Laszlo Carreidas Wanders – Figurines Tintin La Collection Officielle – 58 – Laszlo Carreidas Déambule

Author: Hergé & Editions Moulinsart
Price: £75.00
Publisher: Editions Moulinsart
Publication date: 2013
Format: Original pictorial boards with passport and figurine
Condition: New
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout

Description:

Original pictorial boards. Includes passport loosely inserted. Text in French. Includes the accompanying figurine. One from the collection of 111 books and figurines. Figurine is unopened in original packaging. New.

Laszlo Carreidas: A Short Account

Laszlo Carreidas is a major character in Flight 714 to Sydney (Vol 714 pour Sydney, 1968), one of the most psychologically nuanced and visually dynamic albums in The Adventures of Tintin. A brilliant yet eccentric aviation tycoon, Carreidas serves as both catalyst and comic foil within the story, embodying Hergé’s late-career fascination with human complexity — pride, paranoia, greed, and redemption.

Often described as “the man who never laughs,” Carreidas is one of Hergé’s most fully realised adult figures, part genius, part grotesque — an anti-hero whose contradictions mirror the anxieties of modern success.

Character Overview

Laszlo Carreidas is introduced as a multi-millionaire industrialist and aircraft manufacturer, the owner of the private supersonic jet Carreidas 160, a fictional aircraft reminiscent of the Concorde. Known worldwide for his wealth, eccentricity, and legendary miserliness, Carreidas is a caricature of the self-made magnate — brilliant, irascible, and deeply distrustful of others.

Hergé drew inspiration for the character from real-life aviation pioneer Marcel Dassault, though he infused Carreidas with his own satirical humour. The result is a character at once realistic and exaggerated — a man of staggering intellect who cannot master his own emotions.

Physically, Carreidas is small and wiry, with a sharp beard, round spectacles, and a perpetual scowl. He dresses meticulously but somewhat eccentrically, his black beret and cape hinting at both vanity and theatricality.

Role in Flight 714 to Sydney

The story opens at Jakarta Airport, where Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Professor Calculus await a connecting flight to Sydney. By coincidence, they encounter Laszlo Carreidas, who is also en route to the same destination aboard his private jet.

Carreidas recognises Captain Haddock — with whom he shares a past acquaintance — and impulsively invites Tintin and his companions to join him aboard the Carreidas 160. What seems a gesture of generosity soon becomes the prelude to an extraordinary adventure.

Shortly after take-off, the aircraft is hijacked by agents working for Rastapopoulos, Tintin’s recurring nemesis, who plans to kidnap Carreidas and force him to reveal the password to his hidden Swiss bank accounts.

Carreidas, true to form, refuses. His stubbornness and suspicion fuel the tension, even as his arrogance blinds him to danger. Eventually, he and Tintin’s group are taken to a remote volcanic island — a setting that fuses espionage thriller with science fiction.

There, Carreidas undergoes a kind of moral and psychological unravelling. He is subjected to hypnosis by Dr Krollspell, a sinister psychologist employed by Rastapopoulos, who attempts to extract his financial secrets. The hypnosis scene is both absurd and revealing: instead of confessing his bank codes, Carreidas regresses into childhood, recalling petty childhood misdeeds — such as stealing a toy from a friend and lying about it.

The moment lays bare his pathological inability to trust, the core of his character and his tragedy.

Personality and Traits

Laszlo Carreidas is one of Hergé’s most detailed psychological portraits. His personality is defined by paradox:

• Brilliant yet insecure: He has built an empire, but his mistrust consumes him.
• Wealthy yet miserly: He hoards his fortune obsessively, counting every penny.
• Arrogant yet ridiculous: His vanity borders on self-parody; he insists on being addressed as “Carreidas the Magnificent.”
• Emotionally stunted: His inability to laugh — a recurring motif — symbolises emotional sterility beneath worldly success.
• Eccentric and paranoid: He carries a portable safe, tests his staff’s loyalty constantly, and trusts only his personal secretary, Spalding — who betrays him immediately.

Despite these flaws, Carreidas is not evil. He is vain and selfish, but also courageous and capable of remorse. His experiences in Flight 714 to Sydney gradually soften him, particularly under Tintin’s influence.

Symbolism and Thematic Role

Hergé conceived Flight 714 to Sydney during the 1960s — a decade marked by materialism, Cold War paranoia, and rapid technological progress. Carreidas embodies the contradictions of that era: a man who conquers the skies yet cannot master himself.

1. The Corruption of Wealth:
   Carreidas’s obsession with money is a form of enslavement. His fortune isolates him, his mistrust poisons his relationships, and his life becomes an elaborate prison of luxury.
2. Technology Without Humanity:
   The Carreidas 160 symbolises technological triumph — speed, power, precision — but its owner is morally adrift. Hergé contrasts human progress with moral regression, a recurring theme in his late works.
3. Comic Redemption:
   Despite his cynicism, Carreidas’s ordeal strips away his arrogance. By the story’s end, he shows flashes of warmth, gratitude, and even laughter — his “rebirth” as a more human figure.

Relationship with Tintin and Captain Haddock

Carreidas’s interactions with Tintin and Captain Haddock reveal much about all three characters.

• With Tintin, Carreidas initially displays contempt for idealism, but Tintin’s integrity ultimately earns his respect. Tintin’s calm rationality serves as a moral mirror, forcing Carreidas to confront his own flaws.
• With Haddock, his relationship is tempestuous and comic. The two argue constantly, especially when Carreidas mocks Haddock’s seafaring career or Haddock teases him about his stinginess. Yet, by the end of the adventure, they share a reluctant camaraderie — fellow survivors of extraordinary circumstances.

These relationships highlight Hergé’s mature understanding of character dynamics: humour mixed with pathos, irony balanced by empathy.

Artistic and Narrative Importance

Visually, Hergé lavished attention on Carreidas. The Carreidas 160 jet — designed with technical accuracy — symbolises modern sophistication, while Carreidas himself is rendered with sharp, precise lines, reflecting his angular, defensive personality.

The volcanic island setting, with its underground base, combines the sleek modernism of espionage fiction with surreal touches — telepathy, ancient forces, and alien intervention — mirroring Carreidas’s descent from technological control into metaphysical chaos.

Carreidas’s transformation from arrogant magnate to humbled survivor is one of Hergé’s most striking late-career achievements.

Legacy

Although Flight 714 to Sydney remains one of the most enigmatic Tintin albums, Laszlo Carreidas stands out as a symbol of Hergé’s evolving worldview — a move away from adventure and towards introspection.

Carreidas embodies the flaws of modern man: wealthy, powerful, yet spiritually empty. His partial redemption — hinted at in his final smile — offers a glimmer of hope.

He is also one of Hergé’s most psychologically credible creations. His pride, pettiness, and paranoia feel drawn from life, not caricature. In this, Carreidas bridges the gap between comic exaggeration and psychological realism.

Summary

• Full name: Laszlo Carreidas
• Nationality: Presumed French
• Occupation: Aviation magnate and industrialist
• First and only appearance: Flight 714 to Sydney (Vol 714 pour Sydney, 1968)
• Traits: Eccentric, miserly, brilliant, paranoid, proud, ultimately redeemable
• Symbolism: Wealth without joy; intellect without empathy; technology divorced from humanity
• Allies: Tintin, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus (reluctantly)
• Enemies: Rastapopoulos, Dr Krollspell, Spalding (his treacherous secretary)

Conclusion

Laszlo Carreidas is one of Hergé’s most finely drawn human portraits — a man who has everything except peace of mind. Through him, Flight 714 to Sydney becomes not just an adventure story, but a meditation on success, pride, and redemption.

By the story’s end, when Carreidas finally allows himself to laugh, the moment carries profound symbolic weight. It marks the restoration of his humanity — proof that even the proudest, loneliest man can rediscover joy when stripped of illusion.

In that laughter, Hergé offers one of his most humane messages: that the true measure of wealth is not power, but the ability to feel wonder again.

Why Buy from Us?

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Cataloguer: Daniel Hornsey

Daniel Hornsey has specialised in fine and rare books, ephemera, and collectors’ editions for over thirty years. As a long-standing member of the antiquarian book trade, he has advised private collectors, curated catalogues, and sourced works for leading dealers, libraries and institutions across the world.

Hornseys’ exhibit regularly at book and map fairs in London and throughout the UK and are members of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association, the PBFA.

His fascination with Hergé’s work — especially ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ — began in childhood. Daniel recalls reading Tintin in original European editions and quickly recognising that these were not merely children’s books, but finely illustrated narratives crafted with artistic depth and wit.

As noted by the Musée Hergé in Louvain-la-Neuve, Hergé’s ‘ligne claire’ style has influenced generations of European comic artists and his original drawings and paintings command very high prices with his painting of ‘The Blue Lotus’ jar fetching £2.8m at auction in 2021.

By presenting these works through Hornseys’, he hopes to contribute to the continued appreciation of one of the 20th century’s most influential illustrators, helping new generations discover the artistry and legacy of Hergé.