New collectors have your say. (1 Viewer)

[Simpson & his donkey.]

I am just wonderling how many new collectors have started buying K&C in the last year .I see a new one in India and a couple in the U.S and I wonder how many more there are around the world.I started Four years ago when prices were o.k and read the fourm along time before joining.This is your invititaion to say hello and let us all no what got you into toy soldier collecting.With prices going up & up I think that new collectors would be turned off so let us no was the price a concern for you guys .K&C soldiers are the best so is there a limited to the price you will pay and has it allready been reached.Only new collectors have a say here as the rest of us are addicts it will let us no how many new guys are out there.Simmo.

 

[Deitz]

I purchased my first KC product about a year ago. I have the

1. Tunisian Tiger
2. German T-34
3. Normandy Panther
4. Americam 155mm

Price is an issue, but not that much of an issue. I do not attempt to buy every figure a a manufactur makes (except maybe Little Legion Zulu War Series). I set an amount I wish to spend on figures every month. With the price increases I may skip a month or two and not buy any figures, then I have that much more to spend when I find something I like. So the price does not matter much if you stay in your budget, you just have less figures. Although, the budget gets blown away every year at the Chicago show.

 

[jazzeum]

I see new collectors coming in all the time, particularly in other parts of the world. I don't know if they're entirely gravitating to King & Country but it seems that way. Pick a range and you have outstanding quality and that's what attracts people.

 

[tuco99]

I just joined the group and have been lurking around here for a few months.I have been collecting K&C for about a year and have 6 vehicles,about 30 sets.Really just buy what I like ,with only a few sets from other manufactures.The short time I've been collecting I've noticed that K&C keeps it's value.Whereas some manufacturers are dumped on ebay or at least sold below list.

 

[vinodadnani]

I am just wonderling how many new collectors have started buying K&C in the last year .I see a new one in India and a couple in the U.S and I wonder how many more there are around the world.I started Four years ago when prices were o.k and read the fourm along time before joining.This is your invititaion to say hello and let us all no what got you into toy soldier collecting.With prices going up & up I think that new collectors would be turned off so let us no was the price a concern for you guys .K&C soldiers are the best so is there a limited to the price you will pay and has it allready been reached.Only new collectors have a say here as the rest of us are addicts it will let us no how many new guys are out there.Simmo.

Hi group...on my visit to Hamleys toy store - LONDON last year this passion/craze/hobby whatever one would call it started. I bought a few Britans & KC's but since then its K&C all the way. I'm limiting my purchase amounts to around $2000 a year. Let see if it happens. Rightly said its an ADDICTION so prices has to be ignored sometimes. Happy collecting friends.

 

[Louis Badolato]

I just joined the group and have been lurking around here for a few months.I have been collecting K&C for about a year and have 6 vehicles,about 30 sets.Really just buy what I like ,with only a few sets from other manufactures.The short time I've been collecting I've noticed that K&C keeps it's value.Whereas some manufacturers are dumped on ebay or at least sold below list.

Welcome Tuco99!

 

[damian]

Hi group...on my visit to Hamleys toy store - LONDON last year this passion/craze/hobby whatever one would call it started. I bought a few Britans & KC's but since then its K&C all the way. I'm limiting my purchase amounts to around $2000 a year. Let see if it happens. Rightly said its an ADDICTION so prices has to be ignored sometimes. Happy collecting friends.

Welcome Vinodadnani
We need more collectors in India that will convince manufacturers to revisit some of the Indian army themes and Delhi Durbar themes of years gone by.
Welcome
Regards
Damian

 

[Jagdpanther]

Well I been collecting for about over a year now and I will admit I have a pretty big collection for that short of time. Mainly because I collect more then one manufacture Britians, King and Country, and also I am Toy Soldier Addicted. But lately I been trying to watch what I spend and focus more on what I am collecting I collect what I like like everyone else. I would almost spend about $800 a month so I limited that down now to about $500 If it works rite? I to dont like the high prices now but hey everything cost more these days so I guess you just have to go along with it and hope for better days.

 

[Tiger Tank]

I am a fairly new collector as I have mentioned in a few forums. i have been collecting for just under a year. I believe that the pricing are just about getting to my limits especially when looking at the new king tiger. i could see spending more money for something that is retired if you really like it however, for something brand new well that is a different story. I am sure that i will still end up purchasing more and more but it is getting pretty pricey for new collectors.

 

[lcdr1635]

Hi, I'm John, and I'm a BAC (Born Again Collector)

I started collecting as a 6-year old with Marx Warriotws of the World from the dimestore, and moved from there to Britains plastics (I still have the Plastic USMC Band, Color Guard and Marching unit).

As I got older I moved to building planstic models and painting my own figures. I still do both -- the figures being mostly 120mm now -- the eyes can't handle smaller scales any more.

I got back into collecting with a trip to the UK a couple of years ago - I came back with a painted Stadden 90mm piper and a couple of Britains guardsmen from the giftshop at the Guards museum. Bitten by the bug, I started surfing ebay to see what was out there. I picked up a couple of Russian figures (a Spartan and a Roman) and then ran across some King and Country. I had seen K&C ads in magazines before but had not paind much atention tothem until then.

Well, now I have about 75 K&C figures, probably about 25 Britains flat finished, about a dozen from the various Russian figures, and a handfull of other brands. I have two major interests: British and US. 80% of my collection are either British or American subjects. The other 20% are a representative sample of fgures through history, concentrating on battlefields I've visited (last May and June I hit Chateau Thierry, Belleau Wood, 2nd Marne, Verdun, Waterloo, Ardennes, Agincourt, and Normandy).

I don't do dioramas and I don't collect Armor or large vehicles (I have two small artillery pieces -- one ACW and one Napoleonic). As such the pricing on tanks and trucks is kind of a non-issue to me. My figures are displayed as a historic sampling of soldiers and uniforms, not as specific scenes. For that reason, I strongly prefer to buy individual figures rather than sets of 3 or 4. If I have $100 to spend on figures in a month, I'd much rather be able to get 3-4 seperate figures filling 3-4 different holes in my collection, than a set or 3-4 similar figures.

A little more about myself: I'm a retired US Navy officer (Intelligence) and also worked for the US Army as a civilian for 12 years. My dad served in the USMC in Korea -- one of the "Chosin Few". My other interests: photography, collecting militaria and diecast airplanes, and travel. I hope to get back to Normandy next year and to visit Iwo Jima and Saipan in 2010.

John

 

[HAWKEYE]

John, we must be about the same age as i also started with warriors of the world then to plastics and son. Except i went on to paint 20mm but a few years back the eyes started getting bad so i switched to trophy and kc. I have been to waterloo and hit normandy back in 1989 for the 45th anniversary. I got to see pegusus bridge and meet the queen mom. I was wondering , are the wwi battlefields you hit were seeing?

 

[lcdr1635]

I was wondering , are the wwi battlefields you hit were seeing?

Verdun definately is. I toured Forts Douamont and Vaux, the lost village of Fleury, and the Trench of Bayonets. Quite a somber place -- almost a million Germans and French died in a space of 30 square miles between Febuary and September 1916. Several villages on the field simply vanished from the face of the earth and part of the field, adjacent to Fort Douamont is still closed due to unexploded ordnance. Study the battle before you go.

Chateau Thierry, 2nd Marne and Belleau Wood are all in the same area -- the battles were all part of the same Summer 1918 German offensive. I stayed in a lovely Band B actually in the middle of the second Marne Battlefield (Gen John Eisenhower stayed in the same room when he was writing his book on the 1st World War). It was interesting to explore the area and try to visualize the Germans trying to force and maintain a bridgehead over the Marne --the villages are basicall unchanged and the roads are all still the same, but there is really nothing there to mark the battlefield.

The battle in Chateau Thierry was fought over the Marne River crossings in teh middle of the town. Unfortunately, the area around one of the crossings, the railroad bridge (no longer standing) is not accessable. There are small museums and monuments in teh town, but really not much to see. The Aisne-Marne Campaign momument overlooking the town, built by the American Battlefield Monument Commission in teh 20s, is impressive.

Coming from a family of Marines, Belleau Wood was a must see for me. Again, study the battle before you visit. The woods are fairly small and are almost exactly the same footprint as existed in 1918. Teh surrounding villages have also changed very little. The woods are regrown since 1918 and of all the battlefields I visited, impressed me as probably looking the most like it did at the time of the battle (possibly excepting Agincourt). A singe paved road runs through the wood to a monument area and then back out to the American Cemetary. The forrest floor is still covered by foxholes and shell craters (supposedly, the term foxhole was fierst coined at Belleau Wood). I was there the day after the annual ceremony ( the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend -- Usually attended by trhe Commandant of the Marine Corps or the Assistant Commandant) and the collection of memorial wreaths were still there and in teh American Cemetary. It was quite an experience, though to walk the trails through the woods and image the seesaw battle. I also lucked out and found a piece of shrapnel on one of the trails.

The Battlefield I was probably most disappointed with was Waterloo, but that is another story.

 

[AndreaDB]

Hi..'m new to this forum and new to this hobby (i bought some Niena figures and some Del Prado in the past)..now i'm a bit addicted..i have bought 43 figures and 3 tanks in 3 months, my first being the Napoleonic British Seargent w. Pike..what can i say?i am an history buff, so i started to buy just to put the figures near my (many) military history books, now i really appreciate the detail of K&C, their facial expression, and so on...i'm waiting for a couple of Britains too, by the way!!!

 

[Leadmen]

I would like to welcome the new forum members. I am pleased to see more people participating here.

John: I am now reading an excellent book on the Chosin Reservoir Campaign. This battle was a classic Marine campaign. When surrounded by Chinese armies and expected to be defeated on a single mountain road. With the cold temperatures and overwhelming odds they were able to regroup and bring the whole 1st Marine Division back to the sea from the Reservoir. General Smith did an outstanding job keeping his Marines from being defeated.

I was in the Corps in the early 60's and many of my friends and Sgts. were at the Chosin Reservoir.

The book is titled Breakout by Martin Russ. The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950. John

 

[Spitfrnd]

If you are talking about this year, I suppose new includes me. As I have noted in various posts, I was sucked in by the Conte metal Spartans and progressed to pick up a few K&C and WB Napoleonics and now several very impressive First Legion Napoleonics. I will definitely be adding to those and hopefully pick up some WB and Conte ZW figures and maybe finally get round to the K&C Crusaders and Scaracens. What amazes me constantly is that there are some many great choices of periods and lines to collect. As someone else here aptly put, you can't get them all but you sure can enjoy the choices.