During the 40`s and 50`s many small items like this could be found and most were from Japan !! It was a common thing to have a small shelf in the house somewhere with collections of these !! My Grandfather had one as did many others !! He called it a "what-not" shelf !! And the items on it were what-nots !! Don`t know where that name came from but everyone seemed to know what they were !! The figures were usually just a few inches tall but some were larger !!