Toys from the Past: Elastolin

Monday, November 18, 2013

#349 ELASTOLIN – MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS (Around 1960)

[this is the second part of an article that starts HERE]

The production of composite figures after World War II was oriented to armies and soldiers, although these were pretty different from those manufactured before WWII. Before, the armies were mostly German soldiers (from the IIIrd Reich) and after, the image of the nazi regime had to be somehow hidden. The new figures represented the neutral Swiss forces or the US Army.

A few years later, also came in production soldiers from Germany and Austria, as these countries were allowed to form military forces again.

Medieval spearmen

In 1955, Hausser decides to broad their product lines, producing now figures form ancient times, like Romans, Huns, Vikings, Normans, Turk from the 17th century and Landsknechte (german mercenary soldiers from the 16th century). Elastolin also produced some figures from the comic strip “Prince Valiant”. I think there were 4 different figures made, but I don’t know the names of the characters.

Prince Valiant

Also Medieval Knights, Cowboys and Indians, and more German soldiers from the present times. Hausser also had a license to manufacture the characters from Karl May’s novels, and his most famous characters Winnetou and Old Surehand.

Not to forget are the great scale accessories like horses, catapults, artillery, fences, Indian totems, plants and trees…

Maceman and 3 different Swordmen

The two most common sizes are 4 and 7 cms. The figures shown in this entry and the previous one are 4 centimeter high, and were presumably manufactured between 1955 and 1969, So I will date them around 1960.

Again, I'll put some pictures from a Lego diorama I prepared some time ago. Hope you like them:

FACTS and FIGURES:

Name: Various Medieval knights
Year: Around 1960
Company: Elastolín (a.k.a. Hausser) (Germany)
Size of the figures: 4 cm

BONUS:

I found this figures in some kind of "private" flea market, and they were sold inside of a "Nivea Creme" can, I include pictures of this can (which is in perfect shape), as well as pictures of other things I found on it, although they're not toys.

This is a bracelet, seems to be as old as the figures

And finally, this nice signal made of cardboard: "Hier droht Gefahr! Beseitige Sie!" (something like: "Danger menaces here! Go away from here", freely translated).

Friday, November 15, 2013

#348 ELASTOLIN – ROMAN SOLDIERS (Around 1960)

Elastolin is the trademark used for figures made of plastic and other materials by the company O & M Haußer.

This company was founded in Ludwigsburg, Germany in 1910, when the brothers Otto and Max Haußer took over an existing warehouse called Müller and Freyer and started with the production of board games and figures. Most figures were initially soldiers and military figures, made of a mixture of sawdust, contact glue, a protein named Casein and a clay mineral named Kaolinite. These figures were similar to those made on lead, that were very popular during the past centuries. Once the figures were ready, they were hand painted.

The name Elastolin would extend to all figures of its kind, even if they were made by other companies.

The name of the company was changed to O & M Haußer in 1912. Since 1910, they kept the name of the old warehouse they had taken over. After the First World War, in 1925, they released one of their first successful products: a card game named “Elfer Raus”, which still nowadays can be found in toy stores. Shortly afterwards, in 1930, started the production of figures, which saw a great increment in sales during the 30s: from half a million units sold in 1930 to more than 3 million in 1939.

Roman musicians: Trumpet & Horn

During those years the company changed their site/factory from Ludwigsburg to Neustadt bei Coburg, where a much bigger factory was bought from another company, where up to 1000 people worked daily. The production of toys was stopped during World War II.

In 1946 or 1947, the production of toys would start again. Their composite figures were leading the market, since the materials were more stable, resistant as well as easier and cheaper to manufacture. These were hand painted.

4 different Roman spearmen

In 1955, hard polystyrene plastic was introduced, although the composite described above was still being used, and both materials were used in parallel. From these years are the popular Vikings, Romans and Normans figures.

In 1969, the production changed to another type of figures, made of different parts of unpainted plastic (no longer composite), which assembled together gave the impression of being (at least partially) painted. This way, the costs of hand painting the figures were spared almost completely. Still some parts of these plastic pieces were painted to give the figures more realism, although this was very rare.

These figures followed the trend established by Timpo Toys. This kind of figures is called in German “Steckfiguren”.

Roman swordmen

Unfortunately, Hausser went bankruptcy in 1983, and the company was closed after so many years of producing many great figures in different materials and sizes. Some possible explanations for that, is that figures were already a bit old in comparison with new articulated figures like Playmobil, and children were not attracted anymore to them, another reason could be that war, soldiers, weapons and everything related to them were turning more and more unpopular in Germany, so the sales just kept on decreasing. Additionally, the prices of plastic were on a high at the beginning of the 80s.

The trademark was bought by Paul M. Preiser and it is still used for collector’s figures and accessories. “Elastolin/Preiser” is the current brand, and can be found in specialized retailers.

Roman centurion and swordman

I think this figure belongs to the medieval series, sorry!

These are some pictures I took in a Lego diorama, Maybe it is not the best you can find, but it is cool to take pictures with the macro function of the camera.