Test Your Toy Soldier I.Q. (1 Viewer)

[Russell]

Can you identify the makers of these seven samourais?

From left to right ...

 

[thebritfarmer]

Well I'll have a stab at it

The middle 3 I don't ever recall seeing that style before.

1.Ducal
2.Imperial
3.
4.
5.
6.Tradition
7.William Britains

 

[Russell]

Scott, 4 out of 4

I'll wait a few days to see if anyone wants to play along. Then I'll post the seven

 

[aujj65]

Well I'll have a stab at it

The middle 3 I don't ever recall seeing that style before.

1.Ducal
2.Imperial
3.
4.
5.
6.Tradition
7.William Britains

I agree .......No.5 could be a Tommy Atkins?

Jeff

 

[beating retreat]

Is no5 Scottish Soldiers?

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Guys,

Some interesting looking figures here to be sure. You must have a wide variety in your collection. The knight in the middle is a Mignot I believe itsone of their marching 11th 12th century Crusaders.

Dave

 

[Russell]

Dave, you are right. Mignot it is. Below is a photo taken in the Mignot Book. The knight in question is the second from the left. I also took a couple of photos of the knight: from the back, and from the side.

Kudos to you!

Once there were seven strangers in town. Now there are two.

 

[Russell]

Sorry, #5 is not Scottish. I'm not sure if you were referring to the maker or who the soldier is. He is a la Compagnie franche de la Marine, and the maker is ... well I hope someone guesses.

Cheers

 

[4th Hussar]

Is #5 a Garabaldi ?

 

[Russell]

Excellent. Yes, it is.

I have three Garabaldi sets. Naive in the sculpting but attractive from the TOY soldier perspective.

Now there is only one unknown samurai in town. Here's a clue, I bought the third from the left as a casting which I painted.

Once again chapeau as my wife would say.

Cheers

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Russell, is Nr. 3 a Tradition casting?

 

[Russell]

I'm sorry to say no Brad. If no one figures it out, I'll give the answer in a few days. But I'm pretty confident that you know the maker.

I must say, I was impressed with the Indian (Tradition) being picked out because it isn't one you see in catalogues or on their site. I got it from someone at the Hackensack Show a few years back. I was also impressed by the Mignot being spotted. If it weren't mine, I'd never have guessed.

Cheers

 

[theBaron]

Well, my other thought was a Prins August casting. Beyond that, I'm going to have to cheat and look at catalogs when I get home

 

[Russell]

That kind of cheating's fine by me Bran. No harm done there. Anyway no cheating will be needed because you are right, a Prince August it is.

Kudos to you, and so the seven strangers are strangers no more.

There's a bit of a story with that Prince August Napoleonic. In the early years of internet selling, not so long ago, some fellow was selling castings at a very good price. I didn't know about Prince August at the time. I bought twenty or so and painted them. When I tried to buy more, he'd gone out of business. As it turns out he had bought Prince August molds and he was casting and selling them. I think Prince August finally got wind of it and warned him to stop. How could they sell molds if one could get the variety of figures by buying the castings inexpensively.

Thank you all for playing along. It was fun.

PS Brad I hope Santa has you on his list for a digital camera so that we can see some of your soldiers come January.

Cheers

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Russell, interesting story, because there is sort of a cottage or garage industry among homecasters, casting using commerically-made molds and then selling the castings.

In the early days of homecasting molds, from the turn of the last century up through WWII, some mold makers made that a selling point, that a hobbyist could make some money selling the castings.

Of course, we could use the input of a lawyer, to know more about current and specific points of law on this question. It's not exactly like guys who make molds of copyrighted figures and sell the copies (and there are quite a few of those-I know one on eBay who has solid copies of Britains, copies of Imrie-Risley, and others, constantly for sale), but I could see very well that copyright laws-and we're talking international, now, too-might prohibit selling the castings. I'd be curious to know.

The Prins August molds are pretty good, btw, if you ever decide to take up casting. I know some mold makers who poo-poo them, but you can cast a lot of decent figures and fill out a diorama with background figures. And their traditional toy soldier molds make figures that can be modified and converted easily.

Prost!
Brad

 

[kilted vampire]

Some mold manufacturers encourage the use and selling of the castings. I cast figures to sell sometimes. Sometimes I paint them and then sell them too!

 

[Russell]

Hi Vamp, Good to have you back.

Frankly I only know part of the story and I'm guessing the rest. What I didn't mention is that I still haven't painted all of the castings - part of my phantom or grey army.