What Do You Collect? (1 Viewer)

[Dragoon]

I first started collecting toy soldiers about 15 years ago. At that time the Napoleonic Wars were well represented with military miniatures but strangely absent in the ranks of their glossy painted cousins. Finally at an OTS show I came across Soldiers of the World, high quality figures made in New Zealand that well represented the armies of Napoleon. Over time more makers came aboard putting out their own Napoleonics. I was very happy when Imperial started their new line and look forward to each newsletter from Treefrog for word of upcoming releases.
I'm still very partial to toy soldiers done in a gloss finish, and the fine sculpting and impeccable painting coming from Imperial is hard to beat. It seems the trend today is toward the military miniature/toy soldier hybrid done in matt paints with a more realistic look. Maybe some of members of this forum will write in to say what they like to collect, preference in styles (gloss or matt), favorite historical period, or how they got started.

 

[jazzeum]

I collect King and Country and prefer the matte style. The historical periods that I prefer are World War II, European Theater, although the African Campaigns interest me also. I'm not that keen on the Pacific Theatre. I've had to limit myself because one, you only have so much room, and two, you only have so much money . I've only been collecting less than a year. I got interested after we went to Normandy last year and spent 3 busy days at the beaches. Needless to say I became quite interested after that although I had always been a history buff. My son had some FOV so I started looking at that and thought it would be neat to get some soldiers. So I surfed ebay and bought some Britains and then by acccident found a
K & C dealer in the town I live in NJ and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Since we returned from France, I've read about 5 books on D Day, plus Max Hastings Armageddon, a continuation of his Overlord book and I am currently reading his Das Reich book about the march of the 2nd SS Panzer Division from Southern France up to Normandy. I've also subscribed to Military History Quarterly, which I recommend. I've also got bio of Monty waiting to read. That's my story

 

[Fullyautomatic]

What do you collect?

I guess my second biggest collection following K&C would be the Dragon 1/72 WWII tanks.Does anyone else collect these and do they also get the Cyber Hobby Specials?Following this would be all the first and second run 21st Century items both 32x and XD WWII.Lastly I have a wide variation of farm tractors with John Deere leading the way.Now I have started a few Corgi 1/72 planes and am currently looking for a couple of the later He111's.This all started after getting the History Channel releases.
Back in Canada I have all my original GI Joe's,Tonka and Buddy "L" trucks and my steel suitcase Fort Apache.Hopefully my mother hasn't given those the heave ho like she did all my hockey cards.If that wouldn't have happened I would have had a nice little cash source for K&C.Oh well I still love her.

 

[VIRIATO]

I have started collecting last year. I am interested in world war II, and I've also read a few books on the matter ( a W. Churchill bio, Stalingrad and Fall of Berlin, The naked and the dead, etc. ) and seen BBC's The World at War. Collecting started when looking for toys for my son: I suddenly got hold of some of my old childhood toy soldiers ( Britains Deetail and Timpo ) and it hit me really hard... I collect WWII 1/32 tanks ( from Fov to Britains to Minichamps ) and figures ( till now K & C-kind of 1/30-and Britains metal and Deetail ). My first K&C sets were Iwo Jima ones, and the Britains ones are D Day, Europe and North Africa related. I am interested in any WWII campaigns though, and right now K & C fall of Berlin sets are looking great... One has to remember though that space and money are not limitless ( this one I'm borrowing from a previous post, from someone who somehow sounds-or should I say reads-wiser than me ).

Bye now,
Paulo

 

[Alexdakar]

Ever since I was a little kid I loved toy soldiers (plastic ones back then),but I grew up and didn't play with them anymore. Not til five or six years ago I started building 1/35 tanks then figures and I too accidently found K&C figures on the internet. I bought some and loved them but the price put me off for a while until two or three years ago I've been at it pretty strong. So now I just need DD09 and DD10 for the DD collection. I have all the WS, GC, and FJ series. Working on the AK and have a few IWJs. Oh yeah, I also collect Britains, HJB, Del Prado, Conte, ONTC, FOV, basically any WWII stuff.

 

[VIRIATO]

Ever since I was a little kid I loved toy soldiers (plastic ones back then),but I grew up and didn't play with them anymore. Not til five or six years ago I started building 1/35 tanks then figures and I too accidently found K&C figures on the internet. I bought some and loved them but the price put me off for a while until two or three years ago I've been at it pretty strong. So now I just need DD09 and DD10 for the DD collection. I have all the WS, GC, and FJ series. Working on the AK and have a few IWJs. Oh yeah, I also collect Britains, HJB, Del Prado, Conte, ONTC, FOV, basically any WWII stuff.

Hi Alexdakar,
How do you mix k&c with Britains and the other smaller toy soldiers? Do you put them in separate scenes or do you think the difference ins't that great and that they are compatible?

 

[jazzeum]

Paulo,

I don't really mix them together although I only have a few sets of Britains but I do have a Del Prado British fusilier mixed in with the Britain paratroopers and it doesn't look that bad.

As you said, space and money are not limitless and while on one level it's great that Andy will be coming out with so many sets this year, on another level, the money kind, it's worrisome because you just can't get everything and most of us do have budgets that we have to manage.

 

[Alexdakar]

The K&C figures are not mixed with the others except Del Prado. I do have all the others mixed together. I'm starting to building an extra room and plan to have one whole side of the wall as a custom built-in display cabinet for my collection. The middle part will be for dioramas and the sides for individual figures and vehicles.

 

[DMNamiot]

I started collecting a longtime ago. I still have many of the soldiers I received when I was a child and have some of them on display.
I would say that my main focus has been on the Britains line of mounted figures. I am also a big fan of the Imperial and Beau Geste lines. But the main maker in my collection is Britains. I have been collecting their Army in India and of course the Dehli Durbar series for the last few years. I guess the thing that drew me to these sets was the wonderful variety and colors in the uniforms. I am still building this line and have been really enjoying it. Any Armies of the Raj collectors out there? If you havent looked at them the sets are as widely diversified and colorful as India was during the Raj. Good Collecting!

 

[Leadmen]

I have been interested in figures for many years now. Started with building armor kits to collecting old and new Britain figures. I like plastic and metal. I have some K&C Marines and Rev. War sets along with new Britain Rev. sets. I also got interested in going back to Britain and Imperial traditional sets. WWl and India series interest me. Also DML wwll figures. I vary my interest from Civil War- to WWll. WWll and colonial British wars are my main interest. Reccomend collectors try at least one show. I been going to Chicago Show for many years. History and collecting toy soldiers are my main hobbies . Leadmen

 

[Gideon]

The bulk of my collection consists of tin windup and friction tanks. My collection spans just about about 90 years. Not miniatures made now but actual toys made at the time. For example, I have Renault T16 tank, made of tin with a strong clockwork motor. It was made between 1919 - 1923. I have nearly 60 others going up to Japanes pieces made in the 1950's. The bulk of these tanks are prewar 1930's German pieces. I will provide some photos if anybody sends a request thru.

 

[Fubar]

Not counting my wargame armies in 25-30mm metal, I collect matte finish troops{ also collect kits and convert plastics for my themes} Napoleonic Waterloo, Alamo, WW2 Germans, Americans, British, Russians, Pacific Marines, Commennwealth and Japanese, Dark ages, Some new FIW , A very few AWI, Tons of ACW.Had vintage plastic swoppets medievals but they were sold off for the metal sets. Frontline, Britains,Niena, A few King and Country{ LOVE the King and Country troops, but they are simply too big for most of my collections}

Next project { as if any of the others ever end} will be the Battle of Borodino.Russia 1812.Hiring a sculpter to produce 16 different Russian 1812 Grenadiers. It's a start at least!

FUBAR

 

[wellington]

I collect just K and C Napoleonic series....I find that keeping it to one time period allows me the room and the finances, I hope to collect al from that series in multiples to keep my regiments healthy!!

Cheers
Brian

 

[Joey]

I collect K&C's WWII and Delprado's Napoleonics. I would like to start collecting flats, but raising funds is not that easy.

 

[vandilay]

I started out collecting britains Deetail [should i say playing with] then stored them away until a couple of years ago when I decided I might aswell sell them [on the internet].This proved to be a very expensive decision ,as having sold them it ignited my interest in collecting. And i now collect
some britains ,biggs premier [later britains],imperial and last week i bought my first matt finish sets [king and country blackwatch and stug].

 

[Eazy]

OK here goes....

From when i was a kid i have a very large collection of Airfix, Deetail, Matchbox and Timpo figures. I really like this old seventies stuff it's all plastic but still good stuff. Were these figures out in the US back in the day or were they just in Britain?

Now i collect FOV, K&C, Dragon Armor and Cyber Hobby Dragon Armor. I also have a fair few Dragon/BBI 1/6th figures, but i've kind of given up on them since i discovered K&Cthis year. I quite like some of the Corgi 1/50 tanks and finally i collect the Lord of the Rings Collectors models. These are 1/29 scale metal figures based on the films that come with a magazine every fortnight. They are very detailed and good value for money.

 

[PVELZKA]

started about 4 years ago was looking for some ww2 items to display with all my ww2 books. found king and country and my books are in closet and my king and country are on my selfs.funny how it changed. pat :

 

[hilotoysoldierfan]

I can't remember a time when I didn't collect. My first set goes back to the Marx play sets of the early fifties. I especially remember the one with the flight crews and the f86. I collected Marx for a number of years with always new a set for xmas. I never did get to involved with the dimestore figures which at that time could still be found in dimestores. Sixth grade brought a dispute over the inability of rubber soldiers to "kill" lead soldier. thus my love of Britains was born. Over the years I have collected many different makes and periods usually collecting what ever looked good regardless of the period. I must say originally I didn't like the K&C figures and have a few of the early 82nd and the Dickens series but within the last two years starting with the HLI and the Fr light inf the figures are amazing. The quality of the figures dominates the field. I find it hard to look at a Tradition set of Rogers Rangers for $170. compared to what K&C would buy me. Over the years while I have trade a few set here and there I have never sold one figure. I always wish I could open a business like TreeForg with the idea of one set for sale and one for me. Alas most of my collection is now stored in boxes in my son's gagage and only a couple of hundred figures followed me to Hilo. The hobby has opened many interesting areas of learning. I hope everyone enjoys collecting as much as I have.

 

[OzDigger]

I've been collecting for about 35 years and have concentrated on WWII based models for most of that time. I collect diecast aircraft, military vehicles and figures in most recognised scales ranging from 1/72 up to 1/30.

 

[Digger]

So far I collect only ACW figures from Britains, Conte and Forward March. I hope I can stay with them for I fear a switch to K&C would be too expensive of an adventure for me.