Category:Plastone

1952: Advertising [image info]

1965: "For permanent results model it in Plastone", logo now based on the same typeface as the "Plasticine" logo [image info]

Plastone was a "sculptural" material produced by Harbutt's Plasticine Ltd. for permanent modelling.

Intended for more serious, permanent sculpting, Plastone was not available in a range of colours like Plasticine: it was available in a simple grey "stone" or "grey clay" colour, and it was assumed that if anyone wanted a colour effect, they'd paint the finished model (which you couldn't really do with Plasticine).

Plastone vs. Plasticine

The weakness of Plasticine was or course that, once one had finished one's masterpiece, it was liable to get squished or sat upon, and ruined – there was no way to make the results permanent. The company's answer was to replace the "ici" in the name with an "o", and produce Plastone, a modelling material that air-dried to permanent hardness, and whose name evoked both "Plasticine" and "stone". However, Plastone didn't seem to capture the imagination of the general public to the same extent – it required forethought and a certain amount of seriousness in one's modelmaking, as opposed to be being a modelling "toy" that one could pick up at any time, play with, and then squish back into a ball and leave for six months.

Plasticine had the spontaneity and instant reusability of something like Lego, while Plastone was aimed more at serious, grown-up modellers who intended to make something that they were proud of and wanted to keep.

Later advertising used the same basic design for the logos of both products, emphasising that the two complemented each other.

1952 advertising text:

PLASTONE

THE SELF-HARDENING MODELLING MATERIAL

"PLASTONE" is a self-hardening modelling material suitable for decorating wood, china, glass, etc., and also for making full relief models "in the round". Its natural colour is grey, but the finshed model can be painted with oil colours to produce any desired effect.

Send P.O. for 3/6 for one ³⁄₄ lb. tin of "Plastone" and Instruction Booklet.

— , Harbutt's Plasticine Ltd., , Hobbies Annual, , 1952

See also:

• Plasticine