What is a big TS collection? (2 Viewers)

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Following on from Larry Allen's [Command Sergeant Major] question on the forum I want to throw out yet anther question to treefroggers,

"What is a big TS collection? "

Now I know there are collectors partners who would say 1 toy soldier, but we shall ignore these remarks. My question is on what would treefroggers class as a
Small TS collection?
Medium TS collection?
Large TS collection?
 
I have been collecting for over 50 years and always loved to create mass battle scenes.
I stopped counting many years ago but estimate having over 25,000 figures.
Most are older glossy from Trophy, Soldiers of the World/Regal, ATS, Little Legion, Tradition, TedToy, Britains, Marlborough,
Fusilier/Tommy Atkins, Mulberry, Somerset, Quarter Master and a host of others.
I used to paint my own figures and have hundreds of plastic Elastolins, Imrie Riley, Stadden and Rose.
For Matt finish I collected K&C, Britains, JJD, TCS, TG, Conte, First Legion, Aeroart, EOI........

With space considerations I have much of my collection in storage but pull them out from time to time.
 
I think small is under 500
Medium is under 5,000
Large over 5,000

For those of us collecting vehicles I would translate
Car / Jeep equals 10 figures
Tank or other large vehicle / fighter equals 25
Very large vehicle (boat, rail gun, bomber) 50 to 100
 
bradleyl30 said:
I think small is under 500
Medium is under 5,000
Large over 5,000

For those of us collecting vehicles I would translate
Car / Jeep equals 10 figures
Tank or other large vehicle / fighter equals 25
Very large vehicle (boat, rail gun, bomber) 50 to 100
Click to expand...

Btw, I am still technically Medium
 
To add a bit of complexity to the question, between two collectors, given the following criteria, who would be the bigger collector?

Keeping it simple for the example.:D

COLLECTOR A: Has 500 figures priced at $20 / figure?

COLLECTOR B: Has 20 figures priced at $500 / figure?

Is a plastic collector with 10,000's of figures considered a bigger collector than an Fine Russian Figure collector with 1,000 figures?

As in all questions like these, I doubt there can be a consensus on the word "BIG"

In my days writing operating systems for Microsoft, I used two programming languages named "Prolog" and "LISP"
They dealt with a field called "Fuzzy Logic."

For example, I say John (who is 6 feet in height) is tall. That might be true when compared to Bob (who is 5 feet in height).
But, John is short when compared to an NBA player. The point is, to say big or small, tall or short, hot or cold is never an absolute.

It must be defined by a set of boundaries or rules. So in these conversations all points must be considered a "Fuzzy" boundary or limit.

The lesson has ended ... (THANK GOODNESS) {sm4}

--- LaRRY (Ex-nerd)
 
I don’t think you can add in the layers that you added Larry as collectors have figures of varying prices (unless you are trying to measure the value of a collector’s collection). I have several Russian airplanes and wooden airplanes that were very expensive but other figures that were relatively inexpensive.
 
I would say that the numbers you put forth are about as accurate a way to measure the size of a collection. Measuring the monetary value of the collection is a different discussion totally. But I would also add a category for diverse or varied figures so not just all King and Country or Britains etc. like in my case I have a lot of makers from the last century maybe only one figure but i have one representative, which makes it into a more vignettes driven collection. What do you guys think?

Dave
 
Larry Allen said:
To add a bit of complexity to the question, between two collectors, given the following criteria, who would be the bigger collector?

Keeping it simple for the example.:D

COLLECTOR A: Has 500 figures priced at $20 / figure?

COLLECTOR B: Has 20 figures priced at $500 / figure?

Is a plastic collector with 10,000's of figures considered a bigger collector than an Fine Russian Figure collector with 1,000 figures?

As in all questions like these, I doubt there can be a consensus on the word "BIG"

In my days writing operating systems for Microsoft, I used two programming languages named "Prolog" and "LISP"
They dealt with a field called "Fuzzy Logic."

For example, I say John (who is 6 feet in height) is tall. That might be true when compared to Bob (who is 5 feet in height).
But, John is short when compared to an NBA player. The point is, to say big or small, tall or short, hot or cold is never an absolute.

It must be defined by a set of boundaries or rules. So in these conversations all points must be considered a "Fuzzy" boundary or limit.

The lesson has ended ... (THANK GOODNESS) {sm4}

--- LaRRY (Ex-nerd)
Click to expand...
Hi Larry,
Always more than enough fuzzy logic to go around; but I'd say that B is a collector and A is a consumer of things that are readily available. And, for the sake of the discussion, Bob is well over 5 feet tall :).
Bob
 
Fitzgibbon said:
Hi Larry,
Always more than enough fuzzy logic to go around; but I'd say that B is a collector and A is a consumer of things that are readily available. And, for the sake of the discussion, Bob is well over 5 feet tall :).
Bob
Click to expand...

I "STAND" corrected, Bob ... {sm3}

I used to be 6 feet but, darn it, I seem to have shrunk over the past few years.
I am now worried when I go to the doctors office for my yearly physical that they are going to knock off another 1/2".
If this continues I am trying out for the head Munchkin in the Wizard of OZ play at the high school ...... :tongue:

--- LaRRy
 
To me it's numbers so
small is under 200 figs.
medium is 200 to 500
large is over 500
I've never seen collections like some of you have and I'm talking about large figures 1/32 and up.I know George (Warrior) has a very large 20mm collection.
Mark
 
It's all relative. I also collect 28mm-30mm figures and the collection must now number at least 10.000+. Most of them are stashed away in the unpainted metal state though (not enough time), so I guess that makes me more of a figure hoarder.

Toy soldier scale figures, I'm probably only a small collector. Yet.^&grin
 
Larry Allen said:
I "STAND" corrected, Bob ... {sm3}

I used to be 6 feet but, darn it, I seem to have shrunk over the past few years.
I am now worried when I go to the doctors office for my yearly physical that they are going to knock off another 1/2".
If this continues I am trying out for the head Munchkin in the Wizard of OZ play at the high school ...... :tongue:

--- LaRRy
Click to expand...
I feel your pain Larry, a common phenomenon among mature folk :)
Bob
 
Quality trumps quantity and value defines the collector over the accumulator IMO. Today's painted pewter figures are the ultimate iteration of the Toy Soldier and are art objects. I have boxes of old unpainted plastic toy soldiers that I consider just toys. The same criteria applies to unpainted castings; they do not become an art object until painted. The paint colors and quality makes a casting unique!


Larry Allen said:
To add a bit of complexity to the question, between two collectors, given the following criteria, who would be the bigger collector?

Keeping it simple for the example.:D

COLLECTOR A: Has 500 figures priced at $20 / figure?

COLLECTOR B: Has 20 figures priced at $500 / figure?

Is a plastic collector with 10,000's of figures considered a bigger collector than an Fine Russian Figure collector with 1,000 figures?

As in all questions like these, I doubt there can be a consensus on the word "BIG"

In my days writing operating systems for Microsoft, I used two programming languages named "Prolog" and "LISP"
They dealt with a field called "Fuzzy Logic."

For example, I say John (who is 6 feet in height) is tall. That might be true when compared to Bob (who is 5 feet in height).
But, John is short when compared to an NBA player. The point is, to say big or small, tall or short, hot or cold is never an absolute.

It must be defined by a set of boundaries or rules. So in these conversations all points must be considered a "Fuzzy" boundary or limit.

The lesson has ended ... (THANK GOODNESS) {sm4}

--- LaRRY (Ex-nerd)
Click to expand...
 
I agree that paint is part of the art, however the casting is as well. Someone sculpted a figure to make a casting. The sculpting is every bit art as the painting.
 
great question for a thread .

seeing some big differences in the definition of the "medium category" in the thread : 200-500 vs 500-5000, before even getting onto definitions of value and vehicles etc,.

This is crying out for a poll, maybe increasing each category by 500-1000 at a time, and making it a straight figure number count for sake of simplicity(?).
Does anyone want to oblige , so we have some statistical basis?

ps im at 1600 figures (all 56-60mm metal matte) excluding vehicles and planes and my new TCS U Boat.

best
Andrew
:salute::{sm4}
 
What's big?

Malcolm Forbes' collection was big. Robert Postal's collection was smaller than Forbes', about a tenth the size, if I recall correctly. But that was still big at about 10,000 figures.

If you've got a collection big enough that you have to build an addition to your house, or even build a building just to hold your collection (a la Jim Hillestad), that could be said to be big.

Prost!
Brad
 
Why are we discussing the importance of size of a collection. Having the most doesn’t make it the best and I sometimes have the impression that people feel that.

To me, size isn’t important. A small collection can be just as rewarding as a larger one.
 
jazzeum said:
Why are we discussing the importance of size of a collection. Having the most doesn’t make it the best and I sometimes have the impression that people feel that.

To me, size isn’t important. A small collection can be just as rewarding as a larger one.
Click to expand...

I agree the size isn't important, and it's the enjoyment that counts....for me personally it's all about building dioramas ........but I'm still interested to see how big some of our collections have become.
In the same manner that seeing a picture article in a toy soldier mag about someone's lifetime collection is partly about being impressed by the sheer scale of shelf after shelf......

:salute::
 
jazzeum said:
Why are we discussing the importance of size of a collection. Having the most doesn’t make it the best and I sometimes have the impression that people feel that.

To me, size isn’t important. A small collection can be just as rewarding as a larger one.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more. Well said.
 
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