Pech Hermanos fighting bull figure... not Timpo! ;-)

I have been unable to identify this magnificent plastic fighting bull figure.

My guess is it is English but the pose is different to all the other ones I have images for. The reason for this assumption is that is was packed in a bag containing Britains animals. Anyway here are the images:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Fighting bull 1 by Chris*4, on Flickr

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Fighting bull 2 by Chris*4, on Flickr

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Fighting bull 3 by Chris*4, on Flickr

Thanks

Chris

BTW this model is around 1:32nd scale.

Chris

That is a wonderful model, it looks like it is from some bullfight-scene

Hmmm, the way the eyes are painted ring a bell, reminds me of Reisler, but the way the horns are made, and the finish as such is not like Reisler

SUSANNE wrote:

That is a wonderful model, it looks like it is from some bullfight-scene

Hmmm, the way the eyes are painted ring a bell, reminds me of Reisler, but the way the horns are made, and the finish as such is not like Reisler

Thank you Susanne for feedback. I agree it looks like it would be part of a bull-fight scene. Would be interested to know what the other figure poses are if this is the case.

I see what you mean about the eyes and how they are similar to Reisler's style.

Hopefully, someone on this forum will be able to shred some light on the manufacturer.

Is it hard plastic ? Very hard ? More than BRITAINS plastic ?

STARLUX, CLAIRET and QUIRALU made some corrida sets.

This one looks like a copy of the QUIRALU aluminium one

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Maybe it is a Spanish model ? REAMSA, JECSAN

Interesting model Chris!

Kikimalou wrote:

Is it hard plastic ? Very hard ? More than BRITAINS plastic ?

STARLUX, CLAIRET and QUIRALU made some corrida sets.

This one looks like a copy of the QUIRALU aluminium one

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Maybe it is a Spanish model ? REAMSA, JECSAN

Hi Christophe

The material is similar to Britains and other British companies. It is not as dense as plastic used by German companies.

Looked on the net for images of fighting bulls from Reamsa and Jecsan but could not find poses that matched the on I have.

One British firm used Quiralu moulds, I believe under license. Name escapes me at the moment.

Certainly a lot to research here.

HKHollinstone wrote:

Interesting model Chris!

It sure is Harriet. Love the pose even though I don't agree with bull fighting.

Looks like the leads here will eventually find the maker.

Chris Sweetman wrote:

One British firm used Quiralu moulds, I believe under license. Name escapes me at the moment.

Certainly a lot to research here.

WENDAL This company also used the CLAIRET panther mould.

But as far as I know, WENDAL made only aluminium models

Kikimalou wrote:

Chris Sweetman wrote:

One British firm used Quiralu moulds, I believe under license. Name escapes me at the moment.

Certainly a lot to research here.

WENDAL This company also used the CLAIRET panther mould.

But as far as I know, WENDAL made only aluminium models

Thank you Christophe that is the name of the company. You are also right about Wend-Al products being aluminium. However, in 1955 there appears to be a link with Timpo. In that year Timpo were phasing out their hollow-cast models and bringing in plastic versions. During this period several Wend-Al figures were identical to the older Timpo ones. Perhaps there was an exchange of moulds and Wend-Al gave this fighting bull one to Timpo as a trade. Timpo then issued the bull in plastic. All a bit of guess work but it does make sense.

BTW in "The Great Book of Hollow-Cast Figures" under the Wend-Al section there is a picture of this bull pose in a light brown colour without a base on page 291. Wend-Al describe this figure as "Bull charging" under reference number FD2.

Timpo may have released this model in black plastic added red for blood and issued this pose as a "fighting bull".

So thanks Christophe for your ideas and interest and I think we can safely say this bull was made by Timpo.

Unless of course anyone else has other ideas and can add anything new.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased this book:


This is a superb 28 page book featuring the complete range of Timpo Farm and Zoo products produced in plastic.

Published by Plastic Warrior in 2011. Photos printed in this issue were provided by Barney Brown, a well known plastic figure collector and author of several books on Herald/Britains plastic figures.

www.plasticwarrior.com/background.html

Now not included in this book was the charging bull figure I posted here. So I contacted the Editor of Plastic Warrior magazine and he confirmed that Timpo never made bull fighting figures and the pose wasn’t from the two British manufacturers that did. He suggested that it was a Spanish figure and would get back to me as soon as he passed the images onto collectors of Spanish plastic figures. In the mean time I did some searching and came across this fabulous blog:

http://dirydor.blogspot.com.ar/2009/04/toros-de-lidia-en-plastico-54-mm.html

Then I found an image that had this figure and now it is likely to be a product of Pech Brothers Barcelona.

Does any member here have any knowledge of Pech Brothers Barcelona?

Thanks

That book must be a fabulous gem ! WOW!

I never heard of Pech brothers Barcelona:)

SUSANNE wrote:

That book must be a fabulous gem ! WOW!

It is Susanne and only £6.   

widukind wrote:

I never heard of Pech brothers Barcelona:)

Neither had I Andreas until today!   

Hopefully, one of our Spanish members can provide more details.

At the Wiki the Pech page has two links. It's been a while since I added them so I went and checked, no bulls. One is to a Spanish toy soldier blog that doesn't really have any animals but horse and camels for Pech, but the other is the Toy Soldier HQ in the US that has a few African animals by Pech listed about half way down the page http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/Spanish.html The hyena looks nice and the eagle attacking an antelope is interesting.

Tiermann wrote:

At the Wiki the Pech page has two links. It's been a while since I added them so I went and checked, no bulls.  One is to a Spanish toy soldier blog that doesn't really have any animals but horse and camels for Pech, but the other is the Toy Soldier HQ in the US that has a few African animals by Pech listed about half way down the page http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/Spanish.html The hyena looks nice and the eagle attacking an antelope is interesting.

Thank you Tim - the link you provided certainly showed some interesting designs. I too particularly like the two you mention.

On the link I previously provided there are four different bull poses from Pech including the one I have:

http://dirydor.blogspot.com.ar/2009/04/toros-de-lidia-en-plastico-54-mm.html

If you look on the right there is a panel that has links to a vast range of categories and includes other Pech issues.

Pech, perhaps unsurprisingly, made a model of everything relating to bull fighting. See link, which also includes other Spanish manufacturers:

http://dirydor.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/escenas-de-la-corrida-de-toros-en.html

what a great thread. Thank you Chris!

scot(t) wrote:

what a great thread. Thank you Chris!

You are welcome Scott - the case of: "the more we find out the less we know”   

Further to one of my posts above I have now received a reply from Paul, Editor of Plastic Warrior magazine and publisher of the Timpo Zoo and Farm Guide. Here is his reply:

"I have consulted an expert on Spanish figures and he says it is by Pech Hermanos, a prolific Spanish maker.

Paul at PW.”

So to conclude this fighting bull figure is not by Timpo but one of the products of Pech Hermanos from Spain and perhaps this tread needs to be moved to the: Others section.

Thanks for all your interest.

I'll move the thread. Although today it is easy to translate online websites I think it is interesting to share here part of a very complete introduction about the brand that we can find on that excelent blog. :)
I am not knowledgeable about the brand but I remember Bernito, from Spain talking about the several Spanish vintage brands and Pech got my atention because they have a giant anteater in their line.
Below "half" translation....

Pech Hermanos is a Spanish company, based in Barcelona.
Brothers (hermanos in Spanish language), Jose and Manuel Pech, started with lead figures in 1945.
As they were inexperient in that matter, they started with the guidance of Jose Capell, that introduced them in the world of lead soldiers and their manufacturing, letting them to use some of his 45mm molds in order to Pech Hermanos start their production.
The company started producing lead figures of Nativity, Western lines with cowboys and indians, Canadian Mounted Police and soldiers of Spanish Army, from Capell molds.
Later, after a huge success of high quality figures from Madrilian brand Sánquez, Pech copied many of Sánquez figures giving them a lower price and quality.
In the middle of 1950's years, the lead production was gradually abandoned giving place to the plastic figures that were increasing in popularity. The first plastic figures were again based on Capell molds.
Plastic collections presented a higher quality than previous lead figures.
The collection of plastic figures is immense, nativity, pirates, Aztecas, Western, soldiers, etc.
What is interesting to us is that they also produced a Safari line with an extensive collection of animal figures and also African people and hunters. And, what interests particularly here, a vaste series of bullfighting figures!
During 1960's years, some family problems, caused the dissolution of the company and molds were sold to Oliver company that continued production with a much lower quality.

There's also a collection of little animal figures called Fieras (beasts), that is relatively easy to find in Spanish online sales, with animal figures from all continents. I like this one.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Tiermann wrote:

At the Wiki the Pech page has two links. It's been a while since I added them so I went and checked, no bulls.  One is to a Spanish toy soldier blog that doesn't really have any animals but horse and camels for Pech, but the other is the Toy Soldier HQ in the US that has a few African animals by Pech listed about half way down the page http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/Spanish.html The hyena looks nice and the eagle attacking an antelope is interesting.

Tim, if you want to use these images for your Wiki pages please do so.