a mysterious old french vintage brand

Thank you Christophe for these interesting informations about monochromatic figurines productions!  

 According to our friend Cyril, the little green smilodon would be original Tim Mee.. :)

Cyril is right, it is a Tim-Mee 

And the lion below is a Heinerle-Manurba

and these 2 are copies of Clairet tiger:

You are right, I was searching a lioness and I forget the tiger

At last I got one!  an original lion from this still unidentified french brand we use to call "pseudo Clairet" on my french forum:







I love its marbled texture we also can observe on some hippos from the same brand:





here with bazar monochromatic copies:





.. and here between vintage Clairet (on the left) and Cyrnos ones:



They have about the same posture but:

- its sculpt is better than the Clairet one and its tail ends up

-  to compare with the Cyrnos one, its mouth is closed

but overall, from above:



.. he slightly turns its head on the left side in a very natural attitude..

 With this extremely rare model, it's a very old child dream that is becoming true for, when I was a kid, I only had bazar monochromatic models and dreamed  to have a natural original version!

Big cogratulation Alain, first because it is a very rare lion from a still unknown brand and second because it's always great to fulfill a childhood dream

Could you make a portarit family with the other animals of this series ?

Great find! I don't quite understand why on the one hand, they copied Clairet, while on the other hand they went through the effort to change the sculpt. Interesting!

Kikimalou wrote:

Big cogratulation Alain, first because it is a very rare lion from a still unknown brand and second because it's always great to fulfill a childhood dream  

Could you make a portarit family with the other animals of this series ?

Thank you Christophe! You will find portrait family of the wild and farm animals from this mysterious brand on the previous page. We just miss your monochromatic bear and the chamois. Maybe could you add your so clear comparison pictures of bears from this mysterious brand and from Clairet.. :)

Monochromatic farm animals are easier to find on ebay but I nevers saw original models anywhere. Maybe they were released after the wild ones, and only sold under that version. They are very close in sculpt to the Clairet models!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Great find! I don't quite understand why on the one hand, they copied Clairet, while on the other hand they went through the effort to change the sculpt. Interesting!

Thank you Roger! I suppose it's a matter of copyrights!

Caracal wrote:

Kikimalou wrote:

Big cogratulation Alain, first because it is a very rare lion from a still unknown brand and second because it's always great to fulfill a childhood dream  

Could you make a portarit family with the other animals of this series ?

Thank you Christophe! You will find portarait family of the wild and farm animals from this mysterious brand on the previous page. We just miss your monochromatic bear and the chamois. Maybe could you add your so clear comparison pictures of bears from this mysterious brand and from Clairet.. :)

Monochromatic farm animals are easier to find on ebay but I nevers saw original models anywhere. Maybe they were released after the wild ones, and only sold under that version. They are very close in sculpt of the Clairet models!

Here is it Alain nevertheless your first pics are showing all this models but not all the Wild animals in one pic.

Mysterious Polar bear




With Clairet and Feral.

Kikimalou wrote:

Caracal wrote:

Kikimalou wrote:

Big cogratulation Alain, first because it is a very rare lion from a still unknown brand and second because it's always great to fulfill a childhood dream  

Could you make a portarit family with the other animals of this series ?

Thank you Christophe! You will find portarait family of the wild and farm animals from this mysterious brand on the previous page. We just miss your monochromatic bear and the chamois. Maybe could you add your so clear comparison pictures of bears from this mysterious brand and from Clairet.. :)

Monochromatic farm animals are easier to find on ebay but I nevers saw original models anywhere. Maybe they were released after the wild ones, and only sold under that version. They are very close in sculpt of the Clairet models!

Here is it Alain    nevertheless your first pics are showing all this models but not all the Wild animals in one pic.  

Mysterious Polar bear




With Clairet and Feral.

Thankyou Christophe for adding the polar bear!

On the first pic I show all the wild animals models molds  I HAVE on the same picture! I don't have any others, I miss that bear and the chamois and I don't know if there are others. :)

widukind wrote:

Thank you Andreas, we need helps!

That's a very beautiful lion figure, I think it is as beautiful as the Gulliver one but more artistic.

Roger wrote:

That's a very beautiful lion figure, I think it is as beautiful as the Gulliver one but more artistic.

The Gulliver one is from the same mold as the Starlux one. When I was a child, I prefered the sculpting of this monochromatic cheap bazar lion than the one of the far more expensive Starlux one!

Caracal wrote:

Roger wrote:

That's a very beautiful lion figure, I think it is as beautiful as the Gulliver one but more artistic.

The Gulliver one is from the same mold as the Starlux one. When I was a child, I prefered the sculpting of this monochromatic cheap bazar lion than the one of the far more expensive Starlux cone!

Yes, the Starlux 1960 lion, I should hadnoticed it earlier.
Perhaps Starlux lion is slightly more balanced in terms of proportions, but there is a superior artistic quality in the mysterious model. More movement, more drama, more action.One thting I notice is that the vintage lion figures are much nicer than the first cute lions of the major brands.

Caracal wrote:

rogerpgvg wrote:

Great find! I don't quite understand why on the one hand, they copied Clairet, while on the other hand they went through the effort to change the sculpt. Interesting!

Thank you Roger! I suppose it's a matter of copyrights!

Thanks, that makes sense. I suppose Hong Kong and Chinese companies didn't need to worry about copyright so they could/can make exact copies.

I used to have that cream polar bear as a child. I may still have it, I need to check.

Oh yes check please!

Here the original polar bear in hard plastic that I received last week in an ebay lot:





 and here with other models from this same mysterious brand:




 I miss the chamois on his stone..

And here the farm models easier to find in monochromatic soft plastic but never found in hard plastic:

Wonderful oldies!

Beautiful polar bear!

I'm glad you finnally caught the Polar bear

Many thanks to you three Taylor, Roger and Christophe!

Congrats