T.COHN (SUPERIOR) AND THOMAS
TOY SOLDIERS AND FIGURES FOR SALE
TOY SOLDIER HQ INC - WEB STES
TOY SOLDIER HQ INC - MAIN PAGE
TOY SOLDIER HQ INC - MAIN SALES PAGE
TOY SOLDIER HQ INC - USA MAKERS SALES PAGE
TOY SOLDIER HQ INC - HOW TO ORDER
The T.Cohn company was founded about 1900 by Tobias Cohn. The company made many tin litho toys such as sand pails. The first "playset" type item made by T.Cohn was a doll house in 1948. During the Korean War in the 1950s plastic was in short supply and the Lido Toy Company supplied T.Cohn with many plastic figures for their playset line. The term superior was used as a brand name for the T.Cohn company. One logo used as seen above was found inside the blacksmith bucket (seen below). The logo in the bucket is football shaped with "MADE IN USA over TC over SUPERIOR". The anvil stump (seen below) also has a logo but the only marking inside the football shape is the intertwined "TC". Eventually it seems the T. Cohn name was removed. SUPERIOR inside a pennant was a more common logo used on the doll house furniture and some of the tin buildings. Confused collectors have since called the company "Superior" but it stayed as T.Cohn with superior simply being a sales slogan implying you were buying a better product. The small mounted western figures were based upon earlier figures made by The Bergen Toy & Novelty Co. As these figures were also copied by Lido, Ajax and Archer among others it can be difficult to tell who made what. In 1961 T.Cohn had molds made to make plastic farmers, farm animals, farm implements and more and made a series of farm playsets. In 1963 Lido announced that they were for sale ( to Bala in 1964). T.Cohn then had military figures and vehicle molds made to use in a TV COMBAT licensed set and new cowboys and Indians for their Fort Cheyenne playset. In 1968 T.Cohn filed for bankruptcy and their tooling was bought by Brumberger. Brumberger made quite few dollhouses and service stations with the ex T.Cohn tooling. They also continued to make small farm, Fort Cheyenne and military playsets at least through 1979.
Western Items
The black smith came with a two piece anvil + a bucket. Finding all of the pieces is very difficult as the set was only made for 1 or 2 years. A ladder was also made in the same mold.
8.00 Blacksmith, HP,(NO anvil or tub); NONE, (3.00 MISSING HAMMER; 1 yellow, 1 gray)
lis 12.00 Two piece anvil and stump, HP; 1 gray.
5.00 Stump, HP; NONE.
8.00 Bucket, HP; NONE.
8.00 Ladder, HP (IN PICTURE BELOW); 1 brown, 1 gray missing one support.
30.00 Gate with both doors (NO BAR) 9 walls with 3 windows.
3.00 Tin wall with 3 windows from Pony Express set, fits w/ Marx. (6)
NONE IN STOCK
NONE - Metal rock pile. ()
NONE IN STOCK - Ladder, HP, made in mold with blacksmith set.
NONE IN STOCK - Cannon, non shooting, worst playset cannon ever made.
NONE IN STOCK - 7th Cavalry headquarters and stable, tin litho.
75.00 Fort Cheyenne "Giant size" western playset. Comes with a complete hard plastic & wood stockade with 12 walls with ledges, gate with plug in Cheyenne sign, two working doors and crossbar (minor damage), two guard towers with hard plastic bodies and roofs, cardboard floors and all 16 wooden dowels (better than Marx)and two ladders. There are 30 cavalry, cowboy and Indian figures + 4 horses. Missing is the tin building, 2 cannons and a wagon.
FIGURES MADE BY LIDO AND WHOLESALED TO T.COHN
The early Lido, Ajax & Archer mounted cowboys and Indians were based upon or copied from Bergen (Beton) mounted figures and Lincoln Log foot metal figures. The figures found in the early T. Cohn (Superior) western playsets with the exception of the blacksmith were supplied by Lido. The western horses in these early T.Cohn Fort Superior playsets are actually marked LIDO! The above pictures shows you some of the figures that can be found. At some point soft plastic versions were made with the kneeling poses having bases. Lido sold some of these figures with metallic coatings. The horse is a copy of a Bergen horse and Lido, Ajax, Archer and eventually T.Cohn all copied it. The horse was later copied in Hong Kong perhaps by Effrem Arensteins Toy Innovation Company located in Hong Kong.
FOR STOCK OF THESE EARLY HARD PLASTIC FIGURES SEE LIDO SALES PAGE.
Later Soft Plastic Mounted Western Figures
There are slight variations but I don't know which company made which, my color choice
1957 T.Cohn western set using later Lido figures.
Fort Cheyenne
After Lido was sold in 1968 T.Cohn began making their own figures for their playsets.
The first two cowboys and all of the Indians were copied from poses made by the Marx Toy Co. The running "cowboy" looks more like a G-Man. The cannon is poorly designed without a trail. The wagon is the same as Lido's and either one copied the other or both copied someone else (most likely). The horses are copies of a Bergen Toy & Novelty (BETON) horse. Lido, Ajax and T.Cohn all copied this horse pose. Brumberger continued to make this set after they got the T.Cohn playset molds about 1969 after T.Cohn went out of business. They made playsets at least through 1979 which is the latest catalog we have seen.
NONE - Tin litho fort corner blockhouse.
1.00 Cowboy standing shooting rifle; NONE.
1.00 Cowboy kneeling shooting rifle; NONE.
1.00 Running "G-Man" cowboy; 12 red, NONE.
1.00 Mounted cowboy with pistol; NONE.
1.00 Indian with tomahawk & scalp; NONE.
1.00 Indian standing shooting bow; NONE.
1.00 Indian with shield & spear; NONE.
1.00 Indian kneeling shooting bow; 1 red.
1.00 Mounted Indian with feather lance; NONE.
Forts were mostly hard plastic, but the poles for the guard towers were made of wood and the guard tower floors of heavy cardstock.
8.00 Gate as shown (NO DOORS). (N0NE)
8.00 Fort Cheyenne sign. (NONE IN STOCK)
1.00 Left door for gate,. (NONE)
1.00 Right door for gate. (NONE)
5.00 Door bar. (NONE)
2.00 Wall with ledge. (NONE)
4.00 Ladder, may be missing one hook. (NONE)
4.00 Guard tower roof. (1)
4.00 Guard tower walls "BASE". (NONE)
3.00 Larger wooden dowel goes from ground to bottom of guard tower wall piece. (3)
3.00 Smaller wooden dowel goes from guard tower wall piece to roof. (NONE)
SPACE SETS
T.Cohn got GIs made in hard plastic and in metallic colors wholesale from Lido for this playset. The picture shows five of the eight poses that were used.
5.00 GI standing with rifle by leg; NONE.
5.00 GI kneeling shooting rifle; NONE.
5.00 GI with flamethrower; NONE.
5.00 GI throwing grenade; NONE.
5.00 GI with pistol; NONE.
NONE GI with rock overhead; NOT PICTURED.
NONE GI with knife overhead; NOT PICTURED.
NONE GI wearing parachute; NOT PICTURED.
The T.Cohn Space Port was made of tin litho, but the figures and spaceships were made of hard plastic by Lido Toys who wholesaled them to T.Cohn.
Lido also sold them with a tie in to the popular Captain Video television show that ran from June 27, 1949, and April 1, 1955. SEE LIDO SALES PAGE FOR AVAILABILITY
Figures made by T.Cohn
MILITARY SETS
1950s T,Cohn military playsets were made using GIs wholesaled to them by Lido Toys, hard plastic vehicles imported from great britian, and their own in house produced hard plastic and vacuform scenery pieces. The small tin rock pile used in western sets was also sometimes included in the WWII sets.
Battle accessories are made of swirled brown or reddish brown hard plastic and perhaps 60mm in scale.
5.00 Fallen log. (NONE)
3.00 Stretcher. (5)
6.00 Tank trap. (NONE)
5.00 Smaller sandbag emplacement. (NONE)
7.00 Larger sandbag & log emplacement. (NONE)
8.00 2 Piece Pontoon bridge. (3)
5.00 1/2 Pontoon bridge.(NONE)
5.00 Tree stump. (NONE)
T.Cohn also used vacuform pieces in their military playsets.
NONE - Vacuform bunker, has cracks.
NONW - Vacuform hospital tent, has cracks.
8.00 Vacuform shell hole, has cracks. (1)
Jeep wheels are marked Made in Gt Britain and both the jeeps and the Cromwell like tank on the left have metal undersides and obviously were made by the same maker. The Sherman/Patton tank on the right may have had an under wheel of some type.
5.00 Jeep with driver on the right, no windshield. (2)
NONE Cromwell tank with metal under side, small mold flaw hole on turret top.
NONE Sherman/Patton tank missing pieces.
T. Cohn made an interesting Naval base with the 45mm figures (copies of various Marx poses) and accessories seen above along with smaller scaled ships and other accessories all on a tin lito base. The figure mold had 29 cavities making what you see in the picture + two torpedoes.
Blue Navy Figures and Accessories
3.00 Looking through binoculars (Marx army copy). (NONE)
3.00 Guard with slung rifle (Marx navy copy). (NONE)
4.00 Signalman with flags (Marx navy copy). NONE
3.00 Carrying jerrycans (Marx army copy). (NONE)
2.00 Marching with rifle (Marx navy copy). (NONE)
3.00 Pulling separate cart (Perhaps Marx 35mm worker copy). (NONE)
3.00 Crouched over (Marx Air Force copy). (NONE)
5.00 Cargo net. (NONE)
Magnetic hoist "pickup". NONE IN STOCK
Larger crate. NONE IN STOCK
Smaller crate. NONE IN STOCK
Battlegound Playsets
T.Cohn's first military battleground playsets were filled with LIDO soldiers in green and gray. With Lido announcing they were for sale in 1963 T.Cohn made their own figures about 40/45mm in scale that were knock offs of Marx and Monogram figures. Their vehicles were made in about 1/72 scale and Airfix made some very similar ones a few years later. There are two different MG tops that could be placed either on the APC or on the tripod for the infantry. Hard plastic accessories were closer to 60mm in scale.
Figures
Top row are Marx GI copies, 2nd row Marx Marines copies and the bottom two rows are copies of Monogram model kit figures. Several shades of green and gray were used over the years.
.75 EACH
Marx GI copies
Officer with pistol; NONE.
Kneeling shooting MG; NONE.
Running with rifle x chest; NONE.
Kneeling shooting rifle; NONE.
Butting with rifle; NONE.
Kneeling with mortar shell; NONE.
Marx Marine copies
Kneeling with rifle x waist; NONE.
Radioman; NONE.
Running with ammo box; NONE.
Kneeling loading rifle; NONE.
Running with rifle in one hand; NONE.
Monogram GI copies
Officer pointing; NONE.
Flamethrower; NONE.
Rifle across waist; NONE.
Tommygun across waist; NONE.
Kneeling with loading bazooka; NONE.
Kneeling shooting bazooka; NONE.
Throwing grenade; NONE.
Standing shooting rifle; NONE.
Mine detector; NONE.
Prone shooting rifle; NONE.
Prone shooting MG; NONE.
Standing with handie talkie; NONE.
Looking through binoculars; NONE.
4.00 MG on tripod; NONE.
3.00 Mortar; NONE.
Vehicles
6.00 2 1/2 ton truck; NONE.
5.00 M47 Patton tank with rear turret ammo storage; NONE.
5.00 M48 Patton tank with oval turret; NONE.
5.00 M110 155mm gun platform; NONE.
8.00 LCVP landing craft; NONE.
6.00 APC with both weapons; NONE.
5.00 Jeep with windshield & intact hitch; NONE.
2.00 Ammo trailer; NONE.
3.00 Howitzer; NONE.
Civilian Items
Doll House Items
T.Cohn made a 6 piece family for their largest farm sets and selected doll houses. Father, mother, daughter and dog seen above plus a son who is running with one foot off the ground & baby standing holding rattle. They are 58-60mm in scale and not easy to find.
6.00 Father sitting. (NONE)
6.00 Mother hand out. (NONE)
6.00 Daughter hands on hips. (NONE)
6.00 Son running. (NONE), (1.00 BROKEN OFF BASE, BASE MISSING).
6.00 Scotty dog. (1)
6.00 Baby holding rattle. (NONE)
MARX COPY pool children.
6.00 Boy hands up, stiff waxy cream. (NONE)
6.00 Girl sitting. (NONE)
Large scale actual size in photo.
2.00 Dustpan, red, SP.
2.00 Large roasting pan, red, SP.
NONE IN STOCK
Service Station and Freight Terminal Items
T. Cohn made a 16 piece gas station accessory and figure set. They copied four of the Marx 30/35mm gas station attendants and perhaps some of the accessories as well, but it was payback for Marx copying their idea to make a service station. The T.Cohn service station attendants were usually in hard plastic while Marx generally made theirs in soft plastic, but we can not tell them apart for sure. Photo of 16 piece mold shot seen below courtesy of Gary Carlington
-
T.Cohn attendants.
2.00 Attendant walking; 11 white, 1 waxy off white, 2 cream.
2.00 Attendant pushing broom; 6 white, 1 waxy off white, 1 cream, (1.50 1 collector painted).
3.00 Attendant with mallet and chisel. NONE ( 1.00 chisel broken off; 2 white)
3.00 Attendant standing on tire, holding tool, hat on backwards. (early rap star); NONE, (1.00 tool broken off; 1 white).
Photo courtesy of Gary Carlington
T.Cohn also had a mold usually run in white that had two workers + a series of accessories. This group was also placed in larger service station and freight terminal playsets. This mold included the nice workbench with individual tools. The work bench was made in three pieces that plugged together and all told each "mold shot" had a total of 26 pieces. These same two worker poses are also found in the T.Cohn navy set made in blue as dock workers.
NONE - Table with tool rack, NO TOOLS.
5.00 Table, no tool rack or tools, white.
10.00 Dolly with separate handle, white. (NONE)
3.00 Dolly no handle, white. (1)
3.00 Oil drum; 3 white, 1 off white yellowed with age.
3.00 Gas Can, white. (4)
3.00 Smaller barrel, white. (3)
3.00 Longer shorter crate, white. (5)
3.00 Hand truck, white. (1)
3.00 Worker as if pushing hand truck; 5 white.
3.00 Worker bending over, white. (1)
FARM ITEMS
- logo found on barn base near left edge.
Tin Items
NONE Pig shed with green SP roof. (NONE)
NONE Tall silo, tin near mint with HP red top.
NONE Tall Silo, NO ROOF.
NONE Tall silo, tin more wear, with vacuforn top ( a few small cracks).
NONE Short fat silo,has yellow door, small chip on red HP top, tin near mint.
3.00 yellow plastic door. (1)
NONE Small peaked tool shed, tin near mint. (NONE)
NONE Duck pond, tin nice. (NONE)
To go with their tin building T.Cohn had two molds that made groups of hard plastic items in red and shades of yellow to enhance their farm sets. Tom Loback (tomtin on ebay) was kind enough to allow us to use the following four photos to show some of the hard plastic pieces;
The above picture shows some of thr "yellow" farm hard plastic accessory mold. this mold had the cupolas, milk cans and litter carrier as well as winches, silo chute doors and other attachment pieces necessary for the barn and conveyor.
T.Cohn had one mold that made two farm workers (based upon Marx poses but with switched tools), a horse, two cows (one larger than the other), haybale & feed sack. These pieces would then of course be in matching colors in a playset and larger sets would have two groupings. The cows are completely hollow belly which makes them easy to tell apart from Ohio Art cows. Colors most commonly seen for this group include; white, cream, tan, gray and dark gray.
6.00 Horse; 1 cream, (2.00 NO TAIL 1 cream).
5.00 Horse with skis. 1 redbrown, 2 cream, (1.00 NO TAIL, 1 tan, 1 cream or SKIS SPLIT; 1 cream).
6.00 Larger Cow, ears well defined; 1 light medium gray, 1 redbrown, 2 cream.
5.00 Larger cow with skis; 2 medium gray, 1 redbrown, 2 cream, 1 tan.
6.00 Smaller Cow, ears simpler; NONE.
5.00 Smaller cow with skis; 1 dirty cream.
4.00 Farmer with hoe up in the air; 9 cream/light tan, 6 brown, 9 creams, 1 gray.
4.00 Farmer with pitchfork held down; 6 cream/light tan, 9 creams, 6 brown., 2 gray
4.00 Feed sack; 1 gray, 1 tan, 1 cream.
4.00 Hay Bale; 2 gray, 1 tan, 1 cream.
Partial sprue -
FARM ANIMALS - These animals are soft plastic and many are copies of Marx. There seems to be two early slightly different versions of these which we believe resulted when the bases were made larger on some animals for increased stability. Finally a third version was made when the mold was remade (In Portugal) and the larger animals now have what look like skis to provide even greater stability. These animals are usually seen in yellow or brown. One mold set consists of 1 colt, 1 calf, 1 pig, 1 sheep, 2 piglets head up, 2 piglets head down, 2 lambs head turned, 2 lambs bawling, 1 rooster, 1 pecking chicken, 8 chicks, 1 duck, 4 ducklings, 6 fence birds, 1 2 piece small haystack, 1 hook & 1 stool. larger farm sets might have two groupings while smaller sets would only have one.
1.00 Colt; 5 yellow, 1 white.
1.00 Colt with skis; 2 yellow, 2 dark gray, 1 white, 4 light tan, 3 red.
1.00 Calf; 5 yellow, 1 white, 3 rose tan/brown.
1.00 Calf with skies; 1 yellow, 1 tan, 1 white, 2 tan, 1 cream.
1.00 Pig; 3 yellow.
1.00 Pig with skies; 2 yellow, 4 light tan.
1.00 Sheep; NONE.
1.00 Rooster; 4 yellow, 1 white, 1 rosetan/brown, 5 light tan, 1 gray.
1.00 Chicken feeding; 16 yellow.
1.00 Duck; 7 yellow, 1 rosetan/brown, 1 red.
.50 EACH piglets or lambs;
Piglet head down; 19 yellow, 8 dark gray, 2 light tan, 3 red, 2 rosetan/brown.
Piglet head up; 15 yellow, 3 tan, 8 dark gray, 2 light tan, 1 red, 1 rosetan/brown.
Lamb bawling; NONE.
Lamb looking to the right; NONE.
2.00 Ring of 4 ducklings; 2 yellow, 1 light tan, 1 dark gray.
2.00 Ring of 4 chicks; 1 light tan, 2 dark gray.
1.00 Any 4 ducklings, chicks or fence birds;
Ducklings; 42 yellow, 1 reddish yellow, 4 tan, 5 dark gray., 1 rosetan/brown.
Chicks; 88 yellow, 4 red, 2 white, 3 light tan, 1 cream, 1 dark gray.
Fat Bird tail up; 18 yellow, 1 white, 1 light tan, 2 reddish yellow, 1 red.
Thin bird tail up; 14 yellow, 3 white, 2 light tan, 1 butterscotch, 1 reddish yellow, 3 red, 2 dark gray.
Thin bird tail straight; 15 yellow, 3 dark gray, 1 cream, 2 white, 2 reddish yellow, 4 red, 2 rich tan.
FARM IMPLEMENTS
The farm implements were made in two molds. One mold held the wheels + 2 seated farmers and other accessories (usually made in yellow or black and some in silver)while the other mold (usually run in red and some in green)had the implement bodies + other accessories such as the larger 2 piece hay stack. The pickup truck was made in a separate mold and the smaller "tailgate" piece can be attached to approximate a normal pickup truck and then the larger "tailgate" piece can be attached to the smaller one to create a covered bed truck.
25.00 Pickup truck, red with yellow wheels, with tailgate & bed cover. (2)
15.00 Pickup truck, red with yellow wheels, NO tailgate or bed cover. (1)
10.00 Tractor, red with yellow wheels + yellow driver. (NONE), (6.00 NO trail hook, has yellow driver, red & yellow), (5.00 NO STEERING WHEEL OR FARMER; 1 red with yellow wheels)
2.00 Wagon, red; 1 with yellow wheels, 1 with black wheels.
5.00 Disc roller, 3 red with black wheels, 3 red with yellow wheels.
5.00 Plow; 2 red with yellow wheels, 1 red with black wheels.
5.00 Hay mower; 3 red with yellow wheels, 1 red with black wheels.
5.00 Hay dump rake; 1 red with yellow wheels, 1 red with black wheels.
5.00 Seated farmer, military hat, hand on knee; 1 yellow.
5.00 Seated farmer, baseball cap, hand out; NONE.
FARM ACCESSORIES
The T.Cohn farm accessories were made in several molds along with animals and implements. The feed sack and hay bale were in the large animal mold. The stool, hook and small two two piece hay shock were in the small animal mold. the large 2 piece hay shock, feed box bottom and trash can were in the "implement" mold and the feed box top, trash can lid, bucket, shovel, pitchfork and two weather vanes were in the "wheel" mold. In addition the cupola and milk cans were made in a distinct mold as were the crop rows and the fence pieces. Many of these are direct copies of Marx farm accessories.
10.00 Yellow Tan HP cupola. NONE
5.00 Later weather vane with flanges; NONE.
2.00 Milk can, HP; 12 yellow.
6.00 Feed box red with yellow lid; 2.
4.00 Hook; NONE IN STOCK.
4.00 Larger 2 piece corn shock; 1 red, (2.00 TOP; 1 red).
3.00 Smaller 2 piece hay shock; 4 red, (1.50 TOP; 3 yellow, 1 dark gray, 2 red)
2.00 Stool; 15 yellow, 6 red, 2 dark gray, 3 dark tan, 1 light tan, 1 cream, 1 white.
1.00 Trash can; 2 red.
1.00 Trash can lid; 4 yellow.
1.00 Pail; 2 silver, 1 yellow.
1.00 Shovel; 5 yellow, 1 silver.
1.00 Pitchfork; 5 yellow, 2 black.
2.00 Crop row base, green. (NONE)
1.00 Cabbage? for crop row, green. (NONE)
1.00 Bean plant for crop row, green. (NONE)
1.00 Tomato plant for crop row, green. (NONE)
1.00 Fence, HP, white. (NONE)
Doll House Items
Pieces are marked with T.Cohn's SUPERIOR FLAG LOGO.
2.00 Baby crib, blue.
2.00 Refrigerator, tan.
2.00 Kitchen sink, tan.
2.00 Stove. (2)
1.00 Table, MISSING ONE LEG, tan.
2.00 Side chair; 2 creamwhite, 1 tan.
2.00 Sectionl end piece; 1 blue, 1 aquablue.
2.00 Bathtub, tan.
NONE Toilet.
2.00 Bathroom sink, tan.