up B

Continuing on the subject of 'The Meet', I got permission to use the images on Adrien's Mecator Trading website (link to right), but then decided I'd be better-off buying the items in order to compare more fully, and I'm glad I did.

When I saw them on his (Adrien's) stand, I thought there must be both a 'Meet' and a 'Hunt', and still do, but hadn't noticed that there was a 'new' pose of rider on the standing horse in his group. Looking to the left, above, also his Master of Hounds had a different dog soldered to his leg, the one looking sideways.

Another pose not known to me was the Hunt Master with his horn, the assumption must be that all poses will turn up on both horses in the end?

The two mounted figures I already had, but this time on galloping steeds.

I have also bought (from Adrien/Mecator) the book on Heyde by Markus Grein, and he has one of the standing ones on the cover, and as he's an expert on the subject; the evidence suggests that they were made first in Germany and then - probably as war loomed (as pointed out by Terry H-S in comments last time) - the mould came to the UK, maybe the set didn't sell well in Europe?

I suspect the finishers were given a tub or box of plain castings and just randomly paired a horse or dog with a person, and every now and again soldered three dogs together, so most combinations should turn-up eventually...

The whole group, or at least one of each of the variants now in my possession. The Master of Hounds in the new set had the dog mentioned above, while the group of three dogs has two of that pose as apposed to none in my original group.

Likewise, I feel the lady will eventually turn up with a standing dog, or soldered to a standing horse, while the Master of Hounds may turn-up with a sitting dog.

If Hill got the mould, it would make a Charbens set rarer, as they would probably have dropped it from their range earlier? It would also open up the tantalising possibility that the mould still exists as some Cherilea were re-cast a few years ago. Paul Morehead and his army of toy soldier spotters keeps finding odd Hill/Johilco metal figures or animals cast in plastic, in such small numbers that they look to be test-shots or limited production runs (how much pressure would a mould designed for lead take?). So they may be a very limited try-out by Hill or the later Monarch/Phoenix/Cherilea owners of Hill moulds?

As I suggested last time, the brown of the plastic mouldings of this set is very 'Hill', and as the Master of Hounds won't stand up without some support (a wodge of icing being ideal!), they may have been sold as cake decorations?

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