Dulcop (Italy) knight
 

https://i.imgur.com/ZrLPsMJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kKcqWE8.jpg

Beautifully sculpted toy knight from Dulcop. I love this figure to bits, yet every other one from this set of 6 looks mediocre by comparison (painted by me)

If you could get that figure molded in metal, it would look great on the hood of a car. :D

These Romans and Cowboy look swell against the backdrops. :up: I couldn't resist ordering the ACW Peter Dennis paper soldiers book off Amazon for $11.



I tried making lead soldiers with equipment from the Dunken Company back in the day. https://www.dunken.com/ My lead army never even reached the platoon size. lol

I did try some metal casting from scratch some years back, using RTV pouring rubber to make my own moulds. It was fun but a bit messy and expensive

And yes, he'd make a great hood mascot :yep:

Crescent Toys Romans
 

This is a well-known set to those of us who were boys in the 60's in the UK. I stripped & repainted these, also replaced the "pilum" (spear) with a more realistic one - otherwise this figure always looks as though he's throwing a bendy broom handle

https://i.imgur.com/KGyuywx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KqoRC4Z.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KN8H6uv.jpg

The last two are supposed to be gladiators so I've painted them differently

Crescent Toys
 

https://i.imgur.com/7fHS3q8.jpg

Crescent produced 2 or 3 mounted figures to go with their one and only set of medieval knights in the 1960s. Nowhere near as realistic as Britains' knights they were nevertheless to be found in just about every boy's toy box - (repainted by me)

Is that Sir Lancelot?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-pdSs1DIbk

^ I stick to plain toy soldier colours with no shading or highlighting - to me that's for model soldiers (which I do also make) - but these guys often don't differentiate between toy and model soldiers

Horsen' around with fair English lasses
 

American Civil War
 

In the mid 1960s Britains Ltd brought out a line of plastic toy soldiers which were made up of separately moulded parts (legs, heads, weapons etc) allowing for a degree of customisation. Amongst this range were the American Civil War figures and sets. Some still find these (and the related War of Independence and ceremonial military figures) rather bland - they don't always have the same level of dynamism and imagination as some single-cast sculptings

https://i.imgur.com/B7xAjEG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/trKOtpP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5daYCYX.jpg (My photos)

What they did have, however, was a superb artillery piece - mine's shown here - plus there was also a gun limber and team of 4 horses to pull it in one of the 'super' sets. I don't have mine any more and they cost a small fortune to buy now. These are all 54mm toy soldier scale btw

Britains Limited had already bought up the small "Herald Models" company and continued producing their beautiful single-shot figures, which also included sets for the ACW (American Civil War) although not the AWI (American War of Independence)

https://i.imgur.com/nmhcFbH.jpg

Not my photo - Herald's ACW figures; there was an identical group moulded in gray for the Confederate forces

Had that very artillery set at one time. Think I picked mine up at VMI. I don't remember having the kneeling officer though.

Yes he was always part of this set - there was a Confederate team too

https://i.imgur.com/zKHeCez.jpg

And the big limber set had three joined-together crewmen on top with a couple of riders steering the horses - I remember being a bit disappointed that the chain harness was made from rubber & not real chains - that would've looked amazing

https://i.imgur.com/dAM7KLu.jpg

I just found this pic of my set of Herald Confederates - most still awaiting a repaint

The Britains Swoppet confederates (pictured below) include "Butternut Brown" infantrymen - they just have the grey torso & arms replaced with a brown one

https://i.imgur.com/gDP9ASy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/95bkwHj.jpg 'Butternut Browns'

Looks like they just repainted the union figures in confederate colors. :hmmm:

I thought that also but couldn't say with certainty having lost my collection literally decades ago.