TOY SOLDIER HQ INC

AJAX TOYS, JOY TOYS & TOOTSIE TOY TOY SOLDIERS, FIGURES & ITEMS FOR SALE

AJAX/JOY TOY/TOOTSIE TOY

From O'Briens book Collecting Toy Soldiers 3rd ed. we learn that;

Lido was formed in 1947 by the nephews (Seymour & Effrem Arenstein) of William Shaland the biggest importer of toys in the country.

Ajax was founded about 1950 by William Shalland's son-in-law Harry Sternburg

1964 Lido was sold to Bala

1965 Bala liquidated and the remains bought by Gabriel all but 50 molds melted

1970/71 Ajax goes out of business.

1973 Seymour Arenstein buys the remaining 50 Lido molds plus the remaining Ajax molds and started JOY TOY.

1990 Joy Toy sold to Strombecker

Strombecker owned Tootsie Toy which is why you see ex Lido and Ajax toys in Tootsie Toy header bags.

TIME CONTINUES TO MARCH ON AND NOW WE SEE;

2004 November Stombecker and Processed Plastic merged and the new company took Tootsie Toy as it's name with Processed Plastic as the controlling partner.

2005 February Tootsie Toy sold Durant plant with the Tootsie Toy molds.

2005 July Out of business everything including Processed Plastic plant in Illinois will be sold.

:-(

Ajax operated from 1049 to about 1971. Located at 380 Lafayette Street, New York City and also had a mailing address of P.O.Box101, Scarsdale NY. after they closed Willaim Shalland kept selling. He was always called "WS" and his packaging used WSNY ass a brand name. It is very difficult to tell if a loose figure was made by Ajax or Joy Toy. Mostly likely Joy Toy is the source of most figures that show up in today's collector market as they had the molds from 1972 to 1990. However we will list them as Ajax unless in Joy Toy packaging. In 1990 Tootsietoy/Strombecker bought Joy Toy to further confuse the issue of who made what. In 2004 Processed Plastic and Strombecker merged under the name Tootsie Toy but then went out of business in 2005.

Prehistoric Items

AJAX DINOS Mostly polyethylene but Some were made in a rubbery plastic.

They made right dinosaurs; Triceratops, Dimetrodon, Parasauropholus, Brontosaurus, T-Rex, Plateosaurus, Stegasaurous & Pteranodon.

Copies of Ajax dinosaurs made in Hong Kong all 8 poses with painted eyes.

Western Figures & Items

Smaller 45mm Cowboy and Indian copies

More of these western hard plastic figures of uncertain origin but probably made by LIDO, AJAX or ARCHER (keep in mind Lido supplied figures of this type to T.Cohn (Superior) for their early playsets as well).

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Ajax either made copies of many of the Bergen figures or had Bergen wholesale them figures, or got access to the molds after Bergen's demise in 1958. If a "Bergen" figure does not have a logo then we assume it was sold by Ajax. You can see examples of Bergen copies in the above Ajax rodeo playset. As the rodeo set has had a Davy Crockett banner added it is likely that it was sold in 1954 or 55 during the Davy Crockett mania brought on by the Disney episodes starring Fess Parker and Buddy Ebson. Ajax did not even bother to try and include a pioneer type figure. All of the figures and horses in this set are copies of Bergen figures. Although Ajax did mark some of their horses with AJAX, the above examples are marked MADE IN USA which is the more commonly seen Ajax horse.

I can never tell who made what between these companies. And here is why;

The above four hard plastic horses all look pretty much the same. In fact they are all slightly different and marked by four different makers. The black horse is marked AJAX, top gray marked ARCHER, bottom gray marked LIDO and the brown marked BERGEN! Bergen (Beton) made the horse first the the rest are all pirated copies. Usually these horses are found in soft plastic and are assumed to be for T. Cohn (Superior) brand cowboys and Indians. These companies obviously shared, stole, or copied some molds including the Beton/Lido/Ajax/T.Cohn small mounted cowboys, Indians and horse see above). In addition Superior was never the name of the T.Cohn Toy company but only used as a slogan or brand.

AJAX bucking horse.

Larger 60mm Cowboy and Indian copies

Ajax also made copies of some of the 60mm cowboy & Indian Bergen figures. If a "Bergen" figure does not have a logo then we assume it was sold by Ajax.

These were sold "masked"(painted) or unpainted and can be found in both hard and soft plastics.

These figures were made to go along with the foot figures copied from Beton. They are 54-60mm in size and were sold as "LARGE HORSE AND RIDERS" to distinguish them form the smaller Lido/Superior style figures they also sold. They may be copies as well.

- These figures were copied in Hong Kong as can bee seen by this old warehouse stock carton recently found.

WWII & Military Items

WWII Military Figures

These Barclay copies? date to the 1950s. First made of hard plastic with a bit of paint, then hard plastic no paint and finally a dense soft plastic. There were two different shades of green in the soft plastic versions. HP figures do not have paint unless noted. The soldier with flamethrower can be seen in Thomas Toys Catalogs. Thomas Toys had no connection to Ajax but perhaps William Shaland(father in Law to Ajax's owner) a toy wholesaler had control of the mold(s) and supplied both Ajax and Thomas Toys. We think the mold may have contained 12 cavities with three soldiers with rifle at waist, two with tommygun at waist and one each of the other seven poses. This is based upon what we have seen over the years and can not be confirmed.

Civilian Figures and Items

AJAX baseball players about 50mm in size and made of hard plastic. Painted figures may be marked Hong Kong.

Copies of Ajax baseball players, about 35mm in size, factory painted and made in soft plastic.

Unmarked but look similar to AJAX baseball players sculpting so we put them here until we can give them a definite ID. Made of hard plastic.

70-90mm dogs Ajax & then Joy Toy

Space figures and Items

Original vintage Ajax unpainted hard plastic space figures

Old hard plastic painted copies made in Hong Kong (three seen in picture above)

- NONE - 60mm scale Space Woman with pistol, yellow SP.

Old larger soft plastic copies

Jumbo sized Ajax space figures. Unsure if Ajax made them. Made of dense soft plastic.

5 INCH FIGURES

These were made by Ajax and then RECAST in the 1970s & 1980s by Joy Toy (as seen in the Joy Toy catalog pictures shown above generously given to us by Seymour Arenstein's daughter Joy A.Glucksman), and some in the 1990s by Tootsietoy. We do not know how to tell the difference between the Ajax, Joy Toy & Tootsietoy pieces. Most of the loose pieces probably date to the later Joy Toy or Tootsietoy production. Animals seem to have been made in sets of six but we are not certain if that was always true.

Large Prehistoric Animals

Prehistoric mammal photos courtesy Rick Koch.

Large Dinosaurs - Tootsie Toy Packaging -

Blow molded dino copies have been made in China. The Brontosaurus is about 5 inches long.

Large Wild Animals

Large Farm Animals

Large Dogs

Mold ended up in Mexico at least for a while as per the mold catalog illustration above.

5 INCH FIGURES

The Cowboys, Indians, football and baseball players were made by Ajax, then Joy Toy and some by Tootsietoy.

Above are some of the Ajax 5 inch cowboys & Indians. Sealed bag in picture below also has a cowboy shooting a rifle. Perhaps six different cowboys and six different Indians were made but we are not sure. Picture of yellow cowboy top right courtesy of Eric Johns.

- Old bagged "Joy Toy" set, 3 figures; cowboys playing guitar & shooting rifle & Indian brave with spear and knife.

40mm cowboys in 4 poses of which some are copies of Ajax poses.

- The 5/6 Inch Lido GI mold was run by Joy Toy from 1972-1990 when they sold out to Tootsietoy who used the mold into the 2000s. See Lido page for availability.

Picture of the red figure courtesy James Wozniak.

Other Joy Toy Products

Older 60mm football figures are gray and white and this mold could have been made for Papco by Ajax or Lido. The mold became part of Joy Toys lineup in the 1970s and made in other colors.

- # 122 Touchdown, header card set in Joy Toy packaging, 22 figures.

JOY TOY SMALL DINOSAURS

- Joy Toy acquired the old Nabisco cereal dinosaur premiums mold. We think this mold may have been made for Nabisco.

JOY TOY 1175 LOST WORLD. Bagged set as pictured above (contents may vary). About 15 dinos in a mic of white, yellow & light gray.

JOY TOY KNIGHTS

- Joy Toy got the exLido knight horse mold but the rider mold ended up with Jay Horowitz (New Marx). So Joy toy somehow got one of the MPC knight molds and made header card sets of MPC foot knight with LIDO knight horses.

JOY TOY 1185 Royal Knights. Bagged set as picture above with 4 horses and 6 knights.

JOY TOY MILITARY VEHICLES

This header card bagged set appears to have the exPayton army truck and tank and an exLido Jeep. Nicely done with brown marbling in the green.

Joy Toy 168 Recon Patrol. Header card bagged set with; truck, tank and jeep about 45mm in scale.

Steombecker made a series of 10 hard plastic race track figures to go with slot car sets. Sold in set 9935 Srombecker International Road Racing set that came with six figures and a guide book where you could order a set of all ten figures for $1. We have seen them in a variety of colors and a few in soft plastic. Thanks to Al Teuscher for the ID and sales information.

In 1990 Tootsie Toy bought out Joy Toy and continued to make some of the figure lines putting them in TOOTSIETOY packaging. This further confused collectors.

Original Tootsie toy Figures and Items

Metal ACW cannon with plastic wheels, spring shooting.

60mm Sadddle horse Made in Hong Kong.

Seen in the 1979 Tootsietoy catalog as parts of an otherwise die cast Police set in blue and a Fighter Command military set in brown. Figures are about 50mm in size.

Tootsietoy made 4 ENTs and 4 firemen in one mold. We have only found them in red.

AA Truck, metal body, plastic wheels and gun.

155mm howitzer tank. Metal.

jeep, metal.

Small Truck, may be missing something that plugs into truck bed, metal.

Small howitzer, metal.

SEA RESCUE Set still in blister platform display package has; diecast Coast Guard helicopter roughly 1/72 scale + 4 30/35mm figures desert island, speed boat & accessories.

Aircraft carrier about 7 inches long, metal with plastic parts.

- Five diecast WWII miniplanes, dated 1989.

- Five diecast Jets miniplanes, dated 1989.

REISSUE metal ships about 6 inches long.

Metal Tractor with detachable disc.

Plastic boat on metal boat trailer.

Major Mars, 60mm HP, Hong Kong.

Flash Gorden set three four inch plastic figures + six die cast vehicles. Plastic window broken on box but contents are mint. Late 1970s I think.

- 2872 Star Ship, MOC, dated 1978.