Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Plasticos Garcia - Toy Soldiers

These guys are neither the right scale nor the right time period, but when I saw them I could not resist buying them, hence they have ended up on this blog. Plasticos Garcia was a Mexican manufacturer of 60-70mm plastic toy soldiers. O'Briens Collecting Foreign-Made Toy Soldiers only has a brief reference to them, so I don't know much about the history behind them, but from what I can gather, they produced the bulk of their figures in the 70's-80's. The figures seem to represent Mexican soldiers, as the standard bearers usually carried a Mexican flag. We know however, that Mexico did not contribute any infantry units during WWII, so maybe they represent the peace time army in between wars. In any case, the army figures are generic enough that you could make them pass for figures of other nationalities. Most of the poses are in parade style, and some of them are cavalry units. In addition to the army figures, they also produced sailors and cadets from the Mexican military academy. The figures came factory painted and as you can see, some of them hold their color relatively well to this day. A knowledgeable reader has pointed out that the marching soldiers seem to be copies of Elastolin figures -with some modifications, such as the helmets, and the cavalry figures seem to be clones of Lineol figures.

Plasticos Garcia Mexican Infantry - Part I
In addition to the parade guys, there seem to be a couple of combat poses. An interesting fact is that the two combat poses come with detachable heads. Their footwear also seems different. 

 Plasticos Garcia Mexican Infantry - Part II
Here are a few more poses. These other poses apparently came with a trench and bunker command post. Interesting how the guy on the phone has the table fused to his legs. Note also how the manufacturer solve the casting challenge with the machine gunner figure.

 Plasticos Garcia Mexican Infantry - Part III
A good set of poses to depict a nice medical team scene. Even though you don't see it well from this angle, the guy pouring water out of his canteen is actualy a medic, and has a red cross band on his left arm.

 Plasticos Garcia Mexican Infantry - Part IV
Another fighting pose to go along with the guys from the first picture.

Plasticos Garcia Mexican Cavalry
These cavalry men are wearing helmets that look a bit German. Seems like they could be painted and added to a column of horse drawn artillery. As you can see, the horses come in a couple different colors.

Plasticos Garcia Mexican Cadets
A more elegant looking troop. I believe that these guys also had drummers and buglers in their ranks. The flag is missing the eagle though, so I guess they could be mistaken for Italians.

 Plasticos Garcia German Infantry
These guys are not much different from those representing the Mexican Infantry, except that they were cast in a lighter green. I suppose they were made to give the Mexican army a fictitious opponent.


4 comments:

  1. A nice collection TSG, these Garcia foot figures are copies of old German composition figures by Elastolin, the mounted are copies of Lineol.

    Best wishes, Brian

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Brian. That was a very good tip. I just did a few google searches and I think you are right. It looks like for the standing figures they modified the helmets and maybe that's why some of them have detachable heads. And for the cavalry, they did not even bother.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hola!!!! Tengo gran parte de esta colección comprada en Jugueteria Ara, en la ciudad de México, (ya no existe dicha juguetería) la verdad no se por quien fue fabricada pero me gustaría saberlo. (Chinacos, Colegio Militar de México, Federales, Alemanes, Indios, etc.) Saludos mi Email es - hector.camargo@micoleccion.com.mx
    Si gustan puedo mandarles fotos
    Felicidades por su web

    ReplyDelete
  4. These figures are not branded GARCIA, these is a complete mistake and wrong misconception created after minor name give by a 1981 copier.(a former ARA company worker that sold under his last name the copies of ARA figures till 1993)
    The real brand is ARA
    https://soldaditossudamericanos.blogspot.com/2008/01/ara.html

    I will do a complete work in Stadsstuff forum correcting it with help of several Mexican collectors friends who had supply info .
    Brian. ARA company made many copies of Elastolin and Lineol as you correct observed ,yet it create new poses of their own ,such Mexican army palace guard and others in poses original made by then.
    Before that they made composition Mexican soldiers and Cossacks of original Mexican design as well.
    The idea of the Elastolin/LINEOL copy was the first production as they were German Armenian immigrant.
    I do have several figures in composition made by Original ARA as well
    Best regards
    Erwin Sell

    ReplyDelete