The Many Faces of Robin Hood looks at how Robin Hood has been portrayed in plastic figures. Robin Hood is a figure that has captured the hearts of people with his deeds and his legendary phrase rob the rich and give to the poor. Whether a real figure or not Robin has been a part of our culture for many years. Robin Hood has been in popular culture, in books, in comic books in movies and in television. I am sure we will have anew movie or television show in the future.
The Many Faces of Robin Hood in Plastic
The interest in Robin Hood in plastic I feel was sparked by the Robin Hood show starring Richard Greene. The show called Adventures of Robin Hood ran from 1955 to 1959. the show spawned a number of products including playsets by Marx. There were three versions of the Robin Hood playset. There were two different 60mm playsets one having character figures from Richard Greene show and another with generic faces. there was also a 54mm version with generic character figures. It must of been a popular playset as pointed out by Billy Hirn that were nine different Marx playsets.
Other companies join the band wagon in doing Robin Hood figures. In the United States Lido, Payton and Timmee did Merry men but no character figures. In England you had Britains do Robin Hood twice. first in their Herald line and then in their Deetail line. Crescent did Robin Hood figures in 54mm which were used as cereal premiums in 1960 before being sold in stores. the only other companies I can think that did Robin Hood in England was Lone Star and Ken Toys. Other countries such as Dulcop and Res Plastic did Robin Hood figures.
Here we have a comparison on various Robin Hood Figures from different companies done by Billy Hirn.
Poor Barzso, he always seems to get left out of these displays. His Character figures are very well done and some of his merry men are excellent. The Richard Greene character figures aren’t very animated are they? I know it’s an expensive hard to get set if you like Robin Hood.
Base in above figures pictures depicted I choose all Marx over others, then Italian and then Britain.
My reason are faces more detail in Marx,I know some big Marx does not have the action movement and appear more statues, wile DULCOP are gracious but deep detail in all with some off era clothing but unique.
In the other hand Britain colors are nice ,poses ok but deep detail miss a lot plus the figures are very under 1.32 scale in arms and head faces versus other 54 mm such Marx and else.
About other brands
Spaniards brands did characters full set Robin Hood Sotorres and Buer.
ITALY
Rochero/kinder did too.(No the RES)
RES -Italy did a full set sold painted first,later not painted as surprise kindder.The mold end in Argentina in late 80’s,they still pup there as were produced till 2003
I believe there is a German brand too involve, but I may be wrong if was cereal or toy figure company or from Austria.
ENGLAND
Cherilea did a (full 7 poses-least)- possible more set after 1956 base in TV series Richard Green, I have only two poses and see 5 more.HK sold a reduced 6 poses set in late 70’s in 54 mm aprox not bad done and painted too ,often seen mix with other lots on sale at ebay.Cherilea figures have the rare square mark bellow base that recognize then most
I consider Cherilea Robin hood far superior of all UK production in dynamism.
I love the KEN TOY set over LS because of rare men at arms poses done.
I got few poses
FRANCE
Jem did a full set 6 poses plus men at arms poses set with castle sold in 90′ reissue under LUDOREV,it was limited imported to the US by some hobby stores. I got one set.
same knights and others were sold under different playset with another castle in plastic. I got it too.
RF company did another set in hard stiff typical plastic.(I do not have any)
Poland
PZG- did a 12 poses set in hard plastic, nice done with one figure with whip ,I have only 6 poses -70 mm
I forgot the Cherilea set as it has been a while since I seen one. These figures are hard to find. I notice on doing a search that Crescent was sometimes misquote as Cherilea. PW did a robin Hood special I will have to check if it is still in print. I will be doing another article showing some of the Res Plastic unpainted Robin Hood and Lone Star Robin hood.
adimin I can send you all pictures in few..
Sorry I just did..
The Barzo figures are great. He planned them to fit with the Mx 60mm and it works really well. I wish we’d see more of that from toy soldier makers.
I agree.
I like the barszo.robin and men at arms generic set.they work x any period.
Medieval period x many centuries.
They match well w Marx too.
Not forgetting Replicants robin hood figures and their sheriffs men as you say Barzso are very good.
Dittos on the Barzso figures; my wife got the set for me for Christmas that year. I was so taken with the sculpting I had to go out and scoop up all the Marx 60mm figures I could find. I’d never been too enthused about 60mm before but I made an exception for them.
I agree on the Barzso Robin Hood figures. I was glad to see they went well with the Marx 60mm.
I was upset at first with the Barzso sets because I wanted them to fit in well with the Conte Normans. I still do not like the puffy sleeves on some of the R.H. figures which seem 16th/17th Century fashion. That said I really like them now because they fit in well with X-Force Medievals and can be easily converted into 100 Yrs. War era soldiers.
It’s too bad the Britains 2nd set was so poorly sculpted. The Richard Greene set have great detail but as Ed noted, lack action. I also don’t like the costume the R. Greene Robin Hood has – a 1950’s precursor to the 70’s leisure suit. I look at him and I hear the YMCA song playing. In the future I would like to see a Little John figure done without him holding a staff.
Tom
If you notice on the Friar Tuck figures that Marx did they are non-violent while the foreign versions have with a staff. It would be hard to do Little John without a staff due to the story of how Robin Hood met Little John.
Barzso’s Friar tuck is actually wielding a sword. As far as detail and sculpting I think Barzso blows all the others away, at least on the character figures. The merrymen were so so , some decent figures while others seemed to be lacking. The sheriff’s men with the exception of the guy with sword and shield were rather ordinary although I did like the guy getting shot with the arrow. The standing crossbow guy appears overly huge. The 12 foot pike seemed out of place when fighting Robin Hood’s guys, but may fit in better in other scenarios.
Tom,
Barzso’s Little John doesn’t have a staff per say, it’s more of a polearm I guess. Anyway, it’s a long wooden pole with a blade on the end. Never saw anything like that before , so I’m not sure what it is exactly. Reminds me of something they make for sawing off limbs of trees more than any weapon I know. The again, I’m not very big on that era anyway, so what do I know.
Took a closer look at the Richard Greene character figures, the sculpting is very good, blows the rest of the Marx character figures right out of the water. Too bad they didn’t inject a little action into them.