London Show 31st March 2007 (2 Viewers)

[UK_BOD]

Hi,

Finally found time to put a few words and piccies together from todays show: I went to the museums with the wife and son as well.

The show seemed pretty well attended (Tony and co will probably give you figures), though not as much as December, but it seemed up on previous years.

As time goes on their seems to be more diversity amongst the traders with more and more specialist stalls emerging, such as terrain makers, wargamers and toy soldier makers I've never even heard of. K&C UK must be applauded for this as I was that proverbial boy in a sweet shop.

Well first problem...how do I upload 30ish photos??

Here goes nothing.....

 

[UK_BOD]

Oh well, that didn't work. I try another way.......Help!

On with the report as my pillow/wife is calling me into the bedroom, no, its not like that I'm married with a kid and its not my birthday.

But lets start at NMA.

The Lynx made its debut and I must admit I was mightily impressed with the vehicle in all its varients (unfortunately won't be able to buy them all), spoke to Blake and he seemed very positive about the future and his new supplier. New vehicles next month although he wouldn't tell me what. Price is also good for both sides of the Atlantic and hopefully other parts of the globe.

Hopefully, this is the start of something big, however, my wallet won't be too happy.

On to something different now, one of the "new" (I've never heard of them before) vendors was Morgan Miniatures and their "Conquest of Mexico Seies" all at 60mm scale. The series of Spaniards and South American Indians looks impressive. The figures are previewed in this months Toy Soldier Collector but the figures in real life are far better and in my opinion very good. The quality of painting is now what most collectors require in a matt finish and hopefully you can see them in the pictures (when you can see the pictures). An unusual period of history and one I haven't seen before except in the Barzo plastic playser a year or so back. Price was £20 (sorry no $ equivalent).
Webpage http://morganminiatures.homestead.com

The next stop was at TM Terrain another company who were new to the show, and are also stocking John Jenkins Toy Soldiers ( finally a British stockist), but more importantly I was simply blown away by the terrain model of the farmstead. (Please see the image). Enough said. They has another model on display but I forgot to take pictures of that ( I wanted the other one), price was £450 plus a hefty postage but hey I would be drooling over this for months. They also do commisions so hey. Webpage is TMterrain.com.

I'll get this posted the try for another batch

Andy

 

[UK_BOD]

It worked....It worked.....I'm the man.....Wife better look out now......its not even my birthday.

Okay on to the next one.

The next stall I looked at (well there were other but my interest wasn't raised) was JG Minatures, another terrain company. Most people have probably heard of these and for the first time I saw the new walls and towers which were very impressive. I've noted that you don't tend to get an idea of the size of some items until you get to see them in real life and they are rather big. It would look very good with K&C Crusaders/Saracens with which they are in my opinion aimed at. take a look at the piccies. I also looked at the WWI first aid post, an item I hadn't seen before in real life and was also very impressed ( Okay, so I spent most of the time impressed). It certainly looked good in winter colours(?) and the Hetzer should give you a scale.

Heritage is a company based around Maison Militaire and I snapped two distinct miniature sets one an ECW Pikeman/Muskateer stand and an Napoleonic British Square under attack. I believe the ECW set can be painted to whatever colour/regiment the buyer wants and there are two further sets which join the first in forming a longer line (that probably sounds very obvious). The square is very large and was previewed in Toy Soldier Collector a little while back, not much more to add but it was a nice Square (if expensive - see.. didn't use impressive there).

On to Conte, well with the Film "300" doing well, most of the Spartan figures were sold out, with only a few remaining, but, there not for me. I'll continue to collect East of India. The BOSS sets were good and very detailed as was the new SOS Civil War figures but the Confeds looked slightly stockier when compared with the previous releases and certainly against the Britains releases. So, I only bought one, the Mounted Wounded General. (Afterwards the wife said the horse looked a bit emaciated - but I still like it).

Rgds

Andy

 

[UK_BOD]

Hi again.

Off to K&C UK.

Spoke to the Nevilles about the new Crimean Range, I'm sure they set up that diorama so as to wind us up. It felt like being a small kid and being told you could only have a sweet when you had finished your dinner (when it looked like the size of the EU butter mountain, Olive oil lake and various other large geological features containg just tabbioca) just on a far larger time scale. They have very definate plans on "their " range and it certainly looks good. I also like the delay of six months between releases. I certainly hope to buy the entire COTLB range, It looks like a large diorama table will be needed. The rest of the dios were as you would expect from K&C UK and business seemed brisk. I tried to avoid looking at anything besides the ranges I already collect such as the Crusaders, WWII and the new Crimea for obvious reasons. I'll want them all.....

Britains showed off their soon to be released figures and it was also good to see the new Deetail range in full (tear in eye, lump to throat and all that), my son will definately get them all pretty soon. For the price they were very good (again no impressive), but I remember buying them at 14p each a couple (or a lot) of moons ago. I've included a couple of Britains overviews, but I think most people have seen them.

Nice to see Panda1gen for the first time, and yes I should have taken the horse-drawn kitchen but it would have probably broken on my travels after the show - maybe later.

Sorry guys, but I'm off to bed. I'll post some Zulu stuff and other bits tomorrow.

Apologies for the obvious spelang and Grammer, error's.

Goodnight

Andy

 

[Louis Badolato]

Oh well, that didn't work. I try another way.......Help!

On with the report as my pillow/wife is calling me into the bedroom, no, its not like that I'm married with a kid and its not my birthday.

But lets start at NMA.

The Lynx made its debut and I must admit I was mightily impressed with the vehicle in all its varients (unfortunately won't be able to buy them all), spoke to Blake and he seemed very positive about the future and his new supplier. New vehicles next month although he wouldn't tell me what. Price is also good for both sides of the Atlantic and hopefully other parts of the globe.

Hopefully, this is the start of something big, however, my wallet won't be too happy.

On to something different now, one of the "new" (I've never heard of them before) vendors was Morgan Miniatures and their "Conquest of Mexico Seies" all at 60mm scale. The series of Spaniards and South American Indians looks impressive. The figures are previewed in this months Toy Soldier Collector but the figures in real life are far better and in my opinion very good. The quality of painting is now what most collectors require in a matt finish and hopefully you can see them in the pictures (when you can see the pictures). An unusual period of history and one I haven't seen before except in the Barzo plastic playser a year or so back. Price was £20 (sorry no $ equivalent).
Webpage http://morganminiatures.homestead.com

The next stop was at TM Terrain another company who were new to the show, and are also stocking John Jenkins Toy Soldiers ( finally a British stockist), but more importantly I was simply blown away by the terrain model of the farmstead. (Please see the image). Enough said. They has another model on display but I forgot to take pictures of that ( I wanted the other one), price was £450 plus a hefty postage but hey I would be drooling over this for months. They also do commisions so hey. Webpage is TMterrain.com.

I'll get this posted the try for another batch

Andy

Andy,

I am really impressed by the TM Terrain Farmstead. If I hadn't have already obtained the K&C Civil War Diorama with the Farmhouse, I would probably have forked over the 450 Pounds happily.

Also, the NMA Lynx looks alot better to me in your photos then it did in theirs. Perhaps the rumors of their demise were somewhat exagerated.

Thanks for the report.

Regards,

Louis

 

[Wraith]

Andy,

Many thanks for the report and photos. Excellent stuff. And also for the 'premier' of the LE Lynx. I appreciate the time and effort in posting.

Cheers
Simon

 

[kilted vampire]

Pictures from across the pond. Will the miracles of the internet never cease. That British square is incredible!

 

[attic_david]

Hi

Thanks for the comments about our farmstead board. The other board was a part of Fort William Henry- the entrance and a bit of wall. I will try to get some photos up in the next few days.
Mark and I had a great day at our first Toy Soldier show. We got to meet and talk to loads of new faces and we were very encouraged by the friendly welcome. We have already booked for the June show.

John Jenkins figures went down well. I think we made quite a few people happy to see them in the flesh.

David
TMTerrain

 

[Wraith]

Welcome aboard David,

Look forward to seeing more pics. Like the farmstead a lot.

Simon

 

[UK_BOD]

You found the site then David.

Just a few more photos and then thats me lot.

No Figarti or Collectors Showcase this show, so alot of the collections I wanted to see will have to wait for a later show. But, heres a few items for the LT.

I didn't think there was any new Zulu sets out at either Little Legion or Trophy, but I may have missed something. Apologies LT, but at this time I was starting to rush so I could meet the other half nad my son in the City.

 

[UK_BOD]

Second and last batch of Zulus, first another LL and then Trophy.

 

[UK_BOD]

Oh well, thats my lot. I would be interested to here what other people thought about the show, especially anything I missed. Can't believe how many people were working behind K&C UK tables. Didn't think there were that many.

Figure of the Day = My soon to be acquired K&C Crimean Series ( The standard bearer if I had to pick one)

Vehicle of the Day = The new NMA Lynx in all its guises (yet, more WWII stuff to buy - any chance of a gap between June -September).

Andy

 

[Louis Badolato]

Hi

Thanks for the comments about our farmstead board. The other board was a part of Fort William Henry- the entrance and a bit of wall. I will try to get some photos up in the next few days.
Mark and I had a great day at our first Toy Soldier show. We got to meet and talk to loads of new faces and we were very encouraged by the friendly welcome. We have already booked for the June show.

John Jenkins figures went down well. I think we made quite a few people happy to see them in the flesh.

David
TMTerrain

Welcome aboard David. Please let me know if your future plans include attending any of the major shows in the U.S., like the Chicago show in September. I would love to see your work in person.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Andy,

That has to be one of the nicest displays of Trophy I have ever seen! Who was selling all that stuff? It looked like virtually every Zulu War set they had ever made (I even saw some of the old Afghan Hilltribesmen in one of the photos).

And that Little Legion stuff was killer. In my opinion it is slightly superior to the Trophy stuff (although I know the Lt. is going to disagree, sorry Joe, that's just one man's opinion).

 

[attic_david]

We do get over to the USA for Cold Wars- the wargaming show in PA in March. We do work for a few guys on the east coast and they often bring things along that we have done for them.

Also, we know George G from Minute man very well and I think I will be doing one or two pieces for him that he can take to conventions. I think that will be the way to do it for now as we can only do one US trip a year- money and family are the limit.

David

 

[The Lt.]

Andy thank you for the time you spent taking the photos and I really do appreaciate the effort. In looking at the photos of Little Legion I've seen nothing new on the table or tables that he's done in the series. His web site is showing newer items than appear in the photos. Louis I agree with you that Mike Norris has done a nice job with the series but I also disagree that it outshines what Trophy has done in the past. Louis I do respect your opinon but you must realize he spent time working with the master Len Taylor. I'm wondering if the Trophy figures shown were provided by Ken Jackson of Maison Mititaire who acquired the Trophy name. Once again Andy thanks for the photos and wish I had been on board to invite you for a pint or two............ Best Regards The Lt.

 

[Louis Badolato]

We do get over to the USA for Cold Wars- the wargaming show in PA in March. We do work for a few guys on the east coast and they often bring things along that we have done for them.

Also, we know George G from Minute man very well and I think I will be doing one or two pieces for him that he can take to conventions. I think that will be the way to do it for now as we can only do one US trip a year- money and family are the limit.

David

Tell George to let me know what you send him, I'd love to have a look.

 

[Tony Neville]

Welcome on board David...........

You have found my online haunt.

Glad you had a great show and i hope you get some commissions from it as we had a lot of very good comments from the 'punters'

UK-BOD

Please note mum and dad have not been that busy..............there are only Mike, Sue, Bob and myself from the Neville side with my cousin patrolling the halls (security). We then have another family the Adamsons made up of Dispatch Dave works with us in the warehouse, his dad DJ Denis who also works with us. we then dragged down to London catherine Dispatch's mum who was on hall B.

Hall A lovely girls were made up of my cousins daughters and friends.

Behind teh K&CUK tables were Ian a very kind customer who helps out, Rob a K&C trader from the UK who also helps, David a K&C UK longstanding customer. Davids wife Sharron and daughters Fay and Hope are great 'Gofors' supplying us and the reinactors with tea coffee and sarnies.

We then also have Cash up Catherine who works parttime on the K&CUK Books and her husband Lee who collects in all the traders table money.

So a big team is needed to keep the thing running smoothly.

By the way UK-BOD not sure if we have met in person!!!!!!!???? did we meet this show? I met Rob, James (Eazy), Kevin (Pandagen) and the Ghost of Clive.................WWWoooooooo Clive you thereeeeeeeee stop watching and join the gang in here WHhhhhhhhhooo thanks for the beers on Friday causing a very late night and making the 4am start even harder on Saturday!!!

I have some great shots will post today after we have cleared the van out which we drove back up yesterday and just left in the warehouse.

regards

Tony

 

[Tony Neville]

Just finished the wash up meeting with the Book keeper

We had 30 earlybirds through the door and 650 regulars. This was slightly up on last March but as UKBOD rightly says down on the other two dates in London. Which is the normal trend.

Very good feedback from customers and dealers.

Having problems taking my pics off of my cam as i have brought in the wrong cable to work. Will get them on tommorrow

regards

Tony

 

[Rob]

I was annoyed as I would have been there on the stroke of 7.30am but got held up on the good old M1.However i made it in about 8.15 and got in my early bird entrance before it ended at 8.30.So good to get in there early,talk to the chaps and check out K&C's wonderful layout.Already looking forward to Junes show at which i intend to be a lot better and hang around until security throw me out!

Rob