How many collectors are there? (2 Viewers)

[Leadmen]

I think the internet and soldier shows really helped this hobby. I use to feel years ago like the lonely collector. Don't mention my hobby to friends or co-workers. Maybe once a year get to one of the few shows and see people with same interest. One thing I did resent was these older guys(I'm one now) would not talk to you. It truly was a Good old boys club. I remember them ignoring my question and sitting on their old figures like Montezuma's gold. I think many pompous dealers fell off their thrones when new people came into the hobby. K&C, Frontline, Trophy and others. I find the shows and people a lot more friendly now. Yes, I can walk by their empty rooms with a thousand buck box of Britains (probably repaired ones) and not feel sorry. Maybe I talked too much but collecting is more fun now then ever. John

 

[King & Country]

Hi Guys,

Here’s my tuppence worth on the above subject…

As far as K&C and myself are concerned you’re darned tooting the hobby is alive and well and growing – and it’s getting younger!

Twenty years ago it was like a little private club for middle aged to elderly white guys…and that’s the way most of them seemed to like it.

Then some of us started to shake it up a little. I’m proud to say that K&C were among the shakers.

For a lot of the “Old Guard” toy soldiers seemed to begin and end with “Britains” between 1890 and 1960.

“New Toy Soldiers” represented by people like “Tradition”… “Trophy”… “Ron Wall” were almost looked down on as uppity newcomers. Well that’s all changed…

Today it’s the newcomers who are driving the hobby to be more “inclusive” not “exclusive”.

As for shows, I do agree more needs to be done and I believe, in some particular shows it is already being done. The last Chicago Show was the busiest I’ve ever taken part in – entries on the Sunday alone were up more than 40% on previous years.

Since the Neville Family has taken over the London Shows there has been a quantum leap in new ideas and approaches and… attendance. The recent London Show (December ’05) was the biggest yet for both dealers and numbers through the door.

The Internet is another major boon to the hobby reaching out to literally millions of people who’ve never seen a toy soldier in their lives. Now many of these folks may not be interested but I guarantee you thousands of them will and that’s just some of who we’re aiming at.

I’m also not forgetting young people… In our own retail store in HK we get parents who declare that their child was not interested in history until they “discovered” King & Country. Now junior wants to read books, watch documentaries and find out more about D. Day… The American Revolution…Ancient Egypt and Rome. That’s a good start!

Apart from being great playthings and objects to admire toy soldiers and military miniatures can be a fantastic “Learning tool”.

So, as you can see and read, I’m extremely enthusiastic about our hobby in general and K&C in particular. We have to reach out to new collectors with products and ideas that excite… inspire… and want to collect.

I’ve felt for years that we’ve only been scratching the surface of the potential audience out there who, like us, love collecting toy soldiers.

Best wishes and… happy collecting!



Andy C. Neilson

 

[sceic2]

I agree with what Andy has just posted.

My two cents worth are:

More and more "baby boomers" are becoming more able to spend more of their income on discressionary purchases. For those of that were around then, in the 50's and 60's, Marx and other companies made millions of plastic toy soldiers and toy sets, both modern and historical.

WWII was just over and many companies found that the children of those who fought then wanted toys to play as if they were their fathers at war. These are the people who had put away their toys when they grew up and now as they are reaching an older and more wealthy age, have made the choice to re-discover the fun they had with their childhood toys.

I remember many Christmas and birthdays playing with my new Alamo, D-Day or Fort Apachie sets from Marx. Kresgies, Woolworths, and the corner 5 and dime had the great rubber vehicles and bags of soldiers. I would get money from returning pop bottles, begging from relatives, "borrowing" from my parents pockets, and from places like in the sofa just so that I could buy one more truck or jeep or bag of men. Armies have to have lots and lots of men and equipment.

While electronic toys are interesting. They do not have the physical contact or the feel of real toys. Toy soldiers do. If someone can integrate the electronic games with toy soldiers so that multiple people can play on-line while they build a physical battle, I think many more people will become collectors of every other aspect of the hobby.

If it were not for the Internet and the great online hobby shops, I would not have become so exposed to the vast variety of toy soldiers. I think that the Internet is driving this hobby and the only place for it to go is larger.

My grandchildren eye my toy soldiers every visit. They pretend to be doing something elso so that they can go downstairs and "look" at them. Their looking and my looking are completely different things. But I can see in their eyes the excitment that a large set up of colorfull toys can generate and the need they have to be a part of the fun. If I have played my cards right, I have created at least five new collectors for the future (counting my 30 year old son and four grandsons). Now my two daughters are different. They would rather collect the Barbies that they played with or the Care Bears or the one of at least 20 different toy lines that they played with when they were younger. My granddaughter is caught up in their Barbie excitement. I don't think she or my two daughters will get toy soldiers in their blood. Michael

And, what are the new Napoleonics and when will they be released

 

[Peter Reuss]

I remember many Christmas and birthdays playing with my new Alamo, D-Day or Fort Apachie sets from Marx. Kresgies, Woolworths, and the corner 5 and dime had the great rubber vehicles and bags of soldiers. I would get money from returning pop bottles, begging from relatives, "borrowing" from my parents pockets, and from places like in the sofa just so that I could buy one more truck or jeep or bag of men. Armies have to have lots and lots of men and equipment.

There is a perception that many people who collect toy soldiers started by playing with them as kids (like sceic2). Because of that, many push plastics as great ways to get kids interested in the hobby.

How many of you started this way as kids, and how many of you are totally new to the toy soldier world? My suspicion is that many people see the new matte figures and are blown away by the quality - so prior 'playing' or collecting doesn't matter as much.

How much do childhood memories play a role in currect collecting? Perhaps it's a greater role for baby boomers and less of a role for young pups like me

Pete

 

[jazzeum]

I didn't really play that much with toy soldiers when I was a kid but I do remember receiving a western town of plastic toy soldiers for Christmas in 1960 when I was a kid. It was one of the coolest things I ever had, then or since.

So I am generally new to the toy soldier world and am blown away by the matte quality of King Country and some of the Britains. For me, it's not childhood memories so much but bringing history to life. The realisim of King and Country is what makes the soldiers special. It brings history to life in a way that traditional toy soldiers can't.

 

[Fubar]

Been doing toy soldiers in one way or another since I can remember.Plastics, a couple playsets when in grade school, along with 1/72 Airfix .1/48 Bandai armor and troop kits early teens, 1/35 Tamiya as an older teen an early adult, 15mm, 20mm 25mm metal s I painted for years and still do as well as collect , carve, convert, paint 54mm metal and plastic as well as collect Matte finished 54mm .
Collections have come and gone, always upgrading.
Have gone full circle in almost any military miniatures aspect there is so I have seen all sides and appreciate them all.Wargamers, classic plastic collectors , kit builders and metal set collectors all really do have a lot in common, just sometimes don't understand the fascination with somebody else's Military miniatures venue.

My kids loved setting up plastics all over the family room floor when just toddlers.My 12 year old boy still likes the troops, WW2 mostly.

Almost all the wargamers or modelers I have met started out at one point as a kid with a Blue and Grey set or some such under the Christmas tree when they were young, or knew some lucky kid that got one.

I know of 2 14 year olds that have collector fathers, have played with plastics since they could walk and are right now painting 28 mm ACW and 1814 Napoleonics and loving it.Maybe they'll graduate to KC someday far down the road.

Lots of closet collectors in Living history units too!
FUBAR

 

[Louis Badolato]

Fubar,

I loved the 1/48 scale Bandai "pin point precision" armor stuff when I was a kid! I used to go to the local hobby shop, drool on the hand painted metal toy soldiers I could never afford, and then buy Bandai panzers, Kubelwagons, hanomags, Shermans, etc., build them, paint them, take them out in my back yard and blow them up with firecrackers. When ebay first came around a few years back I bought all the old Bandai sets, have them in their original boxes, and plan to give them to my son to build when he gets old enough to appreciate this stuff. Those models were my favorite toys as a boy, and got me hooked on history, particularly WWII. You are the first person I've heard mention them in years. Thanks for the memories!

Regards,

Louis

 

[Mr Man]

I too, started in plastic. I had a friend who had a large Britains collection and we would play with both together. Now that I can support my own habit, I can afford the metal painted Toy Soldiers but, I still apreciate a good plastic playset and will buy one that strikes my fancy (Conte Zulu set). I give no apologies to anyone nor will I accept reproach from anyone for my "childish" hobbies. Just as I am proud of my military service, there is no shame in any of it.

 

[Eazy]

Plastics are where i started too.
Up until my early teens my mom bought loads of plastic soldiers for me and thankfully i still have them. I've got the full collection of Airfix 1/32 figures unpainted, A large collection of Britains Deetail and some cool Timpo figures (Germans, Apaches, Arabs, Waterloo).
I was out of the hobby for many years until i discovered FOV back in 2003. I still collect new FOV but i graduated to K&C earlier this year.

I'm 36 and i notice from other posters that there are quite a few around the same age. Maybe that's because the 70's and early 80's were a bit of a golden age for affordable and good quality plastic soldiers like Airfix and Britains.

 

[vandilay]

I,m another who started with plastic, The airfix h.o scale [thousands of various WW2 troops] and britains deetail,like some one else who posted here,
many came to a grissly end at the end of a fire cracker.Then graduated to metal as i could afford it [much later].

 

[Louis Badolato]

I guess it doesn't matter if its New York or New Zealand, kids love to blow things up with firecrackers!

 

[Gideon]

I wasn't much into toy soldiers as child unless I could shoot them. My father, in his collection, I think has well over 10,000-15,000. I remember stepping on an original Courtenay figure when I young. THis is when I learned to be careful with them.

Even though I didn't play with them I certainly grew up with them, my father and his former partner were known at toy soldier shows as CWW Toys - I was the kid knocking stuff around in the back or under the table making many collectors gasp. I was probably their best sales tool as many collectors felt that those soldiers needed to be liberated from my clutches.

Anyways - I've been around these things for 30 years (which is how old I am). I feel very qualified in saying that there have never been better miniatures as there are right now.

Until then, it nearly impossible for kids 10 and up to get their hands on figures like these. I'm sure many of you on this board know full well what it would have cost a family to get a single figure or vehicle like the ones produced by Britians, Conte, Forces of Valor, Frontline, King & Country and all the other contemporary producers. They were just so far out of reach.

I do see younger people buying these things - cheers to Andy for pioneering the polystone vehicle for roughly the same price as a set of soldiers. Absolutely brilliant (and profitable I'm sure).

This hobby really has never had it as good as its' got it now.

And firecrackers to a child with toy soldiers is a call of duty. Not just a phase.

 

[Shannon Reuss]

After reading all the responses from people with young children I'm starting to think the forum has been taken over by thirtysomethings!

Brad (Mr. Pollmeister), it's been a long time since you did your "age of collectors" poll and we have lots of new members now. How about another poll to see how our group of collectors breaks down by age? I would find that far more interesting than how much each spends on soldiers per month. Maybe you could start a new thread for the poll under General Toy Soldier Discussion.