Pottsdammer Zinnfiguren (PZ) (1 Viewer)

[JLloyd]

Information please!
I have a set of these wonderful Inca figures by PZ that I bought a years ago via ebay from the US. I have never seen any more of them and would like to know more about PZ and whether this range has more figures.They are about 48mm in the style of old Heyde figures, gloss painted, see the photo. So did I buy them from anyone out there, does anyone know anything about the range, I like them a lot and would love to aquire some more.
Jim

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Jim, and welcome to the forum!

I have to concede taking a swing and missing on this one. I know off the top of my head that Potsdamer Zinnsoldaten was run by Joe Shimek (Col. USA, ret.), and that he sought to produce figures in Heyde's style, starting around 1976. (He also cast for some other makers as well.) So I went to my primary source for catalogs or lists of the newer makers (post-1970), Richard O'Brien's "Collecting Toy Soldiers". And I was surprised to find that O'Brien has no article about PZ at all in any of the four editions of his book (though I didn't expect to find any reference in edition 4, which covers foreign-made toy soldiers). Indeed, the only reference at all in any of them, is a photo in the Newer Makers section of edition 3, "Collecting American-Made Toy Soldiers". No catalog info or lists of any kind. I also checked in Garratt and in Bruun, but no luck there, either. Garratt only has the company name and dates.

Also, I don't remember clearly, but I think Col. Shimek is still with us, but not in business anymore. But someone may know better.

So, though I'm familiar with the German army sets, I'd never seen any other subjects, till I saw your post. I have to say that I'm not surprised that Shimek produced other sets, since he had a great affinity for Heyde, and Heyde's catalog was as varied as Mignot's or Britain's (maybe moreso than Britain's). But unfortunately, I can't find any catalog or list in my references.

Well, I have to hope that the next guy to step up to the plate can pick me up on this one.

Thanks for sharing the pics of your figures! Not only are they attractive, but I learned something new about PZ, too.

Prost!
Brad

 

[JLloyd]

Thanks for the reply Brad, I too have looked for info on PZ, but not much there but now I know much more and hopefully there are others who can enlarge on this, it would be sad if Joe's great work is not widely recognised. For now I will have to keep looking and resort to using complementary figures to display with them, like these Sanquez conquistadors (or thats what I am using them for) almost the same size and with a great charm of their own, sadly just as difficult to get hold of. But then it would'nt be so much pleasure without the hunt. As someone once wrote in a book; collecting is the hunt and aquisition of something, once you have it, its hoarding.
good collecting,
Jim

 

[theBaron]

Oh, his work is recognized, it's just that none of my usual reference sources have anything that helps us here. One really spectacular set that Shimek made was an observation balloon with ground crew. The balloon was tinplate, and if I remember correctly, included a trailer with a winch and gas bottles.

I think now that I might have some PZ figures, a couple of Garde-Jaeger-Batallion musicians in summer uniform. They are in the appropriate style, but I bought them off a table at some show, and there was no box, so I can only speculate that they were made by Shimek. I'll see if I can dig them out of storage.

Prost!
Brad

 

[JLloyd]

I would like to see more of his work, the figures that I have are all marked PZ (the Z is crossed) in the corner of the underside of the base. I have other 48mm figures that I display with these; Haffner Spanish Landesknechts, but no other South American native nations. I will keep searching. I collect all types of toy soldiers and figures; from modern 54mm glossies (Trophy, ATS, Beau Geste French in Egypt) up to 70mm Polish WW2 and down to 20mm Hinton Hunt medievals, everthing, plastic and metal. I really like the old Heyde style though and they crop up in the most wonderful and obscure ways, like the Minikins Carthaginian War Elephant; I have a couple of these and they are spectacular on display.