Mike Tarantino's Toy Soldier Collection (2 Viewers)

[ucla1967]

Hi Mike,

Scenes of carnage almost beyond belief!

I am too far away to be able to offer any real help. but I want you to know that I, and many other collectors around the world, will be thinking of you.

Regards,

Bob

Hi Bob,

Thank you for your kind words. Unfortunately, carnage is a good word for it.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

Mike, sorry to see your devastated army. It will be a lot of work to pick up all your casualties. I worry about earthquakes too. We had a big one here in 2006, but only a few soldiers fell down. Problem is I have a new display hutch that's not secured to the wall and I fear an earthquake would not knock the whole cabinet over. Your pics was a real eye-opener.

Thanks for your kind words. Well, I suppose the good news is that this will keep me busy for a while and therefore out of trouble. Secure it as soon as you can.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

Mike,

I am so sorry to hear about the damage from the earthquake. All I can say is I'm glad you and your family are all right. The Soldiers can be repaired or replaced. I hope you had insurance.

Thank you Louis for your kind words. They are replaceable. I don't have a homeowner's insurance collections rider, but I don't believe they would have been covered for earthquakes anyway, just theft, fire, etc.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

Mike, I am very sorry to hear about the earthquake and the resultant damage. It is a horrible sight to any TS collector. I am glad that you and your family are unharmed and hope the damage isn't too bad. Your foresight with the earthquake straps obviously paid off to a large degree by keeping the shelves upright and hopefully reducing overall casualties. -- Al

Thank you Al for your kind words, they are much appreciated. Without the straps, I am guessing that I would have lost three quarters of my collection if the curios had fallen over.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

Mike, what a nightmare. Hope the actual figure damage is not extensive. Chris

It certainly is, Chris. I hope you are right.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

Mike that looks bloody terrible, I am so sorry and wish that I could offer some practical help. I second everything that Louis said.

All the best

Martyn

Martyn, you are right about that. I do appreciate the moral support. This too shall pass.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

This has to be every collectors worst nightmare Mike. Hope the damage is limited - and all can be fixed. With you in spirit..........johnnybach

Johnny, you are right about that. I hope it is, relatively speaking, limited, but some will be undoubtedly not fixable. Thanks for your moral support.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

Life is all about timing. Unfortunately, I started setting up my empty Hiriart cabinet just the day before the earthquake struck. Oh well, who could have guessed this would happen; it was the farthest thing from my mind. These are pre-earthquake photos of my Hiriart Imperial German display. Since they were on the bottom shelf, they only basically fell over and weren't damaged (I hope).

The Hiriart sets displayed are 1033 Preussen Infanterie, 1034 Kaiser Garde du Korps, 1035 Preussen Heeresmusik, 1090 Kaiser Gardegrenadier, 1091 Preussen Infanterie, 1098 Fusilier Bataillon Gardegrenadier, 1099 Gardegrenadier Emperor Alexander, 1138 Garde Husaren, 1148 Totenkopf Husaren, 1236 Kaiser Cuirassiers, and 1313 Gardegrenadier with Kaiser Wilhelm.

 

[ucla1967]

A close up of Kaiser Wilhelm.

 

[jazzeum]

Mike,

Sorry to hear about your troubles and I'm glad everyone in your family is ok. I assume you can repair anything that was damaged but if anything was seriously damaged the person who does my repairs (he also does repairs for a few forum members) is very, very good.

On a happier note, those Hiriart German figures are rather neat.

Brad

 

[ucla1967]

Mike,

Sorry to hear about your troubles and I'm glad everyone in your family is ok. I assume you can repair anything that was damaged but if anything was seriously damaged the person who does my repairs (he also does repairs for a few forum members) is very, very good.

On a happier note, those Hiriart German figures are rather neat.

Brad

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your kind words. I will probably take you up on using your repair person once I get some kind of idea how bad the damages are.

They are neat, especially with the building backdrop.

Mike

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Mike,

I have been a bit busy recently and just saw this horrifying set of photo! I am very sorry that your amazing collection was hit like this and certainly hope they are all ok! I saw the note on tacky wax and agree that that should be a big helper for possible future events. Having been through a 3.5 up near Barstow I know a bit about these events and certainly hope I never am hit with another.

Take care and again very sorry to see this!

Dave

 

[johnnybach]

Johnny, you are right about that. I hope it is, relatively speaking, limited, but some will be undoubtedly not fixable. Thanks for your moral support.

Mike

Hi again Mike. I've been having a look at some of your pictures again. As you may have seen from some of my posts, in my experience - nearly everything is "fixable", depending on availability of spare parts. Note that I'm not counting paint damage - which can nearly always be fixed by repainting, either in part - or in extreme cases - in total. Some of the more usual breakages from falls, more often than not, include the more thin pieces of castings - such as extremities, bayonets and things like that.

Once you are able to assess the amount of damage to pieces - you may be able to obtain at least some spare parts ( if required) from your current suppliers - to forward on to your chosen repairer. You may have problems sourcing genuine spares from other marques - who are no longer in production though. In such cases, it is often possible to buy replacement parts which are "almost right" - or even have them re-cast for you from a "donor figure".

What I'm getting to is - don't despair - and don't throw anything away. From what I've seen - almost everything is certainly fixable. If you are unsure about a piece - give me a shout - and let me have a look. Brad's guy sounds a positive step too.

All the best - and chin up! jb

 

[4th Hussar]

My experience with the 2001 7.2 Nisqually earthquake is that unless the soldiers fall a significant distance they as tough as the real ones. You might lose a bayonet or two or possibly; experience a broken horse leg or two but not wholesale destruction and fatalities. Hopefully as you sort and inventory the troops you will be pleasantly surprised at the lack of serious damage.

Just be thankful that the Mrs. does not collect expensive Beleek china.

 

[ucla1967]

Hi Mike,

I have been a bit busy recently and just saw this horrifying set of photo! I am very sorry that your amazing collection was hit like this and certainly hope they are all ok! I saw the note on tacky wax and agree that that should be a big helper for possible future events. Having been through a 3.5 up near Barstow I know a bit about these events and certainly hope I never am hit with another.

Take care and again very sorry to see this!

Dave

Thanks Dave. I appreciate your kind words.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

My experience with the 2001 7.2 Nisqually earthquake is that unless the soldiers fall a significant distance they as tough as the real ones. You might lose a bayonet or two or possibly; experience a broken horse leg or two but not wholesale destruction and fatalities. Hopefully as you sort and inventory the troops you will be pleasantly surprised at the lack of serious damage.

Just be thankful that the Mrs. does not collect expensive Beleek china.

My main concern are the figures that fell between the front edge of the shelves and the glass doors; some of them fell five feet. I am not too concerned about those that were just knocked over on their original display shelves.

 

[4th Hussar]

My main concern are the figures that fell between the front edge of the shelves and the glass doors; some of them fell five feet. I am not too concerned about those that were just knocked over on their original display shelves.

5 feet at 1/32, scales up to 160 feet, if my math is correct, and would tend to damage even the most John Wayne type troopers{sm2} Good luck on you salvage operation.

 

[Al Fisher]

Mike . . . Is there any room between the floor and the door? If so, you might be able to wedge some foam rubber . . . available at upholstery shops . . . under the door so that your figures fall on them. Johanna fabric stores might have some scraps they'd sell you cheaply. I just bought some to pad toy soldier boxes and can send you some should you want it.

Bosun Al

 

[ucla1967]

5 feet at 1/32, scales up to 160 feet, if my math is correct, and would tend to damage even the most John Wayne type troopers{sm2} Good luck on you salvage operation.

Me thinks you are right. So far, I have just worked on my largest diorama curio cabinet, since most of those figures were knocked over on their shelves and didn't fall to lower shelves. However, I have left the Imperial Productions Egypt & Sudan square figures in that curio as they fell since I can't find my tacky wax. In any case, we are still having aftershocks that shake the house. The last one was sometime after 11 PM last night and was strong enough to wake me up.

 

[ucla1967]

Mike . . . Is there any room between the floor and the door? If so, you might be able to wedge some foam rubber . . . available at upholstery shops . . . under the door so that your figures fall on them. Johanna fabric stores might have some scraps they'd sell you cheaply. I just bought some to pad toy soldier boxes and can send you some should you want it.

Bosun Al

Thanks for the suggestion, Al. Unfortunately, if I could crack the doors open at the bottom enough to wedge the foam rubber in, it would also be enough of an opening to cause those figures to fall before I could get the foam rubber in place. What I think I need is one of those things that locksmiths (and crooks) use to open locked car doors. If I could ease it into the space between the door and cabinet, I may be able to push the figures back one at a time onto their shelves.

Mike