Warrior
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- May 12, 2005
- Messages
- 15,273
I find it fascinating also that new glossy items (especially civilians) at US shows are almost nonexistent. I am so jealous of you guys!
Couldn't agree more; what amazes me about the London show time after time is a large amount of glossies available that you just don't see on this side of the pond.
It's really too bad a good chunk of these are not available to collectors in the US via our show circuit or through distributors.
As we just saw with the demise of Empire, running a toy soldier business in the Uk at the moment is tough sledding for sure; when you start talking about distributors, you have to factor in the shipping, which is and continues to a killer, plus the exchange rate which at the moment is bad for the Uk.
One of the other things about the photos that always jumps out at me are the "other" pictures showing some great, great Uk plastics that again, you just don't see on this side of the pond. Plastics from Airfix, Timpo, Britains, etc, etc, that I had as a child, still have and would love to add to.
The London show looks to me to be on par with Chicago, San Antonio, Hackensack, Gettysburg and Valley Forge as far as quality and sheer volume, unlike the vast majority of other US shows that are nothing but glorified flea markets...................................