Barclay Figures

Friday, May 31, 2013

Barclay Figures

(People and Animals)

1930's-1940's

    Whenever I've done searches on Liveauctioneers, inevitably I will see photos of soldiers, civilians, or animals. One particular company that stands out is Britains, another is Manoil, and the third  is Barclay, which os today's topic.

    I've written about Barclay's very interesting cars and trucks, and thought for today that I'd post about their small-sized figures. These figures are mostly 3"- 5" ( 76mm - 127mm)  in size , relatively small for toys, but "normal" for toy figures. They were made of die-cast lead, and were very popular from the 1920's-1960's. Later, as most other toys, they started to be replaced with plastic whxi was faster to produce and cheaper in cost.

   I always think British when I hear the name Barclay, but the company was in fact  located in the USA in North Bergen, New Jersey. The name Barclay came from a street in Hoboiken, New Jersey called Barclay Street. The founders of Barclay Manufacturing, which was formed in 1922, were Mr. Leon Donze and Mr. Michael Levi. At the peak of production, the ocmpany was the largest producer of toy soldiers, having produced 500,000 toys a week.

   When I started buying and selling on E-Bay to use photos for my blog,  Barclay cars and trucks caught my attention.The early models, circa 1930's were slush cast white metal. The designs were quite intriguing due to their art deco style. With the entry of the US into WWII, the company produced many military vehicles, artillery, tents, and so forth painted in the traditional brown colours.

   Interestingly, I discovered that the company is still in existence, and produces a wide array of miniature toys.

Please click this sentence to be redirected to the fine Morphy website

The red arrows are pointing to the Barclay figures

The above figures are "civilians" from all walks of life.

An array of  civilians, soldiers, native Americans, and cowboys

 The figure on the right is a Japanese soldier. 

I was surprised to see this figure.

It's interesting that the soldiers also had "accessory items.

In this case, they are the tents, presented in this photo,and the one below. 

On my post of Barclay motorcyles, I have a civilian rider on a motorcycle. That's quite a fascinating design. You can see a similar military version in the lower right hand corner.

 The lot above looks similar to the items produced today. 

I did identify the metal as "lead", but I probably am incorrect, since we all know lead would not be used today, because of its hazardous effects on people and animals!

I'll have to check on that, and correct my error at a future date.

An interesting variety of  die-cast toy lead soldiers

The soldier with the flags above his head is signalling by what is called  semaphore.

Semphore is a means of signalling from far distances for the transmission of messages using brightly coloured flags. NOt only did you have to send a message, but you had to read "backwards" from the sender to understand the incoming message.

When I was a Canadian Boy Scout in the late 1950's, I needed  to demonstrate my skills at semaphore or Morse Code to to receive my second class status.  I never was able to do either!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, have a great part of the day, 
wherever you may be.
Stacey