Why are plastic soldiers not collectable (3 Viewers)

fishead19690 said:
I think one of the big reasons why plastic figures are not as collectable as metal is you can,t really do a limited edition set or piece like in metal. With mold costs being so high, you have to make and sell tons of the figures to make any money and if there are tons of the figures the market is flooded and the figures are not rare or collectable.
I love plastics, they are cheap and you can convert them into many other poses with a bit of imagination. The bendy weapons and the fact that its hard to get paint to stick to them at times can be a bit of a turn off but there a great way to build up a nice little army for cheap!^&cool
Some of the older and more rare sets can fetch a good price. Some of the old play sets if intact can fetch good money also.
I wonder what my plastic painted conversions would sell for? After being converted they are rare one of a kinds.
The future of plastic 1/32 scale figures dose not look good right now.:mad: The costs of molds has gotten so high no one wants to even venture into any sets at all right now and those that do are looking at sets that will sell well, so I don,t see future sets being produced now ever really getting collectable.
Maybe some smaller run resin sets done in cheaper resin molds might get collectable in the future??? But resin figures are not that great in my opinion and break easy and don,t cast that great.

Collectable or not I don,t care I like them! I kinda like the fact that they are not collectable! That way when I do find a set I like I don,t have to pay an arm and a leg for them like rare and retired limited metal sets.:rolleyes2:^&cool
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Thank you...very informative....I like the ...having your own..one of collection....with due respect to the average collector...I would prefere to have something I alone have than what every-one else has....my opinion..I dont wish to upset any-one.....I am a bit of a lone wolf...always have been...Tom
 
I purchase plastic toy soldiers for two reasons: first, I paint them to relax, second, to mix in with metal soldiers to flesh out displays. Currently I am collecting Britains Nile range. I place their figures in front and the AIP fuzzy wuzzies that I paint behind them for depth. I paint the bases of AIP figures in a different color than Britains as you can see in the photographs.
Cheers,
Benjamin
Benjamin Sudan melee.JPGFuzzy Wuzzy 3.JPG
 
Another thing counting against plastic is that they don't last forever. Depending on the plastic used, they can become brittle or even lose their shape, the bases in particular. This said, I got into all this by collecting plastics. They'll never reach the price of classic metal but things that do help are packaging. Some of Barzos boxed sets have sold for three or four times their issue price. A few years ago $10,000 was paid for a mint set of a TV show playset. It turned out it was the TV actor himself but even so, people have their reasons, nostalgia being a biggie. Airfix in original boxes are popular too. There are particular makers and ranges which are just great and will I think always do well (comparatively). I've paid $20 - 30 myself for some of the Timpo Vikings. The overmolding method where different coloured plastic was used in place of painting produced some outstanding figures. Some of the other ranges, 4th series cowboys, are worth even more. They look individual which I think helps a lot. Down the track I see Conte plastics doing ok for themselves. Especially the ones in good quality packaging. Those poseable Spartans are just works of art!
 
My answer to the question is - Plastic Soldiers ARE collectible... no more or less collectible than metal figures.. I like them, I collect them.. that's all that matters to me.

Jim
 
As a boy, I collected the red box Atlantic Ancient toy soldiers series. They command some sound premiums now. The marx sets do as well as the big playsets. I think ultimately everything under the sun is collectible. You can probably find a collector of brass ball bearings.

I still have my Britains deetails I bought as a kid. Not worth scratch but they would be the very very last thing I ever part with.
 
Chris, Here is some of the old Atlantic Greeks and Trojans, some minor conversions with BMC Greek warriors, all painted up. Allies for the Conte Spartans.
We used them once in a Punic war war game as Carthaginian allied mercenaries.Anchored the flank, for a while.

FUB
 

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Nice looking lot, FUB...! You don't need to spend a fortune to collect metal when you can create something like that in plastic...!!!

I too, the very last thing I will keep of my collection will be my Britains ACW Swoppets/Eyes Right/Herald plastics, and that is a fact...
 
Currahee Chris said:
I think ultimately everything under the sun is collectible. You can probably find a collector of brass ball bearings.
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If you ever come across the ultra rare 9/16" brass ball bearing, please give me a shout, as that one has escaped me so far. Thanks!
 
I think the metal hobby has seemingly become the monster in the collecting world but, I still think plastic is very collectable. I have a few friends who are always about at plastic shows and similar get togethers and they seem very busy with what they do.

I don't agree with the assumption that plastic somehow loses its structure over time. I still have many of the original airfix sets from the 1/32nd series and, lots of britains sets and, have not seen a problem with any and some of these are well over fourty years. I have seen metal figures with much less age have terrible problems.

I think a forum like this predominantly focused on metal would make it look like plastic etc are a lesser or even forgotten collectable hobby. I just don't see it myself
Mitch
 
By the way, speaking of "collectible" - the Conte GIs are getting to be in short supply. I wanted to pick up a couple more .30 LMG teams, but they are getting quite hard to find.

Gary B.
 
Wraith said:
If you ever come across the ultra rare 9/16" brass ball bearing, please give me a shout, as that one has escaped me so far. Thanks!
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I have a very rare copper Daisy BB from 1950, in my BB collection. J:redface2:
 
larso said:
Another thing counting against plastic is that they don't last forever. Depending on the plastic used, they can become brittle or even lose their shape, the bases in particular. This said, I got into all this by collecting plastics. They'll never reach the price of classic metal but things that do help are packaging. Some of Barzos boxed sets have sold for three or four times their issue price. A few years ago $10,000 was paid for a mint set of a TV show playset. It turned out it was the TV actor himself but even so, people have their reasons, nostalgia being a biggie. Airfix in original boxes are popular too. There are particular makers and ranges which are just great and will I think always do well (comparatively). I've paid $20 - 30 myself for some of the Timpo Vikings. The overmolding method where different coloured plastic was used in place of painting produced some outstanding figures. Some of the other ranges, 4th series cowboys, are worth even more. They look individual which I think helps a lot. Down the track I see Conte plastics doing ok for themselves. Especially the ones in good quality packaging. Those poseable Spartans are just works of art!
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I guess plastic soldiers weren't designed to last forever and I have noticed even my 1/32 Airfix soldiers have lost some of their plasticity with several bases splitting and breaking off, and an arm or leg missing here and there. As for Timpo figures such as their Arabs etc, if you drop those suckers on a hard surface they can fracture into small pieces. Btw back in the 1990's I traded some plastic kits for a Timpo Desert Fort (boxed) with FFL troops and some pesky Arabs with camels etc. It really was an attractive and impressive set but I could foresee that breakages were going to be a concern long term so I on-sold it about Three months later.
 
Here are my Timpo Vikings. J
 

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Thanks Leadman! I've got 14, including four mounted (unfortunately 2 got badly damaged in a recent shift, proving plastic is not forever). The colour combinations possible with the swoppet design mean that they all look different. I'd love some of the 'red' legs but they are hard to find and expensive. It was always a little strange that they used the Roman 'legs' for the mounted figures. I guess they saved some money on that though. I recall seeing the 'Chief' for sale for $90 on one website!

The guy with the 'Sutton Hoo' helmet was always my favourite!
 
Ragnar said:
Nice display of a Airfix collection.
http://youtu.be/DIstNMtWV-U
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like the video...the videos on the tail are quiet interesting too....got myself some plastic soldiers kits a few days ago COD...the soldiers are excellent..the detail is great....I got caught on the cavalry kit I ordered,,,very uninspiring horses and figures...I cut the heads off the horses and am adding cartoon horses heads......I am doing some cartoon cowboys and pirates for one of the local church's who send off parcels at Xmas.....so the horses came in handy.....I will be checking out more plastic soldiers soon....cheers Tom
 
Ragnar said:
What sets/brands did you get tom?
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Airfix,,,Aust,,Brit and US troops...old sets going cheap...details amazing...example..WW11 US army mud gaiters on Aust soldiers fully detailed...I have worn those yrs ago....when I joined the army we still had WW11 equipt.....Brits pattern 38 webbing as far as I remember ...all correct ...bloody amazing.....the crappy horses was a set from Armies in Plastic,,,a cheap cavalry set...you get what you pay for I guess.....now I have some terrific reference for doing WW11 diggers...if I get around to it......cheers mate...Tom
 
Tom glad to see you getting into plastic figures, and all ready chopping off horse heads!{eek3}^&cool These figures are great for converting and cut up pretty easy with a sharp hobby knife. A bit of pinning, gluing and some 2 part putty and you can do a lot to really come up with some new figure poses or rework them all together into something new. I,ve turned WWII, civil war and Viking figures into Napoleonics. Buy up a few more boxes and give it a try. I don,t think your sculpty stuff will work on them??? but pick yourself up some Kneadtite 2 part putty green stuff from Ebay and give it a try, I think you,ll really enjoy converting plastics and with your sculpting skills you could do a lot!
Post some pics if you do give it a try.
 
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