Plastic Figure Showcase Part One 2018 Lido Lone Star More we will look at some interesting figures to start the new year off. First we we take a look at Lido knight and merry men. also find out how the knights were sold in the UK. Next we started showing some the various figures from Lone Star. We will explain why they were called the Harvey series.
Plastic Figure Showcase Part One 2018 Lido Lone Star More Lido
Lido was one of the smaller U.S. toy soldier companies. They were never an important part of my armies as a child. The one set of figures I did like that they did were the knights. Lido did six different foot and two different mounted. The merry men I did not see until I was an adult. Lido did three different merry men.
In a recent Plastic Warrior magazine, they showed how the Lido knight figures were sold in the UK. The figures were sold by a company called Secol. Secol even used the same art work that was on the Lido box. They just changed Lido’s name with their’s. This is another example of foreign companies either using the original American molds or making copies. In the year ahead I will be looking for more examples to share with you. I am hoping Erwin can come up with photos of the Remsa mounted knights
Plastic Figure Showcase Part One 2018 Lido Lone Star More Lone Star
Lone Star was a UK toy company that started in making diecast toys in 1939. In 1955 Lone Star started to do plastic figures. The plastic figures are called the Harvey series. As reported in Plastic Warrior magazine and in the Crescent toy article on Wikipedia Harvey was Arthur Eagles brother of one of the founders of Crescent. He took the name Harvey to work in the diecast shop as foreman so there was no discord. Later after the death of his brother, Harvey had a falling out with his brother’s heirs. He left and set up his own company. Harvey sold through Lone Star.
Lone Star figures had wide range of figures. In the above photo we have the only plastic Robin Hood figure not wearing his hat. The center figure I have shown before is aScottish Highlander playing a trombone. The third figure is one of the three western children they did. Western children are hard to find.
Here is two of the western figures that were done. The clubbing pose was reused for the Davey Crockett. We will show more Lone Star in part two
Very strange poses for the Lido Merry Men! The Blue Merryman looks like he should be riding a horse the other????maybe admiring the craftsmanship of his new sword?🤔
The Lone Star figures look decent but I have a set of their recast Knights and they are kind of crude.
The blue figure was designed to go on a Lido western horse
I got a box of Lone Star Harvey Series cowboys when I was really small. I must have only been about five. I was a big fan of Harvey comic books like Richie Rich, Baby Huey and Casper and in my five year old mind, I thought Harvey series had something to do with Harvey comic company! Thanks for clearing it up!
I really liked the Lone Star figures. I still have my Davy Crockett, the sole survivor of my cowboys, but the back part of his rifle broke off years ago and now he looks like he is holding a knife (the muzzle of the gun.) I always wanted the Indians, but when my mother took me back to the toy shop a few weeks later, they were gone.
Where I grew up, Lido figures were not available. They must have been in stores at some point before my time, because other kids sometimes had a couple of them in their collections handed down from older brothers, I guess. I got a bag with a few Lidos at a church sale once, too. I thought of them as old and rare figures and always wanted more of them. I finally got my chance when eBay came around. They don’t go well with most other brands, but I think they have a lot of character.
The Lido merrymen were mostly horrible, but I believe the bowman was left handed.
The main issue with Lido,still interesting in history of plastic toy soldiers/figures in typical 1/32 scale or taller is that they were almost 2D dimension made .
It made then looks awkward to many kids i bet plus in design and not match with most other made .Yet as a collector i have increase a personal like for them because of that .
The other odd rare thing is that maker even after making then in hard to stand 2D type barrely add bases to figures making then twice as hard to play with as kid.
My thoughts.
Best
First time ever seen the western children in my life,interesting charter or not figure depiction x western …I like LONE STAR more than Charben and Cherliea in poses of realism and figures.
Admi; i will get the figures photograph as soon i can get to the cases in attic garage with almost 2 feet snow and temperatures 15 bellow 0 Fahrenheit today and yearsreedsay under 35 mph winds gust ,
I walk my happy in winter furry GS x her daily two miles walk and i come back with nose frozen breathing icicles even after wearing ski mask,goggles and gear.She is lucky i’m consistence with her walks .I literally has to seat facing my fireplace x 15 minutes to unfreeze myself . LOL
Best
We thought we got some bad weather here in England but we’ve all been really quite shocked seeing the news footage of NY in the snow and ice. Hope everybody over there is keeping safe through this. You can see all four of the Lone Star western children with Crockett and bear here: http://www.toysoldier.freeuk.com/wldwest2.htm
Brian
It depended where you live as to how bad the weather was. Where Laurie and I live we only had a few inches. New York and along the coast up into New England got slammed. Last year in January we got 33 inches. We are dealing with brutal cold right now. I have had a fun time with low tire pressure on the two cars.
Also thank you for the update it is four children not three. The source I found on Internet only had three
I’m 100 percent sure Davey Crockett never killed a bear by donking him over the head with a rifle butt.
Only 100%?
OK maybe 99%
Thanks x link Brian.Intersting figures and curius idea of maker.
I guess none of US maker did any alike.
Again Lone star is may favorite of smaller UK makers in my personal flavors along w Crescent.
Best
No rush we have other things to post.
We didn’t have many Lido figures when I was a kid either. I didn’t know they did Germans or Japanese until I was an adult and saw them on ebay. I may have seen some of their knights here and there but didn’t know who made them until the net.
About the only Lido figures I ever saw as a kid were their GIs in header bags that were sold in neighborhood confectionaries (early convenience stores without the gas pumps). There was one around the corner from our house on Nectar Avenue in East St. Louis called “Mom’s.” Mom sold old comic books with the top portion of the front cover torn off for a nickel (the going price was ten cents and then went up to twelve at the time). I learned the practice back then was for vendors to take unsold comics and cut the front covers like that and return them for refund when they didn’t sell. So Mom was selling “unsold” comics.
She also sold those Lido header bags for about ten cents a bag. For me, with my precious dimes it was always a hard choice between my favorite comics and some new troops for my Lido Army. True, they weren’t as nice as some of the Marx figures I was able to get for Christmas but the GI’s weren’t too bad and there’s something about their poses that I liked. Actually, the resemblance between some of them and the 60mm Marx GIs is suspicious to me.
I remember seeing ads for a Fort Something-or-other on the back of one of my favorite cereal boxes. I think it was a buck and a half with some box tops. It had what I later discovered were Lido ACW figures as cavalrymen – don’t remember whose Indians they used – probably Lido, if they made them. It was a pretty nice set to me for the price – even though it was way beyond my budget. One of those unrequited dreams of childhood.
Years later, after I grew up, I was able to snag some of their ACW guys off ebay – a couple of each pose in both blue and gray. no, I probably won’t ever use them in any of my scenarios – but they remain prized figures for the memories they bring me of the daydreams I had looking at the back of those boxes.
Talking about LIDO.
They did indians and cowboys ,but also did the swivel western figures indians and cowboys too.
Now i have a question ,my first LIDO were from my dad and he claim or told me were early 50s ,These were the grey and blue(ACW) but the ones he give me all were already crystallized plastic material that was not stiff yet they broke so easy by just falling in floor.To the point i never play with then and kept in boxes ,till now few remaining some glue back.
I did got the full set knights from my Dad too and never have an issues minus the hard plastic horses of course.
Question.Did anybody noticed the plastic issue in the ones as child or it was an issue once pass to me in late 70s after time because materil become fragile with time !???
I did got the 60 mm Gi’s from my Dad too.
I first saw the Japanese and Germans as adult but got the HK german copies as children not knowing were from LIDO copied.I too got the HK produced LIDO cowboys indians not copied.
Best
I have a full box of Lido figures that’s about 1’x1′ packed to the brim and it has been in the garage for about a decade, winter and summer. I don’t know the age of the figures, but they are all original Lido and not later ones made by Tootsietoy, so they must be at least 40+ years old. All the figures are still soft and supple with no breakage. Maybe the earlier 1950s ones that you had were made from a different plastic blend?
Erwin, I do remember the swivel cowboys and Indians on horses; I think my mom brought some home from work when I was around four or so. I loved them; but my toy soldier thing really didn’t ignite until the Giant Blue and Gray a few years later.
As far as plastic problems; I’ve mentioned one-armed Marx Germans elsewhere. The first time I learned the hard way was when my first set of Airfix HO/OO figures – their WW1 Doughboys began crumbling about ten years after I bought them (I bought them in Belgium in 1969 where I first discovered Airfix); my next major issue was with ESCI’s 1/72 Zulus (I’ve mentioned these, too) – they started breaking just a few years after purchase.
Most of my Marx figures, except for really thin parts like swords or flagpoles, are still as intact and supple as the day I got them.
Thinking about it, though, some of the Lido guys WERE more prone to breakage of legs or arms. I had a lot of amputees I used as combat casualties. I wonder if it was a combination of the plastic and engineering of the pose.
I never encountered the Lido French Foreign Legion and Arabs until I was an adult collector. I acquired several at a show. They seemed supple enough, until I gently squeezed the legs of an Arab rider to make him fit better on a camel. One of the Arab’s legs immediately snapped off. I could then see the whole figure had become very brittle. I tried a couple more — both FFL and Arab riders — and every time a leg would immediately snap off. There was hardly any give at all to the plastic. I’m sure they weren’t like that when they were first sold, so I assume the plastic hardens with age. However, with the Lido Civil War figures, I’ve never had that problem.
Thanks all you friends x responding quick.
It appear base in your experience it was a matter of possible particularly year production w plastic used at moment that within times (decades) would become fragile.
And yes mine also snap off in legs and arms.The mounted pose as happen to you Don did snap off twice when placing in standard horse with out any pressure at all.
Thank u …
Best
I got a couple of the Arabs and Foreign Legion on trip to New york City. The figures came with vacuum form base. Only Lido figure had damage from Lido was Confederate charging lost its bayonet.
We had LIDO everywhere, they were probably the easiest figures to find. They ranged from Cello packs that contained one horse and rider to large bags that had maybe 50 figures the Germans and Japanese were packaged with their normal GI’s in those larger bags. I don’t recall ever having a problem with them breaking, I had a few that came mismolded though. There was even a LIDO set, maybe it wasn’t sold as LIDO, but it had LIdo Figures a hard plastic firing Howitzer, a hard plastci Centurion Tank, deaad trees barabed wire posts, bunkers, rocks, bridge and a cardboard mat. I think I may have been the only poor slob in the neighborhood that got one of those instead of a Battleground.
He must be one strong dude to swing a rifle like that.
The pose had been ridiculous repeated in other cowboys by other brands,with actually figure holding a rifle by the tip as if were a rooted stick.
But i bet many kids did not realize it much and like the action pose
Marx figures have most poses fighting with muskets /rifles been grab as baseball bat pose or in odd not realist pose too .The 6″ Marx primitive series looks like a team baseball player to me too if look at all poses ,some are like playing with ball
Just my views of course..
best..
When researching Lido I was able to find one of the two brothers who had owned the company, Effrem “Effie”Arenstein. His late brother Seymour (Sy) had been in charge of sales and marketing while Effie ran the business end of producing the products. He traveled the world and got a number of molds made in Portugal by Tony Jungellen (spelling). Before shipping the molds back to the US he would try to find European firms like Sacol to run the molds helping defray their cost. He said the knights were the most popular figures they made and he could sell them as fast as he made them. He would buy other firms sprues to regrind to save money on plastic which probably caused some of the brittle issues seen in some figures as the more plastic gets reground the less stable it becomes. He was also very proud of his swivel cowboys and Indians with all of their clip on accessories. The Germans and Japanese were made in 1963 and Lido sold out in 1964 so not many got into stores which is why they are hard to find today. When they sold out he made a catalog of around 350 molds for sale. I got the copy sent to Islyn Thomas (Ideal, Thomas Toys) from Bill Hanlon. Interesting in that neither the German or Japanese mold is in the catalog. Sadly in all my talks with Effie I never asked about the two molds and he passed away at 92 early in 2017.
Thanks for the info, Kent. So many fascinating stories about this hobby -I can’t speak for others, but it really makes already fun toys even more interesting when you learn some of the stories and dedication that went in to making them.
Kent, thanks for the info on the Lido Germans and Japanese. I have wondered what year they came out. So, Lido made Japanese before MARX did? Where the Lido Germans released for sale to the public before the MARX Germans? I never had the Lido Germans or Japanese when I was a kid. The closest I ever came was when I was about 9 or 10 years old. (1968 or 1969) I was in our Woolco’s around Christmas and there was a bin of different 99 cent toys. While looking through the bin, I came accross a window box of Germans I had never seen. I now know that they were the Hong Kong copies of the Lido Germans. They were cool looking and I wanted them. I wasn’t able to get them at that time and when I went back a few days later, they were gone. I never saw them again.
Over the years I have been able to get multiples of the Lido Hong Kong Germans and some of the original Lido Germans and Japanese. Of course, I had lots of the Lido G.I.’s as a kid, and still have a number of them now. Even though figures by TSSD, CTS, Conte, ect. have better detail and poses, there is something about those Lido figures that as time goes by makes you value them all the more.
BOBBYGMOORE
I agree about the “something” with the Lido figures – the GIs in particular were inexpensive and relatively crude – but they had character and life to them. I wish we had a bargain store equivalent today – the cheap Chinese Timmee clones don’t cut it.
Something about Lido I would like to know and that is where is the wounded guy dated from and how could you obtain him? I had hundreds and hundreds of Lido’s as a kid and I never saw the Lido wounded guy until maybe the last 6 or 7 years. I’m think he was created after the orginal GI’s and must have been offered in some special set as he was never included in the hundred of bags I purchased over the years.
He is very hard to see around ,i manage get one thanks to Paul over a year ago ,but only see few at ebay and once on shows.My observation so far,maybe x others are easy .The pose is nice and well done in my opinion.
best
I never saw a Lido wounded man either. Nor for that matter did the Lido sets have any medics to take care of the wounded man. Could he have been one of those cereal premiums made by the same outfit that tooled the early 60mm Marx GIs and the Lido GIs?
He was not a cereal premium. I have had a hard time finding him and I have gone through thousands of Lido GI’s.
Again talking about Lido .I been looking x cheap lots of Lido later construction worker poses to use as conversion for soldiers making trenches else .
Does anybody know if ever reissued or cheap deal sources around!!??
Best
This is one of the things I love about this hobby – the stories and little mysteries. After cranking out who knows how many of its basic 10 man set of GIs, Lido added a wounded man in at least a few bags or sets of some sort. Since Jeff Imel of VictoryBuy has the mold for the GIs, I assume that the wounded man mold was a different tool. I wonder what else was in it? Why have a mold just of a wounded guy? I don’t know if we will ever get any answers as the Lido owners have passed away, and most of the old molds were apparently destroyed, but it would be fun if this wounded man issue could be resolved some day!
I have one wounded guy and he may be the most expensive American Lido figure to buy. He is a mystery to me. I really have no definitive proof he is indeed a Lido, but he is certainly done in the style of Lido GI’s.
I have one of the wounded guys. If i remember right, I got him at one of the Texas shows. He was in a box with a lot of other odd and end figures. Cost me just a dollar.
Wonder if he was special made to go in some of the T-Conn/Seperior Sets since they had strechers for wounded in the hard plastic accessories.
BOBBYGMOORE
Searched the web for an image of the figure you’re discussing but couldn’t find one. Can someone send Stad a pic of it?
It is in Kent site under Lido cereal 4 marx pose cloned sold but not a ceral figure .
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/Lido.html
also here…
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-wwll-lido-wounded-combat-s-1828096245
Sure, I sent a picture.
Thanks!
The Lido wounded guy is a pretty decent sculpt. I always liked the Lido poses.
Marx made their Germans and Japanese in 1963 and I assume Lido saw them at the toy fair and quickly made theirs (as did MPC). The Lido brothers were social friends with the son of Tobias Cohn who took over his dad’s business in the 1950s. Lido wholesaled T.Cohn Army men in green and gray for their WWII battleground sets and ACW for Civil War sets and cowboys, Indians and blue ACW for western sets. In return T.Cohn wholesaled their brown hard plastic terrain pieces to Lido. The terrain set included two stretchers. Effie told me he had the wounded man made for the stretchers they used in a few playsets, but I have seen header card bags of Lido armymen that include the figure. Not an easy figure to find I once bought a lot of Lido armymen that included 5 of the figure.
Kent
Thanks for the info on the Lido figures. Always interesting to learn about the figures from the time one grew up even if you didn’t have them then.
BOBBYGMOORE