Answers & Replies (2 Viewers)

[King & Country]

Hi Guys,

Wow! A lot of points to respond on over the weekend… so here goes…

1. New CW044, 48 & 49… Are they separable?
Yes, they are… “44” is two pieces, horse and trooper. “48” is three pieces… one horse, two separate troopers. “49” is individual dead horse… separate wounded trooper and separate surgeon. Hope this helps.

2. Is there a San Francisco K&C store?
If there is… nobody has told me about it!

3. K&C UK Prices
K&C UK has done, and continues to do, an outstanding job “repping” K&C in the U.K. and elsewhere.

Before they appeared on the scene we were virtually unknown in the U.K.
Mike & Sue, later Bob and Tony and the rest of their fantastic team really helped put us on the map! Over the years, as we have grown, so have they, keeping pace with us all the way. Their service, innovation and enthusiasm has been a joy to work with.

As you can see, I’m a big fan… On the prices thing… other voices, including Tony, have explained why things cost what they do in the U.K. None of us like it but short of an armed revolution it’s difficult to change.

However, an important point… K&C UK have invested a huge amount of their well-earned profits back into the business… As we in HK have also done. In addition they’ve built a first class warehouse up in Durham, a great “museum/store” and they took over and totally revitalized and rebuilt the London Shows which were dead on their feet. Plus started Toy Soldier Television.

At least with K&C UK you can see where most of that extra money goes!!!
I’m proud and delighted to work with them and call them friends.

4. Pipe Major resemblances
Actually, EA026 (B) is the half-brother of the “Piper of Tobruk”… only their mother can tell the difference.

5. New Civil War pieces
Muchos Gracias for all the many nice words and compliments on these…

6. Why No Union?
Confederates outsell Union by about 3 to 1… However you will see more Union in 2010 don’t worry.

7. Winter Dios
Love’em… Well done WWII Buff.

And that’s all for now folks!
Best wishes and happy collecting!
Andy C.

 

[Rob]

Ditto that on K&C UK Andy.And as for an armed revolution..pass the ammunition!

Andy,any chance of FJ's this year?

Rob

 

[OldDragon]

Thank You Andy

... for clarifying on the new Reb cavalry pieces. These being separable increases our display variations. Have no regrets plunging into ACW.

OD

 

[cantinetozzo]

Thanks Andy!!!Exhaustive as always!!!

 

[The Templar]

And that’s all for now folks!Andy C.

No, no - Andy! Words about the Crusader line, please! When will we see the next ones?

 

[jazzeum]

I have to say I'm disappointed about the Union this year. By my count, there have been one Union release and five (don't hold me to it) Reb releases. I had thought there may have been a Lincoln figure this year. Instead, we are still waiting for a Grant figure or any Northern general while we have a multitude of Southern generals, including two Lee figures.

Oh, I forgot, the Union won the War or did they? Judging by the releases, maybe it was just a bad dream and it's really the Davis Monument by the Reflecting Pool in our nation's capital in Richmond.

 

[VanguardFC007]

Goodness gracious even Andy isnt immune to this...

Anyways thank you Andy for clearing up some details. You and the rest of K&C do great work and I look forward to whatever future ACW releases yall do; whether they wear a blue coat or the better looking and more stylish gray coat

 

[marco55]

The Southern Army is percieved by many as more colorful,more interesting.I'm not saying this is so but that's the way a lot of people think of it.
Mark

 

[Saber]

I'll go out on a limb and say it's probably because of .....sales, sales, and more sales. There are plenty of items I would want produced but I suspect the demand would be fairly small so I guess I just have to wait around for fashion and taste to change....so to speak. Now if Andy makes Ron's Seminole range.... well then! Just kidding

 

[Phantom Warrior]

I'll go out on a limb and say it's probably because of .....sales, sales, and more sales. There are plenty of items I would want produced but I suspect the demand would be fairly small so I guess I just have to wait around for fashion and taste to change....so to speak. Now if Andy makes Ron's Seminole range.... well then! Just kidding

Scoff if you must but Ron may have the last laugh. Interest in the Seminole Wars is rising rapidly in some circles to the point where Osprey is publishing a new book on the topic due out this August. They are already taking pre-orders.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/The-Seminole-Wars-1818–58_9781846034619

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/large_image.aspx?ID=2330

Once the book comes out, can Seminole figures be far behind?

Andy may be misdirecting by saying NO so often ("Methinks he doth protest too much" ) to throw off competitors jumping in first with their Seminole figures.

Terry

 

[tdubel]

I have to say I'm disappointed about the Union this year. By my count, there have been one Union release and five (don't hold me to it) Reb releases. I had thought there may have been a Lincoln figure this year. Instead, we are still waiting for a Grant figure or any Northern general while we have a multitude of Southern generals, including two Lee figures.

Oh, I forgot, the Union won the War or did they? Judging by the releases, maybe it was just a bad dream and it's really the Davis Monument by the Reflecting Pool in our nation's capital in Richmond.

Brad,

It is the sales, us Rebs are just more popular with the masses.

 

[Saber]

Scoff if you must but Ron may have the last laugh. Interest in the Seminole Wars is rising rapidly in some circles to the point where Osprey is publishing a new book on the topic due out this August. They are already taking pre-orders.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/The-Seminole-Wars-1818–58_9781846034619

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/large_image.aspx?ID=2330

Once the book comes out, can Seminole figures be far behind?

Andy may be misdirecting by saying NO so often ("Methinks he doth protest too much" ) to throw off competitors jumping in first with their Seminole figures. Terry

No scoffing intended, just a little banter at Ron's expense. I only state that current sales and expected potential future sales drive production decisions. If something isn't produced it's probably because manufactures don't see enough sales potential in the product, although they could certainly misjudge the current level of interest in a particular product. That doesn't mean that at some point in the future changing interest in the subject wouldn't alter a manufactures production decisions....including Ron's Seminole range. It does seem that from time to time the buying community thinks companies have some sinister reason for not producing what they believe the buying public wants. While I've never personally met Andy I'm fairly confident he is interested in making money with his business. That might even entail him "sandbagging" the competition on a Seminole War range!

 

[marco55]

I would love a Seminole range but I know I'm in a minority here.
Mark

 

[Saber]

Well, the "Real West" range isn't to far removed from a historical perspective. As an old Cav man myself I was rather pleased and surprised to see this time era produced so you truly never know.

Saber

 

[Phantom Warrior]

No scoffing intended, just a little banter at Ron's expense. I only state that current sales and expected potential future sales drive production decisions. If something isn't produced it's probably because manufactures don't see enough sales potential in the product, although they could certainly misjudge the current level of interest in a particular product. That doesn't mean that at some point in the future changing interest in the subject wouldn't alter a manufactures production decisions....including Ron's Seminole range. It does seem that from time to time the buying community thinks companies have some sinister reason for not producing what they believe the buying public wants. While I've never personally met Andy I'm fairly confident he is interested in making money with his business. That might even entail him "sandbagging" the competition on a Seminole War range!

I was joking Saber . I do not believe Andy is secretly planning a Seminole uprising.

Terry

 

[Saber]

Ah, now that would be a real shame. But you never know! I did see the History channel running a series on the Presidents and their piece on Jackson, especially his military campaigns, was the most I've ever heard on that time period. The war of 1812 is another era I for one would like to see covered more but I suspect I'm definitely in the minority on that one. Oh well I better go console myself and order some Crusaders....knights...tanks..really doesn't matter...it's all good.

 

[Warrior]

Nothing like a mention of Civil War figures to touch off a ACW North/South debate; almost 145 years after the last shot was fired, yet the war still rages on.

Speaking as a dealer, my three biggest K & C sellers are WWII Germans, ACW Confederates and Napoleonic French.

As a manufacturer, your job is to make what the customers want, so if they want Confederates, then make them.

There are plenty of famous Northern units; The Iron Brigade, The Irish Brigade, the 54th Massachusetts, 114th Pennsylvannia, 14th Brooklyn, 146th New York, etc, etc.

Give the man time, he'll get around to the Northern units too.

Ok, let the fighting continue, you guys slay me, you really do.

One of you in particular who I've got on ignore (thank you God for that wonderful feature)...........

 

[marco55]

Speaking as a dealer, my three biggest K & C sellers are WWII Germans, ACW Confederates and Napoleonic French.

Now here's a question for all of you history buffs; what do all three of these armies have in common?


They all lost.
Mark

 

[Wraith]

Speaking as a dealer, my three biggest K & C sellers are WWII Germans, ACW Confederates and Napoleonic French.

Now here's a question for all of you history buffs; what do all three of these armies have in common?

They all had far cooler uniforms than the opposition?

 

[Capitolron]

I am telling you guys - the SEMINOLES ARE COMING !

You see it in the publications, you see it on TV - the time has come to release the number one selling Indian Tribe in TOY SOLDIER HISTORY !!

LONG US HISTORY

In the late 18th century, the members of the Lower Creek Nation began to migrate into Florida to remove themselves from the dominance of the Upper Creeks. They intermingled with the few remaining indigenous people there, some recently arrived as refugees after the Yamasee War such as the Yuchi, Yamasee, and others. They went on to be called "Seminole", a derivative of the Mvskoke' (a Creek language) word simano-li, an adaptation of the Spanish "cimarrón" which means "wild" (in their case, "wild men"), or "runaway" [men].

The Seminole were a heterogeneous tribe made up of mostly Lower Creeks from Georgia, Mikasuki-speaking Muskogees, and escaped African-American slaves, and to a lesser extent, Indians from other tribes and white Europeans. The unified Seminole spoke two languages, Creek and Mikasuki (a modern dialect similar to Hitchiti), two different members of the Muskogean Native American languages family, a language group that includes Choctaw and Chickasaw. It is chiefly on linguistic grounds that the modern Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida maintain their separate identity today.

The Seminole were on good terms with both the Spanish and the British. In 1784, the treaty ending the American Revolutionary War returned all of Florida to Spanish control. The Spanish Empire's decline allowed the Seminole to settle more deeply into Florida. The Seminole were led by a dynasty of chiefs founded in the 18th century by Cowkeeper. This dynasty lasted until 1842, when the majority of Seminoles were forced to move from Florida to the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma) after the Second Seminole War.

SEMINOLE INDIAN WARS

After attacks by Spanish settlers on Indian towns, Indians began raiding Georgia settlements, purportedly at the behest of the Spanish. The U.S. Army led increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory to recapture escaped slaves, including the 1817–1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians by Andrew Jackson that became known as the First Seminole War.

Following the war, the United States effectively controlled East Florida.
The Adams-Onís Treaty [2] was signed between the United States and Spain in 1819 and took effect in 1821. According to the terms of the treaty, the United States acquired Florida and, in exchange, renounced all claims to Texas. Andrew Jackson was named military governor of Florida. As American settlement increased after the treaty, pressure grew on the Federal government to remove the Indians from their lands in Florida. Many Indian tribes harbored runaway black slaves, and the settlers wanted access to Indian lands. Georgian slaveowners also wanted the "maroons" and fugitive slaves living among the Seminoles, known today as Black Seminoles, returned to slavery.

In 1832, the United States government signed the Treaty of Paynes Landing with a few of the Seminole chiefs, promising them lands west of the Mississippi River if they agreed to leave Florida voluntarily. The remaining Seminole prepared for war. White settlers pressured the government to remove all of the Indians, by force if necessary. In 1835, the U.S. Army arrived to enforce the treaty. Seminole leader Osceola led the vastly outnumbered resistance during the Second Seminole War. Drawing on a population of about 4,000 Seminole Indians and 800 allied Black Seminoles, the Seminoles mustered at most 1,400 warriors (Andrew Jackson estimated they had only 900) to counter combined U.S. Army and militia forces that ranged from 6,000 troops at the outset to 9,000 at the peak of deployment, in 1837.

To survive, the Seminole allies employed hit-and-run guerrilla tactics with devastating effect against U.S. forces. Osceola was arrested when he came under a flag of truce to negotiations in 1837. He died in jail less than a year later. His body was buried without his head.
Other warchiefs such as Halleck Tustenuggee, Jumper, and Black Seminoles Abraham and John Horse continued the Seminole resistance against the army. The war ended, after a full decade of fighting, in 1842. The U.S. government is estimated to have spent about $40,000,000 on the war, at the time an astronomical sum. Many Indians were forcibly exiled to Creek lands west of the Mississippi; others retreated into the Everglades. In the end, the government gave up trying to subjugate the Seminole in their Everglades redoubts and left the estimated fewer than 500 Seminoles in peace.