Men always play, play football and politics, "meaningfulness" and chess, war and "importance," but isn't our life a game?
But my humble story is not about the psychological sources of war and play. It's just about the soldiers, in which children played and, as it seems to me, should play. Someone changes the shape and color of their shelves, chevrons, shoulder straps, cut a frock coat, and someone places the shelves on the table. And as the heroine of one film said, a man must have a small harmless hobby.
Playing with soldiers or collecting them is in vogue today, small figures help to study history, uniforms, weapons, and reconstruct past battles.
Since the beginning of the 80s, the West began to fight against military toys, including soldiers. Perhaps this topic was relevant for the aggressive West, which cannot be said about our country. Nevertheless, there is a decline in interest in this topic among children, cinema, which has supported this topic for a long time, has left the military-historical theme. Computers have facilitated the transfer of the game from the real to the virtual world. We also fell under this wave of "civilization".
And if in the USA or, say, Germany there was (and still is) a huge number of enthusiastic collectors who supported this direction, then in the 90s there were only a few of them. It's like blaming - he's back, and the soldiers are back. In our country, this was due to an interest in our own history and childhood memory of Soviet soldiers.
I will talk about the Viking soldiers and the companies that made and are producing them.
A bit of theory. Today we have many types of miniatures. Let's leave the figures of fantasy and wargames behind brackets. Their scale is 28 and 40 mm.
Conditional "soldiers" are divided into VIM - a military-historical miniature and the soldiers themselves.
Military history miniature
VIM is the production of metal figurines, the scales of execution are different, but the main size is 54 mm, although 60 mm, 75 and 120 mm are also produced. The key parameter of VIM is the execution of figures as close as possible to historical realities, a scrupulous study of elements and details, the image of figures not in static poses, but in motion. VIM, of course, does not imply "playing" in it, these are figures for collections or gifts. No wonder the famous British company Britains has a line called "Museum Collection".
But the company from Yekaterinburg "EK Castings", which has existed since 1995, produces a very high-quality, inexpensive and massive VIM. On the other hand, VIM produced in St. Petersburg by some well-known craftsmen and companies costs up to $ 25,000 per figure. Moreover, these are world-class masters, or rather, they set this world level, about their figures we can say that in miniature they achieve such detail that even living warriors did not have.
VIM, made by firms or individual craftsmen, is associated with the creation of miniatures, dioramas and vignettes with figures of the indicated sizes, for example, busts. The artistic reflection of historical accuracy, as well as the actual painting technique, is the most important component of this work. For the creators of miniatures, a detailed reconstruction of the dirty snow on the greatcoats of German prisoners in February 1943 in Stalingrad or the color of the sand during the Battle of Zama in 202 BC is extremely important. NS. Many companies make blanks or whales for such work: as ready-made figurines or high-quality busts, equipment, weapons, walls and buildings, trucks, zip equipment, heads with different shades of emotions on their faces and much, much, much. These miniatures are rarely made of metal, more often of various types of modern resins, quickly hardening plasticines, and of course, plastic. Any scale is used, if you want to reconstruct the naval battle of Solomin, then it is hardly appropriate to use a scale other than 1:72.
Toy soldiers
But back to the soldiers. They mean figurines made of any or almost any material that can be played, built for parades, or fought.
Since the 50s of the twentieth century, the main material is plastic, or metal, not lead with tin, but ZAM (an alloy of zinc, aluminum and copper). In the USSR, a huge number of soldiers were made from this material: sailors and soldiers in battle, heroes, etc.
If we talk about collecting, then the cult of brands reigns here. Collected either by themes: Indian cowboys, World War II, antiquity or the Middle Ages, knights, pirates, the US Civil War, etc. Another option for collecting: soldiers from the USSR, or one brand, for example, DZI (Donetsk Toy Factory) or the German "Elastolin".
The main dimensions of the soldiers are 54 mm, 60 mm, less often, 75 mm, 40 mm are practically not used, although a number of firms produced soldiers of this size earlier, for example, the German company "Elastolin" and its branches.
Yes, and one more important addition: if earlier products made of lead and tin were considered more complex products from the point of view of production, and plastic soldiers were junk goods, in our time the quality of soldiers has dramatically improved, and somewhere it is not inferior to metal figures. and the price of plastic production has become equal to metal, since the production volumes do not compare with the previous ones.
Painting the figurine continues to be technologically difficult due to the fact that it is made by hand, but it's one thing to paint a small batch of expensive VIM, another thing is a mass-produced product.
Vikings, heroes from Scandinavia
The impetus for the emergence of a huge interest in the Vikings and, accordingly, the beginning of the mass production of soldiers was the appearance of these desperate sea robbers in the films of the 50-60s, in particular, in the cult film "Vikings" in 1958, where Kirk Douglas played the main roles and Tony Curtis.
First of all, it will focus on the largest toy company in the United States at that time. Louis Marx & Co, or "Marx", its founder Louis Marx was named in the 60s "the king of toys".
In 1954, the movie Prince Valiant, based on comics, was released, where one of the heroes were Vikings with huge horns on their helmets. The Marks company has acquired a license to release the characters in the film. "Castle Prince Valiant" was produced with knights and one viking. Further, the production of "Vikings" expanded. The Vikings came in three scales: 150 mm (6 inches), 60 mm, and 54 mm. Sold both individually and in play sets. The company began to produce on a smaller scale in order to reduce the cost of goods. The large Vikings were copies of their smaller counterparts: but the copies were not exactly repeated. Copies of 60 mm figures were made in color, copies of 54 mm figures were monochrome, green.
Early 60 mm figures were unpainted - green, in the 60s they began to be painted, coloring was made in Hong Kong, then Taiwan, and the Federal Republic of Germany.
Painted warriors were sold in separate kits, individually, and were also included in the prefabricated Warriors of the Word kits.
Figures 54 mm were light green and were included in a set with a fortress and knights, who were opponents of the Vikings.
As for the Vikings of 8 figures of 60 mm in size, they also had copies in 35 mm, this was also a play set with a fortress and enemy knights, both mounted and on foot. Moreover, the knights were not produced on a 60 mm scale in the USA, but only similar copies, on a 150 mm scale, but they were sold in the USSR, where two figures from this set became legendary among collectors.
The Marks Company produced soldiers in the USA, then in Mexico, as well as in Germany and England (Wells), and later in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The molds were handed over to different divisions of the company.
I started the story with the Vikings of "Marx" also for the reason that their life continued, as I wrote above, in our country, in the late 60s the company went bankrupt, and the USSR acquired the molds with payment not in money, but in products. The molds were transferred to Donetsk, where figures of 60 mm and 150 mm began to be produced since 1977. In 1991, due to the wear of the molds, it was decided to stop production, but the production was stopped only in 1995.
Vikings DZI, along with other sets made on American molds, made a splash among the boys of the USSR: voluminous, like from the GDR, but much more detailed.
After watching the film "Vikings", which could periodically be seen in the cinemas of the Union, it could not be otherwise. But, naturally, they instantly fell into the category of "deficit". It should be noted that all sets included a leaflet with a brief but very capacious historical background.
Once I read the opinion of a well-known collector of toy soldiers that the production "according to American patterns" was erroneous, and the produced soldiers were alien to us and we had to develop our own analogs. It is difficult to say something here, but as a child, "Donetsk" were my favorite soldiers.
In the late 80s, the twentieth century was ready. Moscow "Ogonyok" began to produce the same Vikings, but in the amount of 6, not 8 pieces. In the late 90s, due to the renewed interest in soldiers in Mexico, 54 mm Viking figures began to be produced, and later 60 mm. And the molds of the Donetsk plant were purchased by the Moscow company Ark Model, which produces them to this day.
The life of "Marx" continues, so this year the Moscow company "ALEX-Moscow" produced a limited edition of 75mm Vikings, an exact replica of 150mm American-made warriors.
In the 50s and 70s, the cinema formed the image of a Viking - a stern warrior dressed in leather or fur, with bare legs and calves wrapped in fur. He had almost no protective weapons, but all helmets were with wings or horns. This is how the reference Vikings of the "Marks" company look, the features or postures of which can be found in many figurines that have survived to our days.
The next company to be discussed is "Timpo Toys", one of the leading British firms for the production of soldiers, which went bankrupt in 1979. Its distinguishing feature was the production of soldiers assembled from different replacement parts. The swoppet (swap) technology was an invention of the Herald Company in 1958. In the beginning, parts were produced separately and painted by hand, a technique used today by DSG. In 1962-63, a new technology was introduced, the parts were cast from colored plastic and did not need to be painted. It is significant that before the bankruptcy in 1978, the company's engineers made a machine that automatically assembled a soldier from various colored parts.
I have always been convinced that they were hand-picked, as this level of automation is hard to imagine.
Today Timpo is quite expensive, individual copies of mounted Vikings - $ 300-500, despite the fact that they were produced in huge quantities and sold in many countries.
The company produced Vikings on a 54 mm scale. The Viking riders have horses covered with both blankets and sheep skins. It is difficult to say whether there are any historical roots of such blankets-skins, but the horses of the modern English Horse Guards are covered with sheep skins, but in the recently released TV series "The Last Kingdom", very spectacular given with tinted eyes from the time of Albert the Great ride horses, covered with skins.
Another English company, "Cherilea", which arose after the Second World War and died in the 80s, produced not only the Vikings on a scale of 60 mm, but also the Saxons - their opponents. Initially, the Vikings were painted, later sold without painting. The manufacturer paid tribute to the iconographic tradition: the Viking warriors were all made with horns and wings, unlike the Saxons, whose helmets are not disfigured in any way.
True, a new release of soldiers under this brand has now begun. The same can be said about the Spanish company. "Jecsan", in the 50-80 years. XX century the leader in the production of toy soldiers in Spain along with "Reamsa". The set of Jecsan Vikings included 12 figures, colored, made of rubber, while at that time helmets were removable. All warriors produced since 1959 were 60 mm in size. Subsequently, they began to be produced from single-color plastic, and then PVC. Of course, they were all with horns, the "consumer" would not have understood another kind of Vikings.
And here is an Italian firm "Cane" from Bologna since the beginning of the 70s it has been producing both its own soldiers and copies of well-known companies. She produced two sets of Vikings, 6 pieces each, size 70 mm: one set is completely original, made by the sculptor E. Sominetti, in the other he made three Vikings, and three were copied from the Gauls of the Elastolin company. And if the "Gauls" - vikings, made by the Germans - are tough fighters, then the Italians released their figurines in a peculiar, baroque style.
Modern Argentine company "DSG", which acquired a license for the production of toy soldiers from the famous British Britains, produces original Vikings, but … with horns on their helmets.
This is an absolutely original development, by the way, a few years ago on the basis of the Vikings, the Argentines released pirates of the 19th century. Scale - 54 mm, figurines, both horse and foot, among them there is one female warrior. There are some unpainted figures, but DSG only sells colored ones.
It is worth mentioning also the very successful release of the Viking set in 54 mm scale by the English company of assembled models and figurines of 1:72 scale, "Emhar" … I would say - they have reference Vikings, which they are in the minds of the majority. It is interesting that several figures in poses are a copy of the Vikings Marx on a scale of 54 mm, but, of course, in a better "body kit" for weapons and equipment. In the absence of real Viking helmets, all helmets are in the Wendel style.
Conte Collectibles, a small Canadian company that has produced and is producing several sets in the size of 54 mm: Vikings, Saxons and Normans under the general theme of "Conquest of England". They also produced the limited edition "Battle of Stamford Bridge", "Normans" and, in 2001, a Viking ship, although the rowers on it are made of metal.
Vikings and other warriors are made with a high degree of detail and authenticity, from rubberized plastic, their poses are original and not static. It seems to me that, unlike Marx, the sculptor of the company is trying to avoid heroic poses, all the figures slouch a little, although they can be used to build a "wall of shields" very effectively.
Conte produces VIM in metal and in color, some figures overlap with their own soldiers, but the price differs sharply from the latter. In limited sets, the riders were made of metal, all the rest were made of rubber.
Of the domestic manufacturers, it is worth mentioning, in addition to the manufacturers of Vikings made on Marx molds, about the company from Gelendzhik. "Technologist" - She produces sets of toy soldiers, including Vikings, as part of her role-playing games. Vikings, naturally, with horns.
Ten years ago, the St. Petersburg company "Soldiers of Publius" released the first flat Vikings from TsAM, in the style of flat Soviet heroes.
After that, three sets of Vikings were released in original poses on a scale of 60 mm. Today the company produces both sets and a large number of individual Viking warriors made of soft plastic. When making the sculptors, they focused on the reconstruction of weapons and equipment from publishing houses such as Osprey. Their appearance fully corresponds to the modern idea of the appearance of the Scandinavians, you can even see figures hung with "Thor's hammers".
Where the Vikings are, there are their opponents. Their rivals are poorly represented among the soldiers, but the successors of their work in England, the Normans, the manufacturers of the soldiers did not ignore, we will tell about this in the sequel.
