Hong Kong Hollow Horses - Toytown Type II + Poor Texan and Hybrid Mexican

This is a more complicated ascribing than Toytown I, and for years, these were in three bags, but after I'd found a few mint-sets, it all became clear, and it's the best way of ID'ing these, a set or two falling from Toy Soldier 'Heaven'!

 

These are they, and apart from helping ID the riders, who were all in the big bags of totally unknowns, the big revelation was, two of the minor sub-horses (for want of a better word) were in the bags with the Toytown II's, namely the poorer Texans (already a poor version of 'Smoothie', with a tooled saddle), and a matching tooled Mexican Small, of which I only had one or two, in one of my smallest sized bags!

 

Card for what is as generic as they come, no maker, poor quality figures and horses, multi-generation copies of copies, culled from everywhere and a maker-less, brand-less card, this is the bottom end, or near-bottom of Hong Kong rack-toy production, and what tended to get Hong Kong toys a bad name.

 

The horses, the Toytown II's have less detail to the main or tail, the feet are far more pod-like, almost like they have hammer-heads for hooves, and the top of the body cavity is flat rather than pointed like the I's. The Texans, which I've named Poor Texan and the matching Mexican Small's have a sandblasted surface, and extra tooling on the saddles, but inherited from their donors, which we'll look at it another day, indeed, I think the dot-tooling on the Texan is following the dots on the Mexican, which was already on the donors as larger rings.

 

Obviously, we're into the realm of whacky colours with these, but that's an area even quite good Hong Kong horses can visit from time to time!

 

Toytown II on the left, Poor Texan on the right, there's the remains of a 'Hong' in the top of the Texan,, but I suspect that came-across with the pantographing/copying process, and might not extend to all cavities, if there are more than one (see below), but really they are unmarked as a set.

 

The matching Mexican Smalls. Note, both have short-shot rear-right legs, another way of identifying all these horses, mounted or foot figures, is the recurring damage some of them have, either from poor moulding or from poor sculpting!

 

Unmarked, flattish cavity.

 

I can't remember if these are the contents of a single bag, or the entirety of a loose sample, but you can see there may only be one cavity each for the Texan and Mexican, while there will have been several for the Toytowns.

 

The figures are dwarf-like and stubby, a vary small palette of only three main colours, and in addition to the six (and it's only six) poses taken from the Giant originals (via several-generations of copying copies!), we have an additional cowboy pose, a left-hooking  six-shooter.

 

I'm not sure I know his origins, nor if he was even in my original post on the figures in One Inch Warrior magazine, where I tried to point out the origins of most of the figures. He actually looks like the sculptor (plasticine-monkey?) tried to reverse the existing pose?

 

This shot is of the ID'd sample from bag-one, before I found (and possibly opened for the horse shot) another, so it's quite small, but it still gets them across well. As well as stubby, they're a bit lumpy or mud-like. Locating--studs are quite small.

 

This miss-moulded Indian, in one of the bags, has lost his shield and most of the spare spear, leaving him looking like he's got two vicious knives! He's gonna' get him some paleface scalp and no mistake!

 

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But is it Giant
 

No.

Hong Kong Hollow Horses - Toytown Type I

An easy one to name, as while it's probably got its origins in the same 'Smoothie' as most of these running horses, it's been simplified and stylised to such a point it's almost cartoony in its appearance, and wouldn't look out of place charging about with the Marx Miniature Masterpiece 'Babes in the Wood' Guardsmen!

 

Almost a rocking horse, without the rockers, a sharply detailed mane and tail, with minor flash compared to some Hong Kong horses, it has no markings, a pointed body cavity and less 'poddy' feet than the Type 2, which will post next. Also the back leg is kicking-up more than on other horses, and the long reach of the forward leg, only helps with the cartoonish look. Colours are all quite realistic, with a nice marbled one, bottom-right . . . possibly a mould-purge?

 

I had a few spares and in the interests of research, cut some in half! You can see the arched body has a differing thickness of side walls, almost certainly down to hand-tooling of a number of duplicate cavities in the mould, and come to a sharp conclusion.

 

Figures have been identified through several clean samples over the years, and a quick note here, a clean sample is not just a sample where they are all, or appear to be all of one type, but it needs to be of equal quality, preferably all 'clean' as in barely used or played with, but if dirty or dusty, thy all need to be of the same level of grubbiness, to suggest they have always been kept together, and not thrown together with items from elsewhere, by a dealer offloading 'junk', or parent clearing an attic!

Reasonably bright colours, the figures are chunky, lacking fine detail, and have fat, stubby locating studs on their calves. Individual cavities can be identified - several of the cowboy riflemen are firing at a skyward angle, while the Indian in full war bonnet has a version with the shaft of his spear attached to his leg, and others without.

 

The small light-blue firer, and several of the brave with tomahawk and shield are heat-shrinkage victims, when the runner is removed from the tool too early, and the still hot polymer shrinks and deforms without the constraints of the mould cavity keeping them in shape. The yellow war-bonnet is also miss-moulded.

 

It's funny, but several clean samples, and no set identified, means only a few shots, they are what they are, and if they look poor, believe me, we'll be seeing poorer, before we get to the end of the Hong Kong hollow-horses!

 

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But is it Giant
 

No, not even close, although, again, they have copied the six (and it's only six) ex-Britains Swoppet poses of Giant mounted figures, but here as fifth, six or higher-generation piracies.

Hong Kong Hollow Horses - Pre-Wavy

Looking at possibly my favourite or one of them, primarily because it took me a long time to tie this well done horse into a set of riders, and it was pure luck that I did so, but I'm now over 75/80% confident I've done so, if I wasn't, I wouldn't be posting them.

 

This is basically the old Crescent horse, which as a Hong Kong hollow horse I call 'Wavymane' (because when I was naming them I was a dedicated small-scale collector and wasn't familiar with the Crescent horse), but with the wave removed, or sculpted over, but with no other visible changes, the good musculature of the Wavymane remains, and the quality is high, equal to the early examples of Wavymanes.

 

Colours are mostly realistic, and a wide palette of chestnut, dun, and rowans accompanies the usual black and white horses, and a couple of marbled grey/brown And this is about half the entire sample, which had come-in in ones and twos, usually in larger mixed lots, but one or two on their own, with a bunch of Airfix or Matchbox mixed figures, something like that.

 

They never came with an obvious figure, the kind of large mixed lots (dealers have always throne all these hollow-horses and their associated figures/accessories in a big bag, tray or tin) of small scale junk, are hard to ID things from But were easy to ID once I new what I was looking for, and slowly they built up; during one of the 'Big Sorts', I went through the many thousands of Wavymanes, and found a few more, where some were hiding from before I'd recognised them.

 

There are three marking variations so far identified, and with such a small sample, there may be more one day, but using the lower picture of black horses, we have in the middle (as the rowan) a clear HONG KONG (with a gap) and a bump, forward of the saddle position, on a flat underside, at the bottom, a less clear HONGKONG (no gap, both in a round sans-serif font) on an all flat underside, and a pointed domed cavity with no markings at the top (as the dun).
 

It took maybe 30-odd years to finally 'call' these, when one of the dozens of bags in the last big-sort, proved to be pretty clean,, maybe one or two obvious other-runners or runts, and suddenly I had a half-dozen or so, clean Pre-Wavys with matching riders.

 

Turning to the two bags of still unidentified figures, I found, among the 60-odd figures a dozen or so more, and this is most of them (one of each colour/per pose, I think). Again, there's a couple of thousand waiting sorting from the last few years (I don't buy, or 'hoover up' this stuff like I used to), mostly from the donations of Adrian Little, Chris Smith or Peter Evans, and a few big bags from the Plastic Warrior show, including this year, when I got a big bag of well mixed hollow--horse stuff, so there may be a few more to add by now,, but it may only be another half-dozen, maybe less.

 

The figures are early post-Giant copies of the six (and it's only six) Giant poses along with five (two Indian and three cowboy) of the poses associated first with 'Wavymane', but again, given the small sample, the other seven of that 'set' may turn-up in the future.

 

The obvious identifying features are the bright colours in a quite pastel palette, and the relatively neat, ball-ended locating studs on the riders calves, which while similar to Giant's, lack the cone-like shafts of the Giant versions.

 

The figures are copies/sub-piracies of those associated with Wavymane, and specifically the mini-forts from the small 'pull-bags', with the two holes/release-pin marks missing,, and a Hong Kong mark, and, while again, a small sample, it looks like they are all coloured to match the rider, and more poses are still to be found.

 

I have a feeling though, there may be a bunch more somewhere, which could mean they were bought in by another hollow-horse issuer, or that the foot figure attribution is less solid, maybe 50% or less, only time, and the next Big Sort will tell?

 

It's quite a faint mark, and it was easier to fade out the colour and tone down the contrast to illustrate it. On the Wavymane figures small holes, like golf-holes are found roughly under the feet, here the base is smooth other that the raised mark, and the figures are of a poorer quality than the donors, which were with an early version of Wavymane, and are, obviously, also, copies of the Britains Swoppet 54mm originals.

 

This is the entire sample, and one of the best tests of whether you've ID'd them correctly, is how the various items add up, and here it's about right, with the foot figures being a slightly smaller sample, but there may have been less of them per issue, or they may only have been included in some iterations/sets, or as stated, as a caveat above, they may be interlopers?

 

But compare the bag of foot figures, with the bag of mounted cowboys and there's nothing in it, so I think I've called it right, it's just that I think I may have more foot figures somewhere, and they may be in the unattributed box?

 

Note, each element gets a 4x5½" bag, and all four bags join the horses in a 6x9" bag, they will get three Pelt drawings (with more added if new marking variants turn up), and a large index card stiffens the bag (so it can stand up in the box with the other one-off samples), where all the other notes are to be found, including findings, sample sizes, how many foot and mounted were found together, &etc.

 

My own feeling, given how few turn up, how they turn up in single figures, and the overall better quality of them, is that they may have been Christmas cracker exclusives, or an unremembered comic/cereal/other food premium?

 

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But is it Giant
 

No, easier for unscrupulous dealers or ignorant sellers to claim so, do to the quality of the horses, and the similarity of some of the mounted figures, but they are not Giant, they are a minor group, possibly used as premiums of some kind, cracker toys or gum-ball capsule machine prizes?

Lew Prokofijew's Stab at a Hollow Horse

Ticking off another of the non-Hong Kong horses - links are now being added to the Horse Page, which is less of a temporary page, and more of an overview/introduction now, more content will be added there from time to time - and we're looking at a pocket-money, kiosk (set, from Poland, which isn't an Airfix/Esci/Atlantic knock-off, but a piracy of Hong Kong piracies, some divine justice in there, I feel!

 

Probably also issued by Spojnia and Universal, this is the Lew Prokofiev (to anglicise the surname) packaging, and while I don't recognise the artwork, it's probably taken from a movie poster, lobby card, comic or illustrated story-book, maybe a Polish one?

 

Copying the six original (and it's only six) Giant poses, but umteenth-generation copies, with little detail, lots of flash and short-shotting of the extremities, and I don't know what's happened to the rifleman,, but he's going head-over-his-horses-rump if he fires that!

 

The set has six paired horses/riders, with two-each of black, white and marbled greys, the two marbled figures above, suggest a brownish/white horse may be out there somewhere? It seems to be a copy of the horse I call 'Pre-Wavey', and which I will post next, above, above this post ("Newer Post").

 

The body cavity is half-filled with solid polymer, as compared with the 'emptier' or more domed-hollow of the donor horse varients, and is also flashy, but as with the figures, no worse than most of the stuff which came out of Hong Kong, or Poland, they were cheap, ephemeral novelties, after all's been said and done.

 

The family group shot!

 

I think this was part of a larger purchase of Polish small scale sets for Chris Smith, who's helped tremendously with the Home Blog, and many thanks are extended to him for everything he contributes to the Small Scale World.

 

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But is it Giant
 

If you asked, you're being silly.

Hong Kong Hollow Horses - Saw-toothed Mane - Gordy International & Generic

Another of the easy ones! It's not through cowardice that I'm picking off the easy ones, slowly  . . very slowly! It's because further work is needed on some, while others can only be blurbed-up with the stuff in front of me, like the four types (so far!) of Christmas Cracker farm-cart, where I have all the shots and most of the collages, but they mean nothing after a few years in Picasa, if I'm not tuning them in my hands and comparing them to each other!

 

A generic version, we will look at the forts another day, but - corner lookout posts excepted - this one is easier to ID as the walls are longer/wider and higher than the standard 'Giant' fort.

 

The Gordy International one, an inveterate jobber, or importer of the very finest knock-off polymer crud from the Crown Colony of Hong Kong! This is their stab at small scale, hollow-horsed Wild West.

Another generic exists, sometimes over-printed to Woolbro (above, top left set), but this has a different horse, and the smaller ex-Giant fort design, however, because it was one of the first sets I obtained, possibly in the big purchase from the famed James Opie, all the loose foot figures are with it, as while the horse and fort don't match, it does have the same foot figures as the other generic/Gordy sets, so some relationship there, if only on some of the contents of these sets?

 

But this is a horse post, and we're looking at the one I call Saw-toothed Mane, because, with the lack of imagination running through the naming of Hong Kong hollow-horses, in the Small Scale World stash, it has a mane with saw-teeth!

 

You can see how the mane has been re-done, on a late-generation post Giant 'Smoothie', by attackking the tool with a mini-drill cutting wheel, the sort of thing you find on a Dremel, or a Handee portable power-tool! This has left little parallel spikes, which could probably be used to saw through a piece of paper!

The under-mark is a quite large, neat and clear HONG KONG in a slightly condensed sans-serif font, but not as condensed as the one I've just used! You will also notice that while some are quite smooth, some have a fine sandblasted finish,, the left hand brown one and the blac in the close up.

 

We haven't looked at the riders, as my sample of loose items isn't big enough to have 'made the call' yet, or shoot them, and I'm not opening two mint sets just to do so!

 

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But is it Giant
 

Nope! Aping the old Giant fort, and copying some of the elements - hollow horses, mounted figures - but all not Giant.

Crusaders

Another actual Giant set, and probably among the last; a bottle-bag with card header, rather than a carded blister, the late version black and silver medievals, and a high set number, all point to the back end of the Rosenberg's Giant phase!

 

Seemingly the same contents as one of the Multiple Toymaker sets by MPC, this is one of the better sets from Giant, despite the poor quality of the sub-HO figures. Coming with a standard fort, two catapults, a siege-engine/assault tower and the hard to find 'extra' building, a keep/barracks building, in two parts.
 

Clearly marked wall sections, 'MADE IN HONG KONG     GIANT ⓟ' the corner towers/turrets having no mark, and I will look at all the forts in greater detail in future posts. All three sections also carry the figure '2', which is probably coincidence, there being multiple cavities, dropped into a larger holder for picking, and it just happened that the picker chose three 2's?

 

 The same mark is found on the gate section, which has a green ramp/door.

The green carries over to the turret pennants, while the roofs are orange.

 

 The 'Keep', comes in yellow and a reddish-brown, with the same marks.

 

Unusually for Giant, there has been colour-bleed from the darker plastic to the lighter polymer, and while it might be both way traffic, it's never going to be as obvious the other way! You often find this bleeding with really 'cheap and nasty' rack toy stuff, but I don't expect it from Giant?

The front and back catwalk/galleries of the lower story will take two or three figures, but the ends are a bit too narrow to take figures, while the upper story will take a 'last stand' of about six figures, at a push, with overlapping bases!

 

Copies of the Marx catapult,, and given dates, probably taken from the Miniature Masterpiece versions. The two in this set have become brittle, and most of the 'rocks' have broken off, over the years of handling, the set's been subjected to.

 

And for that reason, I wouldn't try to replace the perished elastic-bands, to fire it, the strains would cause the whole thing to break-up! Marked 'GIANT ⓟ MADE IN HONG KONG' along the top of a frame edge.

 

The two-tier assault tower, seems to be based on the MPC one, which in 50mm-odd, is one of the ugliest things you ever saw, but reduced to small-scale, doesn't look quite so bad, or unbelievable! As MPC carried some of the Giant stuff, there may have been a relationship between them beyond middle-man/buyer, but I suspect not, and this, like everything else copied, was done so as pure piracy.

 

A simpler 'GIANT ⓟ HONG KONG' on the underside is the marking here, with room for a few figures on the rear and top platforms, the middle one, it seems is just for show!

 

Another reason for saying the set is a late one, is that earlier sets were always careful to match horses to riders, and/or divide 'sides' equally, yet here we have a spare horse, and a dearth of silver knights or too many black ones? However, because of similar imbalance with the foot figures, it rather dictates Black are the attackers, outside the fort, Silver inside, defending!

 

This made sense when I was doing it, but looked very odd when I came back to it (shots taken in 2021), but it seems I was trying to do one of each pose on the left, black, then silver, with spares on the right, and silver poses for which there isn't a black one, in the centre, which I phuqed-up, by not noticing the first one (top centre), should be down the bottom left

 

But anyhow, you get the picture, the foot figures are pretty random, with neither side having all the poses, and Silver outnumbering black, almost two to one, so they should be the attacking force, but without the cavalry, it's easier to leave them in a position of strength, within the fort!

 

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But is it Giant
 

Absofreakinglutely! Literally a mint set, which I carefully removed the staples from, with a fine blade to open them, and which were then carefully replaced again, lining up the eight holes for each staple, after the photo-shoot.