Identifying Reproductions

Collecting composition figures made by Hausser / Elastolin and Lineol is an expensive hobby and here we give you some tips on how to go about it.

There are many collectors around the world willing to pay several thousand dollars for individual figures made Hausser / Elastolin and Lineol. But only figures that are original and in mint condition fetch this value. Restored and repainted figures are only worth a fraction of it. Each time you see a nice figure that you would like to purchase for your collection, the same old questions come up:

• Is it an original old figure?
• Is it restored or repainted?
• How do I recognize any manipulations?

These questions are tough to answer and some of the fake figures are really hard to identify. There are some companies that have specialized in reproducing composition figures, especially in Europe and the results are amazing.

Also, there are a lot of collectors who restore damaged figures by replacing broken parts and fixing up the painting. some of the results are brilliant and hard to identify. But in the end these are still restored figures. If they are identified as such by the seller there is no problem. But what if ... ?

There is no simple test to find out the background of a figure, but in this article we will try to give you some advice what to look for.