Thanks to Beano Boy from Benno' s Figures Forum, I had the opportunity to discover the origin of some of the medieval toy soldiers I played with when I was a child. The toys are 1/30 minis (54 mm high, real giants compared to the 1/72 minis) from a series called "Knights and Castles", manufactured by Jean Hoeffler in the early 80s.
This is my collection:
The lot, as my brother and I painted them in the 80s - enamel colors, very strong !
Close-up on the best painted figure - not that bad, for a child's paint!
The knights on horse - same horses in the Cow-Boys and Indians series
The foot knights and heavy men-at-arms... yes, I loved to paint blood on the minis at this time
The lighter men-at-arms - the flag didn't survive our fierce battles ! It was a time when the bases were all green :)
The whole army.
What do you think of them ? Did you play with such soldiers ? I think there must be some others minis in this series, but I don't know them.
Great pictures !
RépondreSupprimerI remember many enjoyable "Garden Battles" with 54mm figures from back when I was a kid - usually throwing stones in turns at the figures lol.
I never had the figures in your post, but had many Timpo knights, cowboys and indians and Airfix and Britian's WW2 54mm figures too.
Thanks for your comment! I had only one Timpo knight, so I know this range very little, but Britains was a great classic: indians, and ACW figures for me. I knew their catalog by heart !
SupprimerJ'en reconnais quelques unes...Ouch, ça ne nous rajeunit pas tout ça! Mais c'est bien sympa...
RépondreSupprimerAh oui, ce n'est plus tout récent :) un de ces jours, je vais quand même essayer d'en peindre un pour voir si je fais mieux qu'à l'époque :)
SupprimerI had around 4000 53mm figs, all eras, Mostly WWII and made by Airfix but loads of Knights made by britians, Airfix, Höfler, Timpo and other makes. like John many a garden battle was fought with them and where are they now All gone..lost in the flowerbeds or given away :-(
RépondreSupprimerTypo..Sorry, 4000 54mm (1/32nd)..not 53mm..
Supprimer4000 !? I can't believe it... a real chest ! I probably owned around 150 figures, ans some of them rest in piece in my mother's garden too :)
RépondreSupprimerAll my pocket Money went on them..presents at evey birthday and X-mas was only toy soldiers. I also had some 20,000 plus 1/72nd, mainly napoleonic and made by airfix, 100´s of tanks and airplanes. I was slightly obsessed..
SupprimerMind you, They aren´t all painted and I haven´t counted them but I´ve got about 40,000 now...only a couple of tanks though :-)
I am afraid I've got that sort of obsession too... maybe a little less :) I estimate my own collection between 15 000 and 20 000, but no tanks, nor airplanes, mostly antics, then napoleonics and medieval.
SupprimerI only had a few 'army men' when i was little so i now see it as my duty to make sure my sons get far too many! (Ninjas, modern, pirates, knights, zombies etc)....only for them of corse!.
RépondreSupprimerYou will promise not to touch them ? Oh oh.... :)
SupprimerIm 'encouraging' them!😄
SupprimerI'm encouraging you to encourage them :-)
SupprimerI first became well interested in acquiring the Cowboys & Indian toy figures from the Jean Hoeffler Toy Company that rode out the ( WWII ) rough tough post war periods in W Germany, and made good reliable tough plastic toy figures.Years later the figures were made in China too,for the Jean Hoeffler Company.Those toy figures can be viewed on Benno`s Figure Forum, on `Other Scales', where my topic `BB`s Toy Figures', can be found.
RépondreSupprimerHaving well over 60.000 toy figures and other types of toys in my Collections, Mrs B, now realises and rightly so,that I am a lost cause and will never stop buying bygone toy figures from yester year dates. There is a certain kind of passion required for buying toys,and one has to reach back and find the fascination for such things we had in our childhood. Find that little Boy or Girl,he or she is still there,but restrained by so many by so called adulthood.BB that`s me Beano Boy.
A late post script! Please save your wonderful toy figure pictures on Benno`s Figure Forum. It will remain a much richer place if you can. Greetings Phil, from BB
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