William Britain Glossy Survey (1 Viewer)

What do you collect/what do you prefer?

  • Total voters
    36
I voted for Victorian subjects, British Army, Colonial Troops, Bands, 2-4 piece sets, and on parade/marching rather then fighting.
Looking forward to see what others go for?
Konrad
 
I guess my preference is bands and marching regiments, and/or/combined with civilian and military vignettes. My preference is Napoleonic/Georgian, but I will also except Victorian. I prefer cool uniforms over nationality, but France and England are my preferences. I like large sets. My two large glossy displays are Britains QV reviewing the Scots Guard, and a Napoleonic Coldstream guard parading down and English street during Christmas time. I also have a CG colour party and review of a couple guard stations.
-Sandor:salute::
 
I love a parade with massed bands and perhaps a musical ride display!

Dave
 
Well guys, apart from the battles in bottles, I enjoy painting 54mm glossy Napoleonic,Marlburnian and ACW. At the mo, I'm putting together a French 1704 Lyonnis line and a British Marlburnian line. I have completed some vignettes of Napoleinic artillery and line of Grenadiers as well. The stuff I paint, is a cross between Britains,Irregular miniatures, Andrea and others together with some customising and scratch building. I also the Beau Gest line of Napoleonics. Just been painting today in fact.Relaxing stuff{sm4}
Johno.
 
For me I like

Bands
Ceremonial items
Victorian
Queen Elizabeth II's reign (currently collecting 1953 coronation items)
Parade figures

I think I prefer these as with a slight change of perhaps a few figures you can change from one era to another as many regiments have transcended the decades.

Prefer single issue figures as I can build up a set. While I like the current Scots Dragoon set, $170 is just to much to pay. I wish they were offered as singles. I think there are too many Ltd sets being offered and causes panic buying in case you miss a set you would like.
 
thebritfarmer said:
I think there are too many Ltd sets being offered and causes panic buying in case you miss a set you would like.
Click to expand...

That is right on the mark{bravo}}{bravo}}. PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS MANUFACTURERS:
WHEN THERE ARE TOO MANY LIMITED EDITIONS, IT ENDS UP MAKING COLLECTORS PICK AND CHOOSE BETWEEN SETS THAT THEY WOULD OTHERWISE BUY LATER.
Thanks,
Sandor:salute::
 
Morning, all:

I do love a good band, the more the better. I'm also up for regiments marching off. Most of you have seen what I tend to fall for...

First, the case for sets rather than singles (for the purpose of lively theological repartee). I am a strong proponent of sets in this venue for a couple reasons. First, the cost for assembling a reasonable formation from singles certainly is no more than the cost of a set.

The next real bugger is the production of singles often finds one short of some especially nifty piece, say the perpetually back-ordered colour bearer, and the whole effort falls in a shambles. Whether real or a ploy to get the feeding frenzy going, the result is annoyance in trying to assemble a reasonable formation.

The essence of a parade are the numbers and the uniformity. Three figures do not make a convincing formation; a single trumpet does not a band make. Perhaps a good approach would be as Blenhiem used to do, a skeletal set and singles available on a subject. That way the singles guy can buy the one, whilst the parade types can make one purchase and add on to suit. All that's different is the packaging, not the figures themselves.

Lastly a set ought be thought of as both a stand-alone display and a component of an even larger scene. How not to do this is illustrated by the "Trooping the Colour" series of a few years ago. Several little three and five figure sets each depicting a moment in the ceremony. The problem is they each depict a different moment, so one cannot combine all these little scenes into a coherent whole. Some thought in how sets might be combined into a greater whole when displayed might encourage purchase of several to combine along with more singles to flesh the whole scene out, and is warranted (given this sort of thing is important to more people than just me, of course).

Me, I'd rather save up for one or two set purchases a year than try desperately to assemble 20 singles into some sort of believable formation. All opinion, of course.
 
Hi Guys,

Sarge makes some great points! I love the older sets so I can buy a couple of them and have a formation. The Jubilee Series from Britains was like this with the Bands small sets of 4 figures for a decent price and usually 4 sets made up the entire band and if you wanted too you could buy more of them for the larger band look. Also did the same with the Durbar sets were slightly larger and were easy to get a couple of them to make a regiment or in one display I took several Infantry and Cavalry Units and grouped them together to make Brigades Gives a really cool look for a larger display.

If I was better at painting I might consider getting multiples of many of these older sets so I could have the proper units in each of the Infantry Brigades in my Durbar Display, maybe sometime down the road when we arent moving as often.:rolleyes2:

Dave
 
Back to the survey itself for a moment, it might be illuminating to also ask what proportion of ones toy soldier budget is consumed by the purchase of new figures (little doubt in singles) vs. second hand sets. This might serve to either confirm or deny the validity of (in this case) Britains current range-model or at least to point out an opportunity for them in the most important of terms.

Using myself as an example, I have perhaps bought two figures new (two Para's from the Elite series) in the last two years, whilst older second-hand sets have been coming through the post in embarrassingly great numbers over the same timeperiod. Hasn't put much trade in Britains' pocket, I'm afraid, but then again they have presented no earthly reason to pry open my purse.

More academic perhaps, but fun, would be whether people repair and restore older sets, whether they paint from scratch like Johnny, as opposed to collect in condition found.

Lastly, I see no choice of artillery sets as collecting favourites; I do love a good artillery set, either marching or being served, myself.

As my somewhat petrified brain wanders about aimlessly, I also think how nice it would be to do a new glossy marching & band range for the British Army during WWII. I might be totally out of it, but there seems to be a big hole between the Edwardian/George V era and the modern era (say 1970 on arbitrarily). I dream Scots Guards in the desert with pipes, or a glossy Desert Rat long range patrol. Wouldn't an eleven figure set of marching WWII Paras be lovely (with the four figure colour party add-on, of course)?

Lest one thinks by this unbridled tirade I'm an unhappy old sod, I'll state now that is hardly the case. I enjoy this immensely now, the hunt for older sets, restoration if needed, and their display as a coherent whole. I do think it would be nice (and perhaps even practical if I'm not the only one who enjoys this sort of thing) if the new-made range offered something that likewise appealed.
 
Hi guys sorry haven't been posting much recently but heres my input {sm4}

I really like the redcoats idea of individual figures that you can pick up over time as this does help with the bank balance, but i have to also say that this practice has its draw backs as when you are trying to make a marching regiment or band the items can sell out before you have a chance to get enough!! This happened to be with the marching 24th foot!!

So for me I think id like to see bands & parade figures in sets of 4 or 8 & action figures done in individual boxes as it is now.

Craig
 
also I forgot to say that I prefer British regiments over other nations mainly in the nap & vic eras, the only other nationality I might buy would be the Canadian regiments as they have a few good kilted regiments to choose from.

Craig
 
craig1985taylor said:
Hi guys sorry haven't been posting much recently but heres my input {sm4}

I really like the redcoats idea of individual figures that you can pick up over time as this does help with the bank balance, but i have to also say that this practice has its draw backs as when you are trying to make a marching regiment or band the items can sell out before you have a chance to get enough!! This happened to be with the marching 24th foot!!

So for me I think id like to see bands & parade figures in sets of 4 or 8 & action figures done in individual boxes as it is now.

Craig
Click to expand...

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas eh Craig :tongue:
 
craig1985taylor said:
also I forgot to say that I prefer British regiments over other nations mainly in the nap & vic eras, the only other nationality I might buy would be the Canadian regiments as they have a few good kilted regiments to choose from.

Craig
Click to expand...

Canadian regiments would be nice specifically the RCMP on horseback.
 
For me, it's glossy figures from the Redcoats/Bluecoats range, from the Seven Years War/French and Indian War. I'd like to see more mounted figures from that range, eg, light dragoons, Scots Greys, Life Guards; they'd be of the same quality as the rest of the figures in the range, which is to say, they'd be excellent.

Prost!
Brad
 
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