Books at Christmas - Die Zinnlaube

 Several books arrived over the holiday period, so here are the new additions:

Die Zinnlaube started life as a magazine and is the; Journal of the German society  "Collectors of Old Toy Figures" but has become an annual publication and is now more of a book, this is volume 15.  Printed as a limited edition of just 200 copies, 140 pages (incl. cover), illustrated in full colour throughout, text in German and English, it costs 15 euro plus postage.  

The coverage is very much German centric and aimed at the top tier (i.e. expensive) end of the hobby, mostly early tin flats and solid lead figures, rather out of my league but always fascinating to see some different and unusual toy soldiers.

contents of this issue include:

Prince Murat and the French General Staff of 1870 

The Fire Brigade made by Spenkuch

Female Colonels-in-Chief as toy figures, 

The toy soldier workshop of Christian Wollrath, 

Spanish General Espartero made by Sohlke, 

Solferino - two testimonies of playing with tin soldiers in the 19th century, 

The Little Wars of Fieldmarshal August von Mackensen and his toy soldiers.

The Airfix Handbook

The Airfix Handbook - James May's Toy Stories, ISBN 978 1 84486 116 3, 96 pages illustrated in full colour throughout, I would describe this as being in the nostalgic format of childrens "Ladybird Books" but stand to be corrected on this (the illustrations are photographs).  

James May is a UK TV presenter best known for co-hosting the motoring show "Top Gear" but in 2009 he also created a six part documentary series to showcase his choice of the six most notable toys on a grand scale.  

One of these projects was to build a 1:1 scale model of the iconic Airfix Spitfire kit, and this book tells how they did it, it's split into three sections:

Introduction and The History of Airfix (50 pages)

The Big Build - full size Spitfire model (30 pages)

Complete catalogue of Airfix kits by year (8 pages)

I watched the programme when it aired and was thrilled to receive the book unexpectedly on Christmas morning (Mrs C. had found it in a local charity shop) so I don't know if it's still in print but you can probably find it on the internet.  Thoroughly recommended.

The life size model built for the programme is now on display at the Royal Air Force museum in Cosford.  Among the other projects were a basicule bridge to span a canal made out of Meccano (on display at the University of Liverpool), and a full size habitable house made out of Lego bricks, which had to be dismantled after the series because it didn't have planning permission!

The Toys of Astra-Pharos

 The Toys of Astra-Pharos, privately printed in 2007 by the author David J. Booth, soft cover A5 format with 72 pages illustrated throughout mostly in black and white, ISBN 978 0 9556361 03.  My copy cost £16.50 from the author via ebay.

I've known the Astra range of toys from early childhood, we lived near the factory in West London and their products were popular locally, yet I've never owned one.  They are big solidly built pieces of model engineering, distinctive and iconic, the 1939 catalogue is full of Anti Aircraft guns and working searchlights, strangely prescient of the Blitz about to engulf the nation.

This booklet is seriously punching above it's weight, covering the history of  the company from the end of WW1 until it ceased to trade in 1975. It charts the entire toy product range, the boxes, accessories, catalogues and instruction leaflets, with each item illustrated.  Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of toys and toymakers.

Toy Soldier Battles II

 Toy Soldier Battles II, Antonio E. Belmonte Cerezo, ISBN 9798272688880, 95 pages, illustrations designed and text translated by Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant  (one paragraph has been missed and is still in Spanish!). 

This is a strange one, I saw it advertised on facebook and thought I'd give it a punt as I fancied trying some simple, fast play WW2 style rules, which is what these are, but not in the way I'd imagined.   

The coloured illustrations throughout are quite charming and drawn in the form of Army Men toy soldiers like the ones shown on the cover.  And that's a good introduction to what the book is about, go online, buy a couple of those big bags of green and tan Army Men, the ones that come with tanks, jeeps, planes, helicopters and bunkers, grab a couple of dice then settle down on the floor with the kids and have yourself a wargame.

There's a bit more to it than that, units are given a profile based on their armament, mobility and resilience/armour, casualty modifiers affect range and cover, dice for random event activation and there are Victory points at the end. Officers play specialised roles with eight different strengths they can bring to a unit like; Medic, Communications, Mechanic etc.  There are chapters for Army Lists, running a campaign and four trial scenarios.  It's all stuff we recognise in a set of wargame rules but it's all kept fairly simplistic so it's easy for a newcomer to pick up.

So it's more than a stand 'em up and shoot them down toy soldier game but I'm not sure it's one that will appeal to regular gamers.