Diecast toy Digger

Diecast toy soldier in the form of an Australian Digger standing at attention with his arms by his sides, wearing his uniform, slouch hat, gaiters and boots on a small round base. Scale is equivalent to 54mm or 1/32 scale. There is evidence of a painted finish in dark green or khaki in the creases of the clothing and on the face.

Toy Australian soldier made by Brisbane firm Die-Cast Products, who were at one point based in Greenslopes, and later in Toombul, towards the end of the Second World War. This firm was primarily an Australian agent for a British manufacturer of zinc diecasting equipment that supplied and sold small, initially hand-operated pressure diecasting machines with a lever-plunger hand control for the injection process. These machines were later pneumatically controlled during the 1960s; but were always of small capacity, handling dies with a maximum capacity output of around 100 grams and 6 to 8 inches square. The material the diecasting machines were designed for was always zinc and a number were sold to local Queensland businesses hoping to cash in on the opportunities being offered by the military contracts being offered at the time.

Evidence from Marjory Fainges, an Australian toy researcher and publisher, points to a sailor and airman also existing in this series, and a boxed set being available. She wrote in 2005:

“I have a photo of a box which says ‘The Greatest Soldier in the World – An Original Miniature – The non-inflammable non-poisonous toy / Made by Die-Cast Products Pty. Ltd, Brisbane’. I once spoke to a relative who told me they were situated at Greenslopes, but they later shifted to another suburb. I was told that the ones sold in Brisbane were never painted, but to sell them north or Rockhampton they had to be painted, and a set I was sent in the late 1990s from a cattle station in the north of the state still had small vestiges of paint on them.”

“Painting” appears to mean dipping in one colour, usually green (army), blue (air force) or white (navy and nurse). This example of the digger still retains vestiges of dark green paint in the crevices which supports the theory that they were one colour all over.

A resident of Brisbane said that his uncle remembers seeing all three soldiers (the soldier, sailor and airman) displayed at a store at Chardon's Corner (in Annerley, a suburb of Brisbane) during the war, when he was 5 years old. The same source possessed a fourth casting (but not an original) of a female servicewoman wearing a hat, possibly a nurse.

The theory has been forwarded that Die-Cast Products initially produced this set of toy soldiers as sample castings to show what the diecasting machines could accomplish, then found that the demand was greater than they had anticipated, and sold them instead; hence the boxed set. The moulds and dies would have been relatively easy to fabricate with each toy soldier having simple detail with an almost flat profile.

The continuing demand for toys in Australia during the Second World War - especially after 1942, when the austerity campaign really hit home, rationing was in full swing and the makers of English, German and Japanese toys had gone over to war production – meant that Australians had to make do with second hand toys or toys crafted from materials that were considered non-essential to the war effort. The appearance of these diecast toys – especially toy soldiers, which were always in demand – in 1944 would have been a godsend to parents and toyshop owners seeking a new toy – especially an Australian made one. It also sent a signal that the lean times of the austerity campaign were coming to an end.

The distribution of these toy soldiers appears to be restricted to Queensland.