Britains Indian Rhinoceros

Could it be a hollow bubble inside the plastic for massive animals like the Rhino? That would cut down on weight, and possibly cause the floating. Not a specific hollow cast process like the old metal ones, but enough trapped air in there to make it weigh less than if it was solid all through.

Here is a horse with an air bubble, which you can only see cos it happens to be a clear plastic. Usually this range is cast in opaque white, and you'd have no idea how much air is inside them. I've had quite a few of these clear ones to paint up, the air bubble size and number does vary, this example photo is actually quite a small volume of air - one of mine had about four bubbles, another was almost entirely hollow through the belly, but I didn't think to take photos of them cos I never thought it might come in useful to explain a theory about unexpected lightness of chunky animal sculpts

rogerpgvg wrote:

The lighter black rhino doesn't look and feel like polythene. It's probably also PVC but with a different density or perhaps other plastics were mixed with the PVC. In the topic that I referred to I said that the light black rhino came before the heavier one because I assumed that Britains would improve it. But if this is indeed the change in plastic in 1993, then it may be more likely that the lighter plastic is newer because more black rhinos would have been made before 1993 (1979-1993) than after (1993-1998).

Not all polythene Britains float, some are slightly heavier. Probably again related to the density of the plastic or having fewer air bubbles.

Yes, we often do not think about it but this is all quite complex. PVC figures are always mixed with plasticizers because pure pvc is brittle. So, their density depends from the formula used. This formula is not the exact same for all figures of the same brand because some figures pose different challenges. Polythene has a density very close to the water density, so, the addition of plasticizers can change slightly the density and it is enough to turn it denser than water. Though, this is all very technical and what is important is to find these sculpting variations among Britains figures.

It's interesting that Peter Cole's book about Britains shows a cut through Indian rhino. It shows that Britains moulded it in stages, with the inside being different from the outside. It also looks as if there are holes in it.

rogerpgvg wrote:

It's interesting that Peter Cole's book about Britains shows a cut through Indian rhino. It shows that Britains moulded it in stages, with the inside being different from the outside. It also looks as if there are holes in it.

If there are empty parts, the density theory is useless. At least for those more massive figures. It is fun to know what those collectors did to provide the most complete information possible.

George wrote:

Could it be a hollow bubble inside the plastic for massive animals like the Rhino? That would cut down on weight, and possibly cause the floating. Not a specific hollow cast process like the old metal ones, but enough trapped air in there to make it weigh less than if it was solid all through.

Here is a horse with an air bubble, which you can only see cos it happens to be a clear plastic. Usually this range is cast in opaque white, and you'd have no idea how much air is inside them. I've had quite a few of these clear ones to paint up, the air bubble size and number does vary, this example photo is actually quite a small volume of air - one of mine had about four bubbles, another was almost entirely hollow through the belly, but I didn't think to take photos of them cos I never thought it might come in useful to explain a theory about unexpected lightness of chunky animal sculpts

Oh, I missed your post and it is very interesting. Is it Magnolia, a Stablemate? I ask it because Stablemates have a completely different molding process.