W is for Quiralu...no! Q is for Wend-Al...err...

The likelihood is that these can be regarded as Quiralu; possibly Wend-Al, but a couple of them are probably Wend-Al; might be Quiralu! I did consult Philip Dean's book before preparing the blurb for these pictures, but it wasn't much help, not a failing on the part of the author, just a lack of information generally on the company and its product lines. The vendor feels they are probably all French, but he can't be certain!

Quiralu were named after a Mr. Quirin who started making aluminium toys in 1933, hence 'Quir'(in) +'Alu'(minium) = Quiralu. When they switched to plastics they added an X, he being from Luxeuil in France . . . which also (by coincidence?) brought them into line with the other x's: Bonux, Cofalux and Starlux!

I think we've seen all three of these as plastics from Quiralux before, but these are the aluminium versions, two being Timpo'esque, the third having shades of the German make Domplast (shared sculptor?), although Wend-Al did list a paratrooper, so he may be from Blandford?

The baseless bazooka-operator may well also be Wend-Al as they removed bases toward the end of their existence to save money on what was becoming an uneconomical material, although the pose looks designed to stand-alone anyway, so toss a coin! The other two look a bit French to me?

The Tommie throwing a grenade looks like he ought to be Wend-Al, and they did catalogue a Machine-gunner, so there could be some Dorset in this shot, but all the figures have similar paint 'signatures' and the US troops were Quiralu/x poses in Aluminium and plastic so who knows.

Another angle on the two prone poses and a figure which I feel must be a naughty piracy from Wend-Al? I've added him to the Khaki Infantry page as well; Britains kneeling firer in aluminium.

Thanks to Adrian Little (Mercator Trading) for letting me photograph these at Sandown Park the other day, he might have a few copies of Philip's book left as well.

F is for French Figures III - Rubber and Polypropylene

These are the ones that aren't Starlux and don't fit on the other two pages! Mostly recent re-issues by a company unknown to me, some quite early...and Czechoslovakian!

So the older figures are both by BATA from Czechoslovakia and are made from a hard-wearing vulcanised rubber, hard wearing because the parent was a shoe manufacturer! They are therefore not French, but the blue ones may have been made for the French market?

The others are a dense plastic I used to automatically label nylon/rayon, but they're probably polypropylene? Looking a bit Qurialux, a bit Starlux they're probably neither!

These are all made from the same material, the two  middle images are all Quiralux poses, but they've lost the swoppet-heads of the originals (who were in a similar plastic...a clue perhaps?) the upper shots are of older poses originally in hard plastic by other makes, so a mould inheritance thing going on?

These were all (along with the upper 3 in red and yellow/green) 1980's/1990's reissues - I think?

Q is for Quiralu

Ease-back into posting with a quick one...my Internet is intermittent at the moment! But I have been busy off-line, getting stuff prepared for both the blogs, with 19 articles lined-up for here, and content for all the HO figure pages over on the Airfix blog. And another PW review is overdue!

Certainly re-painted, so more a curiosity of the box-ticking variety than anything else. And a big chunk of French Aluminium! Quiralu, Jeep and crew, re-painted.

T is - of course - for Toy Soldiers!

Quick box-ticker tonight, photographed on Adrian's Mercator Trading table at Sandown Park this weekend, possibly my favourite figures by this brand.

The 'Toy Town' range of toy soldiers from the British company Wend-Al, manufactured in aluminium, a hard wearing material that didn't reproduce detail well. The French company Quiralu, (who would - later - as a plastics company add an 'x' to read; Quiralux) used these moulds as well, but reversed the paint with blue jackets and red trousers in the French-colonial style.

U is for Unidentified Infantry

It's been a year or two since I did a post of all unknowns so thought is was about time for another batch, especially as I seem to have proportionately more unknowns in the fledgling large-scale collection than I do in the small-scale stuff.

I think these are of French manufacture, and the paint is probably 'home-paint' to be removed - once that suspicion has been confirmed. I also wonder if they may have been either premiums or Sobre/Lucky-bag type product as metallics are unusual for everyday toy soldiers?

They are not that rare and I should know who they are by, I further think they are 1970's soft plastic (they are soft plastic!) copies of earlier 1950's hard plastic figures, possibly from two sources, the larger running and firing poses seem familiar (and are larger), from a book possibly? Can anyone help?

[The next day - I Should have mentioned that some of the smaller ones are similar to Tim Mee poses, Paul Morehead (PW's 'Ed.') thinks the larger ones might have originally been Clairet hard plastic poses, I wondered JIM?]

[12th December 2015 - These are actually by Vilco, two sets have been on FeeBay for the last few months with reasonable prices, but no takers..tightwads, all of us! And - it is home-paint which I can now strip-off]

 

[20th April 2023 - The non-Tim Mee poses are from Quiralu aluminium figures (thanks to Judicaël Btx le Gaulois on Facebook)]

This guy is about 70mm or he would be if he stood up, maybe 80mm even, he's made of a dense Polypropylene or Nylon type polymer. The lower picture shows him next to a Deluxe Reading figure for a comparison of the base marks. The materials are different and the base marks aren't close but DR were quite a large 'general' toy company in the 1960/70's over in the states, and they would have been sourcing/buying-in from all over, so it's a possibility? Can a US reader help here or am I wide of the mark?!

[Months Later - It's Remco, probably Star Trek, and thanks to err...me! For finding that one...looking for Tim Mee on Wikipedia!...Link]

My preferred suspicion for these two 54mm figures is Italian production; cheap bagged rack/dollar-tree toys? The bases would go on to be much pirated by Hong Kong usually with PVC copies of Britians or Timpo Wild West figures. But the figures themselves are similar to the Texas Cowboys & Indians also from Italy but they have deeper bases...can a European reader help us with these?

[The Next day - Paul also thinks probably Texas, but not happy with the bases - unlikely to be original. They are like HK copies of the Lone*Star swoppets, but unmarked and of better quality? Should add they have only one foot-spigot/locating stud each.]