Gemodels Painted Space Figures & Cake Topper Copies

[space.trucks]

Have shown some of these before, very fond of what I perceive to be a certain female curviness while packing a raygun. Non-NASA space garb looks Cosmonaut-ish. Recently got a couple others in and noticed a difference: Had presumed they were all identical sans coloring, but the ones obtained as "vintage" are more thoroughly painted, their bases are more sculpted/3d, the plastic is a swirly opaque mix, and they are are larger than the cake topper copiess in waxy yellow & blue. All came from UK vendors as well, fairly sure the vintage pieces were made in the UK, no clue about the copies. I actually had to bid against someone for the originals but the copies are easy to find for a few dollars more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like someone wrote "10p" on one of the vintage pieces. What's that in dollars/cents?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For size comparison. Luckiest guy on the asteroid.

[Alain Lapointe]

they are often considered made by GEM or Gemodels

[space.trucks]

2 hours ago, Alain Lapointe said:

they are often considered made by GEM or Gemodels

Thank you!!

[space.trucks]

22 hours ago, Alain Lapointe said:

they are often considered made by GEM or Gemodels

Losing my fastball. While Googling the word Gemodels it led me to my own prior Space Figures post on them which I'd completely forgotten about. Shocking, then again the summer was a disaster (family health issues) which I have tried to blot from memory.

 

UK based company, founder had previously worked for (or directed) Crescent. The pieces above which are more thoroughly painted are 60s "originals" prolly made in UK, cake toppers are "copies" from either UK, HK or both. I also found a toy blogger who ascertained they are not meant to be female, though I think the fullness of those hips begs to differ.

[Alain Lapointe]

great, 'hope those family issues were positively solved, not sure but there must be a second figure coming with that 'female'

[space.trucks]

Some information here including confirmation of a tooling change.

http://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/f-is-for-follow-up-gem-models.html

 

I will need to see company issued literature or packaging stating they are male to sway my opinion that they depict female forms.

[space.trucks]

A response from the SSW blogger:

" ... yes, as far as I know they are all UK production, but Hong Kong may have had a stab, I've not found one yet, if they did it would likely be polystyrene hard plastic in an off-white, with painted highlights?

George Musgrave was primarily a freelance sculptor, Gem was his little baby, part try-out, part retirement savings-bank (I suspect), but once he's been pulled-in by Culpitt, not all was well, and at least one of the variants will be a spare/duplicate mould given to Culpitt who had their own fabricator, but which one?

And then there's Festival!"

 

By "headlights" I am fairly sure he refers to "Rackage" or "Jugg Department". The blog mentions them being in a Gemodels catalog as "A-1 Spacemen", no reference to any vehicles/accessories or accompanying figures. Am sticking with my female interpretation for the time being. Might have made more sense to market them as "spacemen" to pander to 1960s sensibilities regarding gender roles but those hips were built for child-bearing.