Different types of molds / casting moulds
Around the 1970’s there were only a handful of mold makers, producing starter kits and series of molds. We will look into them more closely below:
Zinnbrigade by Schildkröt
Vintage toy information
Winter 1970. Only a few channels on TV. Fireplace lit. You are 14 years old and finaly your dad is home for a longer period of time since business is slow due to bad weather. Out of nowhere your dad asks if you feel like doing something together. You go like “sure, like what?”. Dad says it involves fire, dangers tempretures of about 300-400 degrees Celsius. So you are like “NICE”, because your interest is woken. Dad ups the ante and says it also involves manslaughter, canons and battle. Now you are really intrigued (?)! “TELL ME, TELL ME. So dad explanes you are going to building your own army from scratch…together! Exactly the way you want them to! You are going to make toy soldiers.
What is toy soldier making about?
Basically it is about 4 steps. Casting, Preparing, Painting and Display.
There are lots of names for small figures that are used as a toy. The are being called mostly after the material they were made off. So we have the woden, paper and tin soldiers. Which are the oldest materials used as well. But these figures became really well known when they became lead model soldiers or pewter soldiers. But all in all, when using the words Toy Soldiers, everybody knows what the are talking about. These toy soldiers are not always good models but they did representing soldiers, men and women from ancient times to the present day. So much was clear. The earliest ones were made of paper or carft from wood, later made of tin, and were real toys. The later pewter and lead allay soldiers is what this blog is in general refering to when talking about Toy Soldiers. Below the Toy Soldiers general history in short.
For your viewing pleasure an set of 15 cavalry soldiers from ancient Preussen, made by Theodor Krause from Germany around 1940. They are still in the original box and therefor in pretty good condition. These tin soldiers are also known as flats or bleifiguren or even Zinnsoldaten.