"Die Hasen" - cardboard figures are awesome

Lengthy introduction :stuck_out_tongue::

When my family and I visited my grandparents there usually wasn’t much for us kids to entertain ourselves with. At some point you just reach an age where playing store isn’t that entertaining anymore, and board games you can only play so often before they get boring.
Fortunately for me my dad came up with these cardboard figures while toying around with stenciles when he was in his teens, and the outcome still was stored in my grandparents’ house. I spent hours upon hours playing with them - and it was an awesome time. I’d build castles for them out of boxes, their spaceships were box lids, and adventure after adventure took place. Come to think of it I might even have played more with these cardboard figures than I ever did with my System Lego…

Anyways, it didn’t take long until I wanted my own figures to also play at home with them. The original stencils unfortunately got lost, so my dad designed some for me on the computer - and I did, too, although my first tries… ah, you’ll see. Designing them on the computer made it easy to get a lot of them very quickly, but unfortunately they lost a lot of their individuality through that, too. By the time I designed the last of them, however, I dare say I got pretty decent.

And to end this lengthy introduction - an introduction to the theme of these figures.

The whole thing is set in a Sci-Fi Universe with planets inhabited by different species. The main good guys are “Die Hasen” (“The Rabbits”). I later also added guinea pigs (after we got some as pets ;)). The main opponents were originally the forces of Yxandramon and for my figures the forces of Roktaromon - both made up of many different species.
Most characters have unique names - those of my dad’s characters are much better than mine, though… although I don’t know how many of them are actually “stolen”. For example I know that “Yxandramon” was some creature in a Perry Rhodan story…

In total I probably have about 400 of these figures - I never counted them, though.

Ok, on to the pictures - not of all figures, but only of the most noteworthy and my favorites.

First the figures my dad made:

The rabbit society was very military based - and here are the highest ranking officers. In the middle is field marshal Kitenko, flanked by general Sakapo (purple) and colonel Nalkinnen. Behind Sakapo is colonel “Scholli” Schollman. The one with only one star is major Rodenbach. Of the others I can’t remember the names right now.

One of the first figures my dad ever made was king Hason (middle). For some reason I love the pink uniform of the guys on the left - they’re some kind of pilot guys, I think. The one with the glasses is a commodore. The one in orange on the right is a member of the ATK (“Anti Terror Kommando”). I don’t know what that blue guy actually is, but he’s somehow connected with the colonel in pink (see those "Z"s?)

And there were super heroes, too - this is the X-Team. Let’s see how much I remember - the big guy in the back is Kov Haxlakai. What his powers are I don’t know, though. Then from left to right: can’t remember the name - has the abilities of a robot, Karato - the rabbit with the fists of steel, Electro - the electric one, dunno - man/rabbit of steel, Energo - the radiation rabbit, Blitzo- the fastest one, the last two had strange names which I can’t remember at the moment, but the first can create energy shields and the other possesses the power of black holes.

And then of course there also was this group - they mostly also possessed special abilities, I think, but my dad never said what exactly they could do in most cases. From left to right: Olb Trentu, Kasjo el Sajif, Troodat (the living radio station), Greenpoint, Morte Skoulange (hope I wrote that correctly from memory…), Piet von Greifenklau (their leader), Leonidor, Hrangi (can travel at lightspeed), ?, Laroto Kataka, Guy Eric Pfotipfar (the crazy professor), Radon Slope, Scropnos, ?, Flunx, Carlos de Aranie, …some orientalic name he is also titled “the viceroy”

Bad guys! The one in the middle is the one and only Yxandramon. The vaguely similar guys on the left and right are Moltevan and Laftan. That elephant guy is some criminal…

Yxandramon’s main followers - the ones in green are something like his lieutenants, they’re called “Braxiles” and I absolutely love their design. The smaller ones in white don’t have a species name - at least none that I know of, but they have individual names (that I can’t remember at the moment, though)

More bad guys - left to right: Mr. Works, Scalo (can walk through solid objects), Ultron, an Axtorian, an Axtorian Robot (pretty much the Battle Droids of this Universe), the Green Scrombolt, Gohs, ?, Balter, Xilmon (who can manipulate time)


Well, and here are my humble attempts…

Left to right: Chief agent Thompson, Hastrubal Leipido - captain of the palace guard, king Möhribald III., colonel Sir Wrozeck von Warenheu, major Walther von Rittenberg. (the palace guard and the two soldiers’ designs were made by my dad as his first tries on the computer)

Of course I also had super heroes - Team Magna. Left to right: Shi Jong Habbu - the ninja rabbit; Flamon Vulcano - Fire Powers, Hanko Valanka - Magic, Franko der Blitz - pretty much the Flash (second character I ever made myself), Raknag vom Stern (“from the star” - he can throw balls of energy, I guess (my first character), Mr. Psycho - don’t mess with him, der Rächer der Pfote (“avenger of the paw”), Sen Zorro - the needle rabbit.
… yes, I know they suck… it gets better, though!

The knights of the cucumber - some guinea pigs. I like how I incorporated all the different vegetables etc. into their weapons that our pet guinea pigs like to eat. I’m gonna spare you their names, though, because believe me - they really suck. (Thought it funny back then…)

My equivalent to Piet von Greifenklau’s troop: The Association of Independant Adventurers. Left to right: Xylon Hykronor - poison expert and physician, Rudi von Eckzahn - scout, Lelnen Grauschweif - pilot (one of my latest figures and I quite like how he turned out), Rashak Syshra - navigator, Siebert Seifenwurz - gardener (I don’t know either why they need one), Olaf Fugendicht (god, that name :persevere:) - leader, Dr. Jens Bauchtrommel - botanist, Hansor Eimel - technician.

These three are the last ones I made… about 5 years ago.

Some bad guys with not much to tell about - in the middle is Roktaromon.

Some more bad guys - ?, Napromilo von Mnorr, Darth Vader/Lord Plamon von Runkor - has Plasma powers (the mask was originally designed to be used for a diver, but somehow it ended up here…) and Clochard (come to think of it he might actually have been the last one I did…).


So, these are a few examples from my collection of cardboard figures. If anyone’s interested I could probably show more. Otherwise enjoy :wink:

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Ha, these guys are pretty darn cool!

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those are a lot of bunnies

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A really creative concept. The designs themselves, yours included, are very characterful and charming, particularly the “Braxiles”.

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These all have their own unique charm, they’re all good.

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These are very creative.

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