Collecting Toy Soldiers

Musketeers by Guilbert of France

2012-02-17T19:59:00.001Z

Guilbert didn't make a lot of stuff but what they did was very good, these were some of their early production in an acetate material which generally doesn't stand the test of time very well. These examples have the name marked on the base but many don't, they are distinguishable by the hats and plumes which are moulded seperately and glued on, also the swords are just a length of wire, originally I thought that this was just a case of somebody repairing a broken figure but all the early examples I have seen are like this and it was a common practice with a number of early French plastic manufacturers. Later production was in white hard polystyrene and I'm not sure I've seen any of these with the manufacturers name marked underneath. I do think they have a certain elan.

Q. When is an Airfix not an Airfix?

2012-02-09T14:38:00.001Z

A. When it's a Hong Kong copy. I've been having an off-on tidy up of my toy soldier room for several months now, it's not that it's a big area but that the concept of "go tidy your room" does not become any less tedious or disheartening just because you've left adolescence far behind!

Anyway, in the darkest corner of a long forgotten cupboard I discovered an old shoe box which I'd quite forgotten about. Way, way back in the days before ebay, and toy soldier shows plastic figures could be quite hard to find, you could get plenty of hollow-cast Britains or "connoseur models", if you had the money, but plastics were considered to have no intrinsic value and consequently there was no market for them. It was in this period of plastic austerity that I started collecting pirated copies (or knock offs if you prefer) of mainstream products, mainly out of desperation to collect something, and that long forgotten period came back to me when I opened the shoe box.

Of course the copies weren't all made in Hong Kong, that bastion of enterprise which we Brits rented off the Chinese for the better part of the last century, but they were by far the most prolific. The most commonly copied figures were Britains, particularly the Herald Khaki infantry but in fairness the British companies making copies of these were legion: UNA, VP, Johilco, Benbross, Tudor Rose etc. From the shoe box I've pulled a few of the figures that I found amusing in the hope that someone else might feel the same. First above is a copy of an Airfix footballer, nothing special about that just that the originals are not that common. The Japanese rifleman standing firing has been made in two parts, he swivels at the waist to make him a sort of swoppet. The manufacturers really went out of their way with the grey figure in the middle, he's a copy of the Airfix WW2 German infantry running with rifle at the waist but he has been made as a swoppet with six parts. Like the Jap he swivels at the waist but he also has a plug in base and head (the head is copied from the first version Timpo German with a press on helmet, helmet missing here) but the great thing is that they've made a belt for him in brown plastic with bayonet.entrenching tool and gas mask canister. Rarely can anyone have gone to so much effort to make something infinitely inferior to the original.

The next bunch I pulled out were two of the Airfix HO (1/72nd) scale WW1 French which have been pantographed up to about 40mm scale. Pantographing figures down in size and is quite common and in fact most modern 54mm figures are sculpted three times larger than the final finished product and then pantoed down in order to creat a mould with sharp detail. How great would it have been if they'd worked this magic on all the Airfix WW1 ranges, 40mm is just ideal for table top wargaming. The two Napoleonic British infantrymen are nice crisp 54mm copies made in Poland and I've included them mainly to give an idea of scale.

My favorites have to be these Airfix American Revolutionary figures, again they've been pantographed up from HO scale to about 40mm, in typical Hong Kong fashion they have taken the American infantry and painted them up as British but retained the stars and stripes on the flag! These were being sold as cake decorations when I got them, I'd love to get more.

The day I found VICTORY in the bottom of a bottle.

2012-01-16T12:11:00.003Z

I admit I had been drinking..... but not that much. I blinked in the January sunshine, opened my eyes and it was still there. I could hardly believe it but it seemed such an amazing thing that I felt I must share it with you dear reader (whoever you may be)

Since I no longer work in town I avoid going up into London (because it can be a bit of a nightmare) but a few days ago Mrs C needed to visit Chinatown so I went along as her bagman. After a pleasant lunch we headed back towards Waterloo Station via Trafalgar Square, the later is of course a tourist destination of International renown with Nelson's Column in the centre surrounded by four podiums. The thing is that only three of the podiums have statues on them and the fourth stood empty until a few years ago when someone came up with the idea of using it to showcase modern works of art, some of which have been quite controversial. This particular work has had little or no attention from the media and has nothing to do with collecting toy soldiers, except that it is a model even if it does weigh in at a whopping 4 tons and 15 metres long, so it just had to go in the blog.

I've never heard of Yinka Shonibare but anyone who can make a four ton model of HMS Victory in a bottle has earned their MBE in my book.

Latest Plastic Warrior and Figuren Magazines now out

2012-01-13T13:20:00.002Z

In the last few days the postman has brought me the latest issues of Plastic Warrior and Figuren Magazines.

Plastic Warrior number 146 has articles on: The Crescent story, Very early plastic warriors, Where did the toy soldier go?, Book Review, Britains stuff, Wild Young Dirky, UFOs, Auction Review, Cherilea Commandos and Minor Makers - BMS

Figuren Magazin Nr. 4 2011, has articles on: Erich Leistner - Master diorama maker, Bad Nauheim 2011 figure show, A hundred years of Hausser, Pfeiffers 11cm military figures, Gulaschkanone by Metall-Spielwaren Weimar, German made Indian canoes, "Winnetou" boardgame, Modelling book review, Nativity figures and 32nd Herne figure show.

Both magazines are available by subscription direct from the publishers and in my opinion are indispensible if you are a serious collector of old toy soldiers.

Little Wars armies - progress in 2011

2011-12-31T16:19:00.001Z

Way back in January I made a New Years Resolution not to start any new Little Wars converting projects until I had completed the ones that were already in progress and , unusually for me, I stuck to it - well almost.

For a couple of years now I have been building up Russian and Turkish armies of the "roughly" 1880's period based on pictures of Heyde solid lead 45mm toy soldiers in the book Bleisoldaten by Hans H. Roer (sadly long out of print). I came to this period because it's a bit different and exotic, nobody was making the figures at the time so it gave me scope to do some simple conversions which would provide a very personal collection and I like the idea of late 19th century armies slugging it out on fairly even terms (I had long since done the ACW to death). I started the project with what I consider to be the tedious part of building wargame armies which is knocking out bog standard units of infantry for both sides, that done (along with a bit of cavalry) by this year I am down to wrorking on staff, a bit more artillery and whaterver takes my fancy, this is the fun bit for me and it will probably be ongoing to a certain extent for some time to come.

Turkish staff, made from cheap plastic BMC figures with metal heads from Dorset Toy Soldiers

Turkish command groups, made as above with Britains Herald figures for the officers and buglers, BMC for the standards.

Russian staff and some additional infantry to bring existing units up to strength, these are still WIP.

Russian riflemen from the Caucassus

French naval landing party, still to do - standard bearer and bugler, perhaps an MG also.

French ADC with some generic support troops, a cook and a blacksmith. I plan to make more support troops in shirt sleeve order with blue trousers striped red, the idea being that they can then be used with any national army rather than have lots of duplication.

A project that's been too long on the back burner for me are Japanese troops circa 1905, I plan to move these up the to do list in 2012.

Chinese have never featured as a project for me but I think that will change in 2012. New Years Resolution for 2012: forget about existing projects, just do stuff for fun but do lots more of it.

New book by James Opie

2011-12-26T13:43:00.002Z

I had intended to buy James Opie's new book " Collecting Toy Soldiers in the 21st Century" at the London Toy Soldier Show a few weeks ago, where for the cover price of £30 I would have recieved a signed copy direct from the hand of the author. However the fates decided that I should not go and therefore I have obtained an unsigned copy courtesy of Amazon for just over half that price (how can they do that when it's brand new?).

Published by Pen and Sword books Ltd. ISBN 978-1848843738, 207 pages fully illustrated in colour throughout.

This is a follow up to James' previous book "Collecting Toy Soldiers" which he wrote 25 years ago and sets out to reflect on the changes in the collecting environment during the intervening period. And what a lot of changes there have been, the whole demographic of collectors has changed as the older hollow cast lead generation have given way to the baby boomers of the 1950's and 60's plastic era. Also there has been a boom in availability of figures through shows and the internet, a feast of information through magazines, new books and blogs, and a veritable renaissance in manufacturing both plastic and modern metal collectors items.

Getting back to the book it's very much a gentle guide through Opie's personal collecting history and his philosophy of what makes a good figure, how to build a collection and how to wind down from it. That last aspect is rather new territory for me but being a near contemporary of the author I found the concept of "how to stop collecting" strangely compelling as it's something you start to think more about as you get older. I'm going to shut up now because I'm getting boring, it's a very good book crammed with great and unusual pictures of toy soldiers and I would very hapilly have paid the very modest full cover price for it had not Mr Amazon intervened.

London Toy Soldier Show 3rd December 2012

2011-12-02T11:10:00.001Z

The London show organised by King & Country is being held at the Royal National Hotel this weekend but sadly I will not be there. The December show is by far the best one of the three they run each year (in my opinion) and this will be the first one I have missed since this event began over a decade ago. If anyone who is going plans to put a report and photos anywhere please leave a comment to let me know where it's posted so I can have a look, alternatively if anyone wants to send me the details I will happily post them here.

In the meantime here are some pics I took of one of the Skirmish Wargames Group's games at one of last year's London shows.

The SWG put on a different game at each of the three K & C shows held each year and they are always a highlight of the day for me. Spectators are encouraged to join in but I have to admit that I strugle to follow the workings of the rules (because I'm a bit thick when it comes to that sort of thing) but the terrain and figures are never less than inspiring.

Q. When is a Panzer not a Panzer?

2011-11-22T09:30:00.002Z

A. When it's an aquarium ornament! On a recent fell walking break in the Lake District I wandered into one of those great big out of town retail estates that pop up in the most unexpected places (it really was in the middle of nowhere, I'd give you the map grid reference if I'd thought to keep a note of it). Anyway, this one had a massive "pets_and_everything_else_in_the_world_R_us" type store so I went in because I always like to check out the aquarium ornament section in case it it has anything I can use for wargaming - this time I realy hit paydirt

The Tiger tank is a little small for 54mm figures but the Hanomag and truck are just about right, the crashed pane is quite large and would probably fit well with 7cm composition figures. There was also a rather super sunken battleship sporting lots of combat damage which could probably have been painted up for WW1 or WW2, sadly it was displayed in a fish tank which was so dark I couldn't get a decent picture of it. It would have been ideal as SMS Konigsberg in a Rufiji Delta scenario that I've had in the back of my mind to play these past few decades but try as I might I couldn't bring myself to part with £45 for it and at two foot long it wouldn't go in my rucksack! Ho Hum.

Dorset Toy Soldiers Battleship

2011-06-30T07:31:00.000+01:00

My final posting from the London Toy Soldier Show last weekend is this rather fine battleship from Dorset Toy Soldiers just what you need to refight the Battle of Jutland on your garden lawn. My old friend Giles Brown who owns Dorset Toy Soldiers tells me that he is about to open a shop down in the west country to sell his figures, so if yu happen to be in those parts it would be well worth giving him a call to check on opening times.

Boer War limber mounted machine gun

2011-06-30T07:13:00.001+01:00

I'm starting to realise that I have a bit of a "thing" for machine guns mounted in wagons, sadly this pic dosen't quite do justice to this rather nice piece seen at the London Toy Soldier Show last weekend. I believe it is made by Urugayian firm Hirart and depicts a yeomanry unit of the City Imperial Volunteers from the Boer War, there was another one painted up in the uniform of the Boer Staatsartillerie (I think - note to self, must make more effort to ask questions next time)

Seen at the London Toys Soldier Show, June'11

2011-06-28T09:09:00.000+01:00

The King & Country Toy Soldier Company who sponsor the London Toy Soldier Show display their wares in a series of stunning doramas, the two pics above show their "Streets of Hong Kong" range. I don't collect K&C but if I did it would probably be this particular range just for the colour and vibrancy that they bring.

The two pics aboove are some of K&C's WW1 series, a rather nice late war machine gunner and a vignette of the German General Staff, the Kaiser in the middle and Von Mackensen on the right.

Skirmish Wargames Group Gordon Relief Game

2011-06-27T08:59:00.000+01:00

General Gordon's compound at Khartoum, note the hippo basking in the undergrowth.

King & Country, who make modern white metal toy soldiers for collectors, sponsor the London Toy Soldier Show which is held three times a year. A regular feature of these shows is a demonstration wargame run by the Skirmish Wargames Group using 54mm figures, they mix both metal and plastic and there is often a high level of conversions among them. These games are always very varied, I don't think I've ever seen the same game played twice and they are known for the excellent quality of the buildings and scenery they bring to the table. Past games have included Incas and Conquistadores, French Canadian trapers and various Colonial, First and Second World War scenarios. This game was based on the Gordon Relief Expedition, these games are always a highlight of the show for me.

The Camel Corps stand to behind a defensive zariba

The Mahdist hordes rush in to attack

The Camel Corps make their stand with mounted camel troops on the flank.

WW1 machine gun team

2011-06-16T09:06:00.000+01:00

This semi flat composition machinge gun team were made in Germany around 1910 by Mars Hindenburg. They are depicted from the waist up as though firing from behind an earthwork and wear the flat topped felt Jaeger helmet, which is correct for mg crews of the period, rather than the leather spiked picklehaube. I rather like to see groups of figures that have been sculpted to sort of morph together or into their surroundings, it somehow adds something to the design for me.

Mystery Medics

2011-06-14T08:52:00.001+01:00

These stretcher bearers and nurse are solid lead (and very heavy!), they stand about 50mm high and the scuplting is very crude to put it mildly. I've never seen anything like them so they could be home cast or some sort of artisan production, they were included in a larger lot of British made figures that I bought but I assume them to be French because of the horizon blue uniforms but the strange shape of their peak caps makes me wonder about that, perhaps they could be WW1 Austrians or Romanians.

The King and Country London Toy Soldier show is being held this Saturday and I hope to attend, if so I'll post a report. I say hope to attend because the show clashes with our annual street party at which I have unexplicably and utterly stupidly agreed to take part in a cake baking competition. The competition is only open to the men of the street and the only rule is that wives may not assist in any way. I don't bake, in fact I barely recognise the big metal box that is our cooker, I am told there has been a very low level of entries, in fact I may be in a class of one, needless to say I am desperately trying to back peddle out of this.

PZG Samurai

2011-06-13T09:07:00.000+01:00

These plastic Samurai were made in Poland, probably during the 1960's and possibly by PZG, the Polish society for the Deaf, they stand about 60/65mm high. I don't know if the brown paint is original but it may be that they were painted to make them look like terracota, I am sorely tempted to strip and repaint them and it is only the backlog of existing painting projects that prevents me entering into this act of vandalism.

Homecast toy soldiers

2011-06-11T15:26:00.001+01:00

Making your own toys soldiers at home has long been a popular pastime, perhaps not so much in recent decades with the universal shift towards political correctness and safety concerns, but there used to be a big market for the sale of moulds to cast your own in lead. Homecasting moulds were sold extensively across Europe and the U.S. under many diffferent trade names but the figure designs invariably come back to one company in Germany, Gebr. Schneider (Schneider Brothers).

Sometimes enterprising individuals would produce figures from these moulds and paint them to a good standard for resale (as I suspect is the case with the first figure above) but mostly they were cast to a poor standard from whatever mix of metals could be found, often fishing weights or, according to urban myth, lead stripped from the church roof! The figures are mostly about 40mm high but size varies all the way up to about 60mm. They are exactly the sort of toy soldier that you will dig up in your back garden, crushed and suffering greatly from lead rot, and then be disappointed when you put it up on ebay and it dosen't sell. They are generally very crude and get little interest from collectors but I rather like them and they are great for playing wargames.

Les Ecossaise

2011-06-09T08:22:00.000+01:00

A Highland piper in glengarry and a standard bearer, an unusual pose for for the Scots, French made plastics of unknown manufacturer, probably made during the 1960's

So what is your favorite toy soldier?

2011-06-01T08:59:00.000+01:00

At the moment (and for a long time since) this chap has been a big favorite of mine, composition, made in Germany circa 1910 by Mars Hindenburg it is about 9cm scale.

A few more sailors

2011-05-31T10:01:00.000+01:00

At top a pair of matelots scrub the decks in time honoured fashion, the one with bucket is a later soft plastic copy of a hollowcast figure by JSF (Jouets Standard Francaise) the chap with the broom is also French made by ACEDO, (Domage et Cie) who previously made aluminium figures under the name ALUDO.

Posing by the forward gun is an unknown French made naval officer with a landing party standing at the ready converted from Cherilea foreign legion with metal matelot heads from Dorset Toy Soldiers

Posts have been missed this week as I've been recovering from having five teeth extracted (that's what comes from twenty years of dental neglect, children be warned). Which prompts me to ask the question why is it that in an age when putting a man on the moon is so "last century" that everyone has lost interest in it, the dental fraternity are still resorting to the medieval inquisitors practice of wrenching teeth out with pliers?

Some sailors for the Tradgardmastare

2011-05-31T09:08:00.000+01:00

Over on the Army Red/White and Others blog our friend Alan Gruber has asked for ideas on building ships and crewing them for 54mm wargames. Many years ago I built a gunboat based on the SMS Iltis, I've put pictures of it on the Funnny Little Wars Yahoo Group site and the sailors I use to crew it are here. At the top are two conversions made from Airfix commandos, in the middle are WW2 Lone Star and at the bottom is a close up of the bridge with two copies of Starlux? which I think were made in Hong Kong and a conversion which I think is supposed to be of Churchill.

HAC Open Day 2011

2011-05-18T08:58:00.001+01:00

Last Wednesday Mrs C was flicking through her favourite blogs (like you do) and found this entry on Tired of London, tired of life

The Honourable Artillery Company is the oldest Regiment in the British Army and they were holding an open evening that day as a recruitment event but also to raise money for charity. This has now become an annual event and it is only on for 3 hours but entry is free and they certainly pack a lot into that short space of time. We arrived shortly after the doors had opened and there was already long queues at the food tents where free (donations gratefully acccepted) burgers, chinese noodles and mini pizzas were being served up, next to these was the beer tent. We did a circuit of the static displays, field hospital, survival equipment, ordnance vintage and modern but best of all was the Chinook, surrealy parked before the high rise offices of the City.

The programme opened with a display of exercises by the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery towing a 13lb gun, personally I never tire of watching them wheel those guns around.

Next up was a display by the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers who provide the escort to the coach of the Lord Mayor of London during his Annual Procession, while the Lady Mayoress' coach is escorted by the Light Cavalry, below.

The HAC is a Territorial (Reserve) Regiment of the the British Army which specialises in surveilance and target aquisition for the artillery, members of the Regiment have been mobilised for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Next followed two displays by No. 2 squadron, the first was set during the Boer War and involved calling up the guns to support infantry ambushed by a Boer Kommando. The second was a similar scenario set in modern day Afghanistan. Both displays involved lots of explosions and much smoke, I love this kind of thing.

By now the dusk ws settling in and with all the smoke let off visibility was poor but we were reaching the finale of the event, the Band of the HAC came on wearing the uniforms of the Grenadier Guards, with whom they are affiiliated, followed by the take off of the Chinook from which there was to be a parachute drop.

The Chinook hovered above us for an age looking like a big dark malevolent bee.

The band struggled valiantly to be heard above the noise and wind from the Chinook rotors as it took off, a flare was set off on the ground (behind the band above) to guide the parachutist back to the field. Unfortunately the sky was so overcast, the ground shrouded in smoke and the wind so strong that the crowd held it's collective breath as we watched the parachutist carried away into the streets and office blocks of the surrounding district. Some time later the lone parachutist strode back into the arena, carrying his unfolded chute, to a rapturouse applause from the crowd.

Unknown drummer

2011-05-18T08:46:00.000+01:00

Another find at last weekend's PW show was this 15th century? drummer, made in France but I'm not sure who the manufacturer was. He's lost 99% of his paint and there is always a temptation to repaint figures in this condition, I'm undecided on this course of action at present.

A Bolshevik Tachanka

2011-05-17T09:08:00.000+01:00

This horse drawn machine gun cart is part of an extensive set of semi flat plastic toy soldiers made in the old USSR to depict the Russian Civil War.

In the begining.

2011-05-16T08:49:00.000+01:00

This mounted trumpeter of the Household Cavalry was given to me in 1960, it may not have been the very first toy soldier I ever owned but it is certainly the one that has remained in my posession the longest. It was made in England by Wendal, it is aluminium and is 54mm scale. Aluminium figures were very popular in post-war France but never realy caught on elsewhere, the only exceptions I can think of are Krolyn of Denmark who made copies of Elastolin as well as some original designs in this material and Wendal who made copies of Quiralux figures. Quiralux were the market leaders in manufacturing aluminium toy soldiers in France.

Aluminium figures are made by slush casting a process whereby the master model is pressed into compacted damp sand, then removed and the molten aluminium is poured into the resulting cavity. To make a two part mould the sand is packed into two steel trays which are then "sandwiched" around the master model. When I was at school we used to do slush casting in metalwork lessons, no health and safety worries back then! The limitations of this casting process means that aluminium toy soldiers tend to be less animated and detailed as those made in other mediums, the material is also very brittle and I have yet to find a way of repairing a broken item.

PZG Napoleonic infantryman

2011-05-15T10:50:00.000+01:00

This is the last of the collectable figures I picked up at last week's PW show, not a large haul considering the amount of esoteric stuff there to be had but the truth is that before very long I started to suffer from toy soldier overload and became incapable of rational thought. I had taken a shopping list to the show, mostly items I wanted for conversions to supplement the armies I'm building for the "Funny Little Wars" project but immediately abandoned that and bought us stuff tht was totally off list.

This figure was made in Poland, I presume by PZG (Polski Zwiacek Gluchych), the Polish Union for the Deaf, who ran workhops manufacturing all manner of things to raise money for deaf people. The organisation still exists today but no longer makes toy soldiers, this example is 54mm plastic. Collector Jim Lloyd is probably the leading exponent of PZG figures in Western Europe and has a website well worth looking at here.

Conte ACW

2011-05-11T22:21:00.000+01:00

These are two new(ish) figures of personalities from the American Civil War made in the USA recently by Conte (I say made in the USA because the commisioning company is American but on the base it clearly states that they were actually made in China, as most things are these days). I bought these with the intention of converting them to officers circa 1905 for my Funny Little Wars Russian wargames army. They are a tad large to go with the rest of the figures they are supposed to lead, being about 60mm scale but we might get away with it.

Garde du Corps by the WHW

2011-05-11T07:57:00.000+01:00

This figure of a Prussion Garde du Corps at attention was made for the WinterHilfsWerk (WHW) or Winter Relief Charity in germany in the late 1930's or early 1940's. The WHW made all sorts of items for sale to raise funds for the needy, including a few sets of toy soldiers. I've recently finished reading a novel (based on a true story) called "Alone in Berlin" in which the author, Hans Fallada is fairly scathing about the WHW suggesting that it was in fact just a front to line the pockets of senior Nazi party officials - well, he lived through those harrowing times and thankfully I did not so I'm inclined towards his opinion.

This figure is about 40mm size in plastic and semi flat, all of the WHW production is about this size or smaller, which perhaps reflects the limited capacity of the injection moulding machines of the time. Today these figures are sought after by a small number of toy soldier collectors but a much larger number of Nazi memorabilia collectors, this double whamy of demand tends to have a disproportionate effect in their price.

Unknown machine gunner

2011-05-10T19:41:00.000+01:00

For a prone laying pose this figure is nicely animated, it's 54mm scale in plastic, I don't know who made it but it was sold by a Belgian dealer at the PW show so I think it's safe to say it's either Belgian or French, on balance the style of it suggests the latter to me.

A Gentleman in Kharki

2011-05-10T08:06:00.000+01:00

Based on the character in Kiplings poem The Absent-Minded Beggar I've been after this figure for a long time, they're not particularly hard to find but they are generally priced way beyond what I'm prepared to pay. There are two versions of the "Gentleman", the one here and another with rifle held across his waist at the ready. They were made circa 1902 which makes them probably the earliest plastic figures ever, although they were not made as toys for the juvenile trade but rather as ornaments for bottle stoppers. It's made from a hard rigid plastic often described as celluloid but I don't think this is correct as celluloid is paper thin, very fragile and wouldn't have stood up to much handling. The figure is hollow having been made in a blow mould - air under pressure is used to blow the plastic material into the mould and inflate it to fill the cavity where it sets hard on cooling and the mould is opened to release it, today this process is mostly used to make plastic bottles and containers. The vendor remarked "every collection should have one" and of course he is right, even though it's not strictly a toy soldier it is an iconic piece of contemporary (with the Boer war) folk art.

Seen at the Plastic Warrior Show

2011-05-08T09:20:00.000+01:00

Dealer Steve Weston unveiled the new Sudan Camel Corps by Armies in Plastic at the Plastic Warrior Show in London yesterday. There are two poses, a trooper with slung rifle and an officer with binoculars, the set also comes with two different bagage camels. Very useful.

I was a bit cream crackered when I got back from the show yesterday so left posting until Sunday morning, I've looked in all the usual places on the net for details of the AIP Camel Corps set but can't find any mention of it so I have to keep checking the pic I took to make sure I didn't imagine it! (I'm sure I didn't)

I managed to pick up a few unusual bits for myself yesterday and will try to put some pics up over the next few days now that I'm starting to get the hang of this blog thing. Things got off to a bad start this morning when the pussies woke me with a little present, it seems they had noticed we were short of mice so decided to go out and remedy the situation, fortunately I managed an emerency casualty clearance before Mrs C awoke to the mayhem. However the day is improving, the alarm on my calendar has just gone off to tell me that I am supposed to be at Gatwick right now making a presentation at a conference for work (yes on a Sunday!), as I was informed recently that I am being made redundant at the end of June I decided the firm can whistle for it's presentation. I feel this was a good decision, and now I must go and make a cup of tea.

Seen at the Plastic Warrior Show

2011-05-08T09:11:00.000+01:00

Peter Cole had two new sets of Replicants figures, four new medievals and three English poses for the Jacobite Rebellion, these last come with a choce of two heads, a tricorn and a grenadier mitre so you can effectively make six figures, the mitre heads could also be usefully used to convert Barzo French Indian War figures to give even greater variety to the firing line. These pics didn't come out too sharp, sorry about that.

Seen at the Plastic Warrior Show

2011-05-08T09:00:00.000+01:00

Eric Kenp had a stand for Helmet Soldiers and displayed some of the great figures he makes to promote his kits.

Seen at the London Toy Soldier Show in March

2011-04-10T11:02:00.001+01:00

One of the rarest figures I've seen in a long time turned up at the London show, this diorama of Africn natives with a captured missionary who is destined for the cooking pot is made up using Cherilea Zulus but closer attention to the tre house shows that it contains the extremely rare witch doctor made by Speedwell. This little diorama has been awaiting a buyer for several shows now, it's very nicely done but not my thing and I couldn't bring myself to prise the witchdoctor off the stand so I left it for some other more deserving sould to add to their collection.

Seen at the London Toy Soldier Show in March

2011-04-10T10:58:00.000+01:00

This arab dhow was on the stand of Dorset Toy Soldiers.

Seen at the London Toy Soldier Show in March

2011-04-10T10:19:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks back I went to the London Toy Soldier show run by King and Country, I didn't pick up much for myself this time around but I got a few pics to give me ideas for future projects, one that has long been on the back burner is a Nile gunboat. One item I really liked was this Britains General Service wagon converted to the Austrian army, the brown tunics suggests to me that they are an artillery unit.

Britains War of the Roses Knights

2010-05-17T09:34:00.000+01:00

Britains War of the Roses knight mounted on a destrier with rare yellow horse blanket.