need help with collecting (1 Viewer)

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generaljl

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I have been collecting metal 54mm toy soldiers for years. I have Conte, Old Northwest, Britains. I have buying sets to make up units of 12 men, but his is getting costly. I will have i.e. 12 men marching, 12 men firing. I buy four and five of each set out there. I have ACW, WWII, WWI, and AWI. Do most of you collectors collect one of each set or multiple. Please help before I go broke.
 
Hi general and welcome to the forum

It all depends on how you want to display your troops, personally I display mine primarily in dioramas but if you are displaying on a shelf or cabinet a line of a dozen soldiers all in the same pose look neat.

But if you want realism same posed troops marching are fine but same posed troops firing- unless lined up as a defensive and orderly firing line as at Rorkes Drift or The Crimean Thin Red Line or The British Square at Waterloo - bit of a rarity, for when the shooting started formality on the battlefield quickly disappeared -loading weapons and firing became more irregular plus casualties in the line started to appear normally followed by orders of "Fire at will" As we moved into modern warfare WWI and WWII troops were rarely if ever seen in a formatted firing line unless in a trench or a firing squad.

As I said it's a personal choice and I'm sure other members will disagree with me but I select as much as possible troops with different poses which fit better in a dio.
However, welcome to a forum where the majority of it's members are also broke from buying too many TS's

Reb
 
It also depends on the figures you collect, and the style of those figures. You might find that the guys who collect gloss-finished figures in traditional toy soldier style may often display their figures in parade formations.

As reb noted, it's a matter of personal taste, and I would add, very much so.

Whatever you do, do what you enjoy and what interests you.

Prost, beianand!
Bradley
 
Welcome aboard General! This hobby eventually makes us all go broke, so just buy what you like!
 
Save yourself a lot of money and Stay Away from the NAPOLEONIC PERIOD ! :eek:

To do formations and squares - oh man - its costly ! As for me - I can't stop now - must have all the Napoleonics I can get !! :p

I have seen great displays of one of each of a type of figure put together - like the Blackwatch. I personally do dioramas myself.
 
And a big welcome from yours truly also! I can't speak for anyone else here , but I chose a period and started collecting various makers until I could identify which ones made me quiver like a kid on a first date. Then I devoted my energies(time and money) into those manufacturers. Any other figures from other periods are considered extra baggage in my house, above all the extra baggage in my house. I have a set of CBG Mignot chasseurs alpin that I have that make me cringe when I look at them.

We can reserve a nice cardboard box for you to call home just down from mine if all goes well. Can't miss it, it's painted 80's woodland camouflage!
Mike
 
generaljl said:
I have been collecting metal 54mm toy soldiers for years. I have Conte, Old Northwest, Britains. I have buying sets to make up units of 12 men, but his is getting costly. I will have i.e. 12 men marching, 12 men firing. I buy four and five of each set out there. I have ACW, WWII, WWI, and AWI. Do most of you collectors collect one of each set or multiple. Please help before I go broke.
Click to expand...

Really depends on how you want to display your collection Gen. And welcome to the forum by the way.
As noted, an action diorama calls for individual figures whereas the traditional marching unit, for example, lends itself to multiples.
Appreciate what you mean about going broke. My order for the new K&C UK TRL has just about cleaned me out for the rest of this year. I'll only be getting the occasional set from now until the Christmas Crimean special is released.

Cheers
H
 
Welcome General, as you can see there are about as many opinions as members on this and there is no wrong answer. I agree with all who say it depends on how you want to display them and that for action, as many varied poses as possible adds realism. I hesitate to disagree a wee bit with my friend Reb (he is right too often;)) but I think there are many opportunities for multiple firing figures up to WWI but you need to balance these with others to make it look right. Take a look at some of the dios posted here and you will see many examples of how that can be done well.

As you can gather, no one here can help with the broke part.:rolleyes::)
 
Can you imagine having a Legion of Romans (54mm)! That would be a wonderful sight but a costly one? I actually bought a massive amount of 1/72 scale plastic Romans to attempt to make a large scale Roman battle, but after I hand painted the first 150 I decided it was to much and stopped.
 
Sahara said:
Can you imagine having a Legion of Romans (54mm)! That would be a wonderful sight but a costly one? I actually bought a massive amount of 1/72 scale plastic Romans to attempt to make a large scale Roman battle, but after I hand painted the first 150 I decided it was to much and stopped.
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The best opportunity to do that was with the Blue Box Romans set. I saw one such collection of Romans at a show, maybe about 100 of them arrayed on a table.

The only problem was the composition of the set-four figures: one of Julius Caesar, a signifer and two legionaries. You'd wind up with a lot of extra Juliuses (Julii? I never studied Latin formally) and signifers.

Even so, every so often, I see individual figures for sale on eBay and at shows.

Prosit!
Bradley
 
theBaron said:
The best opportunity to do that was with the Blue Box Romans set. I saw one such collection of Romans at a show, maybe about 100 of them arrayed on a table.

The only problem was the composition of the set-four figures: one of Julius Caesar, a signifer and two legionaries. You'd wind up with a lot of extra Juliuses (Julii? I never studied Latin formally) and signifers.

Even so, every so often, I see individual figures for sale on eBay and at shows.

Prosit!
Bradley
Click to expand...

You could throw em in a bowl and have a Caeser salad !!!

Sorry I'll get my coat LOL

And welcome general to the forum :)
 
theBaron said:
The best opportunity to do that was with the Blue Box Romans set. I saw one such collection of Romans at a show, maybe about 100 of them arrayed on a table.

The only problem was the composition of the set-four figures: one of Julius Caesar, a signifer and two legionaries. You'd wind up with a lot of extra Juliuses (Julii? I never studied Latin formally) and signifers.

Even so, every so often, I see individual figures for sale on eBay and at shows.

Prosit!
Bradley
Click to expand...
Interesting, I have never seen any BBI Romans in 1/32 scale. Of course they have a current line of individual figures in 1/18 that look pretty good. Where can you find reference to the other version?
 
I hope I'm not misremembering, but I'm pretty sure they're Blue Box. There were sets from various historical periods, and I remember 2 types of boxing.

The one boxing was of four figures, an officer and three enlisted men (or the consul and legionaries, in the case of the Roman set).

The other boxing was a presentation boxing, that included 2 sets of four figures, one from each side in whichever conflict was depicted. The box was configured like a book, 8.5x11 inches, I think, maybe larger, with a lid that opened to show some text on the inside of the lid (left-hand), and the other side had a box with cutouts with the figures in blisters.


The historical periods covered Ancient Rome, the Napoleonic Wars, the US Civil War, and WWII.

For Rome, there was only the basic 4-figure boxing.

For the Napoleonic Wars, I only ever saw a presentation boxing, consisting of Wellington and 3 British line infantry, and Napoleon, and 3 Old Guard grenadiers.

For the Civil War, there was 1 box set each for the North and South, with Grant and Lee and Billy Yanks or Johnny Rebs, as well as a presentation box set with both sets.

For WWII, there were several sets: US Army, with Patton and three GIs; Wehrmacht, with Rommel (circa 1944) and 3 Ländser; and a British Army set, with Montgomery and three Tommies.

I have a vague memory of seeing presentation box sets for the WWII sets, one with the US and German figures, and one with the British and German figures.

The figures themselves are cast in white metal, painted in matte finish, and armed with weapons made in a soft plastic.

The Romans' shields were plastic, with a decal of a generic legion device.

I first saw these sold at WalMart, back around 1995 or 1996. They caught my eye, because the quality and style of the sculpt and the painting was very reminiscent of King-White/Reeves Intl, or early Frontline. The other thing that caught my eye was that they sold for less than $10 US.

Every so often, a box will show up on eBay, and also individual figures. When they're being sold as individual figures, most of the team, the seller notes that he doesn't know who made them.

Anyone else remember these, and am I correct that it was Blue Box ("BBI" or "Blue Box International" was the trademark on the boxes, I'm sure)?

Prost!
Bradley
 
Capitolron said:
Save yourself a lot of money and Stay Away from the NAPOLEONIC PERIOD ! :eek:

To do formations and squares - oh man - its costly ! As for me - I can't stop now - must have all the Napoleonics I can get !! :p

I have seen great displays of one of each of a type of figure put together - like the Blackwatch. I personally do dioramas myself.
Click to expand...

Ron, I hope we get to see some pics sometime?
 
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