On the left are two Amscan sets with slightly different contents bought on a steamy-hot
day in the summer of 1994, from one of the many discount stores within walking
distance of Clapham Junction station's main entrance.
Were they made by Amscan? Of course not! Next to them are three other sets with
identical/near identical contents of the same 'Airfix type three' figures (we will look at all this in greater
detail another day, this post is about packaging and contract manufacture!),
for the Canadian and Italian markets, and; as can be seen from the
duel-language graphics of the Amscan
sets, they too were intended for Canada (or France?) as well as the UK.
Note also: the dimension-data panel on the
'HK' set is remarkably similar to panels used by or seen on Jaru and Gordy packaging (off the top of my head - there are others), one
day this may prove to be a Hong Kong factory tie-in clue?
In France and Germany you were more likely
to encounter them in Hans Postler's 'HP'
packaging which varied. We see here three versions, the early ones without the CE
mark can be dated to pre-1992 (at a guess!), then a CE'ed version and finally
a larger carded blister more in line with the set in the previous image.
All the CE marks in both images
don't conform to the CE mark rules, which means that they
are almost certainly forgeries; to whit - the manufacturer in Hong Kong added
them without the relevant permission (or full knowledge of the CE
graphic's rules) and the importers turned a blind eye to the fact without being
in possession of the relevant certification; a situation which has improved
greatly, over the intervening 25-odd years.
The Hans
Postler 'earlies' carry artwork from these generics, dated to the early
1980's (a couple of the non-CE cards above carry clues dating then to '84'ish),
and here again I don't have a large enough sample to know whether this is
six-of-six, six-of-more or one or two from three series?
For instance, one of the Han Postler bags hints at a missing US
set, while my US set is in a card trying very hard to pretend it is the card
seen below. Matching graphics/same font on the first two of each row seems to
point to two series, while the German set doesn't match either pair
convincingly.
I suspect they are five-of-six with a
missing US Infantry one carrying a fuller version of the HP card's artwork and the one bottom right above is an interim set?
The Para's card seems to have employed Action
Man (GI Joe) as an artist's
model! While shades of Airfix artwork
are in the other four, the last one however - as I said - is (with the addition
of a dodgy NATO symbol) trying to be
this one . . .
. . . which dates from the 1970's and
contains ex-Giant factory-clearance,
but no mention of Giant, Arco or Sarco or even Mattel or
the Rosenberg's anywhere, in point of fact; a totally blank,
generic, rack toy.
Listing
2MacDue SRL (Italy)
Amscan Inc. (Canada, Mexico, UK
and USA + others?)
Generics (early - Giant-clearance knock-off artwork and contents)
Generics (later - 3/4 packaging-artwork variations)
Hans
Postler GmbH / HP (2/3 packaging variations,
Germany and France)
Hong
Kong Toy Exporters / HK (for 2MacDue, Hong
Kong, China etc...)
'N'
(Italy)
Toys
and Wheels (Canada)
This list is NOT exhaustive, just what I've found so far. My 'Airfix type three' is the second size of
solid, flat based Airfix copies with
sharp edges for those of you who have sorted these, they were all explained in
the One Inch Warrior magazine article
on the Japanese, and I will do something fuller here - soon; now we’ve started
to cover them!
===============================================================
But is it Giant
The last one has Giant contents, but it isn't 'Giant',
the rest aren't even Amscan (the
subject of the spat elsewhere), they aren't any of the brandings they wear,
they probably aren't even Hong Kong
Exporters (but they might all be - with the exception of the last one),
they are however; all contract-manufactured ex-Airfix sculpts pirated and made in Hong Kong and flogged as pocket-money
toys from wire-peg racks and revolving dollar-trees.
Actually the Amscan were being flogged from their shipping-outers on the floor!
I went through about 80 sets in two cartons to make sure there was only the two
variations in contents!
There is the possibility of a mould move to
China 'proper' by the time of the issuing of the fake CE versions, but the
figures may have been sitting (in the '90's) bagged, in large, stacked, metal-stillages in an
HK warehouse waiting (from the '80's production run) for sales-contracts to be found/fulfilled.
