Mounting cavalry on rolling platforms was a toy soldier innovation that appears in the early 19th century in response to the fame of Napoleon's dashing cavalry under such leaders as Marat, Lesseps, and especially Davout... It's a distinctive trait of the Mainland European cavalry figure that never really caught on in England or, by extension, with American manufacturers...possibly because the extra parts for the platform and wheels added cost. It was seen in America frequently enough, however, by way of the large late 19th Century Christmas Toy importing phenomena where large shipments
so, a goofy idea POP'd into my head today; if you had clear resin and some Old Marx tank cars and a few safari Toob figures you could make a riff on Mommy Fortunas Circus from "The Last Unicorn" in O gauge... I'd just replace the tin cylinders of the tank cars with clear plastic ones and colored resin "water". maybe a few aquarium oddnobs like tiny sea stars, sand and glitter... and of course you need to find some figures for Mommy fortuna
P. Duff and Sons holds the title of "inventor of the cake mix". right around the begining of the Great Depression, Mr. Duff's company found itself with a large molassess surplus. He hit on the idea of dehydrating it and using it to create a "just add water" gingerbread mix. and thus was invented the instant cake mix. Cake mixes were more popular with Government Agencies (I.e.
here is a beautiful set of tin flat figures from Germany. These civilians may be intended to represent a "holiday" melieux, or maybe a fairytale, or Hoffman tale...hard to be sure, they are also very likely to have been included or used with early Karl Bub type O gauge windup train sets. It was a popular way to populate tabletop railroads in the era after our Civil War and before the 1st world war.
Of course, this grouping is lovely in it's own right, with the winter sleigh, the castle, and the stylish tourists...
