Eurofigurines, Figuren and Zinnlaube Magazines

 In the past few weeks these three magazines have arrived through the post, here are some more details:

I was particularly pleased with this issue as it opens with an article on TRIUMF a Belgian manufacturer of composition figures which I'd never heard of but they are the same figures as we had in England made by TAG, which I covered back in February HERE  The really useful thing is that this article includes a catalogue listing of all the figures they produced.

Other articles cover; Regiments of Saint Cyriens, 

Curiosities finds and photos, 

Washingtons Regiment by Elastolin, 

Elastolin water carriers, 

The Emperor and his Old Guard, 

Knights of the middle ages in aluminium by Krolyn of Denmark, 

Fox hunting figure sets, 

Pirates by Starlux and Cyrnos, 

Greek Hoplites by First Legion, 

Toy soldiers made in conjoint tin (part 4), 

Palmer (USA) Astronauts, 

and finally Arctic Explorers.

Opens with a report on the 2019 Nuremburg Toy Trade Fair, which seems to have a lot more of interest to toy soldier collectors and modellers than the London Toy Trade Fair does these days.  

It continues with; Italian Askaris of the Abyssinian War in composition, 

Wooden cut out figures of the German army made in 1930's in Czechoslovakia by Bata, 

Personality figures of the Czech President T G Masaryk, 

The composition figures of Durso (Belgian), 

The Three Musketeers, 

Wundertute (Lucky Bags) Landsknechts from Heinerle, 

Atlantic Longhorn cattle in 1:32, 

Lineol Zoo rarities, 

Timpo catalogues 1968 to 1979, 

Bricklayer made by Lisanto, 

The Siege of La Rochelle diorama, 

Latest Preiser catalogue, 

Timpo Toys Special Issue No. 3

This was previously the newsletter of the collectors group FAS "Freunde Alter Spielfiguren" but it has now become and independent journal, I don't know the reasons for the change of editorial team but wish them well.  Text is in German and English, and it's published roughly once a year, the theme for this issue is the 150th anniversary of the Franco Prussian War, articles include; 

Glasenapp's volunteer hussars at the Battle of Rotha 1762, 

Cinderella in tin and lead, 

Vignettes for the Death of General von Craushaar 1870, 

the search of Jager Tromm - Prussian Jagers in tin and lead, 

Civilian figure sets by Spenkuch, 

Prussian Staff before Paris 1870 by Haselbach/Rieche, 

British observation balloons in the Boer War, 

the Stewart Collection of toy soldiers at the Frazier History Museum in Kentucky

So all in all a lot of very varied articles to get through. 

Subscription details for all these magazines are on their websites so just give them a quick Google rather than have me bore you with the same old information time after time.

Eurofigurines - French toy soldier magazine

Following hard on the heals of Die Zinnlaube in the last post came my resub notice for the French magazine Eurofigurines which is issued four times a year and mainly covers hollowcast and solid lead, aluminium, composition, plastic and pressed tin toy soldiers.  As you'd expect, many of the manufacturers included are French but the firms featured will be familiar to most people and that makes this magazine more accessible to the majority of collectors 

The front and back covers (above and below) of the latest two issues give a taste of the quality and format of the magazine.  I'm not going to go through the table of contents for these as it would take too long but I will mention something of the house style for articles, which is to pick a subject and then illustrate as many figures relating to the subject as they can find.  The articles are short on text and long on pictures, for example in the latest issue an article for the 250th anniversary of Napoleon's birth ran to 13 pages with 105 pictures of figures from 12 vintage manufacturers.  The pictures tell the story, this is my kind of magazine.

The text is in French but, as mentioned before, there isn't a lot of it so it's easy enough to follow or translate using Google.  On average there are 30 pages, in full colour, plus a separate wadge of advertising and collectors wants/sales lists.  Cost is 45 Euro (including international postage) by Paypal for 4 issues, the subscription runs for the calendar year so if you subscribe in July they'll send you the first two issues for that year and then your next sub is due the following 1st January, it's a neat system that works well.  For more details and to subscribe see their website: Eurofigurines