Toy soldiers and real battles: April 2021

Friday, April 30, 2021

Happy Walpurgis Night ! 🔥🔥🔥

Walpurgis Night, an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night, also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve, is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia, and is celebrated on the night of 30 April and the day of 1 May. Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling "pest, rabies and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft." Christians prayed to God through the intercession of Saint Walpurga in order to protect themselves from witchcraft,as Saint Walpurga was successful in converting the local populace to Christianity. In parts of Christendom, people continue to light bonfires on Saint Walpurga's Eve in order to ward off evil spirits and witches. Others have historically made Christian pilgrimages to Saint Walburga's tomb in Eichstätt on the Feast of Saint Walburga, often obtaining vials of Saint Walburga's oil. Local variants of Walpurgis Night are observed throughout Northern and Central Europe in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Lithuania, Finland, and Estonia. In Denmark and Norway, the tradition with bonfires to ward off the witches is observed as Saint John's Eve.

Battle on the Grass 🏹🗡⚔🛡

This is an unknown battle of Teutonic and Livonian orders against Novgorod and Pskov Republics (c.1250)...(Plastic soldiers from Sunjade).

Katyusha rocket launcher shooting model

This very impressive video shows a shooting from a small model of the Katyusha multiple rocket launcher.

Plese use the link below to watch the video :

Sd. Kfz. 222, Panzertruppen and blooming gorse ...

Elastolin produced its own very successful range of Panzertruppen soldiers - soldiers and officiers in action and on the march.(Germany 30s).

A German boy with his collection of 88mm FLAK guns ...

Light damaged photo dated Christmas 1943. A German boy displays his collection of 88mm anti-aircraft FLAK guns and functioning searchlight. However it is a dark time for Nazi Germany as the battle at Stalingrad is raging, disaster on the horizon. (Lineol composition soldiers and Tippco LKWs and FLAK guns).

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Lineol ski troops

In 30s, Lineol produced several versions of ski troops composition soldiers with backpacks and karabines for German (Gebirgsjäger wearing a ski cap), Danish (steel helmet), Swiss (steel helmet), French (steel helmet) and UK (steel helmet) armies. There is also one version of Lineol Swiss/Danish army ski trooper wearing a winter camouflage. These figures are quite fragile - not many of them managed to survive till our days. Here I have 3 Danes photographed in my Whirlpool freezer...I needed some snowy landscape.

Teutonic order knights - the four horsemen of the apocalypse

The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christian colonization and Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms,including the Teutonic Order, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and to a lesser extent also against Orthodox Christian Slavs (East Slavs). The most notable campaigns were the Livonian and Prussian crusades. Crusades against Baltic indigenous peoples were authorized by Pope Alexander III in the bull Non parum animus noster, in 1171 or 1172.

WW2 German Wehrmacht soldiers produced by Neumann & Co (Liege, Belgium)

Neumann & Co toy soldier producing company was established in 1931 by Neumann brothers, the association of the two gunsmiths Ernest and Georges. The company settled in the heart of Liege, at nº 5 and 7 Rue Saint-Remy. The firm remained there until March 1951. The new legal form chosen corresponds to a desire for change. The oval base (sometimes with cut pieces) of the Neumann composition soldiers is stamped with the inscription "Fabrication Belge". These 6 German soldiers were produced in 30s. The FLAK machine gun figurine looks very unusual...

Reamsa Plasticos Barcelona : Wild West

Reamsa Wild West plastic toy soldiers from 50s-70s: Texas Cowboys, Different Indians tribes (Apaches,Sioux, Comanches), Canadian police, The American Civil War.

The catalog (38 pages) is located here:

Elastolin Signal corps- Nachrichten-Gruppe.

Elastolin German WW2 signal corps (Nachrichten-Gruppe) composition soldiers from 30s. The Morse code transmitter can send message signals using light blinkers.