LAST GROUP/vintage hong kong figures

Philter4 wrote:

Very nice set of figures, I love the pangolin.

I do too. Thanks for showing us the photos.


~ Sue

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

The hippo is found in many Hong Kong sets of the 1970's, i have several different variations from it.
the horse is the same story, very often made in several colours and sizes.

I have a HK copy of that big Britains giraffe to, and it is an early one, which often means, that the quality is almost the same as the original.


This is the original Britains, item number 1348.
Very hard to find in a mint condition, so with all of the spots left.


This is an early HK copy, the same quality and detail as the original


This is a later HK copy as yours, you see the quality go down, as the moulds are worn out in time...

hi. my large giraffe doesnt look like the last giraffe you posted. look at the head. :)



thanks for all the nice comments everyone.

And whats most remarkable is they are STILL making and selling these figures NOW!
Yes quality has gone down, moulds wear out and knowing the chinese there are copies of copies of copies of copies of the origionals !
You can buy the same figures all over the world, Ive some from Australia, S.Africa,USA, Canada,Thailand,Indonesia, Brazil, Maldives...saw them In Sri Lanka- they are everywhere!
We're all spoiled by Schleich quality figures nowadays but these cheapo figures,very light to carry so a huge box of litearally hundreds could be carried anywhere , the fact they float - so the animals could be rescued at the beach when the tide came in from the huge moated animal parks I used to build!,[ Britains nescsitated diving under to get them off the sea bed - not my favourite thing!]BEING THIS SOFT PLASTIC THEY TOLERATED BEING DROPPED OR TROD ON BY LITTLE SISTERS FAR BETTER THAN THE QUALITY ONES! Very important quality back then!When I played with them on the mountainside the garish colour schemes made it easier at dusk to find the giraffes and elephants out of the jungle to take homeas well.
and the chance you could find a NEW SPECIES in any random packet - SO exciting as a kid!Gave such huge amounts of fun!
Being cheap with very limited pocket money I could have HERDS of sable, zebra, eland, deer, elephants and giraffes as a kid! Britains were expensive!
Most came with scenery and fences and again this was REALLY expensive from Britains- for kids in Europe I beleive Ougen or preiser SOFT PLASTIC ANIMALS were more affordable- I envy you guys!Couldnt get them as a kid in Uk and still needing to finish collections of them today!
The HONG KONG COPIES will always hold a soft spot with me ! If not actually on the shelves with the rest of the collection!!!!!!!

yes robertelephant. i noticed the old hong kong copies look as good as the originals. the details are very good.

Ouote: Hi. my large giraffe doesnt look like the last giraffe you posted. look at the head.

No, that is not what i ment Sauroid, when i wrote this under the last pic.
I ment that it was made in HK, same as yours is.
Yours is made between mine from the second pic, and mine from the third pic.
The last one, is short before China started making these same models.
You can see that on the sloppy paintwork...

Those memories that Robert wrote down, do remember me much of my youth, with the difference that i was living in a city, and not even near natural habitats...
I sharish my old Hong Kong and Singapore models to, as they typicly resamble the 1960's and 1970's, in which period those models and brands were copied enormously much!
Like Robert said, when you didn't have money as a child, this was the only option.
And everytime is just saw a variation on a model, or a new species in a set, i wanted that set, my parents remembered this fact for very long.
When my parents or brothers wanted me to do something, the payment was always in animal-models, haha.
I think i was about 10 years old, before i had my first Britains animal, the big walking African elephant.
But already before, i had the Britains double cage-set for my 7th or 8th birtday i believe...
Oh, those wonderfull times!
Getting so much animals and animal related stuff, like the Corgi Toy sets with animals.
I had the Daktari-set, the complete Circus Chipperfields sets, the Lions of Longleat-set, and much more.
They are worth between 350-500 euro's per set at the moment(mint and boxed).

hi Willy. do you think there are still mint or near mint Hong Kong made figures still available? it would be nice to have almost new HK figures, and complete all the ones made during that time (i know that would be impossible :)). anyway, you and kikimalou and the other seasoned collectors in STS should write a collaborative guide book on vintage animal figures.

Yes you can but these animals everywhere! and brand new at that! Well at ZELLERS in Canada they were selling a pack of ZOO ANIMALS I think Its around $5 , its HONGKONGS, has britains eland ,pelican old model, sable, ostrich copy amongst others etc.I think Walmarts selling them too.
Theres a box set on Amazon which has the nice head down charging moose , elastolin copies of the bactrian camel and tiger and both have britains copy african elephants and many other animals.Intresting aside Ive NEVER seen a britains asian elephant trumpeting copy EVER!
Any one else have?
To compile a complete Hong Kong collection is a pretty tall order! I keep seeing new stuff all the time!
And the new solid colour animals they are bringing out would quadrouple the amount easily!And the size variants, theres at least 12 different size copies/ or texture variants in my collection of the britains african elephant alone !Even the pangolins there 2 totallly differnt mould postures with 5 or 6 variants of them!
But good luck!

Hi Sauroid.
Yes, as Robert mentioned, even today you can find these HK sets.
But there are so many to find everywhere, that you can exchange your damaged ones, for better ones everytime.
I have loads of undamaged and mint ones.
Thanks for the compliment on the knowledge of older models, but you should include at least Christophe, Tiermann, Robert, Taos and Lesley and Sue to in this club!

Robert: Which model of the Britains Asian elephant do you mean, the older vintage, or the newer deetail model?
For me, none of them is trumpeting...

As far as I know ALL the britains models were copied - EXCEPT The detail trumpeting saluting trunk curled bull asain elephant with tusks, the gaur, the black rhino, small chimps from tea party, detail zebra and moose from zoo range.
Evey other britains mould was hongkong coppied, even black leopard, platypus, vulture, baby guenon, brown bear cubs, the lot.
All this inspired me to go into the loft, ugh!!!!!!!!!! 10 banana sized boxes of HONGKONGS are lurking up there!Tipped out 3 found my old pangolins, armadillos, marabou,longhorn cattle, argali, kudu, elands, etc !And just looking at the variant material, size and quality of sculpting in the african elephant britains copy is incredible!3 boxes down 12 differnt elephants in a line already!

thats awesome robert. isnt it nice digging up your hidden treasures again and looking at those wonderful collection? i wish i had as many old figures as you guys have. btw, are those newer hong kong figures made in the 60s/70s too or they are recently manufactured? because as far as i know, everything coming from china these days are all marked "made in china" not "made in hongkong" and most of them are badly designed/sculpted unlike the old hong kong copies of Britains and other brands which were very detailed and high quality even if they were just copied.

It depends, some being sold now are old - very old stock, probaly made in 80's- still unsold and recently bagged up - still sold with HONGKONG stamped underneath, some have China if its newer sets.Some of the sets the sculpting is really nice in newly produced ones from china and others it was terrible sculpting from the hongkong in the old 70's/80's ones- it varies hugely .Both in the individual packs and also between the differnt mouldings used to make them!
A zoo gift shop supplier told me once years back theyd be selling zoo animal packs from Hong Kong for the next 20 years based on whats still over there !!!!!!!
Also the ammount of sprue left on figures varies hugely but it is easily exacto knifed off!
The moulds and Id bet the factories themselves are the same from the 70's , HONGKONG wasnt a brand it just showed origin, they took it from BRITAINS ,MADE IN ENGLAND -it used to say on all figures.Everything nowadays will HAVE to say made in china!

Remember some of the nicest HONGKONG animals were SOLD[ produced?] by brands like BLUEBOX and those moulds are not appearing now!

If you go to a zoo gift shop you will probably see header bags of these type figures though WILDREPUBLIC and SAfARI have cornered the USA market. AMERICANTOY used to sell theem in bulk bins, pick what you want, the same exact models as from the 70's, same terrible painting!BUT SO CHEAP!
25Cents for an elephant I remember!
Discount shops often sell big plastic tubs of modern copies, again some you wouldnt know from the old ones!
Best way to actually see what your getting is buy from charity shops, car boot sales, garage sales ,flea markets- shoeboxes and ziplocks full of these and soldiers and indians allow you to get a good look at what youre buying, on the net youre not going to know until you open them and have aclose look! This is not like buying schleich, quality control doesnt happen!
Its also way more fun than buying stuff off the net, And its much cheaper!

I agree on the copying Robert.
But i did saw a copy of the gaur here on the forum to a while ago, but i don't know anymore where it was.
The model was slightly changed, but obvious from the known Britains mould.
I do have a big group of HK copies from that Britains walking African elephant to, mostly much smaller then the original.

New Ray and Britains gaur from Apichartu

Well, I don't have the same feelings about HK products. I guess geography matters

In France too, HK production was present in the seventies but not so much than in UK, and BRITAINS was nearly unknown until the end of the seventies. I knew the UK brand because PRIOR made some copies in the sixties end seventies. They were smaller than the originals but painted, not like the HK stuff.

I used to play with some because my parents were unable to buy me all the STARLUX. Like BRITAINS in UK, STARLUX were expensive in FRANCE. The main difference was the range, HK companies made a lot of animals but STARLUX made a BIG BIG range, both prehistoric or wild. At that time, no companies could compete.

So, as an adult, when I began collecting, my first goal was to find the STARLUX I missed when I was a child, because they were my dreams then.

I guess, that is all the same for us, depending on the country where you lived as a child...
I discoverd Britains in the 1970's, but Hausser Elastolin to, as i lived for 5 years in Germany in the 1970's, that was my luck.
I never heard of Starlux since about 10 years ago, but i was happy that i discovered them, and they belong to my favourite models in my collection, the same for Clairet.

They are so beautifull,I love them all,congratulation!