Well that's all done for another year!

Yesterday was the thirtysomethingth Plastic Warrior Show in London, I forget which number we're up to, a sure sign of ageing), here are a few of the things I took a shine to:

A tongue in cheek diorama made by Dan Morgan shows the archaeological discovery of  ancient Replicants figures in the South Downs of England.  The archaeologists are all converted from Replicants wild west figures.

The Plastic Warrior Show has become the traditional showcase chosen by Replicants to launch their latest range, this year they have produced a set of Texas Rangers.  Not the sharpest photo, sorry about that.

It's not all plastic at PW (although it is mostly), here a nice selection of Elastolin and others composition, I thought the bears were awesome.

One of the nicest forts I've seen in a long while, this one hand built by the seller, if only I had the room for it..............

I love these early plastic aircraft, especially the twin engine bombers, I'm tempted to start collecting them but you have to draw the line somewhere........don't you?

Some serious hardware here, lovely old German tinplate from the 1930's, the AA truck and jeep in the centre are by Tippco, I didn't dare to turn over any of the price tags!

More from the same table, the panzer in foreground was made by GAMA, I don't recognise the large gun at the back but it looks to be like 1960's manufacture.

A typical table top at the show, an organised confusion of plastic figures, this table belonged to one of the German collectors.  Last year we had wondered what effect Brexit would would have on the attendance of dealers from Continental Europe, happily they all booked their tables way before Brexit was postponed, which bodes well for the future, it seems the lure of toy soldiers far outweighs a little inconvenience at customs.  The German guys were all staying overnight in Belgium so they could attend the Brussels Toy Soldier Show the next day......... and there was a spare seat for me if I wanted to go, was I tempted?  you bet I was.

A nice selection of rare and early English plastics, it continues to amaze me how much of this stuff there is out there.  We all acquire far more toys than we need or want and the PW show has always been primarily aimed at collectors who want to dispose of their surplus, this year the show was fully booked well in advance and there was a sizable waiting list in the event of any dropouts.  I find this very encouraging, it indicates an enthusiastic and resilient collectors community.

New Replicants Culloden figures at the Plastic Warrior Show - May 2012

Well that's the Plastic Warrior Show over for another year, did I buy very much?  No not really, there was plenty of stuff there but I had made out a shopping list (nothing special - mostly stuff for conversions) and for once was determined not to deviate from it.........Big Mistake, note to self next year don't make list.

The thing about this show is that it's always been rather more of a social event than anything else and I invariably find mysself spending most of my time talking to people rather than buying.  Over the next few days I'll post up more entries about the show but to kick off there were some new figures from Replicants:

Bonnie Prince Charlie who led the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

It has become a bit of a tradition now that Replicants launch new products either at the London PW show or the Chicago show, this year there were two personality figures for the Jacobite Rising series.

The Duke of Cumberland, son of George 11 and victor at the Battle of Culloden.

Below are the English infantry led by the Duke of Cumberland, these were launched at the PW Show in 2011 but the picture I took at that time was pretty poor quality so here is a better one...........

.......and here is the man who makes them, Peter Cole sculpts the figures (same size, just like they used to in the 1960's rather than 3X the size of the final product like they do today) and makes the moulds himself.

Peter Cole of Replicants at the 27th Plasstic Warrior Show - 5th May 2012