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.

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.

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.

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.

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.