I took my four characters, grouped each in its own doc., then copied and pasted into a new doc. in order to scale them relative to each other before I put them on the street. As you can see from the arrows I lost the textures of [1] loincloth and [2] pack straps on the Porter, and [3] the shaft of the flute on Conijca, and [4] the chrome on the blade of the spear. Is this to be expected? Or, is there a preventative?

Drag them into the Object Tray vs. copying and pasting. As a result you get an instant back up of the object with all components and textures intact. Now they can be added quickly to any scene. Just drag the character/object of you choice into a new scene. Mark

Most excellent solution! Thanks Mark.