Hans Joachim von Zeiten by Elastolin

 Back in the 1930's Elastolin made a small range of figures relating to the 7 Years War, there were nine foot poses of Prussian Grenadiers and three mounted personalities; King Frederick I, von Seydlitz and von Zeiten.

This is von Zeiten his horse has some repainting and the figure himself also a bit of touching up here and there but it's all been quite sympathetically done, so I can live with that.  The same horse was used for all three personalities with the distinction that only Frederick's mount was painted white.  Von Seydlitz and Von Zeiten were also issued in a lesser paint scheme as a mounted Hauptmann (Captain) and Cavalryman respectively.

The mounted figures have no marking under the base, which is a plain block of wood, the horse was moulded with the wires from it's armature protruding through the bottom of the hooves which were then anchored in holes drilled through the wooden base.

The three mounted personality figures as shown in the 1936-37 catalogue, the last year they appeared.

In the 1930's Elastolin only made Prussian Grenadiers in mitre caps, post war they made new designs in tricorn hats to represent the armies of the American War of Independence for export to the U.S. including foot and mounted models of George Washington, in the 1960's they produced another range for the AWI in plastic.  But the mitre cap Grenadiers never reappeared.

All nine of the mitre cap grenadiers are shown in this illustration from the 1936-37 catalogue, the two marching poses carried cast metal muskets with bayonets which are a bit too heavy and makes them prone to falling over.  The Corporal and Officer in "Parade March" (Goose-stepping) each wield a spontoon, the Officer carries his hat in his hand in salute, the standard bearer holds a tinplate Regimental flag.  

The drummer is painted with black skin as an African which was the preference for such musicians in many Prussian Regiments of the time, the fifer was painted as a white European.  The Grenadiers standing firing and charging are moulded with muskets in composition over wire, in the usual manner, as the cast metal muskets carried by the marching poses would cause them to topple over.

Timpo Station Figures boxed

 I went along to the Sandown Park Toy Fair last weekend and this is what I found:

The Timpo Station Figures are fairly common but I've never seen this boxed set before, I thought the artwork was quite stunning but at £350 it was too rich for may blood (and thankfully not really my sort of thing anyway!) happily the vendor very kindly agreed to let me photograph it to share with you.

Inside the box the figures are separated by cardboard dividers and include station staff with various pieces of luggage, missing are the sailor on leave with kitbag and one other.  Sculpted by Roy Selwyn-Smith before he went to work for Zang and subsequently Britains, it includes portrait figures of him and his wife as Mr and Mrs Smith (top row third compartment in blue jacket leaning on cane and last compartment sitting on suitcase.

And so to the figures I did pick up for myself, all from junk boxes and mostly needing some attention I paid an average of £2 each.  Above Britains General Officer and Officer of the 11th Hussars.

An as yet unknown (but I'm working on it) French made 45mm solid Turco, a Britains gun, a 48mm Prussian infantryman marching made in Germany by Heyde and a Britains Sudanese who will be joining an existing unit.

Three medieval knights made in France by CGB Mignot the first two utilise the body of the archer with quiver moulded at the waist but have been given shields and sword/axe (missing) to make them into Men at Arms.  See previous post here.

The sitting U.S. Military Policeman was made post-war in West Germany by Arnold and goes in a tinplate model of a Willys Jeep, I have the other figures that go in it with him but always seem to miss out on the vehicle itself.  

At first glance I thought the mounted Lineol officer saluting was King Leopold III of the Belgians but when I cleaned the grime of ages off him I can't be sure that he is.  Both Elastolin and Lineol painted in the whites of the eyes on their 75mm personality figures, and that's the quick way to identify them, but not on these smaller 65mm ones and they sometimes used the same figure with a basic paint job as an unnamed General Officer with the eyes just drawn in by pen.  More investigation needed.

And finally three plastic Crusaders made in China and sold under the name Supreme, modern production but theyy usually come in large poly bags and I have only wanted these particular poses.  At 65mm they are a bit large to go with most other manufacturers ranges but they are great designs, made under licence from King & Country and will paint up great.

Lineol, Elastolin etc. 1930's composition toy soldier display.

 Another display has recently made it to the shelves, this time 1930's Composition figures in combat poses, mostly made in Germany but also from France Belgium and Czechoslovakia.

On the left the tinplate vehicles crossing the bridge (Kubelwagen and Schwimmwagen) were made in Czechoslovakia by Gonio in 1992, they are 1/24th scale to match most German composition figures.  They are extremely well detailed with opening doors, folding windshield and accessories such as tools and weapons.  These two Axis vehicles came in different paint schemes for the European theatre, Afrika Korps and Medical variants.  There were also vehicles for the Allies; Willy's Jeep with trailer, Dodge Truck and M3 Half Track. 

In the Centre the attack is in full swing, machineguns give covering fire while the infantry charge home against the Allied trenches.

On the left, just in the nick of time reinforcements arrive to bolster the Allied line.  The cavalry and marching infantry to the rear left were made in Belgium by DURSO while the anti-aircraft gun and heavy trench mortar were made by Solido.

The anti-aircraft MG and loader (bottom right foreground) are in a hollow plaster material were made in France by DC - Domage et Cie, probably the most consistent and prolific of French toy soldier manufacturers.  They produced hollow lead figures from the 1920's and Aluminium under the name ALUDO (ALUminium DOmage) from 1937, during the war years 1939 to 1945 they made the figures shown above in plaster composition as metals were unavailable, post war they resumed production in metal until the early 1950's when they began to phase out the hollow lead range replacing it with acetate plastic figures under the name ACEDO (ACEtate DOmage).  The ALUDO and ACEDO ranges continued to be sold together through the 1950's with the aluminium figures being steadily phased out and ACEDO moving into more modern thermoplastics until production ended in the late 1960's.

Allied planes swoop in to straffe the Pioneers using flamethrowers to assault the Allied trenches.  

Support troops, Engineers and Signals get to work behind the assault units while Luftwaffe troops guard the airfield.  The two Fokker Triplanes are modern tinplate tourist items purchased in Greece and probably made in S.E. Asia, they are rather crude models but fit well with vintage composition figures.

Anti-aircraft fire hits one of the British planes and it crashes in No Mans Land (Elastolin made a very dramatic model of a plane crashing but this one is a modern resin aquarium ornament).

The General Staff observe the action and await reports from the front line, the two sturdy looking officers cameoed in the centre of shot were made by Kienel, a minor German maker who produced a range of high quality distinctive figures.

The tinplate machinegun (left foreground) and anti-tank gun (centre) are good examples of the camouflage pattern and colours used by Elastolin in the mid 1930's.

A pair of British infantry by Lineol drag a tinplate cart with machine gun, the officer behind them, scanning the skies with his binoculars was made by DURSO.

Right foreground, the telephone operator (headless!) and prone Officer with binoculars sheltering behind a log are copies of Elastolin poses made in Czechoslovakia by Durolin.  The large Elastolin explosion beyond them originally contained a small bulb wired to a battery to simulate the effect of the blast. 

There are some other composition figure displays to come; Parade and Bandsmen, Mounted, Medical and Campsite, 1920's and earlier, Wild West, Postwar Warsaw Pact, 54mm and Personalities.  It might just take a while to get around to them all.

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 PGH 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!

Top left is a copy of an Elastolin Turk made by Cane of Italy. Next two are by JEM of France, the girl is a character figure called "Wany", the heroine from a 1964 RTF tv series called "Les Indiens" the show failed in France but was well received in Germany where it was compared to the Karl May 's Winnetou.

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, they 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.