See also: Commonwealth
Jean Moreau-Dupuy - Originator/Founder
The company was a chain of small to
medium-size convenience stores and/or small supermarkets (supérettes) set-up by a consortium of grocers in 1924 under Mr.
Moreau-Dupuy. Their history is the same as many supermarket brands, starting
small with the originating grocer's premises.
Slowly building to a local then regional
chain of both co-ops and franchises including supermarkets proper (supermarchés), and modernising after the
war, before becoming the recognisably 'modern' streamlined model of the last
few decades with the opening of their first proper supermarket in Brittany in
1962 (Saint Brieuc), each time the
company went up a gear it changed its logo with about six generations of
corporate identity found by me.
The company ceased trading as a going
concern in 1990, filing for bankruptcy and the stores were off-loaded to
various rivals; Promodès Group (the Prodim 'local' store division of Carrefour) buying the bulk, with others
going to Shopi and the rest to Market U Express (now 'U'), the last Codec shop-front seems to have been taken down in 2003.
World Dancers
The World Dancer figures were only one of
their premium promotions and would - like the others - have been made by
someone else, Siku are often in the
frame for this sort of cream/white plastic work, but many other makers were
serving the European premium demand of the 1950's and '60's and as these are a
bit 'chunky' for Siku - who
specialised in flats - it could have been any one of the others!
There were 24 figures, all female, all
based on Commonwealth poses, marked
CODEC on the front edge of the base and the nationality on the rear. Some poses
- re nationality - are changed from the Commonwealth
use. The figures are very well finished, more detailed than the originals, but
tend to a stiffer attitude, they seem more wooden and without the softer charm
of the originals, but for some of the figures it works in Codec's favour with their version being preferable to the Commonwealth original.
Listing
- Esquimaux (name not 100% sure)- Cowgirl
- Early American (name not 100% sure, may be 'Lorraine')
- Indian (Native American)
- Bali (Uses Commonwealth's Haiti pose)
- China
- Cuba
- Czechoslovakia
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Finland (Uses Commonwealth's Sweden pose)
- France (name not 100% sure, may be 'Lorraine')
- Germany
- Hawaii
- Holland
- Hungary (Uses Commonwealth's Finland pose)
- Italy
- Japan
- Mexico
- Norway
- Portugal
- Scotland
- Siam
- Sweden (Uses Commonwealth's Switzerland pose)
Re-issues of Probably Earlier Issues by
Other Brands (see those brands for details)
Sports (also
issued by Cafés Martin)Boy Scouts (also issued by Cafés Martin)
Thierry la Fronde (a Robin Hood-like character, also issued by La Maison du Café)
The Wild West (54mm soft plastic, previously issued by Cafés Legal in hard plastic)
Links
Codec on 'Home Blog' page
What This Entry Needs
More information on other issues
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