YOU ARE INVITED! Weekend of August 4th (1 Viewer)

[ucla1967]

And finally (I bet you thought that this would never end), the last photos. Any questions about anything you have seen?


Photo one: Close-up of the custom made border detail at the top of the stairs.

Photo two: SAE 30-mm U.S. Army figures from the Carriage house.

Photo three: Not toy soldiers, but part of a wall with political campaign buttons.

Photo four: A close-up of a Teddy Roosevelt (& McKinley) political campaign button that is more than 100 years old.

Photo five: Medieval figures on a shelf with related stuff.

 

[wadepat]

Hi UCLA1967,

Thank you so much for posting all these fine pictures. The collection is absolutely stunning and I am very pleased to see pictures of it. Having a home full of such treasures would be like living in a dream!

Thanks again for sharing these photos with us.

Warmest personal regards,

Pat

 

[kilted vampire]

More photos from the Main Display Room.


Photos one, two & three: Various views of the Egypt/Sudan Diorama which is the centerpiece of the room.

Photo four: Bill Hocker's Balloon set.

Photo five: Top shelf, various Indian Army figures. Second shelf, Bill Hocker's Elephant Basttery set, with John Tunstill's Soldiers, Soldiers in the background.

You gotta love that balloon set.

 

[ucla1967]

You gotta love that balloon set.

The balloon set is number one in his product line (i.e., the first numbered set he produced). It is still available in his catalog for $560. You can see it on his website at www.wmhocker.com under his Boer War or Nile Campaign lines.

 

[Leadmen]

Mike: Thank you for the "tour" of Mr. Walker's collection. The pictures are superb. We had access to something we would not normally see unless we went to his open house. I will be looking again at his collection. Leadmen

 

[kilted vampire]

Mike: Thank you for the "tour" of Mr. Walker's collection. The pictures are superb. We had access to something we would not normally see unless we went to his open house. I will be looking again at his collection. Leadmen

You guys should have seen the smile on Mikes' face as he happily went around the house taking all those pics!

 

[Leadmen]

I think I would be all smiles wandering around looking at such a collection? I imagine Mike and Mr. Walker have been friends for a long time. Leadmen

 

[The Lt.]

All I've got to say is WOW. Mike and John if need any help using photo bucket you can touch base with me and I'm sure fish as well as modwall would be willing to help. I've close to 1200 photos store on it and it's by current source for posting photos on the forums.......The Lt.

 

[damian]

Mike
Thank you very much for those superb pictures. I was wrong when I implied that WWII was not featured in this collection. I see a diorama of Omaha Beach in one of the photos. It is wonderful to be able to do a virtual tour of Mr Walker's collection
Regards
Damian Clarke

 

[ucla1967]

I think I would be all smiles wandering around looking at such a collection? I imagine Mike and Mr. Walker have been friends for a long time. Leadmen

I wasn't the only one who was all smiles. Take a look at the photo of Bob Walker talking to the Kilted Vampire in the Napoleonic Room. Notice the look on the faces of the two other collectors in the photo. My wife said they looked like kids in a candy store.

I have only really known Bob Walker well since March of 2006. I had seen him at previous West Coasters and, in fact, he had bought sets from me at a couple of earlier shows. I only remembered him as someone who set me straight about one of the three Sarum Imperial Austrian Hussars sets he was buying from me. In an off-hand manner, I said I thought it was such and such a Regiment. He quickly corrected me in no uncertain terms about what Regiment it actually was.

At the 2006 West Coaster, he walked up to my tables at the start of Sunday's Show and noticed my five or six sets of Hiriart I had out. He took about four sets and asked if I had any more. I said I had a box full under the table (including a set that I had put a rubber band around to save for the Kilted Vampire). As he was going through the box a couple of other collectors came up to my tables and I got distracted. Bob said he "would take all of these" (almost two dozen sets) at $110 per set. The only problem was that they were actually sets from my collection that I was "showing and telling" and had brought to the Show to take orders for, if there was any interest. It took me a year to replace those sets and Kilted Vampire never did get his.

When I started the Southern California Toy Soldier Collectors Society, Bob was the first person I called to ask to join. He has attened virtually all of our meetings. I place fairly large orders for Hiriart toy soldiers (now over 200 sets). When they finally arrive, sometimes up to a year after I have placed the order, I always take the whole order up to Bob's house and we spend hours looking through the sets. We pull out Bob's reference books and check the figures for accuracy. However, I have to be carefull. I had ordered a special nine man set of a USMC landing party with "Wind & the Lion" type blue uniforms, but with WWI style helmets. Bob liked the set so much that I gave it to him. He wanted to pay for it, but I told him I wouldn't sell it to him but would only give it to him. Frank Cooper has the original version of the set with soft cap; I guess I may never get to have one.

 

[ucla1967]

Mike
Thank you very much for those superb pictures. I was wrong when I implied that WWII was not featured in this collection. I see a diorama of Omaha Beach in one of the photos. It is wonderful to be able to do a virtual tour of Mr Walker's collection
Regards
Damian Clarke

Although he has 15,000 figures in his San Jose collection, I wonder how many I actually managed to take photos of. I am sure it was a small subset of the total. To be honest, it was almost overwhelming to try and grasp everything that he had on display. Now that I am home, I realize how much I didn't get a good look at or didn't take a photo of. Which is why we are going to do this again next year!

The WWII part of his collection is very small; I would guess less than 5 percent. The SAE 30-mm WWII figures in the Carriage House were actually made in the old Union Of South Africa in the 1950s by Holger Erickson. SAE are the first metal toy soldiers I bought in about 1954. The ones I bought came in open-faced green boxes with a clear cellophane wrap and sold for 50 cents. The bottom of the bases were stamped "Union of S. Africa" and SAE stood for South African Engineers. They were crudely painted, but I love mine just the same.

 

[damian]

Photos from the Napoleon Room.

Photo one: Corner view with painting of Napeleon's coronation at right. Note the lemon tree outside the second story window.

Photo two: Wall of shelves with books, figures, and other related items.

Photo three: Napoleon's coronation set by Mignon based on the painting in photo one.

Photo four: Bob Walker (3rd from left) talking to collectors including the Kiltedvampire in the green shirt. Bob cut his head showing me his basement workshop.

Now look here. We finally get to see Kilted Vampire but where is his kilt.

 

[ucla1967]

Here are some more photos from the Main Display Room.

Photo one: Ethiopian Pack Mountain Artilllery from the 1936 Italian invasion.

Photos two & three: From left, Albanian Infantry, unknown unit, and Swiss Infantry.

Photo four: Sailors & Royal Marines.

Photo five: Various Danish troops.

I just had lunch with Bob Walker. Earlier, we printed about ninety 5 X 7s photos of his collection (that I took and have shown on this forum) at a Sam's Club walk-up kiosk. They were only 38 cents each and came out beautifully. I wanted to point out soldiers from two rarely seen countries in photos two and three. The figures in red are indeed Albanians from Bob's own castings. The figures to the right of them are troops from Liechtenstein. When did you ever see troops from those two countries? I can honestly say, never. The mounted figures to the far left in brown are General Staff from Montenegro. The mounted figures behind the 1880s Swiss Infantry are Swiss cavalry.

 

[ucla1967]

Bob has taken his 5 X 7 photos and blown then up to 8 X 10s. He has given me a set with notes on the back indicating what the photos represent. I will bring these to Chicago for anyone to look at, if you are interested.