TOY SOLDIER HQ INC

PLASTICRAFT, PREMIER & THOMAS TOY ITEMS ID GUIDES

These animals were first made by Renwal in the late 50s for their zoo playset. Renwal decided to get out of the toy business and concentrate on their model kits and sold off their toy molds in the 1959/60 period. Plasticraft bought a number of the molds like the Viking Ship, Panama Canal, drawbridge and zoo sets and sold the items in their own packaging. Pictures courtesy David Schafer.

The one or two years Renwal sold the zoo animals they were made in a peach flesh color similar to that used by Marx in the 1960s for their Daktari Playset jungle animals. This lead to some confusing later in the collecting market with the Renwal animals thought to have been made by Marx. Plasticraft ran the figures in the rainbow colors of; red, blue, yellow & green and sold them in header bags and blister cards.

Pirates are about 90mm / 3 3/4 inches in size.

These figures were made for Archer in the 1952/53 time frame. They had them made in metallic green hard plastic for their space sets. They were also sold separately in small boxes in army green hard plastic and it seems some in soft plastic as well. When Archer decided to quit selling toys and work on child guidance/educational products in the 1956-63 time period they sold the mold to Plastic Craft (Plasticraft)who made the soldiers in soft plastic. Older figures were made in silver, other metallic colors, tans, browns, red and yellow. Later figures were made in army greens.

Early 1970s red and yellow production figures. Came in bags No. 939 - 39 Cents "Cobra Division Combat Troops". The shades of red will vary per set but the yellow is consistent. Expect some flashing on the figures.

MPC GI ringhand copies made by Carzol of Canada in a Plasitcraft header card bag. No wonder we get confused.

- 45.00 Plasticraft #998 100 Combat Soldiers, 30/35mm circa 1960s.

Soft Plastic train with separate wheels.

Some marked Plasticraft other not, but they all have the same spoke wheels and came together. Hard plastic.

We think these are by Plasticraft but they may be from ex Renwal molds that Plasticraft bought.

Set #1850 SPORTS CARS; Four soft plastic cars that each maybe 3-4 inches long, MIB.

Harbor Fleet, boats soft plastic about three inches long.

Plasticraft made six 50mm space figures in hard plastic and sold them on cards. Three figures for 10 cents.

Premier was based in New York City as was Lido and evidently used the same mold maker as their figures bear a striking resemblence to Lido's figures. Some of the cowboys and Indians are exact copies of Lido's figures.

All but the horse and two cowboys are direct copies of Lido figures and were probably made by the same mold maker. Only when found with the two distinct cowboys in the same colors do we list the "Lido" poses here as Premier. The Darlie Boutique company like Premier (and most other major toy companies) had space in the Toy building at 200 Fifth ave in NYC and probably got the figures after Premier went out of business.

Small Premier header card bag, 15 COWBOYS INDIANS AND HORSRES, has the unique premier poses.

- Generic Premier header Card.

70/80mm, SP Children, soft plastic unless noted.

They are 40/45mm in size. The bagged set (thanks to Mike Handley for locating this set) contains the Army poses. We think the two Air Force poses were sold with airplanes. The Air Force figures are older and can be found in hard and soft plastics (some feel these were made by LIDO). These are probably copies of the Army figures were made and included in a Renwal rocket battery model kit.

We believe the above 70mm hard plastic GIs to have been made by Premier (thanks to Bob Jones for unearthing them). They look very similar in style and sculpture to the girls seen above. Light green figure photo courtesy Robert Damiano. Also made in Army green, metallic green & silver.

Note the difference in the wheels between payton and premier.

U.S. PLANES header card bag, about 20 airplanes that look like the ones sold by PAYTON. Both companies were located in Brooklyn and probably used the same mold maker.

Premier 3 inch bombers

Photos of carded figures courtesy of Bill Hanlon. See more Thomas items at his wonderful web site. http://usdimestore.com

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1 gold HP with white wheels,

1 red HP with white wheels.

Thomas?? Roman with shield, peg on right foot.

Pirate photo courtesy Bill Hanlon and are the original Kirkste masters made by the Ferriot Brothers. These were only sold in England for a short period. The first three seem to be based upon Ideal poses.

Catalog and carded set pictures courtesy Joe Grindley, loose figure picture courtesy Rick Koch. Figures about 45mm in scale.

From the estate of the founder of Thomas Toys comes this lot of probable test shots of the 45mm Indian family in waxy white and pale yellow. Each set of four figures will be a mix of these colors as they are hard to match.

Small Stagecoach, 40mm. NONE IN STOCK

65/75mm Stagecoach with two " Roman chariot" horses.

Later soft 4 INCH swivel plastic figures.

Photos of carded and boxed military sets courtesy of Bill Hanlon.

Army figures with the exception of the man with flamethrower are identical to Ajax figures. The molds were probably made by the same person.

Vinyl Motorcycle Driver as a Mexican riding on a hard plastic mule.

Hard plastic Motorcycle Diver as a Mexican riding on a mule, reddish with worn bronze coatings.

Mule, SP #5, a bit smaller than the hard plastic mule, butterscotch.

Thomas used a variety of figures in their doll houses and blister card sets. They are usually found in rubber like vinyl and can be very rubbery. The smaller one inch baby was the first soft plastic figure sold in the united states in 1947.

Snow sled, dog & kids.

Figures in viynl can be painted with blue or red shirts and the paint is usually worn due to age.

The dancing couple was engineered so that the figures cling together as if dancing. The bent arm on each figure was molded separately and glued in place.

Interesting note the walking dachsund comes in two varieties, with and without a collar.

Thomas children from around the world. There are six figures in the set and they were made of a very rubbery material and soft plastic. We think the majorette is factory painted.

Smaller copies? of Thomas kids. Soft plastic.

Auburn 70mm cow shown for scale.

60mm

Baby Carriage, 60mm.

Trailer, HP.

3 Inch Airplane, SP.

Bronze space figures picture courtesy Steve Thompson.

Like other US toy figure makers Thomas Toys added bases to their space figures so they would stand better.

Thomas made a variety of plastic sailboats. These are the smallest they made at under three inches in length.