A Shimek stand-to

Brigadier Raymond E Bell looks at the work of US toy soldier artisan E. Joe Shimek II

- Brigadier Raymond E Bell

The late E. Joe Shimek II is probably best known for his reproductions of the German Heyde Size 2 (approximately 48mm) figures. He offered an immense variety of these under the rubric of Potsdamer Zinnsoldaten (PZ) basing his production on the Heyde Company’s entire catalogue. Yet, as his friend and comrade Michael Henry noted in his ‘Last Post for E. Joe Shimek’, PZ productions included figures of other sizes. Joe also underwrote figures with the label of Britannia which were close approximations of certain W. Britains soldiers, marines, and sailors.

While Joe won high praise in words for Potsdamer Zinnsoldaten, his best remembrance is expressed in what is displayed on the shelves of his former clientele. So, let us look at some of the 54mm range of military figures he produced under both the PZ and Britannia labels. This venture serves as a “Shimek Stand-to” displaying figures of a scale different from what is still most closely associated with PZ toy soldiers.

As Michael Henry has pointed out, Joe’s first production carrying the label PZ-1, was of the WWI German Askaris or German East African native infantry. These famous highly disciplined and well trained black African soldiers serving under white German officers, most notably General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, literally ran circles around British Empire troops in East Africa during WWI. PZ’s representations of the Askaris display with dignity these exceptional combatants dressed in their khaki uniforms with their German officer.