I have recently become reinterested in collecting toy soldiers. My collection is small compared to most people here. Due to my space constraints I expect it to stay relatively small and restricted to individual figures that interest me.
In looking around on this forum, I marvel at some of the collections people have and the dioramas that they have created. It's almost like a trip to the museum for me.
As a boy in the late 1960s and 1970s I lived in New York City and bought mostly boxed sets of Britain's and Timpo painted plastic figures--ranging from WWII allied and Axis, to knights, to Highlanders, to Scot's Guards to Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to Romans and Trojans, some Turks, Arabs, and French Foreign Legion. I also had a few Elastolin figures. I also had a fort or two from FAO Swartz and a castle or two from Elastolin. Most of my Britains came from the long defeunct Polk's Hobby shop and a hobby shot caller Rappaports, which was located on third avenue in the 70s or
Fast forward to the late 1990s and discovered Ebay and looked through various categories of toy soldiers and found out exactly what I had. I still had all of my soldiers carefully boxed up and well-preserved. I unboxed them and figured out what I had. In looking at some of the other figures available I found myself attracted to the Elastolin and Preiser 70mm Normans and Vikings and bought a about two dozen of them, along with some Lansquenets. After a while I bought what I wanted and lost interest. I really liked the Normans and the detail present, since when I was a kid the Britain
Fast forward to a few months ago. I again took a look at Ebay and discovered a whole new world of Britains and some other makers other 1/30 scale soldiers. These are individual pewter figures with painstaking detail. I have bought about 20+ of them. I buy figures that interest me--their looks, their pose, etc. At first I concentrated on Britain's wrath of the Northman Vikings and Saxon figures. Then I bought a few Woodland Indians, now I am mostly buying Britain's WWI British soldiers, some WWII Germans and Americans, with a few others thrown in. I've also bought some King and Country and Thomas Gunn thrown in. I also bought some Conte Warlord figures, since I have always been a big fan of that movie.
Anyway, that's how I got back started again. I would be interested in hearing how people got started or restarted in this hobby.
I am going to be gradually posting pictures of my collection here. I don't have that many, but most are packed away and will take some time to unpack and photograph and post.
Also, I posted many in positions that would make them best viewable as opposed to being in combative stances facing the camera.
Here is a picture of some of my recent acquisitions:
In looking around on this forum, I marvel at some of the collections people have and the dioramas that they have created. It's almost like a trip to the museum for me.
As a boy in the late 1960s and 1970s I lived in New York City and bought mostly boxed sets of Britain's and Timpo painted plastic figures--ranging from WWII allied and Axis, to knights, to Highlanders, to Scot's Guards to Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to Romans and Trojans, some Turks, Arabs, and French Foreign Legion. I also had a few Elastolin figures. I also had a fort or two from FAO Swartz and a castle or two from Elastolin. Most of my Britains came from the long defeunct Polk's Hobby shop and a hobby shot caller Rappaports, which was located on third avenue in the 70s or
Fast forward to the late 1990s and discovered Ebay and looked through various categories of toy soldiers and found out exactly what I had. I still had all of my soldiers carefully boxed up and well-preserved. I unboxed them and figured out what I had. In looking at some of the other figures available I found myself attracted to the Elastolin and Preiser 70mm Normans and Vikings and bought a about two dozen of them, along with some Lansquenets. After a while I bought what I wanted and lost interest. I really liked the Normans and the detail present, since when I was a kid the Britain
Fast forward to a few months ago. I again took a look at Ebay and discovered a whole new world of Britains and some other makers other 1/30 scale soldiers. These are individual pewter figures with painstaking detail. I have bought about 20+ of them. I buy figures that interest me--their looks, their pose, etc. At first I concentrated on Britain's wrath of the Northman Vikings and Saxon figures. Then I bought a few Woodland Indians, now I am mostly buying Britain's WWI British soldiers, some WWII Germans and Americans, with a few others thrown in. I've also bought some King and Country and Thomas Gunn thrown in. I also bought some Conte Warlord figures, since I have always been a big fan of that movie.
Anyway, that's how I got back started again. I would be interested in hearing how people got started or restarted in this hobby.
I am going to be gradually posting pictures of my collection here. I don't have that many, but most are packed away and will take some time to unpack and photograph and post.
Also, I posted many in positions that would make them best viewable as opposed to being in combative stances facing the camera.
Here is a picture of some of my recent acquisitions:
