Good time to be a collector (1 Viewer)

Njja said:
What happened to Trophy?

Njja:confused:
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Len sold the company to another Toy Soldier company. I undstand there are like 4,500 molds, each of which makes as many as 15 figures, and none of which are marked. The company that bought Trophy said that once they get everything sorted out and identified (after what amounts to a couple of years) they might release some Trophy stuff. Don't hold your breath.
 
Do you know what prompted the sale? I read a business plan dated 1999 and they seemed to be on solid ground.......the plan of course did not consider production costs, turns, or profit margin.

Njja
 
Njja said:
Do you know what prompted the sale? I read a business plan dated 1999 and they seemed to be on solid ground.......the plan of course did not consider production costs, turns, or profit margin.

Njja
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Hi John,

As I understand it, Len is in his 80's and he has experienced some age related health problems. Further, his son has little interest in the business, so Len decided it was a good time to sell Trophy Military Miniatures of Wales.

Warmest personal regards,

Pat
 
Pat:

Thanks very much for the information. I saw some of their products, found

their business plan....but was suprised that their website was down.

I appreciate your help!

Njja
 
Njja said:
Pat:

Thanks very much for the information. I saw some of their products, found

their business plan....but was suprised that their website was down.

I appreciate your help!

Njja
Click to expand...

John,

You are very welcome for the information. I'm glad I could help!

Warmest personal regards,

Pat
 
Njja said:
What happened to Trophy?

Njja:confused:
Click to expand...

Njja.

This might help a bit, I had posted this on one of the other threads.

I was talking to Ken Jackson of Maision Militaire a while ago and he said that when he bought the Trophy range there was nearly 5000 different castings most of which hadn't got any indentification of what was in each mould (each mould contains up to 12 figures). He would have to cast each silicone mould to find this out. He hopes to restart Trophy range some time in the future but didn't give any time scales due to the huge task involved.

Jeff
 
I had also heard with imperial the decline in value of the $US may
have contributed to them closing their doors.$1 nz used to buy 50 cents US
for the last 3 or 4 years its been over 70 cents.I dont know if their is
any truth in this but I guess if you are thinking about winding down etc
factors like this come in to play.
 
vandilay said:
I had also heard with imperial the decline in value of the $US may
have contributed to them closing their doors.$1 nz used to buy 50 cents US
for the last 3 or 4 years its been over 70 cents.I dont know if their is
any truth in this but I guess if you are thinking about winding down etc
factors like this come in to play.
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Send a PM to Shannon on the subject. She was in personal contact with the owner of Imperial and his daughters as well as being a big Imperial dealer, and she knows the skinny on what happened. I was exhausted when she told me the story (working on 3 hours sleep for 4 nights running) but I think it was age and health related with regard to the owner, and his daughters, who had been helping run the business at the expense of their careers (nursing, if I'm not mistaken) wanted to go back to their own jobs full time, while his son in law, who offered to take over operations, had no business experience and wasn't trusted by the owner, who chose to shut everything down.

It's a shame, because the figures (although too clean) were really well done and the gentleman in charge was really nice. I remember back in the mid-90's sending him a question about a set of figures, and receiving back a long handwritten letter enclosing photocopies of historical references behind the set from a big coffee table book. Being a packrat, I saved the letter and the references, and still have them today.
 
Rob said:
With K&C doing Arnhem,NA,WW1,etc,HB's forthcoming Shermans,Figarti's Tigers and NMA making some promising noises its a good time to be collecting don't you think?.

Rob
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You are so right Rob.

We are in a true Toy Soldier Renaissance. Not only for WWII but for all eras.

Carlos
 
Louis Badolato said:
Send a PM to Shannon on the subject. She was in personal contact with the owner of Imperial and his daughters as well as being a big Imperial dealer, and she knows the skinny on what happened. I was exhausted when she told me the story (working on 3 hours sleep for 4 nights running) but I think it was age and health related with regard to the owner, and his daughters, who had been helping run the business at the expense of their careers (nursing, if I'm not mistaken) wanted to go back to their own jobs full time, while his son in law, who offered to take over operations, had no business experience and wasn't trusted by the owner, who chose to shut everything down.

It's a shame, because the figures (although too clean) were really well done and the gentleman in charge was really nice. I remember back in the mid-90's sending him a question about a set of figures, and receiving back a long handwritten letter enclosing photocopies of historical references behind the set from a big coffee table book. Being a packrat, I saved the letter and the references, and still have them today.
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Hi Louis
Thanks for that, at the time of them closing I was sent a copy of a note
they had written from the old toy soldier home covering some of what
you have said [I assume this was sent to all dealers]
I guess when people are taken by suprise by anouncements the jungle
drums will start beating and various storys start flying.
cheers Rob
 
Sorry, I am going out on a ledge here but Andy is full of poop! It is not the golden age of toy soldiers. It is the golden age of military modeling. All of the major manufacturers are going towards the realistic matte figure. Look at the pricing of the figures. Would you give them to a kid to play with? Do we call them toy soldiers? No we call them figures. Look at the interest on this forum. Is there a toy soldier thread? Not really. I like the forum and I like most of the sets out there. But,recently I have turned my attention to the toys and I love it. With the exception of a few guys and we know who we are, most of the discussion is sadly not on TOYS! One thing I will say is that K&C did get me back on toy track:D

I have a good number of Imperials and Trophy. I will miss their soldiers. Fortunately there are a lot of small guys out there making stuff Edmunds, Hocker,Ted Toy to name a few. Don't let me forget the large new numbers of glossy Britains! We shall see.
 
Don't worry KV, toy soldiers will always have a place in the hobby industry. I had a similar concern for diecast car collecting as the newer guys seem to be only after the recent 1:18 scale cars, but a few of those guys have also got into the old Corgi and Dinky scene as a result of discussions at swap meets etc. Even a "figure" collector like me has been known to read the occassional toy soldier thread, just ask the Lt :)
 
I should also say that for the most part I am interested in the new traditional toy soldiers. The older Britains and Mignot are not a part of my childhood there for no real attachment. I grew up with plastic toy soldiers. They were not usually painted.

Below is most of my civil war toy soldiers. They are a great mix of Imperial, Marlborough, Steadfast, Tradition, Warwick, Lemans, and a lot of unknown makers

 
Soldiers in a cabinet. Does not include the matte figures. I plan to make a table diorama that will be a lot larger.
 
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