Composition Characters

A look at the numerous portrait figures produced by Hausser and Lineol during their heyday.

Portrait figures are one of the most fascinating facets of collecting composite toy soldiers.

Hausser/Elastolin produced its first personality figure, Kaiser Wilhelm II, during World War I. After the Germans defeated the Russians at Tannenberg in East Prussia, in 1914 a figure of the commanding field marshal Paul von Hindenburg was produced too. The size of these figures was about 12 cm in height. However in these days boys liked to replay the battles, about which they heard stories from their fathers. Therefor, soldiers in fighting positions were much more popular and common than personality figures. At the end of World War I the emperor abdicated and went into exile to the Netherlands while von Hindenburg retired. As a result personality figures did not play a major role in the production lines of Hausser or Lineol for quite some time.

The 1932 Hausser catalogue offers for the first time a figure of the leader of the Nazi party, Adolf Hitler. This figure shows Hitler in the typical party uniform with a brown shirt. An interesting detail is the fact that the right arm could be moved, so the figure could also raise its arm to the well known Nazi salute. This seems to be the start of a whole series of personality figures made by Hausser and Lineol.

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