Samurai Collection (2 Viewers)

theBaron said:
Very cool! The Monarch samurai look like the would fit well in a display with those from Reeves, Del Prado and Ed Colaric.

Prost!
Brad

I haven't had the pleasure of owning any Samurai from Ed Colaric but they do look similar.

What are Reeves samurai?

h.hammer · Sep 7, 2017

47Ronin said:
More to come in the next few days. Have to photograph my First Legion, East of India, Del Prado etc...

You have an amazing collection
Have acquired a few samurai thanks to 'who to buy from' courtesy of other tree frog members
Too late to catch up with your kind of collection but enjoy seeing all your delightful figures from multiple sources
Please keep posting even though I grow more envious with each post
Harvey

47Ronin · Sep 25, 2017

My latest pieces I picked up at the Chicago Show this weekend.

how do i get a url for a picture

47Ronin · Sep 25, 2017

A couple more pickup...

how do i get a url for a picture

47Ronin · Nov 16, 2017

Added this Aeroart piece to the collection:

Click on the pictures to load a larger, higher resolution of the pic.

theBaron · Nov 17, 2017

47Ronin said:
I haven't had the pleasure of owning any Samurai from Ed Colaric but they do look similar.

What are Reeves samurai?

Sorry, I missed your question back then.

Reeves International was a company that marketed toy soldiers from various makers; at one point, they were involved with selling Britains. But their primary line was solid-cast 54mm figures made by King-White in Hong Kong. Their catalog included subjects ranging from Romans and Greeks, to Agincourt, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the US Civil War, the Boxer Rebellion, and World War II. They also made Victorian British Army, Samurai and US Army from the 1880s. And they also sold their toy soldiers in the old Soviet Union, too; I have a couple of their Napoleonic figures in blister packs with Cyrillic labeling.

They were the progenitors of what is called "the Chinese style" of painting. In that style, colors are simple, there is no shading, and faces are rendered with a very distinct style, in that a figure's eyes are painted with a white, a black line for the upper lid, and a dot hanging off that line for the pupil. They were available in either matte or gloss finish. Early King & Country figures show this style, as do Frontline's figures. In fact, Frontline has remained relatively close to this original style, while K&C's style has become a little subtler.

Reeves' figures were sold through various stores, and today, you can find packaging labeled for those stores. One that comes to mind is The Treasure Chest in Florida. Their Revolutionary War figures were also sold at some national parks and historic sites. I got my first Reeves figure, a foot figure of George Washington, from the gift shop at Mount Vernon.

King-White started in the early Seventies, according to John Garrett's "World Encyclopedia". I don't know if the association with Reeves started then, but Reeves was still selling these figures into the late Nineties. I have catalogs from Armchair General, a mail auction house operating out of St. Louis back then; and from Stone Castle Imports. Around the turn of the century, Stone Castle noted in its catalog that Reeves was going out of business and so, the figures were being offered at discounts to move the stock.

Apparently, King-White's owner had passed away, and his family was looking for a buyer. The company changed hands at least twice, with some of the molds ending up with a company called Fair Clover Land, a die-casting company also in Hong Kong (Fair Clover Land also cast Ed Lober's and Alan Silk's Guard Corps figures, which they now sell in reissue on eBay).

There was also a gentleman in Florida who has some or all of the Reeves molds and sells his figures on eBay as "toysoldierfactory", but he may have passed away.

I apologize for going on about Reeves, but it's one of my areas of collecting. Anyway, here are some images I ripped from a digital copy of a Reeves catalog, showing the samurai figures and their section of the catalog:

We can see from these photos a couple of things. First, this illustrates what I mean by "the Chinese style". The figures are colorful, but simply finished. They are toys, though finished better than the traditional toy soldier.

Another thing that struck me when I first saw Ed Colaric's samurai is how similar they are to Reeves' and I've always suspected that he contracted with King-White to produce his figures. The style of the sculpting is identical, as is the style of painting. There are also similarities, to my eye, between King-White's samurai and Del Prados. Again, I suspect that they may have come from the same sculptors, if not from the same factory, in the beginning of Del Prados' line, at least.

I have the figures of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Kuroda. As I said, they are toys, but the finish is simple, and they form a bridge between traditional toy soldiers and historical miniatures.

Prost!
Brad

hsm · Dec 21, 2017

47Ronin said:
Here are some plastic Samurai figures produced by Kaiyodo for the film Seven Samurai. There about 1/35 in size and pretty decent.

Very Fun set, I really enjoy the minor assembly part. I have the 7 samurai sets including the producer and camera man....I also have the set as issued in "black and white". What a novel idea!

my fav Samurai in my own collection is a draw between FL Archer in red, and the Andrea finished samurai figure as sold by Andrea. Very finely painted.

Thanks for sharing

GL

Samurai Collection (2 Viewers)

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