In the winter of 1993/1994, as I browsed through some toy soldier advertisements, I came across a photograph that caused me to box up and put away the several thousand traditional toy soldiers I had spent my formative years carefully accumulating and displaying. Until this particular day I had been collecting only very static, traditional toy soldiers, like those produced by William Britains for the last 100 years. They were shiny, pretty, looked good set up in marching order, and, frankly, were all I had ever seen up to that point. Everything I knew about toy soldiers was about to change.
The photograph was of a set of toy soldiers unlike anything I had seen up to that point: Teddy Roosevelt, mounted in his uniform as Lt. Colonel of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, with two of his dismounted “Rough Riders” marching behind him. The sculpting of the figures was the first thing that caught my eye: they were properly proportioned and athletic, like living soldiers rather than toys, in comfortable, realistic poses: Teddy slouching in his saddle, and the rough riders marching with their bed rolls slung around them from shoulder to waist. The paint finish also stood out: it was glossy, like traditional toy soldiers, but had the shadowing, dry brushing techniques, and detailed outlining I had only previously seen in prohibitively expensive matt “connoisseur” figures. I had to have it, immediately calling one of the dealers in the advertisement.
