Toy Soldier Trends (3 Viewers)

ucla1967 said:
I have often wondered how many toy soldier collectors there really are out there in the world. Generally speaking, it seems to be a hobby found in western culture. Some collectors don't subscribe to any of these magazines and they are ipso facto not serious collectors. The last comment was meant to be provacative.
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I think there are about 5000 people actively building traditional toy soldier collections, with about a 2:1 metal to plastic collector ratio. Thats an interesting point about it being a western culture hobby. It is in other parts of the world, but basically where western cultures had lasting settlements and colonies.

I wonder if there is any interest in it in other cultures. I wish there was. There were soldier collections in some ancient non-western cultures. The greatest collection ever, must be that amazing underground terra-cotta army (1:1 Scale!) in China, where each soldier has a different, and likely real soldiers face. There is also a remarkable set of ancient Egyptian Soldiers, made mostly of wood from a Pharoah's tomb. I am not sure but thought they were about 12-18" high, and there are 100-200 ?

to ..."ipso facto not serious collectors." I answer: "I no provoke".:D

Realistically though, I think its just a matter of changing times. The computer has continually increasing accessibility to information, material. pictures, etc. And its basically instant.
 
Maybe magazines versus the internet is a generational thing. Although I use the internet, nothing beats getting my copies of TS&MF and TSC magazines to read.
 
Perhaps I am biased as an ex-editor of a magazine but I speak as a member of the newer generation so to speak of toy soldier collectors.

I am 35 years old and my husband in his forties. We both collect toy soldiers and I have only just stopped editing a magazine on them. I can honestly say that I have no bias towards a particular make or particular style per se. I have in my collection gloss and matte, 54mm and 60mm and even some 120mm. Usually I collect white metal figures and either paint them myself or buy them ready painted. Occasionally as in the case of the 120mm I buy a resin/plastic figure.

With regard to the internet it is true that we do search the internet and Ebay for anything on toy soldiers but in all honesty prefer as a general rule to be able to see the toy soldiers up close at shows before we buy.

There are some fantastic vintage toy soldiers out there and I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at some of those too recently which again can only really be appreciated close to, not in a photograph on Ebay.

One thing that I would say is that I think there has been a trend to more realism in figures than before. Even gloss figures or 'toy finish' are often beautifully made and carefully painted and in poses which seem more lifelike than earlier toy soldiers.

Magazines versus the internet? I have to say that I think there will always be call for something you can sit and read through at your leisure rather than staring at a computer screen. I use the internet alot but nothing quite beats catching up on things in a magazine. There again I would say that wouldn't I?

Is this bucking the trend of the generation gap or following the trend?

Jeni Foster
 
I hope you represent a continuation of a trend that prefers to see the figures at the shows and shops while enjoying reading the hobby's magazines in the interim. The internet (i.e., eBay) is a great source for finding items, but nothing beats the the real thing. By the way, I hope you are feeling better.

Best Wishes,
 
Although I do have some attachment to actual shops & magazines, there are forces at work which will have their own way, so to speak. It will ultimately come down to economics I think, because the new one will take profits from the old. Like Walmart killing the small shops. Its not about liking it, but just the way it is.

Part of it is that there is quite a bit more then Ebay on the internet. On the Net anyone can be their own online magazine creator and editor. I do a lot of searches and with persistance you can find many sites devoted to a certain company or series of figures, and I believe it is growing. Many people have a narrow focus, become very knowledgeable on it and have a desire to share it with others. I know I do, as far as the Armies of Middle Earth series goes. And to give an example: A friend with fanatical interest in Lotr figures is building a new site devoted to just them. He will cover the 6" & I have agreed to do the 3". We are doing it for free, just because we want to.

I think that it will continue to grow for some long time yet. But one limitation is that while sites arise quickly, they also disappear for various reasons just as quickly. So sometimes the info is emphemeral. If you want to keep something in particular (like photos), its best to ask the author, and then you can build your own research library. The second limit is that you must backup your files to CD's. I have had 3 total computer crashes (the last to lightning). So far the harddrive data has always been retrievable but not things saved in odd places like favorites lists, emails, etc.
 
Bob Walker, who is my age, and whose collection I am uploading photos of on another thread, is not online. In fact, he doesn't even have a computer, yet he has managed to acquire an incredible collection and has made an extensive paper based reference library. However, I have bid on his behalf on eBay for items he was interested in (I would phone him and let him know what I saw that he might like). I personally prefer Bob's reference materials to anything online, although I like both
 
I think that the danger of losing magazines or rather relying upon the internet is becoming blinkered to a particular make or style. How often have you looked in a magazine for example and spotted something which you would not normally have thought to look at. You find yourself thinking, 'hmm that looks quite good actually'. All of a sudden you are opening up more possibilities. Also magazines and shops can show the wares of manufacturers who may not be available on the internet. Some don't have websites at all. You might be lucky enough to find them on Ebay if someone is selling them secondhand but you might not. They could be new manufacturers or they could be old ones who don't like using the internet.
Perhaps eventually there will be a market for whole magazines on the internet, where you can stream pages and pages of information through your broadband connection. Some of the larger manufacturers are already able to achieve very good information and multimedia, however for many people this is not possible.

Thank you to Mike by the way for your well wishes. I am feeling much better now. I am still not able to work and I am still recovering but the worst is over at least and there is an end in sight now.
 
I feel there would be good demand for an online toy soldier magazine, and this is especially true in more remote countries like Australia where they have to pay higher magazine prices because of freight costs.
 
An online magazine would certainly be interesting to set up. I think that one day it will be a reality but for now we should support the magazines that do exist. It is more and more difficult to get hobbyist magazines onto the shelves of newsagents and the toy soldier shops themselves are less and less numerous.

Subscription does seem to be getting the most likely option but it doesn't suit everyone. Perhaps the answer in the short term is 3 issue subscriptions offered to let people try before they commit to a full years subscription? I don't see why at the right price people shouldn't be able to buy just one issue over the phone or online if they want to. Admittedly it would require more administration no doubt but who knows, maybe it could work.
 
I am not sure how the internet magazines are faring. I run across them now and then, but always move on. I guess I think I will be able to find enough freely posted, and am willing to spend time hunting but not funds on subscriptions. It does make me sound cheap perhaps, but its more a case of not having a lot of funds to spend in the hobby. The net itself is like a subsription, and the hard & software costs are always there too, but you probably have those costs anyway, due to school, work, etc. It leaves not a whole lot for actually getting things.

I actually find the most value in special interest forums like this one. My family is totally burnt out on hearing anything more about Napoleon, or Timpo. It fufills a desire to interact with other hobbiests. A free 'magazine' built around a good forum and selling ad space might be viable. What makes a good forum ? Thats another thread.:D
 
I think times are changing for toy soldier magazines.

It wasn't that long ago that they were one of the very few ways that people not right next to a shop or show could get updates on new companies and new products. It wasn't a problem that news came a month after initial announcements, because the info wasn't available elsewhere.

Now, with the internet (and forums!) it's instant information. For example, by the time a magazine can announce a new K&C range, it's old news to on-line junkies. On-line there are scads of reviews of products - just look at thread after thread here. Societies are becoming much more 'instant gratification.' The internet provides that.

This doesn't mean that I don't see an important place for magazines. I understand that not everyone is on-line. I also know that many small maufacturers would simply get lost in the clutter of information if it were not for magazines giving reviews and pointing them out to us.

At least for me, magazines are great for smaller lines and less exciting for larger, more established ones (since that info is more readily available elsewhere).

Now, just because I happen to be married to a toy soldier forum owner, don't call me biased :rolleyes:
 
After attending the latest Chicago Show, but this time as a room seller, I am more convinced than ever that there is a noticable drop off in foot traffic. I thought the foot traffic on Saturday, which one would think would be more than on Friday or Thursday, was surprisingly light. I spoke to several other room sellers who observed the same thing. There also seemed to be fewer attendees on Sunday. Usually, one can barely squeeze through the aisles between the tables in the main display room, but this year it seemed a lot less crowded.

I also have noticed that several major vendors have stopped coming. Stone Castle use to have five or six tables in the past, but has stopped coming. They dropped the West Coaster at least five years ago. Dudkins use to have multiple tables; was down to one last year and did not attend this year. ANI stopped coming to both the Chicago and West Coaster Shows several years ago.

I am sure that the aging of the toy soldier collector population has something to do with it as does the effect that the internet has had on sales channels. Many older collectors are not on-line, are down sizing, or have passed on, but the younger collectors can utilize the internet to pretty much find whatever they want. Not so many years ago, we really only had the shows or brick and mortar shops to rely on to find toy soldiers.
 
I agree with everything Mike says about show attendance. In twenty plus years of going to shows I noticed a decrease in attendance. Many dealers I no longer see at some shows. I believe there still are plenty of collectors but many go to online shopping or e-bay now.
I still attend shows and look forward to meeting collectors and dealers. The shows are the best for actually seeing the new and old stuff being sold. I will continue to go to shows till my health prevents it. I have a nice time at every show and look forward to attending as many shows has possible. My wife always says " you don't need anymore of that stuff but she still looks forward to the shows. Thank all who put the time and effort in making every show the best. Leadmen
 
I've only been back to this hobby now for nine or ten years. I think it is a hidden growth, with the TRU, Target and other stores selling some of these soldiers, it does show kids still want them. But the die hard collectors of metal, might be slowing down, there are a lot of our greatest generation dying, and I believe a lot of them were big collectors. I hope they passed their collections to appreciating children, hoping to keep their troops going. I believe the hobby will have spikes and dips, the economy is a bit sluggish right now. As things pick up, so will the sales. I have been a bit more frugal in the last couple of years, but I know I have my eyes set on quite a few new releases. I try to stay within a budget every time new products come out. With gas prices on the rise, this will surely affect future prices in the Toy Soldier industry. We have been lucky up to now that prices have stayed so stable. Mike:)
 
I usually pick-up a magazine here and there when I have the impulse and especially, if there is something interesting in it for me. I'm actually concerned about space and storage. On another issue, I'm finding that the storage boxes for figures are bigger than they need to be. I find that the John Jenkins figure boxes are just the right size to protect the figures in shipment and for storage. King and Country also, seem to be a reasonable size. Britains boxes are slightly too large with Conte using enormous boxes. I would like to see Britains and Conte shrink their boxes somewhat. It's hard for me to dispose of the boxes because I never know, if I will need them for various reasons but, on the other hand, space is becoming a problem. Does anyone out there feel the same way?
 
modwalls said:
I've only been back to this hobby now for nine or ten years. I think it is a hidden growth, with the TRU, Target and other stores selling some of these soldiers, it does show kids still want them. But the die hard collectors of metal, might be slowing down, there are a lot of our greatest generation dying, and I believe a lot of them were big collectors. I hope they passed their collections to appreciating children, hoping to keep their troops going. I believe the hobby will have spikes and dips, the economy is a bit sluggish right now. As things pick up, so will the sales. I have been a bit more frugal in the last couple of years, but I know I have my eyes set on quite a few new releases. I try to stay within a budget every time new products come out. With gas prices on the rise, this will surely affect future prices in the Toy Soldier industry. We have been lucky up to now that prices have stayed so stable. Mike:)
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Like you Mike I've returned to the hobby after discarding my child-hood soldier collection years ago to concentrate on the mundane needs of life that most of us have to face when growing-up- career/marriage/mortgage/family etc. But when I did get back into it there was not a single main-line UK toy retailer carrying any of the new range of metal toy soldiers or indeed plastics. Yet in the early 60's you could buy whole armies of the little fellah's from Woolworth's all the way through to the specialists like Hamley's in London- but try and find them now. If it hadn't been for the net and the string of contacts I built up across the globe I don't think I would/could have kick-started my child-hood rave.

Collections passed on to children today regularly appear in auction houses or ebay (I have bought many from both sources) simply because most of those inheritance kids were weaned on electronic games and would be unable to distinguish an ACW from a Napoleonic to a WWII toy soldier. So why keep them? Nobody taught them or more probably they are simply not interested in their historical heritage, I don't know about you but my passion for military history definitely has it's foundations playing with my battalions of little soldiers to imitate the war movies I watched as a kid. Alas that's the way it is today and I am not so sure that the teen-agers/youngsters today are ever going to drift into the hobby in any great numbers when they are older- like we did; simply because they never had the grounding we had when those little armies were in abundance in every toy shop and the spare cash we had was well spent and exciting when buying new recruits to add to our collections.
Almost like it is today for us "old'uns" tinged of course with a large dollop of nostalgia.
 
UKReb said:
Like you Mike I've returned to the hobby after discarding my child-hood soldier collection years ago to concentrate on the mundane needs of life that most of us have to face when growing-up- career/marriage/mortgage/family etc. But when I did get back into it there was not a single main-line UK toy retailer carrying any of the new range of metal toy soldiers or indeed plastics. Yet in the early 60's you could buy whole armies of the little fellah's from Woolworth's all the way through to the specialists like Hamley's in London- but try and find them now. If it hadn't been for the net and the string of contacts I built up across the globe I don't think I would/could have kick-started my child-hood rave.

Collections passed on to children today regularly appear in auction houses or ebay (I have bought many from both sources) simply because most of those inheritance kids were weaned on electronic games and would be unable to distinguish an ACW from a Napoleonic to a WWII toy soldier. So why keep them? Nobody taught them or more probably they are simply not interested in their historical heritage, I don't know about you but my passion for military history definitely has it's foundations playing with my battalions of little soldiers to imitate the war movies I watched as a kid. Alas that's the way it is today and I am not so sure that the teen-agers/youngsters today are ever going to drift into the hobby in any great numbers when they are older- like we did; simply because they never had the grounding we had when those little armies were in abundance in every toy shop and the spare cash we had was well spent and exciting when buying new recruits to add to our collections.
Almost like it is today for us "old'uns" tinged of course with a large dollop of nostalgia.
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I agree the main reason that younger adults/kids aren't interested in toy soldiers is because they didn't grow up with them as their playthings... I think an interest/knowledge of history or lack thereof has very little to do with.. My son has a history degree and he he's not the least bit interested in toy soldiers....his toys of choice were action figures and video games...

Back in about 1964 / 65 I myself began to get action figures - the FIRST G.I. Joes and Marx' Johnny West, Stony, etc..... so I'm thinking that the invention of action figures played a huge part in the demise of plastic toy soldiers as a childhood staple... Anyway - that's my theory...

BUT, I believe I'm seeing a resurgence in kids collecting/playing with toy soldiers. At OTSN I saw more kids there than ever before. A friend brought his 12 yr. old son to the Friday nite room trading and he's a toy soldier nut. They came back to the show on Sunday with 2 of his buddies who also love toy soldiers... I certainly don't have any numbers as backup - just an observation.

Jim
 
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