Roving reporter Brian Berke picked these up the other day, and sent them to the blog, and while he's pretty sure they're by Tameo Kits (TK) of Italy, the figures don't seem to be listed on the website any longer, so help with identifying the individuals' modelled, would be greatly appreciated, from any F1 or Italian model fans, who might be passing Small Scale World!
Personal or eMail-related stuff edited out, but in Brian's words;
"I won [. . .] some metal figures. From the
listing photo, I thought they were in space suits, but it turns out they
are racing drivers from an Italian firm called TAMEO that I had never
heard of. Their present website does not seem to list them.
I
make no apologies for not having a racing car to pose them with, not my
area of interest, but I [found] a NASCAR diecast to indicate use. The
figures are in two scales.
I don't know if the ID's [numbers on the bags] are from the [model-] maker or the . . . seller."
Unnumbered -
"The complete standing figure seems to be based on an actual driver." I'm wondering if it might be either James Hunt or a young Schumacher (and I lean toward the former, that's a 1960/70's helmet)?
RD 3 (racing driver [model] 3?) - He is obviously stepping into a racing car's cockpit, and has a more modern fire-suit and helmet, the peg on his left foot, will be for fixing him to the intended vignette or diorama base.
RD 7 - The output of
Tameo, still extant, is mostly in 1:43, and I suspect they are all supposed to be the same scale, but the seated drivers are a little smaller, possibly to account for the material of the cockpit walls being not scale-thinness, and they seem to have lost their toes, probably for the same reason? I think they are too big to be 1:64th, the next natural scale down?
RD 8 - similar to the last one, but his separate gloves, being designed to sit on the bonnet, edge of the cockpit somewhere, or even in his lap, suggest he's to be posed in the 'Paddock' phase, prior to the formation-lap, with all the reporters, crew, VIP ticket-holders, grid-girls holding number-boards, and such like?
That scrum which Tony Jardine used to fight to hear himself over, let alone get information to the rest of us, and yes, I'm dating my participation in F1, I haven't watched it, nor followed it, for years!
RD 10 -
"[ . . . ]
also shows what may be an actual driver." Again, I have an idea, which is that it may be Ayrton Senna, or another of the older drivers? Again a paddock pose, with him actually putting one glove on, while the other waits to be posed on the vehicle somewhere, or held by a member of the pit crew . . . and, were they also made by
Tameo, at some point?
Unnumbered - this guy's got both hands firmly on the steering wheel, and would seem to be racing, but his helmet is from a third generation maybe? Although it seems to me, with nothing but the visual evidence you can see, for yourselves, that the bare-headed chaps may well be intended character figures, and the helmeted guys, deliberately more generic?
All have been shot by Brian with the 'Hunt' figurine as a comparison.
'Hunt' again, posed with Ricky Rudd's
Ford Taurus Whirlpool/Tide, #10 Nascar premium from the 1998/99 seasons (thanks Google, useful for once!). There are various models of this car, including a 1:64th
Hot Wheels, while
Racing Champions did a 1:24 scale, die-cast
, but this
Procter & Gamble charity/advertising giveaway (?) looks to be closer to the required 1:43rd?
And many thanks to Brian for sending us this, racing figures are one of those side-bars who will eventually get a page on the A-Z Blogs, along with Firefighters, road-crews, Police, Ambulance personal and other such figures who keep recurring as die-cast's accessories!
Added the next day, this bag went missing and the seller is 'moving house', so it may never turn up, but has tantalising clues including what looks like a 1990's Williams cockpit transfer, sponsor's advert graphics for Hitachi and NGK, and another driver. So if anyone can flesh-out the back-story/history of these for us, that would be grand!