Lineol Catalogues

During its existence, Lineol has published a large number of catalogues and price lists. In addition to the sales catalogues and novelty supplements with individual prices for end consumers, there were also special dealer catalogues. These were clearly more complex and more extensive than the normal consumer catalogues. Therefore no prices were printed here, but there were additional price lists. This made it possible to react flexibly to price changes without having to reprint the entire catalogue with all illustrations.

On the basis of these sources the figure production of Lineol AG (from 1957 VEB Lineol Plastik) can be very well understood, although not all figures and models ever produced are listed in these documents.

In 1985 the brand name Lineol was registered again and figure production was resumed under this brand by Mr. Gerd Duscha. The catalogues of this new production period are not listed here.

Sales Catalogues

Lineol AG published sales catalogues for its young customers from 1932 at the latest. Due to the war no more catalogues were published after 1939. Catalogues were not published again until the company was restructured into a Volkseigenen Betrieb (VEB) and the production plant moved from Berlin to Dresden.

Sales Catalogues from 1933 to 1938

Lineol published the first known customer catalogue in 1932, in which civil figures and animals were offered in addition to military figures. In the following year three large-format picture sheets for military and political figures as well as for domestic animals and zoo animals were published. From 1934 the catalogues were then stitched in landscape format and distributed to customers. The name now changed to "Bilderbuch". In all these catalogs the potential buyers (boys) are addressed directly in with preface. Also within the catalogues there are again and again explaining words to the young people. Interestingly, female youths are not included in the catalogues.

All catalogues are kept in black and white. Only the title page of the 1938 catalogue is shown in colour.

The catalogues contain figures of Polit until 1936, whereby the highlight seems to be 1935 with illustrations on four pages. After 1936 these figures are no longer mentioned or depicted in the catalogues with the exception of the political leaders.

The catalogues give a good, if not complete, overview of the range of figures available at that time. However, it should be noted that for a few figures the correct illustrations were not used. This applies in particular if figures in similar representation were first produced in the 6cm size and later converted to 7cm.

In the year 1938 a picture book appears for the last time, before this publication probably had to be stopped due to the war.

Novelty Supplements from 1934 to 1938

Since the sales catalogues were published annually, Lineol obviously decided to publish them in addition to these novelty supplements from 1934 onwards, in order to inform potential buyers more quickly about the extended range. The figures shown in these supplements are not available in the respective sales catalogues, so that it can be assumed that these are real novelties. Only in the year 1938 it seems to have been deviated from. In this year there are even two supplements, whereby some figures are already listed and illustrated in the sales catalog 1938/39. In addition, these two supplements show almost identical figures, so that it is actually only a supplement. Why Lineol has published two different supplements here cannot be understood.

It is not known whether Lineol also published a novelty supplement in 1935 and 1937. Possibly a reader/collector can contribute something to it.

Of particular interest is the novelties supplement 1936, as it is the first and only time that the complete standing Luftwaffe Chapel has been depicted here. This is mentioned in the later sales catalogues, but mostly only the standing kettledrum is shown.

Sales Catalogues after 1945

VEB Plaste Dresden has partially continued to produce Lineol's range of figures, especially the animal figures. Even some new models have been added to the assortment. Sales catalogues have also been published, but without prices. The catalogues consist of a loose leaf collection, which was held together with the help of a cord. Currently only two catalogues are known, but their chronological classification is difficult due to the missing dates.

Dealer Catalogues

Um Spielzeughändlern das eigene Figurensortiment vorzustellen, hat Lineol Händlerkataloge publiziert. Diese enthalten neben der Abbildung der Figuren keine expliziten Preise. Vielmehr wurde dazu eine seperate Preisliste veröffentlicht. Diese waren sehr umfangreich und enthielten Abbildungen zu den meisten der angebotenen Figuren. Zudem waren die Katalogbeschreibungen mehrsprachig, so dass diese an Händler in verschiedenen Ländern ausgegeben werden konnten. Da in diesen Katalogen kein Erscheinungsjahr angegeben wird, kann dieses nur durch Vergleich der abgebildeten Figuren geschätzt werden.



Whether there were dealer catalogues for the years between 1930 and 1937 cannot be proven due to missing documents.

A special feature is the dealer catalogue No 10, which is probably known in 1937 in three different multilingual editions (German/English, English/Spanish and Italian/French). This one shows on page two exemplary foreign figures in colour with an officer, flag bearer and marcher each, so that here the painting of these figures is clearly recognizable. In addition, in the following years novelty supplements were published for this catalogue, which systematically supplemented this extensive edition. The paper quality of this catalogue is significantly better than that of the customer catalogues.



There are good reprints of this catalogue (Italian/French edition), whereby the cover often does not correspond to the coloured original and the coloured illustrations of the foreign figures on page 2 are missing.

Price Lists

In order to be able to react flexibly to price changes and to avoid having to print the elaborately designed dealer catalogues each time, Lineol has probably published price lists for the assortment on offer. In this price list, it is often possible to find other figures or figure assortments that are not shown in the customer and retailer catalogues.



From 1935 Lineol changes the format of the price lists.



The price list 1939/40 exists in two different variants, whereby the listed assortment is nearly identical. The difference is that in the extended price list, in addition to the dealer price (pieces per dozen), the selling price for the individual figures is also listed. In addition, the price increase for 1939 is explicitly listed here.

Order Lists

Although there must have been order lists for dealers, they are not yet available.

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