A special 'Find'

Have you ever wondered where those lots of figures that you find on eBay come from? I always imagine that they come from folks cleaning up their homes and attics, and as such I've always kept an eye out for toy soldiers whenever I go to a garage sale, a yard sale, an estate sale, or a flea market. After 15 years of looking however, I had never found anything. That is until last weekend. I was sightseeing in the city of Basel when I came across a big flea market. Being a European city, I had a feeling that I might find something there, but after going around all the stands once I did not see anything. Just then as I was about to leave I spotted a box with a bunch of Airfix figures! After a bit of negotiation I was able to secure them for 5 Siwss francs (about 5 dollars). They are a mix of about 80 Afrika Korps, British Support Troops, and British Paratroops. They are all painted, which tilted the price in my favor. I actually have all of these figures in my collection already so I basically bought them simply because of the thrill it gave me to find them. I know, it's money that is just going to sit on the shelf, but hey, I waited many years for this moment!

Here is what the box looked like when I walked by the stand

A sample of the figures that came in the box. There was actually only one German Infantry guy and two of the British 8th Army clones. BTW, notice that the box is labeled as 'MB Schrott'. MB must be the initials of the previous owner, but the amusing part is that Schrott means junk or scrap in German, which goes to prove the point that one man's junk is another man's treasure.

Click here to see a post about the Airfix toy soldiers

Click here to see British Paratroops in action

The Aftermath?

Recently, while working on a post about casting soldiers, I took this picture to illustrate how the result looks when things don't go quite right. Later though, it struck me that this image could also be an allegory for the aftermath of war, whether it is physical, psychological, or even metaphysical.

What about you, what do you see?

Click here to see a post about the Italian Infantry
Click here to see a post about mold making and figure casting

UPDATE: One of our readers with a keen eye commented on the Facebook page: 'instantly reminded me of a book i once saw, by Ernst Friedrich, which displays soldiers horrendously maimed during WWI'. I looked up the pictures -the book is called War against War- and I have to say that his observation was right on the mark. Definitely adequate for the physical consequences of War. A reminder that there are worse injuries and wounds than losing an arm or a leg.

Why is it so captivating?

There is something so enthralling, so captivating about seeing a neat, orderly formation of soldiers, all marching in step, with crisp uniforms, straight backs, creating such a martial atmosphere. No wonder soldiers are included even in non-military parades and even school marching bands try to mimic that style. I am very well aware of its effect, like a siren's chant, and yet I am unable to escape it, drawn to them with fascination. Maybe it is the volume of sharply uniformed, look-alike men, maybe the symmetry of the formation, perhaps the rythm and cadence of the steps, maybe all of it together that makes it so alluring. This is far from the fighting nature of soldiering and a lot closer to an aesthetic experience. Perhaps that's why it can be so dangerously seductive. In this series of pictures I have made an attempt at replicating that experience using plastic toy soldiers. Producing this post felt more like working on an art project. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together.

Click here to see another post with a parade scene

Click here to see a post about German Infantry figures

Click here to see a post about Matchbox Toy Soldiers

A word about shipping Toy Soldiers

I had been looking for Lone Star British Red Berets for a while. Some weeks ago I got a hold of some of them on eBay, but they did not contain all the poses. Then I got lucky and found another 4 figures with 2 more of poses that I was missing. Even though the shipping and handling from the UK to the US was several times the cost of the figures, I thought it was worth it. Can you imagine my disappointment when several days later I received the figures and they were all broken?

These are just the larger pieces. There were several other really small parts.

What bothered me the most was not the money aspect, but that the weeks I had spent hunting them down might have been for nothing and also the fact that a collectible item of which there are only so many left in the world had been permanently damaged. Even if you manage to glue them, they are no longer the same. And I have to admit that I was not very optimistic about being able to put them back together. Recently I had attempted to glue a Crescent guy who had his head break off. I tried several types of glue: Elmer's glue, modeling cement, a glue gun, and nothing worked.

So this is what happened. Instead of shipping the figures in a box as it's usually done, the seller sent them in a paper envelope.

I am not talking about one of those thick envelopes that has some padding inside. This was a home made envelope, made out of thin wrapping paper and brown tape.

The only protection, a thin layer of bubble wrap. No wonder the figures got crushed in transit! So if you ever ship toy soldiers through the mail, this is a cautionary tale about how NOT to pack them. To the seller's credit, he refunded me the cost of the whole purchase including that of another small item I had purchased from him at the same time.

So did gluing them back together work? So far it looks like they are holding up. I used UHU and it seemed to bond well with this type of plastic. You still notice where the seams are, if you know where to look, but I have to admit that they turned out better than I expected. Once they are painted and covered in the protective coats, including the Plasti-dip rubber cover I think they will have a better chance of staying in one piece. So it looks like we dodged that bullet!

Click here to see a post about British Paratroopers

Cick here to see a post with the British Paratroopers in action

UPDATE

Now, here is a good example of how it should be done!

A couple days ago I received this package with 5 toy soldiers. Notice how first of all the package is all wrapped in brown tape.

The next layer is a shipping envelope of the kind that is padded with bubble wrap inside.

Inside the envelope were two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, with tape around the outer box.

The inner box was filled with lots of bits of shredded paper, thickly packed.

Within the shredded paper were the figures, each of them wrapped individually in enough bubble wrap to go around them several times over.

Inside the bubble wrap, 5 Cherilea Sikh Infantry in great condition!

Click here to see a post about Indian Infantry

A Cautionary Tale

A few weeks back I came across the figures in this post on eBay. They were listed as Dulcop Turkish Infantry. The picture that came along was small and was taken from a distance so that you could not see very well the detail on the figures. I could see however that one of them was holding something that looked like a sabre, and I could tell that the men were wearing puttees. The head gear also seemed to be field caps instead of helmets. To me they looked like Japanese. I was also doubtful that they were made by Dulcop as the Dulcop bases are distinctly square. A quick google search boosted my assumptions as nothing came up for Dulcop Turkish figures. So I assumed that the seller did not know what he was posting and proceeded to bid on the figures assuming they were Japanese and I knew better. Well, a few days later when the package arrived I discovered that the seller had been right about one thing: they were certainly Turkish. Those 'field caps' have no resemblance with the Japanese head gear and the officer with the sword is wearing an ottoman hat (aka Fez). In retrospective I can't believe that I mistook them for Japanese, but I guess that's what happens when you get too wrapped up in your own assumptions. Upon further research I found out that these guys are WWI Turkish Infantry made by Reamsa. I might still paint them as Japanese and see if they blend in. Or I suppose that you could also do a conversion and give them Japanese heads. In any case, one thing is for sure. Next time I am not 100% sure what I am bidding on I will try to find out for sure before I buy it!

WWI Reamsa Turkish Infantry

Where do you get your figures from?

Someone asked me recently where they could buy plastic toy soldiers, so I thought it might be a good idea to share my answer as a post. There are several ways to buy toy soldiers:

You can buy many of them online from sites like Battlefield Legends, Michigan Toy Soldier, Toy Soldiers of San Diego, Hobby Bunker, Classic Toy Soldiers, Minute Men Toy Soldiers, Warstore Collectibles, etc. If you like Civil War stuff you can also check out Cunnyngham Collectibles. I usually buy things from online dealers when I already know what the figures look like.

Another way to buy soldiers is to visit a local Toy Soldier Show. Here is a link to a post about a show I just attended this weekend which should give you an idea of what they are like, as well as a Toy Soldier Show schedule courtesy of Michigan Toy Soldier. Soldier Shows are a good place to see things first hand before buying them, and sometimes you can also find older sets or figures that you were not aware of. Some vendors sometimes have boxes or bins full of vintage figures and you can dig through them and find a nice gold nugget or two.

Then there's also eBay. eBay can be a good place to buy a large lot of mixed figures for a low price, but it can also be a place where people resell stuff that you can buy cheaper elsewhere, or where you can find an old set of figures that is out of production and hard to find, which can sometimes get pricey. So you do need to know a bit about what you are bidding on, most importantly its fair market price. And then you also need a bit of luck so that the listing does not attract too many bidders.

Then there are also local hobby shops, but these are becoming less common given the competition from the online world. They sometimes they carry a few plastic figures. If you are looking for a good starter set, some of the BMC soldiers are fairly decent and affordable, and can usually be found at these shops.

So whether you are a seasoned collector or new to the hobby, good luck with your shopping and enjoy the hunt!

Hand-Painted vs Factory-Painted

The attractive thing about adding some factory-painted figures to your ranks is that well, they are already painted so it can save you many hours of work. The downside is of course that not all paint jobs are created equal. There is likely to be a big difference in colors and level of detail across manufacturers, and also with your own painting standards. Then again, perhaps the time savings outweigh those differences, or perhaps you can actually buy enough factory-painted guys to create a fighting unit sufficiently large that does not need to include figures with another paint scheme so you avoid the issue altogether.
To illustrate the differences in paint colors and level of detail I have prepared a few shots of factory and hand-painted figures. Take a look and be the judge.

GIs (left to right): 21st Century mortar crewman, 21st Century infantryman, Forces of Valor, Toy Soldiers of San Diego (hand-painted), First Gear (Recent Britains Deetail Recasts), Original Britains Deetail. A wide range of colors. Quality-wise, the thing that I least like are the eyes on the First Gear figure. It is very easy to do a bad job on the eyes, and that's why I don't even try. Plus, at the distance that you usually look at them you don't really get to see much of the eyes anyhow.

Soviet: 21st Century Toys, Supreme Playsets (Italeri Recasts), Marx (hand-painted), 21st Century Toys, Supreme Playsets. The paint job on the Supreme Playset guys is really poor, except for the eyes, which are surprisingly well done. They probably did this to compensate for the sloppy job on the rest of the figure.

Japanese: First Gear, 21st Century Toys, Britains Deetail, Airfix (hand-painted). I have to admit that I like the paint job on the 21st Century figure much more than my own.

German Infantry: 21st Century Toys (initial series), Forces of Valor, 21st Century Toys (late series), Britains Deetail, First Gear. I don't know what they were thinking when they chose light blue for the Britains Deetail guys. Once I read that Britains Deetail would try to use only six colors on their figures, but in this case I don't even think that can be used as the excuse. On the other hand, the 21st Century guy in the middle is really among the best factory painted jobs and a real improvement over their initial series.

German Paratroops: 21st Century on left and right, Airfix (hand-painted), middle. The one on the left is wearing a cammo jumping smock. The one on the right is probably meant to be wearing the early war colors, but his colors don't really resemble those I found when I researched how to paint my Airfix guys. 

Here you can see pictures of hand-painted GIs.

Here are some shots of hand-painted German Paratroops in action.

Featured figures: 21st Century Toys US Infantry, Forces of Valor US Infantry, TSSD US Infantry, Toy Soldiers of San Diego US Infantry, First Gear US Infantry, Britains Deetail US Infantry,  21st Century Toys Soviet Infantry, Supreme Playsets Soviet Infantry, Italeri Soviet Infantry, Marx Soviet Infantry, 21st Century Toys Japanese Infantry, First Gear Japanese Infantry, Britains Deetail Japanese Infantry, Airfix Japanese Infantry, 21st Century Toys German Infantry, Forces of Valor German Infantry, Britains Deetail German Infantry, First Gear  German Infantry, 21st Century Toys German Paratroops, Airfix German Paratroops

So what do you do with them?

Some people simply collect them. Some people use them for war-gaming. Some people like to build scenes or dioramas with them. Some people like to play with them. I've actually done all the above. When I got into toy soldiers as a child and my favorite game was to knock them over with marbles. Sounds simple, but if you've played that way against an actual opponent, you know that it is a game that requires very good aiming and it can get pretty challenging if you play it a good distance apart, and if you add the extra element of  fortifications and terrain cover. Every year or two I still battle it out this way with my old man and on a good day I can manage to only lose by a small margin. As a grown up I realized that I wanted to explore the tactical side that war-gaming provides so I've also tried that a bit as well. Unfortunately, even after developing a set of custom rules, I still find that sometimes these games move at a very slow pace, and you are always facing a trade off between quick, simple rules and more realistic rules that result in a slower game. So I am still looking forward to the day that I can play a quick, yet realistic war-game. War-gaming led me to building dioramas and trying to setup realistic scenes. That's convenient when I don't have someone to battle with, in which case I just fire away with my camera. Most of the time however, my troops are tucked away in their shelves and I am content knowing that they are there waiting for the next opportunity to do their duty. Speaking of opportunities, I am always on the look out for what would be a good scene. The pictures below were taken a winter some years back. The pictures are not great but they illustrate the point. Of course, after the pictures were snapped I happlily proceeded to unleash a snowball barrage. I am glad to report that after the snow melted, all casualties were retrieved. How about you? What do you do with them?

As an example of the scenes that I some times setup, here are some pictures of British and Waffen SS troops in action.

Lining them up - Marx German Infantry

Toy Soldiers. There is something about sorting them and grouping them by pose, about lining them up in neat, ordered lines which is very soothing, almost therapeutic. Then there's also that special sensation that seeing a large mass of troops gives you, a feeling that grows as the volume increases. Sorting them and lining the up by pose is almost always the first thing I do when I get a new set of figures. Of course, when it comes to setting up a scene, the fighting poses don't lend themselves that well to getting lined up. It would be totally unrealistic to have a bunch of guys next to each other throwing a grenade or charging with the bayonet at exactly the same moment! However, in the case of the marching guys, they actually work quite well for that purpose, which is pretty much the only time I really, really like them.
Below we have a platoon of Marx German infantry on parade in front of the battalion commander. Some day after I get around to painting them and building a more permanent town square -so that the cobblestone sections are all flat and the seams less noticeable-, this will be a much cooler scene, but for now I invite you to join in for their inspection and review them 'as is'.

Click here to see some pictures of painted German Infantry.

Click here to see another post with large formations

To paint or not to paint?

The older the figure, the trickier the answer. Whenever I consider painting a figure that is 40 or 50 years old I invariably feel torn. One consequence of adding even a little bit of paint is an immediate drop in value. Take for instance a set of Airfix Italians from the 1980's. It's hard to find them on eBay for anything less than $4 a piece, $3 if you are lucky. However, painted, I was recently able to get some for less than $1 per figure. There's also the amount of time and effort that goes into painting them, particularly if you are like me and don't know when the paint job is 'good enough' and you should stop fooling around with it, so you end up doing touch-up after touch-up to fix what you messed up during the previous touch-up. Lastly we have a less tangible element, the purity of the figure has been lost forever after having survived sometimes longer than yourself.
Then there are some figures that are manufactured in some pretty unusual colors which are not even close to those of the uniforms worn by the actual guys they represent, like the MPC Soviet guy in the picture below. Painting them allows you to combine figures from different manufacturers into a single combat unit that looks... uniform. It also adds realism to your battle scenes, particularly if you have vehicles, buildings and terrain to go with them, And lastly, I certainly find it very rewarding and a joy for the eyes, to see the finished product. So how do I deal with this 'dilemma'? Well, I've chosen not to chose. I usually buy at least two figures of each pose, with the intention of painting one and preserving the others in their original state. Perhaps not great for the purse and for the backlog of painting work but it has made the act of applying primer to a collectible item a bit less painful. What about you? Are you entrenched on either side of the argument?

Click here to see pictures of painted Soviet Infantry.

Clones and Recasts

These two terms are often used to describe copies of figures and they are sometimes used interchangeably. But is a clone always a recast? Is a recast always a clone? Perhaps it is clear to most of you what the difference is, but when I first started collecting figures I thought they meant the same thing. So what is a recast? A recast is a newly produced figure made using the original mold. Recasts might vary in color and even plastic type from the original figures, but they are pretty much the same in terms of detail. A clone is also a newly produced figure, but made with a mold that was derived from an existing figure. Because the molds are made using liquid rubber, the resulting mold shrinks a bit once the rubber cures and the figure is removed, resulting in a smaller figure and less detail. Sometimes the mold is produced using a figure that is already a clone, which makes the figure have even less detail. The pictures below illustrate the difference in size and quality of the resulting figures.

The picture above shows a recent recast of a 1970's Japanese Airfix figure to the right of the original figure. Note that while the color and even type of plastic is a bit different, the level of detail remains constant. You can also tell that the same molds were used because the injection points and the seams -where the two halves of the mold meet- are in the same place.

Here we have a clone on the right side of the original figure. Very noticeable difference in size although the level of detail is still fairly acceptable. The injection points and the mold seams are clearly different.

Above we have two clones side by side. The one on the left comes from China. The one on the right comes from Mexico. As you can see, not all clones are created equal. The one on the left has lost a lot of detail. It looks like they even had to add back or resculpt the rifle and the hands. What seems strange is that the one on the right is smaller even though it has apparently gone through fewer copies. It might even be a first generation clone based on the level of detail, but perhaps the rubber they used for the molds had a greater shrink factor. The other possibility is that the clone on the left is not a clone derived from an original figure but a low quality resculpting job insipired by the original, with its own new mold.

Here we have all four figures next to each other. One last thing to note is how the clone manufacturers trim back the size of the base. They must be trying to save as much as they can on material costs.

Click here to learn how to make your own clones

Click here to see pictures of Japanese Infantry in action.