Heller catalogue 1979 N° 607 La Sardane.

Welcome to a new entry for TVTA’s toy archive… Heller models.

I have to say it’s been raining here for three days + storms + flooding. I live near the sea, and at the moment I feel like I’m living in it. What better way to begin today’s post with some vintage marine images – courtesy of the 1979 Heller catalogue from France.

Heller catalogue 1979. N° 603 Le Capricorne par J Blanche.

Heller catalogue 1979 N° 604 Marie Jeanne par Roger Chapelet.

Heller is a French toy company founded in 1957 specialising in model yachts, military ships, cars and racing, aircraft, motorcycles, toy soldiers, and military vehicles. TVTA is pleased to present a selection of Heller’s models from the 1979 range as featured in its tri-language European catalogue. Also included are the full scans. The paintings are quite exceptional I think, with care taken not only in representing the intended model toy but the staged backgrounds too.

Artist Name Hunting

It took me a few good hours to research the French artists responsible for the catalogue images, and the ones I came up with are: Francis Bergèse, J. Blanche, Roger Chapelet, and Olivereau. It was worth the effort, as the images you see in this post are simply magnificent and deserve to be credited. Although plenty of original artwork was commissioned to sell toys during the later half of the 20th century, not much of it is credited. When you do find an artist’s signature on a catalogue page, advert, or toy box, it’s usually grainy and unreadable. So, trying to track down Heller’s 1979 catalogue signatures was a good challenge for me, and I’m pleased I managed to find the majority of them.

Click images to go bigger and enjoy the art!

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