Gary I don't read too much into what is released. There is no doubt the U.S. is the world's largest market however history is made up of a wide variety of conflicts and participants that get the toy soldier treatment at some point. Right now the Brits/Aussies are in vogue, it will not always be so. Just look at the Soviets, they were out of vogue for years and have now made a nice comeback. Kind of like your St. Louis Blues. Finally made the playoffs after being out for many years. Brings back memories of their glory days back in the old Norris Division when they constantly made the playoffs. I believe they even held the record for most consecutive appearances. But I digress.
As a Canadian I often wonder why the toy soldier community pays so little respect to my countries participation in the World Wars. In WWI we took Vimy and the Germans coined us the Empires Elite Stormtroopers! In WWII we had the world's third largest Navy and used it to supply Britian throughout the Atlantic War and persevered against Hitlers wolfpacks. We volunteered in huge numbers for the RAF during the Battle of Britain. We invaded Dieppe and taught our Allies a practical bloody lesson that was to prove invaluable to the later success of D-Day. We lost an entire brigade in the ill fated defence of Hong Kong ( the very place K&C operates in!!!) with many prisoners dying in the hands of the Japanese work camps. We helped liberate Sicily and Italy and fought Hitlers elite 1st Parachute Division at Ortona ( the little Stalingrad ). We dropped paratroopers and landed on the beaches at D-Day ( Juno was the second bloodiest after Omaha ) and primarily fought the fanatical SS panzer divisions to a standstill. We liberated most of Holland and opened up the important port of Antwerp to supply the Allied armies so they could take the fight to Germany, etc, etc etc. If you unfortunately look at casualty lists we are right up there. Yet despite this huge participation and role in the wars there is still no market for Canadian troops. I've heard it said that is because our kit is not distinctive. May I respectfully point out that many Allied vehicles used were either U.S or British and had a white star emblazoned on them and wore U.S./British uniforms and used their weapons and they have been manufactured like the French, Australians, New Zealanders, Polish etc.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that your title could easily include Canada and a whole host of other participants. One of the joys of collecting for me is the anticipation of what's to come and at some point everything has its day in the sun, perhaps even, dare I say it...........Canadians! :wink2:
