A Guardsman is a Guardsman.......is a Guardsman

If you happen to be British then perhaps the most iconic toy soldier is the guardsman, standing to attention in his red tunic and busby.  Everyone who has ever owned a toy soldier will at some time probably have had one but what do you do with them?  The only time the British army ever fought in a uniform vaguely resembling this was during the Crimean War, which the toy soldier industry has chosen to totally ignore! 

The other sin of the industry, looking back from the lofty pinnacle of political correctness, is one of ethnicity.  There are five Regiments of Guards: Grenadier, Coldstream. Scots, Irish and Welsh but the toymakers will invariably only offer you the Grenadiers or Scots.  Does it matter?  Not really (unless you happen to be of Irish extractions, as I am, or perhaps Welsh).  And the point of this post is ............how do you tell them apart anyway?   On this occasion Her Majesty, no less, comes to our assistance with a poster outside Buckingham Palace explaining the uniform variations - it's all about plumes and buttons (note also the buttons on the cuffs).  The photographer captured in the reflection is non other than your humble reporter before being hauled off to the Tower.

The Three Musketeers

My final post from the London Show, three French plastic musketeers, the first made by JIM (Jouets Incassables en Matiere Plastique) the second and third are unknown - hopefully someone from the French forum soldat plastique 1/32 will be able to shed some light.  What I found interesting was that No.2 is the same figure as No. 3  but has his hat moulded as part of the original figure whereas the other has had it moulded separately and glued on afterwards, also their bases are very different.

All three have lost their swords, which is a common enough problem with French figures which were mostly made in hard plastics or acetate rather than the more supple poly plastics used in the UK and USA.  The JIM figure originally had a sword moulded in plastic but the other two originally had a piece of metal wire to represent a sword.  I will probably repair all three with a length of wire and I'm tempted to repaint them but I quite like their "shabby chic" look and besides my painting pie is large enough already without adding to it.

Funny Little Wars armies but who made them?

Okay they aren't made specifically for playing Little Wars........but they should be!  I was told they were made by Hiriart who are a current manufacturer of white metal figures in the old toy soldier style, based in Uruguay,  I don't know very much about this firm but they have been manufacturing since 1972 which must make them one of the oldest makers of modern collectors figures and  I'm not aware of Uruguay having much of a toy soldier tradition but I could be very wrong there.  These are are not Hiriart but are sculpted very much in the style of old Britains hollow casts, are exceedingly well painted and tick all the boxes for me so I must make more enquires at the next London Show at the end of June.

Japanese artillery crew

Japanese infantry, I think the officer with the standard is rather nice.

Turkish infantry standing at the ready, very much in the Wm Britains style.

In the foreground an Austrian artillery limber, behind them a Turkish one.

I have now more or less completed my Turkish wargames army, made entirely from conversions (as seen in the post on the Battle of Astrakhan), and I'm about half way through doing the Japanese, I'm very tempted to add some of these to the establishment but in the meantime they provide plenty of inspiration.  Austrians are on the "to do" list!

King & Country Charge of the Australian Light Horse.

King & Country are a current manufacturer of white metal model soldiers, I'm not sure if they would prefer me to describe them as toy soldiers but they're not in the toy style so I won't.  Since last December K&C no longer sponsor the London Show but they still have a large presence at it, taking up the best part of one hall where they display their wares in mini dioramas like the one below

I don't really go in for K&C figures personally as they are a tad too large and too expensive for me but they do enjoy a large folowing among todays collectors and produce some unusual ranges so I feel they should regularly get a mention in any show report.  Also I find they often give me inspiration for some of my own conversions.

New book on Greek Plastic Toy Soldiers from the 50's and 60's

Another book about toy soldiers is always welcome in my house, this one written by collector Markos Plytos covers the stories and products of the two main Greek toy soldier manufacturers, PAL and their better known rival Athena (AOHNA) who eventually took them (PAL) over.  ISBN 978-960-7661-91-3.  It has 235 pages, illustrated throughout in full colour, the author has done a lot of original research and shows that these two companies did a lot more than just the Hoplites and Evzones for which they are best known.