How many toy soldier collectors are there in the world? (1 Viewer)

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Shadowfax

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With the passing of many history ethusiast especially of the last generation and with the proliferation of video games, tablets and iphones for the current generation.

Is anyone able to guess the number of toy soldier collectors left worldwide?

I do not know if any TS manufacturer had made any estimations on this before. Ths is a rather fun hobby to me and it is really niche. Less than 3 people in my social circle is actually in the hobby.

How is the hobby to be affected down the road? Just a thought on a bright and hot sunny day.
 
Depends on your definition of "collectors". Do you include war gamers, model makers, occasional buyers and plastics?

My guess.....
Serious collectors (spending several thousand dollars a year) 5,000 to 10,000.
Overall in the 20,000 range.

I wonder if any of the makers would give us a hint?
 
There mus be a lot more than that
they are actualy more than 1000 manufacturers actives in this field
All size, all materials, kit or painted
see their list ( as far as I know ) at
http://www.mirofsoft.com/adresses/
just download the XLS file and have a look...
They could not lives with a batch of only 20000 buyers
They are a lot of "shy" collectors who read different forum and never participate
Reading forum with a hit count, I can say that for 1 guy who answers a thread, they are at least 250 "hit and run"
For exemple, on an English forum, to a thread about manufactures names and what they do , I see today
9.029 hit
110 responses from only 20 participants, so 20 on 9029 means 0.22% ..
There is a say in French : Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés ( To lives an happy life,let's lives it hidden )
Allas..
Friends ! Don't be shy ! Participate
Best
 
Shadowfax said:
With the passing of many history ethusiast especially of the last generation and with the proliferation of video games, tablets and iphones for the current generation.

Is anyone able to guess the number of toy soldier collectors left worldwide?

I do not know if any TS manufacturer had made any estimations on this before. Ths is a rather fun hobby to me and it is really niche. Less than 3 people in my social circle is actually in the hobby.

How is the hobby to be affected down the road? Just a thought on a bright and hot sunny day.
Click to expand...
There must be a few otherwise there would not be so many sources of TS.....at the moment I think the industry is fine...still appears to be a lot of interest in TS.....however...in x amount of years time.....what will the interest be then ?.......my older grand children (21/23) have never shown any interest TS,,,my younger grandkids 5/8 ....are only interesred in Wi and Xbox and old board games......nobody I known is interested in Ts, maybe because most are ex servicemen.... I think there is still a future in TS because new teck on the market and cheaper methods of production in Resin will help ....though I do not think the younger gen are that much interested and Ts may face a tough future.....my opinion only....TomB
 
TomB said:
There must be a few otherwise there would not be so many sources of TS.....at the moment I think the industry is fine...still appears to be a lot of interest in TS.....however...in x amount of years time.....what will the interest be then ?.......my older grand children (21/23) have never shown any interest TS,,,my younger grandkids 5/8 ....are only interesred in Wi and Xbox and old board games......nobody I known is interested in Ts, maybe because most are ex servicemen.... I think there is still a future in TS because new teck on the market and cheaper methods of production in Resin will help ....though I do not think the younger gen are that much interested and Ts may face a tough future.....my opinion only....TomB
Click to expand...

Lol. Yes i agree. Young adults nowadays think video games are easier and cheaper to get into. I do agree that there are some silent underground partisan collectors, but i have a feeling that as we go along, toy soldiers will be hard challenged to get the consumer's money as there are a wider range of stuff or hobbies for people to get into.
Love for history helps and is a pre requsite for this hobby. However i can see more people worrying over economics than history. Over here in my country, people who love history is dwindling like mad and we do not even have that many history ethusiast to even start with.
 
Shadowfax said:
Lol. Yes i agree. Young adults nowadays think video games are easier and cheaper to get into. I do agree that there are some silent underground partisan collectors, but i have a feeling that as we go along, toy soldiers will be hard challenged to get the consumer's money as there are a wider range of stuff or hobbies for people to get into.
Love for history helps and is a pre requsite for this hobby. However i can see more people worrying over economics than history. Over here in my country, people who love history is dwindling like mad and we do not even have that many history ethusiast to even start with.
Click to expand...
"I guess you are not in the USA or Britian...." In my country"....Sweden..Swiss land....North or South in Europe ?...no need to name country......From what I gather from this forum...the main collectors are from US/Britain...France some Spanish and the odd other countries...yes...there are a lot of silent collectors...or are they just curious viewers to this forum...from the number of members..very few ever post..having said that....I only visit a few forums so maybe the other forum aint so shy....I think the biggest problem....now...( including the lack of interest in History ) facing toy soldier's is the cost..add that to postage and any extra charged by custums ( Not always) in your own country,,....Time will tell, I guess......cheers TomB
 
I have been thinking of this question for quite a long time.

First of all, the toy soldiers I refer to is those painted 1/30 or 1/32 metal soldiers, not the 1/32 and 1/72 plastic non-painted figures or plastic kits. My guess the TS collectors number is around 80,000 to 100,000. The popular matt toy soldiers manufacturers now produce between 100 to 500 per set except the most famous ones which may produce the single figure set of over a thousand. Say 1 out of 100 matt figures collectors will buy one set which may represent 50,000 collectors. I also believe many new/younger collectors have been attracted to this hobby due to the more detailed of the painting and sculpture.

For glossy toy soldiers, I believe many of the collectors will buy the old Britains which always can fetch high prices in the American market. However in ebay it seems the prices were not too high which may due to not many sought after sets are on the market. I assume these collectors may be over 50 so their number will be less than the matt figure collectors, say 30,000.

From what I can observe is more collectors have gone and less new younger people to join this hobby, the future prospect of toy soldiers is not optimistic. Many of the toy soldiers companies are mainly run by family or a couple of core members. Nearly all of them are in the mid 50 and once they retire, who is coming to replace them and make some exciting sets for the collectors. Though I will not say this hobby will be dead in the next 10 years, but I believe the market will be shrinking to only a few companies which produce only highly priced detailed matt toy soldiers for only a handful of wealthy young collectors to buy.

The other old glossy figures and rare matt figures will also attract some severe antique toy soldiers collectors to buy.

The big problem for preventing large amount of young people to go into this hobby is that nowadays history is a subject of less people likes. Many of the new generation are going to play internet fighting games than buying solid toy soldiers and displaying them in their room. Besides the toy soldiers prices are going up and up, not to mention the sold out sets or the antique toy soldiers. Unless the TS market can reduce their prices by using new material to produce TS and reduce the prices, also to promote this hobby by all means to attract more new people to join. I can by now only see the collectors number will become less and less.
 
Shadowfax said:
With the passing of many history ethusiast especially of the last generation and with the proliferation of video games, tablets and iphones for the current generation.

Is anyone able to guess the number of toy soldier collectors left worldwide?

I do not know if any TS manufacturer had made any estimations on this before. Ths is a rather fun hobby to me and it is really niche. Less than 3 people in my social circle is actually in the hobby.

How is the hobby to be affected down the road? Just a thought on a bright and hot sunny day.
Click to expand...

Have maintained a blog for 2 ½ years where the major focus is on toy soldiers and military history. Following is a ranking of hits on that blog by country to date. Obviously not reflecting even an approximation of the number of collectors, it certainly indicates level and order magnitude of interest by country:

United States (US) 41384
United Kingdom (GB) 31489
Canada (CA) 6570
Netherlands (NL) 7949
France (FR) 6791
Germany (DE) 4578
Australia (AU) 3185
Russian Federation (RU) 1672
Italy (IT) 1553
Spain (ES) 1434
Belgium (BE) 1044

Given any one or combination of the parameters; population, respective economies/affluence, and national military history, found it surprising that these countries have shown the following relatively low number of hits to date:

Sweden (SE) 963
Argentina (AR) 778
Brazil (BR) 712
India (IN) 693
Japan (JP) 607
Switzerland (CH) 584
China (CN) 556
Singapore (SG) 508
South Africa (ZA) 449
Hong Kong (HK) 365
Austria (AT) 262
Chile (CL) 228
Taiwan (TW) 200
Israel (IL) 169
Luxembourg (LU) 138
United Arab Emirates (AE) 54
Saudi Arabia (SA) 21

Arnhem Jim
Arizona Territory
 
I believe your question refers to 1/32-1/30 metal matt or glossy toy soldiers. I consider myself a serious collector in this niche. I`m pretty sure what drew most collectors into the hobby is an interest, sometimes a passion, for History and therefore the conflicts that define it, added to a fascination for all things military. I don`t know how to estimate the number of collectors worldwide. ^&confuse Surely currently there are many thousands of us out there. TS producers certainly have a pretty accurate idea of the amount, and geographical distribution.

But what I also don`t know, but "feel" by observation over the years, is that the numbers aren`t growing (I think they grew from the mid 90`s to the mid 2000`s), are pretty much stabilized, and the tendency is - keeping the current economy, prices and lack of interest of younger kids, - of a slow, but steady, decline. I am, however, an optimistic person, and I think that the industry is well aware of the challenges of keeping and expanding its client base, so the introduction of new product technology, that may improve quality and decrease cost is very feasible, as well as new marketing approaches and product lines that appeal to the younger crowd, by for instance releasing war video game related ranges (Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, etc: my youngest is a 13 year old, that`s how I know the names...).

So, although I don`t know how many we are today, I`m pretty sure this hobby`s industry and collector profile will be significantly different tomorrow. In ten years from now it will be interesting to pull back this thread from the limbo...:wink2:
 
Arnhemjim said:
Have maintained a blog for 2 ½ years where the major focus is on toy soldiers and military history. Following is a ranking of hits on that blog by country to date. Obviously not reflecting even an approximation of the number of collectors, it certainly indicates level and order magnitude of interest by country:

United States (US) 41384
United Kingdom (GB) 31489
Canada (CA) 6570
Netherlands (NL) 7949
France (FR) 6791
Germany (DE) 4578
Australia (AU) 3185
Russian Federation (RU) 1672
Italy (IT) 1553
Spain (ES) 1434
Belgium (BE) 1044

Given any one or combination of the parameters; population, respective economies/affluence, and national military history, found it surprising that these countries have shown the following relatively low number of hits to date:

Sweden (SE) 963
Argentina (AR) 778
Brazil (BR) 712
India (IN) 693
Japan (JP) 607
Switzerland (CH) 584
China (CN) 556
Singapore (SG) 508
South Africa (ZA) 449
Hong Kong (HK) 365
Austria (AT) 262
Chile (CL) 228
Taiwan (TW) 200
Israel (IL) 169
Luxembourg (LU) 138
United Arab Emirates (AE) 54
Saudi Arabia (SA) 21

Arnhem Jim
Arizona Territory
Click to expand...

Quite an impressive list :salute::
 
Arnhemjim said:
Have maintained a blog for 2 ½ years where the major focus is on toy soldiers and military history. Following is a ranking of hits on that blog by country to date. Obviously not reflecting even an approximation of the number of collectors, it certainly indicates level and order magnitude of interest by country:

United States (US) 41384
United Kingdom (GB) 31489
Canada (CA) 6570
Netherlands (NL) 7949
France (FR) 6791
Germany (DE) 4578
Australia (AU) 3185
Russian Federation (RU) 1672
Italy (IT) 1553
Spain (ES) 1434
Belgium (BE) 1044

Given any one or combination of the parameters; population, respective economies/affluence, and national military history, found it surprising that these countries have shown the following relatively low number of hits to date:

Sweden (SE) 963
Argentina (AR) 778
Brazil (BR) 712
India (IN) 693
Japan (JP) 607
Switzerland (CH) 584
China (CN) 556
Singapore (SG) 508
South Africa (ZA) 449
Hong Kong (HK) 365
Austria (AT) 262
Chile (CL) 228
Taiwan (TW) 200
Israel (IL) 169
Luxembourg (LU) 138
United Arab Emirates (AE) 54
Saudi Arabia (SA) 21

Arnhem Jim
Arizona Territory
Click to expand...
Terrific list,very interesting to say the lest.....You have listed Australia amongst the blogs....I was only aware of WETS and another site.(forgotten the name)..both now sadly no more.....could you please inform me of the Aust toy soldier site's that still operate.....I am not interested in the hassle of buying stuff from overseas......regards TomB
 
nysoldiers said:
Depends on your definition of "collectors". Do you include war gamers, model makers, occasional buyers and plastics?

My guess.....
Serious collectors (spending several thousand dollars a year) 5,000 to 10,000.
Overall in the 20,000 range.

I wonder if any of the makers would give us a hint?
Click to expand...
I don't think that the amount of money spent annually has anything to do with whether or not a person is a serious collector. I would never expect to spend "several thousand dollars a year" because I wouldn't be able to afford it on an annual basis. The level of interest and effort that a person puts into collecting is, I believe, what counts but i have no idea how to quantify something like that. Would the number of subscribers to a magazine like Toy Soldier give an indication?
 
TomB said:
"I guess you are not in the USA or Britian...." In my country"....Sweden..Swiss land....North or South in Europe ?...no need to name country......From what I gather from this forum...the main collectors are from US/Britain...France some Spanish and the odd other countries...yes...there are a lot of silent collectors...or are they just curious viewers to this forum...from the number of members..very few ever post..having said that....I only visit a few forums so maybe the other forum aint so shy....I think the biggest problem....now...( including the lack of interest in History ) facing toy soldier's is the cost..add that to postage and any extra charged by custums ( Not always) in your own country,,....Time will tell, I guess......cheers TomB
Click to expand...

No worries. I am from Singapore. Yes i agree that toysoldiers can put a dent in one's finances. I think we have to focus on our own ranges of colletion and not start new ones to stay sane. I collect both FL and K&C and it can be backbreaking. Everytime my friends hear of the prices of each figure, they ran out through the door.{sm4}
 
Shadowfax said:
No worries. I am from Singapore. Yes i agree that toysoldiers can put a dent in one's finances. I think we have to focus on our own ranges of colletion and not start new ones to stay sane. I collect both FL and K&C and it can be backbreaking. Everytime my friends hear of the prices of each figure, they ran out through the door.{sm4}
Click to expand...
Land of Happiness...I was thinking more of Sweden,,,Norway....Singapore...wee bit warm there...I spent a few years across the causeway ( I suppose it is still there....the causeway ) many years ago....only visited Singapore once but I enjoyed the visit....many interesting theories on the future of TS but only time will tell whether TS survive's or goes down the gurgle...one thing for sure...they are too darn expensive these days.......the price is frightening a lot of young and not so young people away..........how's your history ?...I seem to remember roits in Singapore 56/57 ? and Singapore gaining independence from Malaya(sia) in 62/63 ?...I forget what the riots were about ?....I do know the independence thing went okay....regards TomB
 
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