Eichhörnchen's Armies

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by Rhodes

I have this one, Britains 'Deetail' series!

I only have this pair from the 'Deetail' range - produced by Britains in the 1980s and made from a PVC material with separate metal bases. These are Scots guards, recognisable by their tunic buttons arranged in threes and with no hackle on the bearskin. I've yet to give these 2 a paintjob

[Eichhörnchen]

The only one produced by Britains-Herald, he doesn't seem as well modelled as the foot figures; a mounted Highlander officer appeared at around the same time

His horse is the same as the one Herald used for their Household Cavalry and which I'll show here later

[Eichhörnchen]

Britains other very popular toy guardsmen were part of the "Eyes Right" range which also included the Royal Marines in their distinctive white helmets

There were many bandsmen in the series - their removable arms allowed these "swoppet" figures to feature a huge number of musical instruments (all cast in metal, chrome plated in both brass and silver finish) as well as weapons, standards and the Drum Major's mace, which was also a metal item. The same instruments etc were featured in the Royal Marines sets (see post #132)


<Guards Colour-Party

[Eichhörnchen]

This was a hugely popular british maker in the 60's and although the sculpting of many of their figures was simplistic we loved them. It has to be said that you're pretty limited with poses when you're modelling guardsmen - after all, what else do you see them doing except marching? To add variety, some makers of guardsman figures presented them firing their rifles - some kneeling and some even prone. This is just plain daft since they don't wear their ceremonial uniforms on the shooting range. So I'm never likely to include those in this thread unless it's to make that point

[Eichhörnchen]

As far as I'm aware this and the Drum Major (post #142) were the only guardsmen produced by this company, which they made for the London tourist market. Other figures included a 'Beefeater' and a Gentleman at Arms, both of which were centre-stage over the coronation weekend (below)

[Eichhörnchen]

About the most prolific maker of all kinds of toys in the 1960s, Crescent produced two different sets of guardsmen - the first in the normal 54mm scale (first photo) which included an enormous number of bandsmen, their instruments moulded on unlike the Britains ones, so each Crescent bandsman was a completely separate figure. They weren't the best sculpted toy soldiers but are hugely important in the history



This second series by Crescent are a little larger (60mm) and, as far as I know, never included any bandsmen. They are much better sculptings - the previous set look very thin and undernourished by comparison. Both sets do include (unfortunately) figures firing their weapons - I'd have preferred them to have been engaged upon ceremonial activities because there's no standard-bearer, for example

All of these were repainted by me

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

To add variety, some makers of guardsman figures presented them firing their rifles - some kneeling and some even prone. This is just plain daft since they don't wear their ceremonial uniforms on the shooting range.

They were good for defending your Lego Rorke's Drift if they were the only Brits you had. American Indians playing the roll of the Zulus.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by em2nought

They were good for defending your Lego Rorke's Drift if they were the only Brits you had. American Indians playing the roll of the Zulus.

...that's rôle ... rolls were in the ration boxes!

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

...that's rôle ... rolls were in the ration boxes!

oops, usually I'll spot my flub or two. I could have meant "rows" of Zulus too. LOL

[Aktungbby]

^ I'll counter your flub with my own; I should've said Biscuit boxes: which were used along with the mealybags to create the barricade/perimeters: as depicted in nearly all the diormas:

[Eichhörnchen]

Cherilea were well known for their large figures' highly animated and often flamboyant poses, so they were especially limited when it came to the rigidly organised world of The Guards. They made up for this in part by producing a set of bandsmen (see the Drum Major in post #143)

[Eichhörnchen]

Fairly crude early plastic figures using the moulds from lead/tin soldiers - bit before my time (repaints)

[Eichhörnchen]

Timpo developed figures that didn't require painting by simply moulding ALL of their parts in different-coloured plastics, a technique only used in a limited way until then by companies like Crescent and Britains

They were always very cheap to buy compared to Britains and we tended to rate them pretty low on the expendability scale during battles, as they were a bit naff looking anyway (with poses making half the army look as though it was disco-dancing)

They couldn't, however, have the guards regiments disco-dancing, so these weren't too bad - in fact that horse looks very nice by most standards

Saturday Night Fever, 1776

[Eichhörnchen]

One of the most famous designers of toy soldiers ever was Roy Selwyn-Smith, who began developing his miniature masterpieces while working for the Zang Plastics Company in the 1940's. Their range of figures, first distributed by Britains then ultimately bought out by the larger company, became known as Herald Miniatures (identifiable by the medieval trumpeter on the base). But his very earliest creations were marketed as "Zang" and had an odd geometric logo underneath - or sometimes nothing at all

Here's a Zang guardsman standing next to one of Selwyn-Smith's later Herald guardsmen - the improvement in his skill is evident. Note that the early figure shows a grenadier wearing white webbing straps over his shoulders, so is more representative of a Victorian/Edwardian guardsman - they don't wear these any more

[em2nought]

Toy soldiers have come quite the way, not sure how they get such intricate sculpts now https://micshaunscloset.com/collecti...s-of-san-diego