Mark Hegeman has sent us two photos the first is four different Sir Gawain figures from his collection. The one on the left is the large one is the Comansi version followed by the Elastolin,Hong Kong and Reamsa.
Here is the Hong Kong Set of the other figures besides the Sir Gawain. I have another Prince Valiant figure that might be related to this group which I have to track down.
The mystery deepens Paul, lol. Your figures, definitely looks like Elastolin to me. Notice also Valiant is slightly smaller than Gawain, even though that is a different version of the Valiant I have from Elastolin/Prieser, And your version is standing taller, they sale your version as well.
Also notice on Mark’s figure from Hong Kong
He has a sword as well, while Your other figure Does not have a sword (on the other page, thats missing an arm, not that I could tell anyway).
I do not know everything Herald did, but I think they had some figures that used plug arms ( Indian Chief with Lance), and I am pretty sure they produced in Hong Kong too. I am not sure of all their scales though ( mostly 54mm, not 60mm, at least all the ones I have seen, that also does not mean they did’t do 60mm though, I just don’t know of any, or can’t remember for sure, because I had those figures so long ago, and I didn’t measure them).
I know they did their greeks and romans in Hong Kong in the 60’s, because I bought a few at Woolworths for 10 cents each. I never saw Valiant figures from them though, if they did them. I think I saw the catapult operator, and rock loader w/catapult in a couple sets at Montgomery Wards in early 70’s, I wasn’t able to get them ( I wanted too, but didn’t have enough money), but they had unpainted Britains which were also by Herald right by them, I did get them.
They were silver colored Mexican Bandits, and Indians. The only other times I have seen those 2 catapult crew, were in my friends castle set ( and I believe they were 54mm, and hard plastic as well), and then later in Elastolin castle sets, and sale adds from Elastolin/Prieser.
Also your figure on the other page does not look like Mark’s Reamsa figure to me. However I can’t tell if his figure has a sword or not either, no matter how much I blow it up. His left arm does not look the same regardless though.
So I am thinking Herald maybe, I definitely could be wrong, But if they aren’t Elastolin, I believe Herald did some of their figures. Plus they made some of their figures in Hong Kong.
Paul’s Sir gawain figure is missing not only his sword but his left hand which should be holding the hilt as well. Notice the circular hole in the photo where the sword/hand should be plugged in.
Elastolin made 3 versions of Prince Valiant. One similar to the Hong Kong figure in my photo. One was nearly identical but had the sword pointed more to the base (the earliest and rarest version). One was a fighting Prince Valiant who was designed to be fighting Prince Arn Von Ord (Hong Kong figure on the far right). Prince Valiant and Prince Arn later became close friends and Prince Valiant named his sone Prince Arn.
Mark
I did miss that poor guy had no right arm as well. Interesting on the variations on Prince Valiant .
Apologies Mark, and thanks for the correction, I can’t tell there is a hole there, nor even tell he was missing his hand neither, nor even see Hong Kong, no matter how much I blow up the figure/s. I own the fighting Valiant, and Arn figures.
I have seen the standing one/s (not of Arn though, only Val) before as well, I have never seen the Hong Kong copies of them though. If I did see them, it would have only been in pictures, and if it didn’t state they were from Hong Kong, I would have never known they were produced there. Until now that is. Paul’s are really nicely painted, they look like they are in mint condition. Thanks for the correction again, and for sharing pics of your figures.
Those are the same figures that I have (the HK knockoffs). Mine is missing the arm as well.
As long as we were discussing Elastolins, I came across a bag of soft plastic Elastolin Romans and Vikings that I had in my collection. The plastic is in various colors and the hands accept seperate weapons. 60 mm just like the hard plastic Elastolins. These are HK copies as well. Beautiful figures in soft plastic. Too bad they were not more widely available.
Bill
Years ago companies would go out and see items to be different. A store chain in your area that is long Gone Korvettes had Reamsa package their figures in boxes for them.
The figures you have of Elastolin romans and Vikings show up and no one that I know of has seen how they were pacakaged. I usually find them without weapons.
I just heard about the soft plastic versions as well, I went around to various sites, to find out more about these figures. I checked out Britians, and Herald’s histories a bit as well. No wonder I was confused. Yes it really is sad they didn’t make more, or least more available here in America, maybe they did, but I was never aware of them, I would have loved to had those when I was growing up. The hard plastic figures were just way too easy to damage, not that I didn’t like them of course. Kent’s site is where I found out more about them, I also checked out Mr. Carrick’s site.
The soft plastic ones evidently are hard too find as well. Thanks for the info guys, those are beautiful figures too, pictured above.
Has anyone ever seen the knights in soft plastic, or even the Valiant figures. I will definitely be on the lookout for the vikings, knights, and Valiant ones. They do have some soft plastic turks/Jannisarries on ebay. Well they did unless someone bought them already.
ED C
The turks were done by Cane oiriginally reissues by Grisoni of Italy. We brought them in years from our very good friend Peter Bergner. An interesting story on thoses figures is when I sttarted to advertise the figures another dealer tried to say he had exclusive on them. I called his bluff and he back off.
Masrk Hegeman has sent us pictures of the Elastolin Hong Kong copies both loose and in packaging also Marx Warriors of the world two tier WWI French box with the very rare Marshall Foch figure. We will have them up later today.
Cane keeps coming up, You know that brings up more questions from me. Because of the castle set of knights. You know I always thought those knights were copied by Rubenstein, ( like the cowboys and indians ) until that castle article you did.
Did Cane also originally do the cowboys and indians Paul ?
I bought bags of 100 cowboys and indians for a dollar each in the early 70’s, the cowboys were nice ( so were some of the indian poses). Especially the fanning pistol pose, and rifle man pose. Also on later versions/copies I have seen, the rifle man’s barrel is slightly deformed, as if the mold had suffered excessive wear, or was even damaged, because on all the ones I have now, have a little crimp on the tip of the rifle. I think the ones I bought in the early 70’s did not have that mold defect.
I never saw bags of the knights though, I would have bought them if I had. I also did not know who did them, because I discarded the bags, and don’t remember if the bases were marked. I had well over a 1000 of them. They were tossed by my Mom, lol.
I need to find out more about Cane, and Grisoni. I also will wonder who that dealer is too Paul, Lol. Thanks for the info.
Ed C
Cane was a company from Italy that did various figures. Some were originals such as their Italian soldiers,musketeers and pirates. They also copied figures from Marx and Elastolin. Woolworth’s imported the 54mm cowboys, Indians and knights and sold them in bags. Plastic Warrior did two articles on the company.
Grisoni acquired the Cane molds. I ran into Grisoni when I did the Numberg Toy Fair 20 years ago. I don’t know why I did not buy from them at the time.
You must have had a good reason not to buy from them Paul. Do you know if they still are in business ? If not, do you know if anyone bought them, or who has their molds now ? Are they or anyone else out there, still making the figures ? I know this is a lot of questions Paul, but I am genuinely interested, and curious, and want to know, because I don’t know, I will try to research it as well, so if I ask too many questions, please forgive me, and feel free to ignore me.
It is a habit. Some of my teachers liked it, others just ignored me. I was taught no question is dumb, ( although that is not entirely true), and if you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to ask, otherwise you will never learn anything. You should do a book on figures and your story about the hobby as well Paul. At least in my opinion, I for one would definitely be interested in it.
Thanks for all the information Paul.