My Lineol additions for 2010...

Today i had this fine Lineol Nile-Crocodile in.
He is very brittle, and he had some chips of, and from the shipping too...
But i got him back on his feet again, so here he is...

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Very nice. He looks great in the photos. Congratulations.

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Today i had this fine Lineol Nile-Crocodile in.
He is very brittle, and he had some chips of, and from the shipping too...

too bad Willy I remember a few years ago I bought a batch of old compo on eBay.US. It was very cheap because the seller didn't imagine the gems he sold... He was so unaware that he didn't protect the animals and put them in the box. You can imagine what I found when I opened the box

Nevertheless, this croc is very fine and so vintage

Congratulations Willy, he's beautiful!

Thank you Amy, Christophe and Harriet.

Yes, you must have a bad surprise-box back then Christophe...
In this case the croc was wrapped in bubble=plastic, but his right foot came of anyway...
His left one was completely missing...
His tail had a metall-wire somewhere in between, although the last part of the tail did match the rest, but the wire didn't let it go on to the reast of the tail...
So i did cut the metall wire, and used a metall-saw to split the tail up again...
Then i used glue, which did wonders on the foot and the tail...
So damaged, but ok for 10 euro..., and one day..., i will find another good one...

The last lot i had finally in, was a lot of 4 Lineol models, from which 2 were in quit good condition, and 2 in a lesse condition, which the pics don't show, as i they didn't when i bought them.

First the fantastic elenantelope, which has only a minor haircrack in one of the legs which is ok with me.
The second one is a mouflon in a good condition too, with just some cracks in some of his legs.
The third one is another wisent for me, as my first one was missing a part of the left front leg(nice job for Ana! ), but he has some fine cracks on the head, and he is more worn off and darker, so i keep both i guess...
The fourth one is a hippo, and even with many cracks and repairs, he was expensive, as he seems to be quit rare.
Here are the pics:

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What a fantastic model and animal!

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Another great model, and the only wild European sheep.

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The best wisent in our hobby, sorry for the dark pic, i can't make better pics with my cam on the phone....
At least he has all four legs...

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Great model, but with many cracks and some heavy repairs, even when not visuable on the pic.
The lower jaw is glued back on, but you can't see it on the pic, which is an advantage of darker pics...

I love the eland and the Mouflon. Great finds!

The term finds is nice...
It is more about the price with these items...

Oh Willy!
I love your Eland!!! Do you know if it is a common or a giant?

Wow They are fabulous, congratulations Willy, you must be happy to have these in your collection I think my favourites are the European sheep and Eland.

Thank you Roger and Harriet!
I think it is a giant Roger, and if you have it in your hands, you will have this idea even more...
Yes, i am very happy with every new lineol model on which i can lay my hands on, because they are really fabulous, with great sculpts!
They are still the kings for me in modelling, and their models can stand any new model from these modern times.
The antelopes are some of the greatest items to have, and i am chasing an oryx and saber-antelope right now.
The first one has a reasonable price, the saber will cost about 15 new Schleichs!
The guy had a kudu too, but this one should cost me even the double price of the saber, and i think this can be somewhat cheaper.
But it is not only the rareness of the model with Lineols, it is the condition in which they are too, how better they still look after all of those years, how more expensive they will be of course...

The mouflon is by far my favourite!It looks ALMOST as good as Anna's sculptures!

Lineol did not intend to create children toys,am I right?Those are all models for dioramas.

I am not sure about that Mihnea, but i think they were made as toys in the first place.
The mouflon is a great model indeed, but i just adore the elen, he is awesome!

Honestly,they look fragile.At least not proper for ''playing''.
How did they resist all those years?

Yes, they can be quit brittle indeed.
Don't ask me how they survived, the main thing is that they did happily!

I have just seen this...Willy...it isn't 2020 already!

Wildheart wrote:

I have just seen this...Willy...it isn't 2020 already!

I don't know what you mean...

Great additions Willy. Congratulations on them. I love them all.

...Hi, Willy! I,ve knew Lineol from your and Kiki,s collections. And more I,ve understood that my lovely brand of my childhood - VEB Plaho (East Germany - GDR) maybe has made copies from Lineol models (maybe?)... In general I think that Lineol,s models is the most REALISTIC and they has natural right proportions...

That is correct in both cases Sergey.
The former factory of the VEB Plaho was in other hands before, and had different names and products in their production before, but mainly toys.
They managed to buy or get some of the original moulds from the Lineol factory from before, and so they could copy many of their models in a smaller scale, and in plastics of course...
I forgot the name of the sculptor that worked for Lineol in those early days, but he was a master in his work, as he made those models in a time that almost nobody wa able to see those animals in real life, maybe not even from pictures....
For Christophe and me, they are still the kings in the modelling field, and the painting, colouration and modelling does represent very often the real animal indeed!

Wildheart wrote:

The mouflon is by far my favourite!It looks ALMOST as good as Anna's sculptures!

Lineol did not intend to create children toys,am I right?Those are all models for dioramas.

The Lineol and the first Hausser Elastolin brands were toys Minhea. PVC doesn't exist at that time and the plastic animals appeared first in the US at the end of the WWII.
At that time, the only material used to produce toy soldiers or animals were lead in France and England and Composite materials in Germany and Austria. The composite material was made of "wood and other things" dust glued together and molded on a wired skeletal. Why Germany and Austria didn't use lead to produce toy soldiers and animals ? Because they lost the WWI and have to pay a so much money to France and England. they have to give the biggest part of the metal they made and so they can't use it to produce things like toys.
It was the same story after the WWII, Germany was so poor then that they still produce composition animals. After war, in France and England, lead soldiers were replaced by Aluminium, and in the early fifties by hardplastic in France and softer plastic in the sixties in England.
So German child used to play until the sisxties with very fragile animals but so beautiful and realistic.

Thank you for the clear explanation my friend!

Fantastic figures Willy, congrats on the new animals. I love all of them, but I think the mouflon is the best. I just love that species of sheep and someday will have one in my collection of custom models.

...The very interesting lecture, Christophe!