I have barely made a dent in the storage boxes and every new box opened is an adventure as we never listed contents of any of the boxes we just packed and stacked them and I am amazed myself at the range of makes and models we accumulated over the last half century .

I found these figures in a storage box with some pre-war monopoly items they would have been collected by my dad when he was a boy I have never really thought about finding out about them and seems they are from the days of collecting box tops for Free Gifts    

In 1933 Alley Brothers of Bluestone Farm Norfolk, who were the pioneers of motorised farming in the UK, began manufacturing their “Farmers Glory” brand of wheat flakes their main customer at the time was Woolworths and In 1936 between them they ran an advertising promotion, if you sent in 4 packet tops you received a little wooden figure wearing a national costume. in total there were 36 different ones to collect 

This is 17 of those figures they are made of 3-ply wood with a coloured paper image of figure in National costume attached each one comes with a stand  

Size approx.- 3 ½” (3 ¾”on stand)  Each national costume figure has Interesting facts printed on the back about their country 

Now these are so of their time when Toys were wooden or Tin and National costumes were a bit more for the films than the reality of the days these were made as the world was sadly fast heading towards WW2 

The National costumes you will receive are as listed below 

2 x England I cannot imagine who thought it a good choice to choose a lady in a Tennis outfit with racquet and a gent in Cricket whites with bat as the National costumes of England

1 x Norway 

1 x Finland

1 x Spain 

1 x Portugal

2 x Russia 1 Male 1 Female 

1 x Italy 

1 x Wales 

1 x Switzerland 

1 x Yugoslavia 

1 x Czechoslovakia 

2 x France they are each in a different costume 

1 x Austria 

1 x Ireland