R is for Return - Figurines Historiques

I found the small collection of Polk's/Historex tie-up, the Figurines Historiques re-issues, in the garage/ex-storage stash the other day and have been trying to make sense of the sets from what I had in storage and those lovely painted (possibly by William J. Carman) and unpainted lose ones I picked-up at the London show a year or three ago now.

As a result we're going to look at them again briefly (but with lots of pictures) although it all raises more questions than it answers! Obviously the first thing is to ignore the line-ups in the previous post which were chronological by base-date, whereas [I hope!] today's are in the correct sets.

In storage I had some more of the semi-flats in their unpainted state; a white polystyrene of the same easy-glue type Historex used for their own products, with two sets still bagged which helped get the sets sorted, this is both sides of RB3 which I think is one half of 'Soldiers Through the Ages', however I'm not sure, as the small quantity of ephemera I have only fully lists the solids - Doh!

A comparison between one of the RB3 figures and a rather tatty example of a Mokarex original! Because the Figurines Historiques were issued over here they were quite common a decade or so ago, and while everyone else was ticking-off lists of 54mm British or European solids or 60mm US imports, I was ferreting around the shows hoovering-up the smaller stuff, and those of these, we didn't see last time, were among them.

However - I have hardly any Mokarex, and only these other three in semi-flat (and the gold one below), all three of which are from a set of Mokarex Napoleonic uniforms not re-issued by Figurines Historiques. You do see them occasionally, but often for silly money given that both Mokarex and Storme were among the bigger coffee brands and produced millions of these.

I have one or two larger solids (maybe 8 or 10 in total, some WWI and some Napoleonic cavalry in the smaller scale) but they will turn-up in thematic 54mm posts in the future.

Another comparison; musketeers! The gold one ('Buckingham', bottom-left) is another Mokarex original and then there are a selection of painted and unpainted for the two poses (the other is Porthos), along with (to the right) two smaller figures from another set, but of contemporary subjects, being another musketeer (above) and (below) one of Richelieu's goons! They are the smaller 50mm to the Three Musketeer's 54mm.

Now, the mysteries - while the semi-flats (50 and 54mm) turn-up, they aren't listed on the various header-cards I have, while the solids are (as already mentioned) listed, but I can't remember seeing them, or if I have seen them, they were Mokarex silver/gunmetal, not Historex white? And I think I'm right in saying the shots used on the header-cards are old Mokarex publicity shots - not unexpected if the Brethiot family (owners of Mokarex) were helping Nathan Polk and Historex with the re-issue.

Consequently, apart from the two sets I still have on the runner, the other three set numbers are speculative 9along with all the set-titles), while the listing for the solids (toward the bottom) may be for stuff they never ran the tools for! Anyhoows . . . here's what I think it looks like at the moment, one day - hopefully - we'll return to them for a final time with a definitive listing!

I do have a bunch of Polk's catalogues in the archive, so when i find them I'll check if he ever advertised/listed the semi-flats, but I think mine are too early, they mostly date form the 1940/50's?

Listings (Preliminary)

Flat/Semi-Flat Range

RB1 (?) - Kings of France (12 figures, listed chronologically, Mokarex series 1a - Les Rois de France)

[King] Clovis 465-511

[King] Clotaire 1 558-563

[King/Emperor] Charlemagne [The Great] 768-814

S^• Louis 1226-1270 (St. Louis?)

[King] Louis XI 1461-1483

[King] Francois I^..1515-1547

[King] Charles IX 1560-1574

[King] Henri III 1574-1589

[King] Henri IV 1589-1610

[King] Louis XIV 1643-1715

[King] Louis XV1715-1774

[Corporal/Emperor] Napoleon I^.. 1804-1815

RB2 - French Historical Personalities (12 figures, listed reading around the runner, Mokarex series 1b - Grande Capitaines)

Du Guesclin1320-13-80

Jean D'Arc 1412-1431 (Joan of Arc, also Jeanne D'Arc)

Turenne 1611-1675

Conn^BLE  de Bourbon 1490-1527 (Connetable de Bourbon)

La Tour D'Auvergne 1743-1800

M^AL de Saxe 1696-1750

Hoche 1768-1797

Conde 1621-1686

Roland

Bayard 1473-1524

Vercingetorix 72·46·Av.JC.

Marceau 1769-1796

RB3 - Soldiers Through the Ages (12 figures, listed reading around the runner, Mokarex numbers in brackets, Mokarex series 2a - Les Costumes Militaires)

Piquier [of the period of] Louis XIII (Piquet/Night Watch?)

Carolingien 800 (Carolingian)

Merovingien 600 (Merovingian)

Fusillier [of the period of] Louis XIV 1667 (Fusilier)

Infanterie [of the period of] Louis XV 1745 (Infantryman, 33)

Infanterie [of the period of] Louis XVI (Infantryman)

Chevalier Croise (Knight Crusader 1100'ish?)

Capetien 1000 (Norman)

Fantassin 1792 (35)

Grenadier 1771 [of the period of] Louis XV 1745

Gaulois 300 (Gaul)

Franc 400 (Frank)

RB4 (?) - Soldiers Through the Ages (12 figures, second runner, listed chronologically, Mokarex numbers in brackets, also Mokarex series 2a - Les Costumes Militaires)

Archer 1520 1520 (date repeated, no bow, so; man-at-arms?)

Cent-Suisse de le Garde 1558 (Landsknecht - Papal Guard)

Lansquenet 1562 (Conquistador type)

Mousquetaire 1627 (Musketeer)

Garde C^al Richelieu 1628 (Cardinal Richelieu's Bodyguard)

Carabinier 1692 (Dragoon)

Garde Francaise 1724 (French Guard)

Colonel De Hussard 1804 (Colonel of Hussars)

Grenadier 1804

Tambour Major 1804 (Drum Major)

Chevau-Leger 1810 (Heavy Cavalry, lit. 'Heavy Horse')

Cuirassier 1810 (34)

RB5 (?) - The Three Musketeers (12 figures, 'unknown' or Figurines Historiques numbering, Mokarex numbers in brackets, Mokarex series 2b - Les Trois Mousquetaires)

6085 - D'Artagnan 1611-1675 (28)

6086 - Athos (25)

6087 - Porthos (26)

6088 - Aramis (27)

6089 - Maitre Bonacieux (31)

6090 - Madame [Constance] Bonacieux (32)

6091 - Planchet (29)

6092 - Anne d'Autriche 1601-1666 (22)

6093 - [Earl of] Buckingham 1592-1628 (24)

6094 - [King] Louis XIII (21)

6095 - [Cardinal] Richelieu 1585-1642 (23)

6096 - Milady (30)

PS - if anyone has spare unpainted versions of the three I still need I'm sure I can find something nice for a swapsies!

Unknown publicity card

or set's backing-card (solids?)

Fully-round Range (listed as given on above flyer)

1 - French Revolutionary Figures 1^st Series (12 figures)

Roget de L'isle 1760-1836

Camille Desmoulins 1760-1794

Lazare Carnot 1753-1823

Madame Tallien 1773-1835

Marat 1743-1793

Laviosier 1743-1794

Joseph Bara 1779-1793

Hoche 1768-1797

Charette 1763-1796

Princess de Lamballe 1749-1792 (M^me...)

La Fayette 1757-1834

Axel de Fersen 1755-1810

2 - French Revolutionary Figures 2^nd Series (12 figures)

Napoleon 1769-1821

Danton 1750-1794

Marceau 1769-1796

Kellermann 1735-1820

Marie Antoinette with the Dauphin 1755-1793 & 1785-1795

Andre Chenier 1762-1794

Charlotte Corday 1768-1793

Fouquier-Tinville 1746-1795

Mirabeau 1749-1791

M^ME Royale 1778-1851 ('Princess Royal')

'Sans Culotte' 1792 (revolutionary)

M^ME Roland 1754-1795 (not on flyer/header-card)

3 - French 14-18 War Soldiers 1^st Series (10 figures)

Alpine Chasseur

Morrocan Tirailleur

Infantry Grenadier

Foot Chasseur (#1)

Artilleryman

Trumpeter

Engineer

African Chasseur

Soldier of the Marne

Tankiste

4 - French 14-18 War Soldiers 2^nd Series (12 figures)

Soldier at Present Arms

Drummer

Cyclist

Zouave

Legionaire

St. Cyrien

Senagalese

Communications Guard

Foot Chasseur (#2)

Machine Gunner

Marine

Supplyman

5 - French 14-18 War Personalities 1st Series (12 figures)

Foche

Gouraud

Mangin

Petain

Pointcare

Joffre

Lyautey

Guynemer

Clemanceau

Gallieni

Fayolle

Franchet D'Espercy

6 - Personalities of the 2^nd French Empire 1^st Series (8 figures)

Empress Eugenie

Princesse de Morny

Duchesse De Castiglione

La Paiva

Princesse de Metternich

Carpeaux

Prince Imperial

George Sand

7 - Personalities of the 2^nd French Empire 2^nd Series (12 figures)

[Ferdinand] De Lesseps

Thiers

Musset

Canrobert

Hausmann

Lamartine

Corot

Dumas pere

Cantiniere

Victor Hugo

Gambetta

Balzac

8 - French Revolutionary Figures 3^rd Series (6 figures)

Robespierre 1758-1794

Louis XVI 1754-1793

Louis David 1748-1825

Saint-Just 1767-1794

Condorcet 1743-1794

Joseph Viala 1780-1793

9 - Louis XIV and Personalities (12 figures, may have been discontinued early or not issued)

10 - Louis XV and Personalities (12 figures, may have been discontinued early or not issued)

11 - Men at Arms of Louis XI (8 figures, from chess set)

12 - Bergundian Men at Arms (8 figures, from chess set)

Other side of above card

 

Chess Set (no number, 32 figures)

Kings:

Louis XI

Charles le Temeraire [Charles the 'Rash' or 'Bold']

Queens:

Charlotte de Savoie

Duchesse de Bourgogne

Knights (Dukes):

Duc de Bretagne

Duc de Bourbon

Duc de Malines

Duc d'Uytherke)

I had help . . . if you can call it that!

And she always looks so pleased with herself - You don't fit in the small-sample boxes!