These stylish guardsman arrived at Christmas in the company of this simple cannon. The cannon is wooden but with attractively simple metal wheels.
They are handmade, possibly using a lathe in places but also curiously and crudely carved on the body.
They look almost well padded or as a comedian like Max Miller would say “like a roll top desk, all front.” Very odd.
As usual, these wooden figures have quite fragile arms and rifles. Not something to repair – Sign of their veteran play worn status.
Tucked in with the package from the Etsy vintage trader was a little threebie or freebie in the form of these vintage matching puzzles of jobs and uniforms in bright 1960s / 70s colours.
Showing the purple pull knob and wire arrangement.
The round little disk base can be seen on illustrations of toy soldiers featured here recently in this poem:
Hello I'm Mark Mr MIN, Man of TIN. Based in S.W. Britain, I'm a lifelong collector of "tiny men" and old toy soldiers, whether tin, lead or childhood vintage 1960s and 1970s plastic figures.
I randomly collect all scales and periods and "imagi-nations" as well as lead civilians, farm and zoo animals. I enjoy the paint possibilities of cheap poundstore plastic figures as much as the patina of vintage metal figures.
Befuddled by the maths of complex boardgames and wargames, I prefer the small scale skirmish simplicity of very early Donald Featherstone rules.
To relax, I usually play solo games, often using hex boards. Gaming takes second place to making or convert my own gaming figures from polymer clay (Fimo), home-cast metal figures of many scales or plastic paint conversions. I also collect and game with vintage Peter Laing 15mm metal figures, wishing like many others that I had bought more in the 1980s ...
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7 thoughts on “Wooden Soldiers and Toy Cannons”
“They look almost well padded or as a comedian like Max Miller would say “like a roll top desk, all front.””
As the drill sergeant used to shout, “Attention! Stomachs in and chests out.”
Not an easy stance for a wooden soldier?
Charming figures! Dare I say even FEMbruary possibilities given their unusual sculpting? My MJ Mode Wrens had round disc bases too. From their uniform (bearskins and braid) I’d declare them to be volunteer Horse Artillery.
I too can see the FEMbruary sculpt shape! Round disc bases are quite widespread on many older toy soldiers including the lovely Britain’s Herald plastic guards.
The horse artillery idea is a novel one – a horse holder and gun crew. I shall keep an eye out for some wooden? rocking? horses for them!
I have some much smaller wooden cavalry in a similar style to put online tomorrow.
CT – yes, Toothpicks work well enough as toy cannon ammunition (I use lots of them for scratch building and finely carved to a point for small detail painting) Matchsticks also. They are suitably gentle. Some of the lead figures I have repaired have obviously been hit and caved in or drilled through by proper Little Wars Style toy cannon metal ammunition (or possibly air gun pellets).
Man of Tin blog 
“They look almost well padded or as a comedian like Max Miller would say “like a roll top desk, all front.””
As the drill sergeant used to shout, “Attention! Stomachs in and chests out.”
Not an easy stance for a wooden soldier?
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Does the gun fire? Dare you try it out against the unsuspecting guardsmen? Cruel I know, but it’s what they signed up for when they joined up!
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It does fire with a pull back wire / spring mechanism. The softest alternative on paintwork to fire are cotton buds.
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Charming figures! Dare I say even FEMbruary possibilities given their unusual sculpting? My MJ Mode Wrens had round disc bases too. From their uniform (bearskins and braid) I’d declare them to be volunteer Horse Artillery.
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I too can see the FEMbruary sculpt shape! Round disc bases are quite widespread on many older toy soldiers including the lovely Britain’s Herald plastic guards.
The horse artillery idea is a novel one – a horse holder and gun crew. I shall keep an eye out for some wooden? rocking? horses for them!
I have some much smaller wooden cavalry in a similar style to put online tomorrow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Toothpicks
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CT – yes, Toothpicks work well enough as toy cannon ammunition (I use lots of them for scratch building and finely carved to a point for small detail painting) Matchsticks also. They are suitably gentle. Some of the lead figures I have repaired have obviously been hit and caved in or drilled through by proper Little Wars Style toy cannon metal ammunition (or possibly air gun pellets).
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