Hello all,
Firstly a hearty thank you Chris and Toricda for all your nice comments. Chris I hope you really enjoy the new additions to your collection and Toricda I hope you start collecting them soon!
Just to clarify and few points here and to answer some of your questions:
On the subject of pike lengths: We have issued two different pike lengths but this was not due to the fact we were unsure as to the length of these weapons at the time. This is one facet of the era which is clearly documented – for a change!
The initial offerings for our Ancient Collection was a Greek phalanx around the time of the battles of Marathon (BC 490) and Plataea (BC479). At that time, with the armour we had chosen for our first warriors, a short pike would have been more historically accurate. However having spoken to a large number of collectors a few have the opinion that "a phalanx cannot be a phalanx without those huge long pikes". So we had a dilemma; but not for long as we then decided that each set (ACG01 to ACG04 and ACG06 to ACG10) would contain both the long and short versions:. 3 figures 6 pikes. We hoped therefore everyone would be happy!
Chris, On the subject of availability: The limited sets ACG06 to ACG09 I firmly believe will not hold out stock wise for 2 years as you have suggested. They were released under a year ago and more than 350 of each set have already been sold. Maybe they will all be gone by this Christmas. I actually don’t like the idea of limited editions as I would much rather that collectors were able to buy for a year or two after the initial release of our sets. This satisfies both collectors with limited budgets, and also of course new comers to our ranges, and prevents them not having to pay outrageous prices on the secondary market for a product that is relatively new. The only reason these 4 sets were limited was due to the fact that once off the shelves we could launch another 4 sets of phalanx with yet more and varied shield designs. I can’t stock unlimited combinations of these figures for ever!
I still have many collectors each month who have just discovered our Samurai range and are desperately trying to track down some of our sets from the early 2000s, but alas these sets have long gone and will not be produced again.
On the subject of us being sleepy – I will ignore! Joking! Actually we are a very small company and also I run other businesses in Hong Kong the UK and in Spain as well. I am myself a collector and the reason why EOI got into the “toy soldier” market in the first place was to produce figures that I wanted in my collection but were not available in “bulk” at the time anywhere. To absorb these huge costs I of course had to sell into the market and due to an overwhelming response by lots of collectors like yourself I have managed to continue the business. The collection is growing and I try to make about 50 new figures a year. Sometimes we make more and sometimes less. We have 4 Cavalry and 17 infantry due to be released in the summer and the balance towards Christmas
More to follow ...
I was surfing the other day through Sierra Toy Soldier Company’s web site to see if any new additions had been posted. To my disappointment, none
