Pretty Ugly... (1 Viewer)

mikemiller1955

mikemiller1955

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okay...

at first glance...

you're probably thinking...

so Mike has finally tried to sculpt and paint some figures...
and these are probably how mine would like if I did try...^&grin...

but a neighbor that knows I collect metal soldiers brought these over to my house...
hoping they are the "holy grail" of early collectible metal soldiers...

I told him I would post a picture of them...

anybody know who they are and what they are worth...

and I think I already know what they are worth...^&grin...
 

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the story is...

they were sculpted and painted by a blind Buddhist monk in Tibet...

not only was he blind...but he wore a blindfold over his eyes too...

he had no arms...and painted them with his toes...

literally...with his toes as he had no paintbrush...

you know the sad thing is...

I probably couldn't even do some as good as these hideous things...

weird thing is...they are freaky heavy!!!

I probably got lead poisoning just photographing them...
 
They look like classic cast iron dime store figures. -- Al
 
Bet they could be worth loadsa money.....or not as the case may be ^&grin

Cheers

Martyn:)
 
Like Martyn said, they could be worth something or nothing. When I first started collecting TS, I bought some of these at an antique shop in my town, but I realized that these could be recasts of old dimestore soldiers, especially in that green paint job.
 
Definitely American dimestore toy soldiers, but my thought was Grey Iron. Their figures had softer detail than Barclay or Manoil, whose detail was relatively soft already. But the sentry in the greatcoat really made me think of Grey Iron's larger-sized figures.

I took a look in O'Brien's "Collecting Toy Soldiers" (2nd edition), and I think I've confirmed my ID. These appear to be from Grey Iron's "Iron Men" series, which were larger than their "Greyklip Armies" figures. Grey Iron always considered Barclay and Manoil as pirates, by the way; the owners of Grey Iron felt they had brought their soldiers to the market first.

In your first photo, the figure on the left is referred to in O'Brien's list as G105, and Grey Iron's designation was "D7 Doughboy Supporting Wounded Soldier." The figure in the center is G30, or with Grey Iron's designation, "6/2 US Doughboy Sentry". The thrid figure is G82, "17/2 Legion Bugler", and the fourth is G11 "3/1 US Infantry, Port Arms".

In your second photo, from left to right, two examples of G61, "13 US Machine Gunner", and G103A, "75 Radio Set, Operator". G103 was "75 Radio Set, Operator and two Aerials". It looks like the aerials fit into the box cast at the end of the base.

These look like they've been repainted over the years. Also, Grey Iron cast these in iron but also in aluminum, at various times over the years. Are they heavy like cast iron, or lighter?

Prost!
Brad
 
Last edited:
Go for Broke said:
...these could be recasts of old dimestore soldiers, especially in that green paint job.
Click to expand...

That's a possibility, too, because the detail looks a little softer than even Grey Iron had in its castings. If they are recasts, they are copies of the Grey Iron figures I listed.

Prost!
Brad
 
mikemiller1955 said:
okay...

at first glance...

you're probably thinking...

so Mike has finally tried to sculpt and paint some figures...
and these are probably how mine would like if I did try...^&grin...

but a neighbor that knows I collect metal soldiers brought these over to my house...
hoping they are the "holy grail" of early collectible metal soldiers...

I told him I would post a picture of them...

anybody know who they are and what they are worth...

and I think I already know what they are worth...^&grin...
Click to expand...


I've only ever seen any of these as pictures Mike - as they are a very US thing, and maybe don't cross the pond that often.

I quite like them - as they have a naive charm - all of their own, and are a bit of US Toy Soldier history in their own right.

As to value - maybe have a look at this web-site - which shows pics of Grey Iron figures - and an idea of prices for some of the pieces may be obtained from the "For Sale" prices given there?? jb.

http://www.soldiercollectibles.com/toysoldiers.htm
 
I want to thank everybody for their input on these...

and the jokes were pretty funny too...^&grin...

I'm just gonna tell me I don't have a clue what to sell them for...
 
I'd say maybe a couple of bucks apiece, since they do look like they might be recasts. The market for dimestore figures is relatively small, I believe, so I don't think he'll find a lot of takers.

You could offer to repaint them for him, too, as a gift, for the heck of it.

Prost!
Brad
 
theBaron said:
I'd say maybe a couple of bucks apiece, since they do look like they might be recasts. The market for dimestore figures is relatively small, I believe, so I don't think he'll find a lot of takers.

You could offer to repaint them for him, too, as a gift, for the heck of it.

Prost!
Brad
Click to expand...

Brad...thanks...I'll pass it on to him...I appreciate the time and effort you spent helping me...
 
Mike: Those are knock offs of Grey Iron figures. The real ones are painted better with army colors. They made army, marines and navy figures. The pics of those grey castings are sold at flea markets and not originals. J


Here is a original figure of a grey iron marine in the middle.
 

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