Trojan - Toy Soldiers

Trojan is a less known manufacturer that was based in the UK. I have not been able to find much information on them. It is not even featured in O'Brien's guide to foreign toy soldiers. And as far as production goes, they also don't seem to have generated that much output. Not only for WWII figures, but in general for toy soldiers across all time periods. I am only aware of two WWII sets from them: German and Japanese Infnatry. As you can see from the picture below, the figures were factory painted, although not with the most accurate color schemes. The scale is on the smaller side of 54mm. The sculpting is decent. My guess -not yet corroborated-, based on the sculpting, painting style is that they were in production around the 60s or so. 

Trojan German Infantry

Definitely an interesting set, but more from the collector's standpoint due to its rarity. In terms of the poses, I wonder what the guy on the right is doing. He seems to be pulling out his pistol, but at the same time that he marches forward parade style. The man with the panzerfaust is a nice figure, particularly for its time, giving some variety to the usual poses. The prone machine gunner is my least favorite. He is a bit too thin and the front part sticks up. The officer charging forward is fairly nice.

Trojan Japanese Infantry

You don't often see this set and when you see it, it is often quite pricey, so I felt lucky when I was able to score one recently. I should say that I had only seen them in pictures, so it was a bit of a shock when I got them and realized that they are actually quite undersized for 1/32. At best they are 1/35, but they really feel small compared to the rest of my collection. The poses are decent and I suspect that I am missing a couple more. Unfortunately, the man on the left has the rifle tip broken off. I am sure that helped bring down the price. I'll see if I can repair it. The factory paint is still in fairly good condition. All in all, I see them more as a rare collectible worth having for the sake of completeness, than as figures I would want to mix in with the rest of my troops. 

Trojan ANZAC Infantry - Part 1

These guys are hard to come by. A nice figure which adds variety to the ANZAC troops of which there are not that many options. I think I will have to touch up the paint, but once that's taken care of, he will be a fine looking trooper.

Trojan ANZAC Infantry - Part 2

Another lucky find. I seem to be getting them a drop at a time. I just wished it had been an action pose, instead of a wounded guy, but well, it is still good to gradually assemble the set, and this guy is in better condition than his mate.

Trojan ANZAC Infantry - Part 3

Here are three more guys that I was able to get a hold of. They came in a mixed bag of figures, so initially I did not realize that I had bought something special. I like these mostly because of their collectible value. The sculpting is OK, but you can tell that the manufacturing techniques of the time imposed certain constraints, like the man on the right holding his knife against his body. Not a very likely pose in reality. But still happy to have found them and enhanced the collection!

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Lido - Toy Soldiers

Lido was a US firm started by two brothers named Arenstein in 1947. According to O'Brien's book on Collecting Domestic Toy Soldiers, it was an independent firm until it was sold in 1964. Since then its molds changed hands many times. In the mid 70s one of the brothers bought back the surviving molds and resumed production under the name Joy Toy which survived until 1990. In the recent years they were owned by Processed Plastic and the Lido figures were sold under the Tootsie Toy brand. In 2005 they went out of business and it is not known to me who owns the molds at this time. In terms of WWII Toy soldiers they are probably best known for their 60mm GIs, however they also produced some 54mm sets, such as German and Japanese Infantry. The Japanese in particular are very rare and expensive.

Lido 54mm GIs - Part I

I recently found these GIs on eBay. They did not indicate the manufacturer, but I could tell that they were vintage so I got them (not to mention that the guy throwing the rock is a very unique pose!), assuming that I would be able to track down the manufacturer later. Well, I spent almost a whole afternoon trying to identify them and could not figure it out. It was thanks to one of our readers who left a comment that we now know that they are early Lido GIs.

Lido 54mm GIs - Part II

The rest of the 8 figure set. The guy with the knife is a bit interesting. It resembles the pose with the rock quite a bit, but it's not quite the same. The guy in the middle seems to be lacking in terms of the action dimension. The officer is a decent way to wrap up the set. 

Lido 60mm US Infantry - Part I

This is another old set. Originally made in the mid 1950s, although continued to be recast and cloned over the years. Even these guys are from several different batches, even though I bought them all together. Note how they do not have any bases, and yet they are quite stable.

Lido 60mm US Infantry - Part II

Some of the Lido figures were copies of Marx figures. I think the guy on the left is one of those. 

Lido/Marx 60mm US Infantry - Part III

Some more guys. I bought them as Lido, but even if they are Lido, they seem to be recasts/clones of the Marx GIs.

Lido 60mm US Infantry - Part IV

Here are a few more alleged Lido guys. They came with the rest of the set, but I have not been able to determine their origin.

Lido/Marx 60mm US Infantry - Part V

These guys are some of the same poses, as those already show above, but they have a smooth helmet, without netting, and are slightly taller.

Lido German Infantry - Part I

These guys are pretty rare. The poses are fairly decent and a bit less common. There are a couple other poses out there that I am trying to get my hands on. The three with color on them were painted by a previous owner, but they used to come in plain grey. The guy on the right is operating a flamethrower. The original figure used to have a flame at the tip, but this one is missing it.

Lido German Infantry - Part II

Here is a close up of the two guys in their original color. As you can see, they are well detailed, down to the facial expressions. The main thing that jumps out as being a bit off is the machine gun that the man on the left is holding. 

Lido German Infantry Hong Kong Clones - Part I

I recently found the whole set of Lido Germans. They are not originals, but at least I got all 8 poses. 

One of the 'new' poses is the second guy from the right. Not my favorite one though. He is about to throw a grenade, but he is in a very awkward position, and the grenade is not even German. 

Lido German Infantry Hong Kong Clones - Part II

The other two new poses are the ones on the left. Another grenade thrower -with a real German grenade and a man engaged in hand to hand combat. These two are much better and round up the set nicely.

Lido German Infantry Hong Kong Clones - Part III

Since they are clones, I wanted to show them next to the original figures to show the difference in size. Since the molds are generated from actual figures, some shrinkage is inevitable as you can appreciate from the picture.

Lido Japanese Infantry - Part I

Here are four of the six poses that I am aware of. These guys are really hard to find and if you do find them, they can be quite expensive. I got lucky with them, even though I did not find the full set. The sculpting and the detail are OK. Not the best, but decent enough. Given how rare they are, I am debating whether to paint them or not...

Lido Japanese Infantry - Part II

Here is one more pose. It is interesting that the shape of his helmet resembles that of a German soldier. Not sure what to make of that. He might be better suited to serve as a Chinese officer. The only one missing at this point is a man firing his rifle while advancing.

Lido Japanese Infantry - Part III

I think these are the last two poses. Unfortunately both of them are a bit broken. The man on the left is just missing the tip of the rifle. The officer on the right is missing a hand in which he was holding his binoculars. I'll probably end up painting them in which case I will try to repair them as the fix will be less noticeable. Even in this state, I was happy to run into them, as they are very hard to find and also got them at a great price compared to what they regularly sell for in better condition. 

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Hilco - Toy Soldiers

Hilco is the name of the plastic line of figures issued by Jonh Hill & Company, also known as Johillco. John Hill & Co was founded in 1898, and built hollowcast figures for a long time. They were a cheaper and lower quality alternative to the well established Britains figures of the time. During this period they produced a very wide range of figures. It was not until the mid-50s that they started to adjust to the changing landscape of the toy soldier manufacturing world by issuing their line of plastic figures, however this move seems to have come a little late and the company went out of business by the early 60's. I am not really sure how many WWII plastic sets they produced. So far I have only come across one of them.

Hilco British (or US?) Infantry - Part I

These are only three poses from the set. I've seen another 4 or 5 guys. I am not sure how many there are in all. The figures are a bit on the slim side, and the sculpting is OK, but not extraordinary. Even so, they seem to be a bit hard to get. And for some reason, that piece behind them with the tree stumps seems to be something special as I saw it go for 20+ dollars on eBay. Also, The shape of the helmets makes me doubt whether they are really British Infantry or US GIs.

Hilco British Infantry - Part II

Here are a few more Hilco guys that I recently found. As you can see they are mostly recasts of Britains Herald (grenade thrower, officer), Timpo (minesweeper, radio man), and Crescent (flamethrower) figures. The one sure thing that confirms that they are Hilco figures is that the base is stamped as such. About the country that they represent, I am now wondering if they actually come from two different sets: American and British.

Hilco British (or US?) Infantry - Part III

Another guys based on the Timpo figures. Note how the plastic that this guy is made of also shows those unusual color variations. 

Hilco British Infantry - Part IV

And here is one more guy. This one also seems to be a copy of the Herald British Infantry. The plastic and original paint scheme are different from the figures in the previous pictures, so there must have been several releases of these figures. 

Hilco British Infantry - Part V

And they keep coming in one at a time. From a large lot of mixed figures... Although similar to the Timpo guy, I know it is Hilco due to the stamp on the bottom of the base, and also due to the strange and unique plastic that many of them are cast in. The other sign that this is a Hilco guy is the fact that the base is split into two sections, just as it is for the kneeling radio man. A good heavy weapon to add to the team.

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100,000 hits

Today is a special day for WWII Plastic Toy Soldiers. Today it has reached the 100k hits mark. So this post is simply to thank all of you out there who have contributed towards reaching this milestone. It's been roughly 1.5 years since I began this blog. When I started it I did not really know whether it would find an audience, but 150+ articles later and with 100k hits under its belt, it seems to have found its niche in the hobby. My goal so far has been to create a reference guide of the figures and vehicles out there, organized either by manufacturer or by branch of the military. A place where you can see all the sets that were made by  firm X, or where you can see all the sets made representing the paratroopers of country Y. In the latter I have also included artillery and vehicles. I hope this objective has been fulfilled and that you have found it of some use. As this phase of the project nears completion, I am contemplating what the next set of posts will contain. Most likely, I will turn my attention towards shooting some more battle scenes, and towards other aspecst of the hobby such as modeling terrain and buildings. And perhaps I might document the progress I make as I go back to painting more figures. As they say, the future is wide open! If you have any thoughts or suggestions about the type of posts that you would like to see, feel free to drop a comment. Again, thanks for your continued readership and your help to get us to 100,000 hits!

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Waterloo 1815 - Toy Soldiers

Waterloo 1815 is an Italian firm, started in the late 90s. It began recasting Atlantic figure sets and shortly after they began sculpting their own line of figures. They do most of their sets in 1/72 scale and have only released a handful of them in 1/32, which is a shame because they do have a decent variety of WWII figures which they could scale up. Aside from their own product line, they are also dealers of many other brands. One interesting point that I am still trying to clarify is why the Waterloo 1815 name is often associated with HAT. Perhaps some of their figures are recasts of HAT figures,but I don't know for sure. In terms of the WWII figures that they have released in 1/32, not surprisingly they are all Italian Army sets which fought in North Africa, but that's actually a good thing as that has been a niche that has been neglected by all manufacturers. Their pricing is fairly reasonable if you buy directly from their web site. You can get the figures for a fraction of what you will pay for them in the US. In terms of quality, the level of detail is good and creative, but the poses sometimes feel a bit stiff. If they made the scultpting of their figures reflect more fluid movements, I think they could be a top tier manufacturer. OK, so let's take a look at the sets that they have offered us. 

Waterloo 1815 El Alamein Division

Waterloo 1815 came up with this set around the same time as CTS released their Italians, but I like these guys better as they are focused on the North Africa campaign. I was trying to figure out the actual division that these figures might represent, but there were multiple Italian Divisions -Pavia, Trieste, Trento, Ariete, Brescia, Littorio, Bologna-, which fought during the First and Second battles at El Alamein, and the fighting in between. One of these guys appears to wear a Bersaglieri helmet, but there were Bersaglieri units attached to several divisions, so it does not really help to narrow down which one they belong to. In any case, they are good troops to have next to the DAK to fight the British 8th Army.

Waterloo 1815 Folgore Division

Anothet good set for the West Desert campaign. The Folgore division was an Italian Parachute Infantry unit which fought in North Africa with distinction. During the second battle of El Alamein in the fall of '42, it held back the allied attacks of more than 5 divisions for about two weeks. I like how they reflect the relaxed dress code that existed in the North African desert. That's what I meant about the nice, creative level of detail. The only thing I don't quite like about these guys are their bases, which make them a bit wobbly.

Waterloo 1815 Folgore Division Light Artillery 1942 - Part I

These figures are manning a heavy machine gun. The man with the bullets does not quite get to feed them into the MG, but he's still useful to have close by. The spotter with the binoculars is doing a good job. I might just try to remove the plastic that joins the cap to the hands which looks a bit odd. The machine gun itself looks like it could take out more than just infantry. It could easily knock out soft-skin vehicles and maybe even some lightly armored ones, but probably not very effective against some British 8th army Grant and Matilda tanks.

Waterloo 1815 Folgore Division Light Artillery 1942 - Part II

These other guys are the crew for the small howitzer. I am not sure about the caliber of the gun. I thought it might be a 37mm which is what was often issued to the paratroopers as it was easier to drop along with them during an airborne operation. However a reader recently commented that it's likely a 47mm Bohler gun (see comments section below). Apparently the wheels were detachable and it could be mounted on a tripod. It might not be clear from the picture, but all these figures come without a base, but they still manage to stand well on their own. One thing I don't quite like about the gun is that you can't change the elevation without messing around with the peg that inserts into the wheel carriage. All in all a good addition to the Folgore infantry.

Waterloo 1815 WWI Italian Infantry - Part I

From the bushy set of feathers on their helmet, this is a set of what appear to be Bersaglieri troops. While they are also WWI figures, as we've pointed out already, the Italian uniform and equipment did not change much in the inter-war years, so I think these guys will blend in well with their WWII peers. In terms of the set itself, I like the poses and detail on most of the figures. The only one that is a bit odd is the man throwing the grenade. It's not very apparent on this picture, but his front leg is too close to his back leg; not quite the way one would throw an object.

Waterloo 1815 WWI Italian Infantry - Part II

A nice set of poses here. I like the man on the left, crouching, but not quite kneeling. There is not much to criticize. Perhaps the only other thing to point out is that they are made out of this very light but hard plastic, which makes it a bit annoying to take off the spruce. You need a sharp knife, and you need to apply a good bit of pressure too, so if you slip a bit you might be slicing off your finger. One good thing is that Waterloo chose to give them a regular base. An improvement over those funny bases in their WWII sets.  

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