david_scrivener Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I've noticed that Hong Kong copies of farm, zoo, soldiers, cowboys & indians, etc figures from the 1950s-60s are starting to become collectable, and fetch quite high prices (or, at least, the nicer ones are). Pirates of the Britains/Herald Swoppet Wars of the Roses knights (the mounted ones on copies of Timpo crusader/knight horses/blankets) seem to be the most sought after, apparently made in Hong Kong on contract to a company (I think 'Transogram') based in New York, US. I have some HKs (mostly came in 'job lots'), which I've now retrieved from 'the rubbish box', and carefully sorted. Has anyone else noticed this recent rise in the status of HKs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_scrivener Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 (edited) Here are the Hong Kongs I rescued from my rubbish box. I say, 'Hong Kongs', but one of the bigger and better companies, 'Blue-Box', also had a factory in singapore. Most of the figures are copies of Britains/Herald, but there are also copies of Crescent plastic farm figures, copies of others, and a few original figures. Some of them could be useful for dioramas, such as the lying Jersey cows, which Britains never made, although the cow is a copy of their 1969 lying cow, but Britains never made it in jersey colours. The under scale figures could be useful in the backgound of a large diorama if trying to achieve a distance, perspective effect. And finally, those who like to do repaints, can do so with a clear conscience with HKs, because they are mostly cheap and disposable, so not like you'd be wrecking a rare old collectable figure. Last photo shows crescent copies. Edited May 14, 2012 by david_scrivener Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordTractorCrazy Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 i have quite a few Honk Kong manufactured farm models in my collection, but hardly any figurines except of the named "Blue-box" series of which i have about 8 sets.. The tractors from them are look-a-likes plastic Corgi rip-offs it seems. i have for instance a Fordson Power Major with cattle-box wagon and a set of pigs which seems to look a lot like a well known Corgi set, as i am working on my collection website, i still have to photograph all the blue box sets in my collection, will try to speed up the process for these soon.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMB Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Even as a youngster I was unimpressed by these Britains knock-off farm animals and tried to swap/sell/dispose of them as soon as I could, only the genuine thing would do! The painting was poor and even seemed to flake off unlike most Britains plastics. I think I might still have a few though, will have a root around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_scrivener Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 Most of them are indeed awful. The ones I've kept are the best of the bunch, probably a lot of them made by Blue-Box, although some of the nicer pigs are marked 'ZIP'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Ferguson Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 (edited) I have loads of them, David - in-fact I repainted lots of HK pigs for my free-range pig diorama last year for Toytrac. Much cheaper than buying new. I've even repainted the milk maids and sold them on eBay! Edited May 16, 2012 by Lady Ferguson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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