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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.
Showing posts with label Horse - Pony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horse - Pony. Show all posts

Friday 31 August 2018

Hong Kong Hollow Horses - P2 Pony (Type 2)

The P2 'Pony' is clearly a copy or further development/re-tool of the P1 Pony, but is a far more interesting premise, with several sets and accessories associated with it/identified so there's much more to get our teeth into.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 1 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys DSCN7970 Close Up of P2 Hosrse Both Sides
The horse; as shown with the P1 post, the P2 has cruder carving to the mane and tail, thinner walls to its flanks and is unmarked. Other differences (between the two P's) include the holes for the rider's locating-spigots being set higher in the saddle-moulding on the P2 and a slightly lower head position with a 'softer' neck

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 2 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 001 Horse Dteails and Plat Diagram
It also has a clearly defined flat top to the body cavity, tends to a glossier plastic and has one of the smallest ranges of plastic-colours of all Hong Kong hollow-horses, apart from a few slight shade differences in the brown, there is a black, white and grey and that's it.

Lots of them too, these were made in the modern era, when machines could run for hours with huge hoppers of colour-stable granules, their pigments chemically matched to tolerances of 100th's of grams-per-ton, so like modern army-men you don't find the slight variations in colour between batches, you will find with older sets/lines.

The reason browns often retain the variation is down to their being - in plastics terms - technically a purple; a mixture of red, yellow and blue, and therefore harder to match and more likely to result in variance.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 3 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys HKH000012 Comparison With Giant Smoothie Horse
A comparison between the Pony (P2) and the old Giant 'Smoothie', the genetics are there but they are very different beasts; the Pony being altogether more smooth, boxy and toy-like next to the Smoothie, who was christened that, by me, as he is himself smoother than the sculpted [Crescent] 'Wavymane'!

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 4 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 3 Native American Indian Figures
As we led with the cowboys on P1, we'll lead with the Natives this time . . . and what a shower! These are very poor sculpts, almost deserving of the term semi-flat, no details at all, few extremities, all weapon tips missing - and I'm sure it's the mould; not short-shots.

They are recognisable as the old Giant poses, but only just and like the horses, the colour range of the plastic is limited, and colour-fast between batches, which - with their other [non] features make them easier to sort out of mixed lots. Locating-studs are short and fat.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 5 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 4 Cowboy Gunslinger Figures
The same points extend to the cowboys; colour-fast, ex-Giant, semi-flat, crappy mouldings. Interestingly, despite at least three sources (in a minute!) and many years of collecting, the evidence suggests the mounted Indians outnumber the cowboys by a slight but constant 5:4 or maybe 4:3

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 6 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 7 Einco header card and Trees
So, we have quite a few sets for these, which is the best way to confirm earlier sorting, and while I can't be sure of the dates, I'm pretty sure these were first. The Einco 'Indian Village', which I remember hanging in Webb's newsagent in Hartley Wintney in around 1974.

This is one of the best non-Giant sets of the type (despite the awful sculpts) having various additional contents to actually make a 'mini-playset'. You may recognise the trees as being common from Ri-Toys sets later in the 1970's through to the early '90's and that gives us a clue to Einco being a made-up brand (or 'phantom' in today's lingo) and confirms with the sets lower down the post.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 7 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 2 Einco Foot Indian Figure Poses
The obvious addition is two poses of foot figure, both crude, both semi-flat'ish, both [barely] recognisable as ex-Giant sculpts but apparently carved from a block of soap with a sharpened spoon! Colours are even tighter than for the mounted figures, as they were - to my knowledge - only ever used with the one set, so; a relatively small production-contract.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 8 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 001 Einco Foot Indians Close Up of Base Marks
Both figures have small protrusions on their bases, which may be deliberate, or may be accidental damage to the mould-tool, or some long-forgotten part of the production process of this set?

There are similar marks on a Noah from Pagget Brothers, and one wonders if there was a concerted attempt to make figures stand up better on the deep-pile carpets of 1970's suburban houses, but it's conjecture and a long-shot!

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 9 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 6 Einco Bags and Tee-pees Tipis
There are a few versions of this Tee-Pee (Tipi) out of Hong Kong, and this is a copy of earlier better ones, copying even the weird tie-down hooks at either side - possibly used to attach the original donors to base-cards with thread in window-box sets.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 10 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys Einco Village Accessories
Fences in two sizes, bog standard HK-fayre, being copies of Merit line-side fencing and Britains farm stock. The trees are a simplified Britains palm-quartet and a poplar tree of dubious  origin . . .  and we have an additional horse; not part of the 'hollow-horse' oeuvre!

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 11 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 1 Einco Cart Horse and Cart
The reason for the inclusion of the solid horse is for the operating of a rather European looking muck-cart, the Indians obviously swapped for a pile of coon-skins! While some of the additional components were Rado Industries own, I suspect this pair may have been bought-in, they are quite different to the crudities of the rest of the set and used to turn-up in Christmas-crackers and the like.

The yellow wagon is from another source and is placed in the collage for comparison; it has locating-studs for a horse (Probably hollow) I have yet to ID/ascribe.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; Rado Ri Toys Large Bags
I'm pretty sure these come later, all the accessories have gone, the unmistakeable Ri-Toys tree-logo is present and the only thing to note is the tight 'colour way' of each set, there's about 25, 30-maybe per pack.

Cowboys; Einco; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indian Village; Indians; Native American Toys; On Horses; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toys; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Rado Industries; Ri-Toys; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 13 Rado Ri-Toys Einco Indian Village Cowboys & Indians on Horses Plastic Toys 5 Rado Ri Toys All Bags and Generic header cards
Generic sets also exist without the Ri-Toys tree logo, and artwork re-drawn in brighter, flatter colours, these are even smaller with an eight-figure contents count, per bag.

And please don't imagine I think these came second or the P1's first, they have been labelled arbitrarily and numbered arbitrarily by me, and give the numbers of these compared to the P1, it could well be the P1 is an off-shoot or piracy of P2, but they (the P1 people!) made more effort - with the figures and the horse - so it gets first billing 

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But is it Giant?

No, this set and the similar P1's date from long after Giant has been replaced as a branding by Arco with their larger, poorer quality, rack-toys, and while Arco may have issued some small-scale hollow-horsed sets; A) they would have bought-them in and B) Ri-Toys are one of the few 'known-players' among the thousands (of plastics manufacturers) operating out of Hong Kong. Whether Einco were a Western importer or a made-up name is the only question-mark outstanding here, really.

Hong Kong Hollow Horses - P1 Pony (Type 1)

My old notes and the index-card text which accompanies the loose versions of these reads -

P1 - Pony. Very well-detailed copy - but smaller - of 'Smoothie' with more detailed mane, more realistic tail than 'P2', "HONG KONG" in small letters at rear of body cavity, which is arched. Identified by mutually exclusive association, two sources.

More clean samples have come-in since the card was written about 25-years ago, and that's what we're looking at here.

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This is the horse in question and I hope he conforms to the above description, He's quite a solid chap compared to some HK horses, but smaller than most, so a 'new' sculpt, copied from the older donors.

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P1 is marked neatly with 'Hong' over 'Kong' in a little block reading head-to-tail toward the rear of the body cavity which makes all these 'hollow-horses' hollow.

It's called P1 because there is a P2 (which will be posted above this post) and here they are, next to each other, the P2 has elements of what I call remoulding in that while the horse is equally small, its mane and tail are cruder and it looks like the changes have been carved straight into the tool. It's also a thinner-walled sculpt and unmarked.

P2 is also glossier than the matted, slightly (or subtly) textured surface of P1

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My pelt drawing/diagram which also shows the strange arch under the saddle which may help ID them if you are following these none-to frequent posts (they will become more frequent - I just need to get a rocket up my arse!) with the aim of sorting them out of bigger mixed lots - which is the main purpose!

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Horse colours are all realistic, as far as HK horses go, no bright colours or dark green ones!

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The cowboys, as with the Indians they are the three old Giant poses, quite a reasonable take on the older figures, faces have gone and the locating-spigots on the legs are much heavier, with the single-six-shooter pose's having slight blobs on the tips.

The colour-palette is best described as subdued primaries and I'm not 100% happy with the pale-green double-six-gunner, his hat is slightly different and his feet likewise, but with two apparent cavities for the pose (fatter and thinner torsos) and no other set he fits with, he's here for now - see below.

Cowboys; Hollow Horse Types; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Hollow Horses; Indians; Native American Toys; P1; Plastic Cowboys & Indians; Plastic Toy American Natives; Pony Type 1; Pony Type I; Pony Type One; Small Scale; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Figures; Wild West; 6 P1 Pony Type One 1 Hong Kong Small Scale Hollow Horse Types Native Ameriacn Indian Images
The Native American Indians, again three poses, again ex-Giant and you can see another reason why both the pale green cowboy and the poorly-moulded ones remain in the sample, there are similar Indians, and they are better matches, so there were poor mouldings (too quick out of the tool leads to shrinkage which at this scale smoothes-off detail at the same time) and a few leerier colours; note the pinks!

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P1 on the left, a Giant Smoothie on the right, you can see that the Pony is a much smaller version of the Giant mount - which has a smaller version itself.

As yet I have been unable to tie these into a set, brand or manufacturer, nor have any accessories yet been associated with P1 sets/lots.

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But is it Giant?

No, despite using the same Giant figures as many other HK Horse sets/groups and using the smaller version of a Giant horse, this family (see P2) is a later entity altogether dating from the mid-late 1970's or even (in the case of P2) the early '80's.