Other plunder from the Plastic Warrior Show 2025

 I've been going a bit overboard with the medievals this past year or so, to the detriment of collecting other historical periods, but I haven't neglected them entirely:

My last sweep of the show turned up these four odds and ends for just £1 each, two late version French Revolutionaries made in France by JIM, a Crescent Russian for my Winter War project and a large resin touristy tat knight, not really my thing but I just loved the pose.

The PW Show has always been as much (if not more) of a social occasion than anything else, for many who attend it's the one day of the year they get to meet face to face with friends they've known for many years and there is often a gifting of figures.

Graham Apperley gave me the first two, a cowgirl on bucking bronco made in USA by Beton (Bergen Toy and Novelty Co) and a Gaucho made in Argentina by EGToys (Ezio Guggiari) who were producing these distinctive figures between 1943 and 1965, 

Michael Mordaunt-Smith gave me the red plastic figure of Jim Hardie from the 1950's American tv series "Tales of Wells Fargo" which he is currently producing from an old mould, the original figure was made in America by Louis Marx but the consensus of opinion is that this is a copy as it is noticeably smaller. 

The 70mm green figure of Sir Gawain was made in Spain and is very similar to, but not a copy, of the figure made by Elastolin for their Prinz Eisenhrz set, based on the Prince Valiant comic strip created in America by Hal Foster. It was given to me by Paul Stadinger (aka Stad) who at one time was the U.S. agent and distributor for Plastic Warrior magazine, and has been attending the show regularly since the 1990's. 

This group above came from Andreas Dittmann another regular long term visitor to the show from Germany, an Elastolin trumpeter, Lineol grenade thrower, a pair of plaster sheep with a lamb and an early post war East German infantryman made in a papiermache/plaster composition mix by P G H Effelder.

My thanks go to Graham, Michael, Paul and Andreas for their kind gifts and the many years of friendship we have shared. 

And finally......this was actually my first purchase of day, an Art Deco Renault tank, carved in wood, roughly in scale for 54mm figures, the consensus of opinion was that it had been manufactured commercially rather than being "shedware".  I'm tempted to paint it, but I won't!

Britains American War of Independance Swoppets.

 This past year I embarked upon a review of how I store and display the unruly mass of toy soldiers accumulated in a largely haphazard way over the past six plus decades.  

Everything is being separated out between collectables and figures for wargaming, the former to stand safely on a shelf gathering dust and looking pretty, the latter boxed securely in their units and ranks ready to be deployed on the tabletop at a moments notice.

I started picking up Britains and Timpo American War of Independence Swoppets with the intention of using them for wargaming, back then they were the only figures available for the period, but they were hard to find and by the time I'd acquire enough they were getting too brittle and delicate for the amount of handling involved.  I aught to let them all go but I don't feel quite ready for that yet.

The building in the background is the tinplate "Revolutionary War Tavern" made in America by Louis Marx, the mounted figure of George Washington to the front left of it is an old composition piece made by Elastolin.

In amongst the Britains and Timpo Swoppet AWI are a smattering of figures from other manufacturers such as: Shell Liberty Men of '76, Louis Marx Warriors of the World, A Call to Arms, Res Plastics for Kinder Eggs, Awesome Toys, Casualties of War, Airfix, and a couple of white metal models.

The building shown here is the Louis Marx tinplate "Civil War Mansion" from their "Battle of the Blue and Gray" playset.

Native American allies are provided by Mohicans from Britains Herald range and Charbens.

 These figures have all spent far too long languishing in boxes so it was nice to get them out and put on display where I can appreciate them a bit more.

Elastolin Bundeswehr from the car boot sale.

 Among the finds at the car boot sale last weekend were these post war composition figures of the German Bundeswehr made by Elastolin, which warrant a post of their own.

The immediate post war production of Elastolin was something of a hybrid, utilising the same "sawdust and glue" composition mixture for the bodies but introducing a new pattern of head made in plastic and wearing an American style M1 helmet.  Elastolin used the same composition bodies with this plastic head and just different painting schemes to depict both Bundeswehr (as shown above) and American GI's for the export market.  Previously the pre war American infantry were made entirely in composition material and wore the British Army style Brodie helmet.  

Elastolin had been using the bodies of their German infantry with separate plug in heads and different painting schemes to depict various contemporary armies since the early 1930's but this was the first instance of them utilising plastic parts.  The flag was the same pattern of tinplate standard that they had been using pre war but was painted in the black, red and gold colours of the national flag of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Medieval Lord and Lady - but who made them?

 After the success I had on facebook with the identification of the Galloglass made by Oojah-Cum-Pivvy I thought I'd try the same approach to find the origin of these rather fine figures. I believe they were made in England, 54mm tall, they are made from some sort of composition material, they may have been made for a toy theatre or something like that.

My thoughts that they might have been made for a toy theatre prompted suggestions that they may have been Shakespearean characters such as Petruchio and Kate from Taming of the Shrew, they certainly have the arrogant stance for that couple.  The period costumes have been well researched and carefully painted, I have seen examples of them before so I think they were produced commercially but not in large numbers.

Two more figures from the same series, a boy/Prince and a Monk, they are not the usual wood/glue composition or the plaster of Italian figures, perhaps more like the Blanc de Medun of some French types which is very hard, there is no armature. The base on the Prince is lead and not original but was added by a previous owner.

On the figure of the Boy it says "Courtier temp. Ric II Earl of March" on the man it says "Courtier temp. Edw IV" these were stickers added by the previous owner to notate who the figures represented in his personal collection, sadly he give no indication of their manufacturer, he uses the word temp. to abbreviate "time of". 

I acquired them in one of James Opie's auctions for Phillips back in the 80's the seller had been a student of heraldry and his entire medieval collection along with his research archive were up for sale. The lots were all high end connoisseur figures, Courtenay, Ping etc which sold for serious money but these were in a lot of plastics, most of which were conversions to represent personalities in their heraldry, luckily nobody else wanted them so I was the only bidder. Being conversions, all of the figures had these paper stickers on the base to show who they represented.

To date their manufacturer has not been identified so if you recognise them please leave a comment to let us all know.

Die Zinnlaube vol. 14

 Volume 14 of Die Zinnlaube arrived recently, now only published once a year, this is the 2024/25 issue, 112 pages (including the cover) printed in full colour throughout with text in German and English.

Articles include: 

Figures portraying Andreas Hofer and others made by Johann Hilpert

Czech Gymnasts Association flats made by Ernst Heinrichsen

British Life Guards and Prussian Hussars, solids from 1880 by Ammon of Furth

Figures from the Hungarian Uprising of 1848/49 by Sohlke

Characters from fairy tales (more early flats)

Sack of Louvain 1914, rare set from Ernst Heinrichsen

10cm composition figures 1914 from SFJB of Paris

The Death of Marshal Schwerin 1757 

Swedish Kings from Karl XV to Gustav VI

Tin figure exhibition at the German National Museum, Nuremeberg

German infantry battle Franc tireurs in Louvain 1914

The heavy coverage of tin flat toy soldiers won't appeal to everyone but I find the articles are always very refreshing with subjects and figures you will rarely ever see elsewhere.  

London Toy Soldier Show March 2022

I went along to the London Toy Soldier Show back in March, but I'm only getting around to putting up the pictures now, It's been that sort of a year! I have to say the event was rather sparse compared to pre-pandemic times but I suppose that's only to be expected as people begin to re-emerge and things slowly get back to the old normal.  Nonetheless I managed pick up a fairly eclectic haul, but first stop was at the game being run by members of the Little Wars Revisited Forum.

Several spectators took part in this demonstration game which saw Fort Pippin take centre stage.

The stylised terrain is really quite charming.....

......as is this rather neat little armoured train!

I bought these from Harry Kemp who just returned with a junk box of plastics from the Nanterre Show in Paris. Top left is a copy of an Elastolin Turk made by Cane of Italy, next two are by JEM of France and the bottom row are by Bonux of France. The four small size figures of WW2 Russian and Japanese infantry were made in Spain by Transplastic of Madrid, the came as premiums in packets of bubble gum available across the EU in the late 1960's under various names such as Dargaud y Tito and Dunkin.

Odds and Ends!  A rather fine Swedish hussar from the Tennfigurer range made by Holger Eriksson, I'll get around to painting him one day (hopefully) the mounted figure in the centre is made of a composition material in post-war Communist Hungary and finally a Britains hollowcast Togoland Warrior in need of some TLC.

I've no idea what these are or who made them, solid white metal and quite chunky, I have them in mind for a Wars of Religion project which has been simmering on the back burner for several decades, the riders will be going on nice sturdy Deetail mounts.

Early Hussars by Manzsoldaten

This rather nice pair of Hussars were made in Germany circa 1910/20 by Manzsoldaten, one of the minor makers of composition toy soldiers, and one of my all time favourites.  I particularly like the style of the horse' heads although the leggy stride of that foreleg is a bit off-putting.

Early Manzsoldaten figures don't carry a makers mark but are characterised by being semi flat, which is unusual for composition figures, and have this distinctive oval base.  Earlier German composition figures from this period tended to be quite large, typically 10cm, before settling down to 6.5cm and 7cm in the 1920s and 30s but these are unusual in that the riders are roughly 54mm, not looking bad for a pair of centenarians.

August von Mackensen by Elastolin and Lineol

 I've always liked figures of Hussars and Lancers, light cavalry in general I suppose, and here are three examples of composition personality figures portraying Field Marshal von Makensen from the 1930's.

The first one on the right was made by Elastolin and is showing some deterioration where the wire armature it is built around is rusting and causing the composite material to crack.  Middle also by Elastolin but 2nd quality late production, you can see it is smaller and the paint quality not so good.  On the right is the version made by Lineol which I think is by far the best of the three.

1920's Lineol Knight

This mounted knight stands 140mm from base to top of plume and was part of an early set of medieval figures produced in the 1920's by Lineol.  Made from the usual "sawdust and glue" composition material it was part of a jousting tournament, with six foot figures representing members of the Court and attendants plus two mounted knights with two different horses.  The other knight had a couched lance on a rearing horse, I once had the other horse and it was one of the most spectacular pieces I've ever owned but I let it go to a German dealer......... and have regretted that ever since!

The horse trappings are parti-coloured green and white but this one has clearly collected a lot of grime over the past hundred years. I really should give him a gentle clean but I rather like the aged patina and if I removed it I really couldn't wait around another hundred years for it to come back!

Toy Soldiers of the Great War

An early birthday present to myself (because I'm worth it), "Les Petits Soldats de la Grande Guerre" has been out for while but I've only just come across it, the cover announces that it includes 800 toys of WW1 so I had to have it.

Published in 2013 by Editions Glenat, A4 format, it has 256 pages illustrated in full colour throughout, ISBN 978-2-7234-0700-2.  Written in French only but light on text so not too challenging for anyone with with a smattering of the language and a grounding in the Great War.  The pic below gives an example of the layout and quality of the illustrations.  The cover price is 39 Euro, which I would say offers very good value for a book of this size and quality, I got my copy on ebay France, new and still in the cellophane wrapping for 19 Euro plus 9 Euro P&P from seller "Book77".  Bargain!

There are 12 chapters looking at different aspects of the war, into which the toys are conveniently slotted.  The cover gives little away and I half expected the book to include every type of toy from diecast vehicles to dolls and teddy bears, but fear not, apart from a chapter containing tinplate tanks and ships the rest is all toy soldiers.  

You can expect to see the perennial favourites from Britains, CGB Mignot, and Elastolin  but they don't dominate, it's packed with figures of every genre: paper, flats and semi flats, conjoint tin, wood, hollowcast and solid lead, composition and even a little plastic and modern white metal (but not much).  The more I flick through it the more I enjoy it, I reckon you will too.

TAG Cossacks made in Belgium by Triumph.

I'm about to embark on a new project which involves painting up a load of Cossacks, happily there are lots of figures available thanks to the current Russian manufacturer Engineer Basevitch who has included several in his many excellent and unusual sets.  The problem is that I want them to be a generic unit that can be used from 1800 through to 1930, so what colour do I paint the tunics?  When in doubt I always look at what the toy manufacturers have done in the past, not always historically accurate, but good enough for me and with that in mind I dug out my old composition Cossacks made by TAG.

The figures I'll be painting are all wearing the distinctive cherkesska tunic with sown in cartridge pockets like these above.  The first two figures here are TAG and I assumed the third one was too when I bought it, but when I put them all together I see it's very different, obviously shorter with finer detail and made from white plaster, it's very TAG in style so it could be a later improved line of production but I'm just speculating here.

I've never been entirely sure what this thing hanging on their back is meant to be but I assume it's meant to be a traditional bashlik hood.  I'm not sure this exercise is helping with my uniform colour quandry!

While I had the Cossacks out I thought I might as well photograph the rest of my TAG figures,  These are curious creatures, assumed to be made in England after WW2, but beyond that nobody seems to know much about them or who made them.  The only clue being the large "dogtag" they wear tied around the neck which proclaims them to be "A TAG Educational Toy" but nowhere does it actually say they were made in England, which was a trade requirement at the time.  However a recent issue of Eurofigurines magazine reprinted a catalogue from the Belgian firm Triumf which lists, with line drawings, all of the various TAG figures that we know of along with several others not seen in England.

From left above are 2 Royal Armoured Corps, a paratrooper and an infantryman.  I've always been curious, on what basis TAG could claim these to be educational?

Mostly they're made from a green/grey composition material very similar to Milliput which put me in mind of the gunk people used back in the old days to repair the rusted patches and rotted wheel arches on their car.  Other materials such as plaster are also used.  I think the MP in white helmet is just an ordinary infantryman who has been embellished by a previous owner, I'm not the culprit on this occasion but I have to admit to ruining many a good toy soldier with dodgy painting in my schooldays.  The center figure is a British Military Police "Redcap" (factory painted) followed by two rather robust Guardsmen.

The reverse side of the "dogtag" gives unit information.  I wouldn't normally bother showing a back view but on this occasion I was quite taken with the detailing of the parachute harness and sten gun slung on the MP, it shows a modicum of research and modelling on what are otherwise very crude toys.  I've never consciously collected TAG figures, I don't really like them and I'm not even sure how I came to have these.  I guess you just acquire the odd figure here and there then before you know it a collection has quietly crept up on you.

Well that's all done for another year!

Yesterday was the thirtysomethingth Plastic Warrior Show in London, I forget which number we're up to, a sure sign of ageing), here are a few of the things I took a shine to:

A tongue in cheek diorama made by Dan Morgan shows the archaeological discovery of  ancient Replicants figures in the South Downs of England.  The archaeologists are all converted from Replicants wild west figures.

The Plastic Warrior Show has become the traditional showcase chosen by Replicants to launch their latest range, this year they have produced a set of Texas Rangers.  Not the sharpest photo, sorry about that.

It's not all plastic at PW (although it is mostly), here a nice selection of Elastolin and others composition, I thought the bears were awesome.

One of the nicest forts I've seen in a long while, this one hand built by the seller, if only I had the room for it..............

I love these early plastic aircraft, especially the twin engine bombers, I'm tempted to start collecting them but you have to draw the line somewhere........don't you?

Some serious hardware here, lovely old German tinplate from the 1930's, the AA truck and jeep in the centre are by Tippco, I didn't dare to turn over any of the price tags!

More from the same table, the panzer in foreground was made by GAMA, I don't recognise the large gun at the back but it looks to be like 1960's manufacture.

A typical table top at the show, an organised confusion of plastic figures, this table belonged to one of the German collectors.  Last year we had wondered what effect Brexit would would have on the attendance of dealers from Continental Europe, happily they all booked their tables way before Brexit was postponed, which bodes well for the future, it seems the lure of toy soldiers far outweighs a little inconvenience at customs.  The German guys were all staying overnight in Belgium so they could attend the Brussels Toy Soldier Show the next day......... and there was a spare seat for me if I wanted to go, was I tempted?  you bet I was.

A nice selection of rare and early English plastics, it continues to amaze me how much of this stuff there is out there.  We all acquire far more toys than we need or want and the PW show has always been primarily aimed at collectors who want to dispose of their surplus, this year the show was fully booked well in advance and there was a sizable waiting list in the event of any dropouts.  I find this very encouraging, it indicates an enthusiastic and resilient collectors community.

Morgan Miniatures at the London Toy Soldier Show March 2019

The show in London last weekend seemed a little flat to me, but it was nice to meet old friends and I spent most of my money so that's what counts, here are a few of the things that took my fancy:

This little collection appealed to me, I really liked the tractor, it makes a change form horse drawn limbers and I'm sure it would be easy enough to bodge one out of some bits and pieces of tin and wood.

I have a descent sized Roman collection and I'm slowly building up the Gauls/Barbarians to go with them but the project has lost momentum so I took this pic to provide me with some inspiration, I think the figures are by King & Country.

I've just finished painting up 50 Vikings, Normans and Saxons but have another 100 or so to go, mine don't look as good as this so the pic gives me something to aim for.

These superb Conquistadors are from a range made by Morgan Miniatures, my current project is a TudorBethan mish mash of 16th Century types so I took this pic to give me some reference points.

I'm not mad about tanks and vehicles but I do quite like some of the quirky stuff produced in that period of development between the wars

My stash from the show was mostly modern production, here the two sets of Conquistadors from Chintoys, I currently have two sets on the paint table and these additions will be used for conversions.  In the middle a lone pikeman from Replicants, found in a junk box, and at the back a mounted Russian made Teutonic knight alongside William of Normandy by Del Prado, the latter is a bit large but I find their personality figures ideal for command groups and at the moment they are as cheap as chips for the quality.  

My only vintage purchases of the day, some Italian composition, I think made by Salpa but I need to check, they represent modern infantry which isn't really my thing but they were very cheap and I just liked the poses.

Rounding off, some Conte Normans on the right, to the left more of the unnamed Russian made Teutonic knights along with Seljuk Turks from the same manufacturer.  The knights vary in size from about 60mm (which is just about okay) up to 70mm, very nice sculpts but just too big for me so I will be passing some of them on at the forthcoming Plastic Warrior show on 11th May.