My love affair with the plastic figures produced by Elastolin from the late 1950's onwards, began with a trip to London with my parents in the early 1960's. We paid a visit to Hamley's where my eyes lit up at the sight of 'thousands' of Knights and Vikings storming a castle! Well my 7 year old memory says thousands, I suspect there may have been slightly less but either way it was one hell of a sight! My pocket money ran to the purchase of 3 infantry figures and a single mounted figure. As these were in the smaller Elastolin scale of 4cm, they didn't fit with any other toy soldiers in my collection. Nonetheless, I treasured these 4 figures until selling them to a collector in the early 2000's.
As you can see, they are somewhat larger than the two Britains Swoppet Knights and this difference is exacerbated with the mounted figures, making them visually incompatible with the usual 54mm size toy soldiers. This scale difference does not however seem to matter as much with the exquisite equipment made to accompany the figures.
Here you see a Britains archer firing through the 7cm scale Elastolin Mantlet. As far as I am concerned the difference is not enough to stop me using these with my 54mm figures. Having set the scene, let me show you the additions to my collection.
The first acquisition is a large catapult. This works almost exactly like the real thing, thanks to the ingenuity of the German toymakers. This example is missing the lever which locks the wound up arm in place, but is otherwise in excellent condition. As a large siege catapult it looks just the job.
Here we see Britains catapult crew upgrading from their relatively small catapult!
Catapult jealousy is a real thing!
Here we see a covered battering ram. This piece is complete and in perfect condition, the ram swinging forward at the press of a concealed button.
I may need a few more unarmoured figures to help me push this monster !
This scaling ladder and climbing figure were added to the pile, even though the ladder needs the top few rungs replacing. Whilst the climbing figure is 7cm scale it doesn't appear as large when 'in situ' and I decided to keep the two pieces together.
Amongst the pieces on offer was one of the exquisite field guns made to accompany the 16th and 17th century figure ranges. I decided this gun would pass muster as a larger field piece for my English Civil War collection and quickly added it to my pile!
There was little uniformity amongst artillery of this period and whilst on the large side, I do not think it looks too much out of place.
Finally, I also acquired this nice example of a 4cm scale castle by Elastolin which will work with my 4cm armies and my smaller 25mm Middle Earth and Fantasy figures.
The castles for which Elastolin seem to be most commonly known are the vacuum formed ones which I have never liked. They can look quite aesthetically pleasing to the eye but are not great for playing with. They are probably 20mm scale in the main, and figures don't stand well on them in my experience. This plastic modular castle is however extremely practical and although scaled perfectly for the 4cm range, is fantastic for 25mm and even at a push 54mm figures.
The complete castle comes in 8 pieces, the gatehouse, a round tower, a square tower, 4 wall pieces and a keep style building. It was commonly sold in a grey plastic, but this particular version formed part of a much more uncommon set, where it sits on top of a vacuum formed hill/rock promontory. Sadly the seller didn't have the base, but with my current storage issues its perhaps as well!
A size comparison shot with a Britains archer. Not for me personally, but I know quite a few gamers who happily use obviously under scale buildings quite happily for wargames.
So there you have my recent haul of Elastolin pieces, which I am delighted with. They were sold to me at a very generous price by an old friend who had acquired them very reasonably from an auction. I also acquired two other items from him which I will feature separately, as they are very different indeed, but will I believe, delight a few of my regular readers.
Tara a bit!
Great additions to your medieval armoury, love the modular castle, so much better and versatile than the vacuum formed ones. I'm curious now as to the other items!
ReplyDeleteI now have two of these castles Brian. The first one is a repainted one which I think by virtue of storage issues is going to have to be sold. The other items are both gems in my sad eyes and will feature in my next post .
DeleteLovely to see your new additions. The modular castle is much easier to use. The big Elastolin fellows are big aren’t they. Enjoyed seeing your medieval collection.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alan. Thankfully my Elastolin itch was largely scratched by the 4cm figures which I was able to acquire in large enough numbers from 2 sources to provides several small armies. These were what I had as a child so I am happy with them. However....every time I see the larger figures I drool a little. They are in my opinion the finest toy soldiers ever made alongside the Swoppet figures made by Britains. The 4cm chaps are infinitely more affordable for wargaming as well.☺️
DeleteThat modular castle looks very useful. I used to have one of the big vac-forms, which was cheap, but I was happy to more it on a few years later, it just took up too much space, and it was one of the smaller offerings!
ReplyDeleteH
Oh space.....the final frontier! It feels like it at times in my games room! I really do have too many large pieces if scenery! I am going to have to rationalise at some point. I am sure you know the feeling 😆
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