#composition figures

[horsefigureoftheday]

My mom and partner took me to a toy museum for my birthday and LOOK AT ALL THESE ANIMALS!!! I actually have a few of them at home - it was really fun to see those at a museum :DDD

[hinamie]

spiraling

[ribbittrobbit]

[heartorbit]

figure skating set right now please. thanks

[friedri-ce]

what if there was some sorta bar where machines can drink blood and stuff...

alt

cropped version

[filurig]

some of my kin liken humans to beasts to illustrate their ruthless ambition.

i do not.

the wolf hungers, and hunts to sate that hunger.

the bear must rest, and hunts to sleep once winter comes.

the human does not merely 'hunt'.

they torch forests and poison rivers. they build giant constructions which spew gas as black as night into the very air we breathe. they hunt and hunt and hunt until nothing is left.

describing them as anything other than 'human', is to undersell the reality of their callous disregard for any semblence of mercy.

[habken]

comic wips

[reineydraws]

rip the bat boys 💀

[everyones-least-favorite-bard]

(based on the Fool from the Rider-Waite tarot deck)

[janedoeaart]

Mordecai Heller, Marigold's Infamous Hatchetman ✍️

[theeloveofsolitude]

..i've had this semi-finished in my drafts since october, but i cant procrastinate anymore- they have beautiful new outfits i want to draw <3 i need to catch up 🙇🏻‍♀️

[horsefigureoftheday]

What are composition figures?

If you're a longtime toy collector, you've no doubt stumbled upon these things! You may know them better as Elastolin or Lineol figures, but you probably don't know much more than that. Are they ceramic? Wood? Some kind of old-timey plastic? Where did they come from? And why are they always broken?

Composition figures are antique toys, produced from the late 1800s, up until the 1960s - though their heyday was around WWII, where the Elastolin and Lineol companies really ramped up production. In fact, these companies produced so many figures of such high quality, that their names have since become synonymous with "composition figures" even though dozens of other companies all over the world produced similar figures. Figures produced by Elastolin are always marked with he brand name, while Lineol figures either have the brand name, a "Germany" mark, or both. If it doesn't have either of those brands, it's (usually) not technically a Lineol/Elastolin figure - which is why I stick to calling them "composition figures."

So, what are they made of?? For starters, all larger figures have a metal skeleton - sometimes the entire head/tail may be made out of metal! In my own collection I have a yak with a metal head and a bison with a metal tail. But usually, the skeleton is a simple support structure for the body, as shown on these xrays:

As for the body itself, the main component is sawdust, but the rest of it is kinda unknown. We know that the other major component was a binding agent, but no recipe has been preserved, as far as I can find. We do know that some recipes have included flour, dextrin, casein, bone glue, water, linseed oil, natural resins, and kaolin. However, some recipes are believed to have had too much moisture, which leads us to the next question...

Why are the legs always broken?? Part of it is time and rough handling, but most of it is that the material expands and contracts in response to heat/humidity. Composition figures are stupidly sensitive to environmental changes, and become very brittle over time - eventually, simply moving them around may be enough to cause fractures! Unfortunately, these cracks expose the skeleton and, since they were made of simple iron, the skeleton can oxidize and eventually break completely.

Most composition figures are about the same scale as modern toyline brands (Schleich, Safari, CollectA, etc.) so displaying them is pretty straightforward. Storing them, however, is another matter. It is imperative that they stay out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources. They should also be kept in as air-tight conditions as possible. And, of course, don't get them wet.

Cleaning them is not easy. I have had moderate success with a damp (not wet!) cotton swab. It didn't damage the figure, but it also can't completely get rid of 70+ years of accumulated dust, smoke, and sweat. I'm wary of using soap, as the pH change might affect them. Right side has been cleaned, left side is still dirty:

If anyone has any tips on cleaning, I'd be happy to hear it!

Thanks for reading! :D

[deep-space-lines]

By the homeworld I hope to see one day...

Prints of this, as well as a few other Mass Effect stained glass pieces, are now available! I’d love to see/hear about it if you order any, it would absolutely make my day <3

This one, Femshep, and Mordin are the only ones currently finished, but I have plans to do a few other characters as well; you can check out the #mass effect stained glass tag on my blog to see the others, if they happen to exist when you come across this post!

[marsmarbles]

the way u draw skizz brings me so much happiness and whimsy,, / pos

Thank you! <3

He’s really fun and silly

[dangoulains-devotion]

vincent valentine week 2024 - day 4; monster

every time i close my eyes and slowly fall to sleep, this nightmare coming over me, it drags me down deep

[gwinverarrouz]

July 22 is the date I chose as a birthday for Bisig, my beloved little sailor cat, and to celebrate the occasion here is a mini-comic about her and how she met her crab fam :D It's kind of a continuation of something I've drawn back in 2020 as a way to explore her backstory a little and it's very dear to me.

(Please watch it in full view, I worked really hard on it! ^v^)