Brand record
Elastolin
Elastolin was the figure brand of O. & M. Hausser, a German toy maker whose best-known products were hand-painted composition figures. The range included soldiers and other military subjects, historical personalities, and animals. Figures were moulded from a composition of sawdust, kaolin, and casein glue, built around wire armatures, and painted by hand. Their three-dimensional form offered an alternative to flat tin soldiers. Hausser later added plastic figures to the Elastolin range.
- Founded
- 1906
- Countries
- Germany
- Locations
- Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany
- Founders
- Oskar Wiederholz
The story of Elastolin
O. & M. Hausser used the name Elastolin for its three-dimensional figures made from a composition of sawdust, kaolin, and casein glue. The material was pressed into moulds, and the figures were hand-painted. The range included soldiers and other military subjects, historical personalities, and animals. Elastolin was a Hausser brand; the name also came to be used generically for composition figures, though the material was not exclusive to Hausser.
Hausser’s military ranges changed with the periods in which they were produced. Figures from the Nazi era included party and military subjects, and some had movable arms. The company moved from Ludwigsburg to Neustadt bei Coburg in the mid-1930s. Production was interrupted during the Second World War and resumed afterward. Hausser reintroduced soldier figures in 1953 and later made plastic figures alongside its established composition range. The firm went bankrupt in 1983.
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