About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Monday, April 20, 2020

M is for Manurba's Miniature Military Men

Or; T is for Tallon's Terribly Tiny Toy Troops!

Depending upon the order all these 'stockpiled' articles get published, you may by now have realised that I shot some of the German plastic over the last few weeks, among which was these intermediate scale chaps, in a sort of NATO/generic 'army man' US-G.I. style.

40mm Figures; 40mm Toy Soldiers; Dom Big Manurba; Domplast; Domplastik; Freebies; German Infantry; German Soldiers; Giveaways; Heinerle Manurba; Koho Toy Soldiers; Made In Germany; Manurba; NATO; NATO Toy Soldiers; Premium Toy Figures; Wundertüten;
Eight poses including two baseless figures, one kneeling, one prone and not much fighting being done . . . but then there's only four M1 carbines and three [holstered] pistols between them. A sign of the genuine unpopularity of 'war toys' in the post-war Germany; although not quite earning - the rumoured - full ban, it was nevertheless an unpopular subject.

40mm Figures; 40mm Toy Soldiers; Dom Big Manurba; Domplast; Domplastik; Freebies; German Infantry; German Soldiers; Giveaways; Heinerle Manurba; Koho Toy Soldiers; Made In Germany; Manurba; NATO; NATO Toy Soldiers; Premium Toy Figures; Wundertüten;
Sharing base designs quite similar to what little I know of Koho's output, these have been attributed to Manurba (so BIG-branded play sets and Wundertüten too?), while over here, in the UK, they appeared in Tallon packaging, as a small-bagged, pocket-money, rack-toy line.

40mm Figures; 40mm Toy Soldiers; Dom Big Manurba; Domplast; Domplastik; Freebies; German Infantry; German Soldiers; Giveaways; Heinerle Manurba; Koho Toy Soldiers; Made In Germany; Manurba; NATO; NATO Toy Soldiers; Premium Toy Figures; Wundertüten;
Possibly an early painted version, but I suspect home-painting; those headphones are drawn-in too finely! Commonest in green, the second most common are the grey ones, with other-colour versions also out there - as seen above.

40mm Figures; 40mm Toy Soldiers; Dom Big Manurba; Domplast; Domplastik; Freebies; German Infantry; German Soldiers; Giveaways; Heinerle Manurba; Koho Toy Soldiers; Made In Germany; Manurba; NATO; NATO Toy Soldiers; Premium Toy Figures; Wundertüten;
About 20% or one-in-five of all found examples are marked 'Made in west Germany' and the lack of marking on same-poses suggests a multiple cavity mould-tool, at least three of each with no marked kneeling or prone figures. You can also see that while the grey is pretty constant (there are a few darker ones) the green can vary considerably from a yellow-olive to a dark olive-drab.

2 comments:

Chris Smith said...

Welcome back Hugh. Glad you are well.
Cheers Chris

Hugh Walter said...

You too Chris! I meant to eMail you the other day, but have forgotten why? So I haven't! But . . . if I pull my finger out later tonight, I will be posting the H is for's tomorrow.

H