Vintage Greek Toys...Forever

All of us, young, old, those who were once young, and those who have remained young at heart, have been at least once captivated by the magic of toys. This article is written to highlight some of Greece's timeless, beloved and special toy makers!

Entering this great microcosm through a plastic toy soldier, a tin car, a wooden boat or a wind-up figure!

-Toy soldiers: Little humans, 5-7 centimeters tall, with impressive costumes - usually military. Plastic, lead, or even paper, Greek or foreign-made, can be found either carefully displayed and lined up by category or scattered, worn and battle-scarred, missing helmets or hands like casualties of an imaginary war! Fotis Papadimitriou's company  "PAL" in the 1950s laid the foundation for the classic plastic Greek toy soldiers, and Dimitris Maratos, as a worthy successor, created the "ATHINA" company in 1960. Several folk anonymous and famous artists throughout the 20th century left their mark with elegant lead toy soldiers. Among them were the great painter Alexandros Alexandrakis, the unique Giorgos Emmanouilidis, and his student, Kalimeris.

(a) Balkan Wars Officer ''PAL'' (b) Mounted Officer in Summer Uniform ''ATHINA''

(c) Alexander the Great by G.Emmanouilidis (d) Balkan Wars soldier by an anonymous Folk Artist

(e) Evzon by A. Alexandrakis (f) Reserve Airman by Kalimeris.

(a)(b)(c) (d)

(e)(f)

-Toy cars and wind-up figures: Colorful lithographs with vivid colors on skillfully modified tin cans! Beautiful designs, either original or inspired by Japanese, German and American toys were produced between the 1950s and 1970s. Racing cars, limousines, trucks, dancers, animals and more, were manufactured by various talented toymakers, such as Ananias Ananiadis, Nikolaidis, ELVIP and Gerasimos Priftis.

(a) Bus by A. Ananiadis (b) Giraffe by A. Ananiadis (c) Dancer Sam by A. Ananiadis (d) Greek Red Cross Ambulance truck by Nikolaidis (e) Acropolis Rally Racing Car by G. Priftis

(a)  (b) (c)

(d) (e)

-Boats: Wooden hand carved and hand painted warships! Some more detailed and accurate and some more folk made.  Displayed on their own or usually crewed by sailors from the ''PAL'' or ''ATHINA'' toy soldiers.

(a) Wooden boat from Tinos by Panagiotis Vasilas with sailor toy soldiers by ''PAL'' (b) Battleship Averof by anonymous folk artist

(a) (b)  

Today, in our sterilized digital and electronic world, these toys would be considered unsuitable. Yet, we have lost something valuable along the way: the pleasure of touch and even the quiet melancholy of a worn toy...Small detachable parts, materials now considered unsafe and dangerous and inapropriate thematoly that reflected the realities of their time. Fortunately, many of these remarkable toys have been well preserved, allowing us to keep alive the spirit of a different world!