T is for Two - Eastie Westies!

Technically it's three now, but there is a narrative through them, and a connection (spurious it has to be admitted) with the other day's Jean posts . . . and I'm not starting T is for Three! A few minor things which arose as I was sorting Wild West recently;

So, we looked at a couple of Indians the other week and I had a few cowboys too, all in a soft rubber-like material (which is closer to silicon that PVC, in its properties?) and all from Lisanto in the former East Germany (or Richard Hopf, I'm not too sure, but neither are some of the German websites!).

The 'spurious detail' is the horses - I'm sure I read somewhere that they sometimes come with Jean Horses, these two have (but they could have been added/switched by the owner), and the horses seem better painted than my Jean ones - which isn't saying a lot my Jean ones are pretty tatty, as we saw last week; they are the same as the coach-horses I shelfied on JB's stall though?

But, some sites show them having their own Elastolin'eque horses, so I have my own doubts over the Jean ones? Anyway, the figures fit them perfectly, so they will stay for now! Do you know the truth?

We were then going to use the Eastern-European connection to move to France (next image) but I realised I had these odd copies of two of the Lisanto/Richard Hopf (?) figures, one coming-in quite recently I think, the other was in storage.

They are a marbled plastic, but only from scraps rather that an attempt at colourfulness or decoration I feel, and while the donors have a three part mould leaving flat bases, these have gate marks on a two-part mould's split-line suggesting huge runners, the sort you might find on an amateur tool, or hand-operated injection machine?

They also have a French Santon look about them (phew - still got a link to two/three!), but I can find nothing on them, anyone else got any? Who copied who?

Which neatly mentions France while holding the Eastern link; the right-hand figure here, in both shots, is - I believe - from the French maker Guilbert (but there seem to be various versions of him from French makers?) while the figure on the left is attributed to the Polish firm/organisation of PZG and which - you can see - is a copy, bar the changes to the knife hand, and more blood on the scalped hairpiece, which is ostentatiously blonde . . . it'll be that General George Armstrong' a'dyin' again and again and . . .

T is for Two - Wild West From the East

A combination of picasa clearance and follow-up here, with some larger stuff from the former East Germany in the first instance and the former Soviet Union in the second-half.

I believe these are both Lisanto, previously a composition maker, but swallowed-up by the Red's in 1945, they would eventually become a centralised, collective VEB, from whence era comes these two, if they are Lisanto, as there were several similar makers and once they'd been VEB'd who knows who had the tools that Friday!

If they are Lisanto they should be . . .

Numer 033 - Shading eyes

Numer 048 - Stabbing with rope

But even those numbers may be modern collector's numbering?

The weapons are crude, the tomahawk die-cut from a sheet of [I think] polystyrene, but it could be something tougher, a propylene or ethylene polymer? While the rifle is like an inter-war pop-gun or cork-firer, and a pretty standard polyethylene! They are interchangeable, as the figures are a softish PVC, but the one (axe) has stretched its hand, leaving the gun loose, while the other's (rifle) hand is tight for the tomahawk.

I also found this, clearly marked, it's made of polystyrene and you can see damage to the base from being in close proximity to the PVC figures in the past, the escaping thalates from the PVC softening the styrene's chains; I keep such things separate.

I may have a rider somewhere, probably in the two boxes we looked at over a year ago, which are still to be properly sorted - as I think I've said before; Wild West isn't a priority for me.

Above; That marking in full!

Below which are four figures from Chris Smith which were a follow-up to something I've forgotten! Flats of the demi-ronde variety, and Russian - I think - although Chris said they were sourced in Lithuania (or Latvia?).

I love these, I've seen them on the Russian forums and slightly envied them, I used to think they were rubber, but I think they look polyethylene too, and large'ish?

Chris describes them thus - "The black/charcoal one looks like it has been carved in a soft stone similar to some Inuit/Eskimo tourist knickknacks I’ve seen . The red ones look like they are carved from red plasticine." I know what he means I've put a Totem Pole up here exactly as he describes and seen those stylised whales (they're ocean-going mammals Mr President, not countries!) in the same blackish material.