Action Report: National Capital Model Soldier Society 2013 Toy Soldier Show

After having missed several local Toy Soldier Shows, I had the opportunity and pleasure of attending the NCMSS 2013 Toy Soldier Show this past weekend. Besides being able to chat with the vendors and pick up missing or new items for the collection, what makes this show special is that it also contains an exhibit of dioramas built by the members of the society. Many of these dioramas are quite nice and even if they are on topics beyond WWII, they still manage to grab my attention and inspire me. In terms of vendor interaction, I was able to spend some time with Gary Green from Warstore Collectibles who, BTW, is one of the few vendors still carrying FOV vehicles and gave me a very nice deal on several of them. Now that FOV has increased its prices so much, their vehicles are becoming harder to find at the shows as dealers are hesitant to invest in them, aware of the lower demand given the higher prices. Quite unfortunate as I think that this will ultimately hurt FOV. Moving along, I also had a chance to stop by and chat with John Stengel, 'the Marx man'. His knowledge of the hobby and friendly character made it quite a pleasant experience, while I picked up from a couple of bins some figures which I had been hunting down for a long time. Hobby Bunker was also there, and George Guerreiro from Minute Men Toy Soldiers as well. All in all, quite a successful and enjoyable trip. Anyhow, here are some pictures from some of the sights, and in particular, some of the dioramas which caught my attention.

Getting to the show...

The parking lot was packed, so I was getting a bit nervous about things starting to sell out, in particular the Pegasus German Paras which was my main goal of the day... By the time I got in there, only Hobby Bunker had them left, but I got them!

A shot of the floor, showing about two thirds of the vendors.

A very nice diorama of the battle of the Alamo.

Here is another angle, depicting the battle outside the chapel.

Great figures, great building, great layout and composition.

I initially mistook this for a Napoleonic battle, but an alert reader -see comments below- identified it as the 'last stand of the 44th foot at Gandamak'. A battle that took place in Afghanistan in 1842. The amount of drama in this diorama is quite palpable! 

The perspective from the attacker's point of view. 

This ship was magnificent. Built from scratch, the level of detail was amazing, and on top of that, the engine and the propeller actually worked! You could see the pistons firing and moving up and down in the engine room and even though the propeller had its own separate electric motor, the illusion was quite impressive. I hope this guy won the prize... 

A WWII scene showing a couple of knocked out T-34s, allegedly taken out by some SS troopers. Nice job with the water and the grass.

Click here to see a post about a prior NCMSS show.

Click here to see a post about the Heart of the South show

Action Report: Heart of the South Toy Soldier Show - The haul

Last weekend I got to attend the Heart of the South Toy Soldier Show. It is a relatively small event, but with a loyal set customers and vendors in attendance. I went there primarily looking for the new set of CTS GIs and the new Forces of Valor 6x6 1.5 Cargo Truck. I found both items and a few more things. The highlight of the shopping experience was digging into a large bin, the size of a whole table with thousands of soldiers. Everything was 50 cents and if you knew what you were looking for you could find some nice gems in there. Lately the demands of real life have kept me a bit busy, so rather than waiting for the opportunity to setup separate scenes with the new figures I've decided to take a few quick snapshots and share them with you now. Hopefully at some not so distant point I will be able to present them in a better setting.

Marx German Infantry

I already have a good number of these marching guys, but it does not hurt to have another couple squads to enhance the parade scene. They are not so easy to find, so it was a nice surprise to see that there were quite a few to be found in that bin!

Classic Toy Soldiers GIs Set 2

I got two bags of these. Each bag comes with 2 sets of figures in 8 poses. The main attraction for me were the artillery crew guys - see the three guys on the left. I have several Long Tom artillery pieces from 21st Century Toys which came without crews, so these guys will fill that role. But don't get me wrong, the other 5 guys are also nice decent poses which will look just fine either as GIs or marines.

Marx US GIs - Battleground Set - Part 1

Today you can buy Marx recast figures, but unfortunately they do not include some of these poses, so I was glad to run into them and pick up a few more of these guys.

Marx US GIs - Battleground Set - Part 2

I found six of these stretcher bearers and two of the wounded guys. Unfortunately I did not fnd any stretcher, but that's OK. Stretchers won't be hard to make. I did not have any of these guys in my collection, so they were a nice find.

Marx US GIs - Battleground Set - Part 3

The guy lying down is the one that goes on the stretcher. The man carrying his budy was also a great find. Actually, I found the guy who is being carried at a different vendor. He cost twice as much as the one who is carrying him, but I bought him without hesitation as I was quite happy to be able to find both of them on the same outing.

Airfix Italian Infantry

These two guys were also a good find. On eBay Italian Infantry usually sells for 3-4 dollars a piece. The officers sometimes for more, so these guys subsidized the rest of the purchase.

Timpo US Infantry

This guy is also a vintage figure. First I mistook him for a Britains Herald figure but Brian Carrick identified him as a Timpo guy. The rest of the Timpo figures look so good that now I am going to have to go hunt for the rest of the squad.  

Unknown Soviet Infantry

I don't know who the manufacturer is but if I ever come across a figure that I have not seen before I pick it up and find out later! In the worst case I have a new pose. In the best case I found an odd collector's item. I suspect this might be a case of the former, but who knows...

Auburn US GIs

I was not familiar with these figures before the show, but a fellow collector who was also digging through the bin identified them for me. They are about 70 mm tall, so a bit beyond my scale however I liked the sculpting work, particularly that of the two guys on the left who look very confident. I was told they were Korean War figures, but I think they can pass for WWII guys.

I also found this little raft. I have no idea what figures it came with or who made it, but as with the Soviet guy, I hope to find out sooner or later.

MPC DUKW

This one did not come from the bin. I had been keeping an eye for one of these for a while to include it in the Marines scene that I am putting together in my head and when I saw it at the show -the only one there-I grabbed it! I plan on painting it so it will look even better.

Forces of Valor 6x6 1.5 Dodge Cargo Truck

This was the other item on my shopping list and I barely got it. It was the second to last. As you can see it comes with a little assortment of accessories. These are of not much use by themselves, but combined with the other things that come with the other vehicles they add a good dose of realism to your scenes. I have to say though that I am finding it harder and harder to justify buying the FOV vehicles. They have become quite pricey and the truck itself is not that special or different from the 2.5 ton truck they had previously released.

Conte German Waffen SS

This guy is actually a metal figure. I don't collect metal figures as they really push you to a whole different price range, but I certainly appreciate their look and feel -their extra weight makes them feel much sturdier and they usually come with a nice paint job out of the box. So how did I come home with this figure? I won it in a raffle! All the entrance tickets participate and vendors throw in the prices. They draw about a dozen numbers throughout the day and if you win, you get to pick one of the prizes.  So this rounded up nicely a good and fun morning at the show!

Click here to see some more Marx German guys marching

Click here to see a twin of the Timpo radio man in action 

Click here to see the rest of the Italian Infantry

Action Report: National Capital Model Soldier Society 2011 Toy Soldier Show

As I mentioned in a previous post, yesterday I had the chance to attend the 50th NCMSS Toy Soldier Show. There is always something special about seeing all these figures and vehicles live, even if some of them are in a diferent scale, time period or material than what I collect. In fact, sometimes it feels like I could just get them all if space and budget weren't a constraint! the other nice thing about attending these shows is that you get a chance to talk to and share experiences with some of the other folks in the hobby, dealers and fellow enthusiasts in person, and that's also enjoyable and rewarding.  Larry Weindorf from Larry's Legions, Gary Green from Warstore Collectibles, and the guys from the Northern Virginia Gamers Society were a real pleasure to chat with. Anyhow, I took a few pictures -just a thin slice of what there was to see- to try to give you an impression of what the event was like.

So this is a view of the dealer room. It was hosted inside the basketball gym at a local college. There were probably about 30 or 40 vendors. On the smaller side compared to other shows I've been to, or the one coming up in Chicago, but large enough to keep you busy for several hours with all sorts of things beyond figures like books, videos, paintings, etc. In terms of attendance, it was very well attended from the start. I got there 10 minutes after it opened and I already had to park in the adjacent parking lot!

One of the vendor displays that I enjoy the most is the one from George Guerriero's Minute Men Toy Soldiers. He spent the entire evening before and the morning of the show just setting up his scenes. A real joy to look at. The other nice thing about stopping by Gerorge's stand is that I always get a good deal from him on my figures and vehicles!

Minute Men Toy Soldier's North Africa display. I only took pictures of WWII scenes, but there was plenty more to see as you can tell by the other scene just to the left.

A western front scene: Fighting in hedgerow country.

Someday I have to get me some of those grassy mats. They really look like the real thing!

A bit of urban warfare. Unfortunately, most of these figures are metal, from King & Country, so they are outside the bounds that I have set for my collection, but they are still the right scale and time period!

Here is one of my favorite details in the whole display. Looks like Santa got himself into a little bit of trouble!

Another stand with a nice display was the one from the Hobby Bunker.

I particularly liked their Figarti Minesweeper Sherman. Unfortunately, that manufacturer is really for collectors with very deep pockets. The price tag on this Sherman, about $250!

Here is another nice display from Crown Miniatures.

I particularly liked their mounted unit.

The Marine Corps Museum was also present at the show and had a stand with the WWII uniform and equipment. I had to snap a picture to document the actual colors as the marines are one of the sets that I am going to be painting in the next few months. BTW, if you ever have a chance to visit the Marine Corps Museum, do so. They have some very nice life-size dioramas and the entrance is free!

The Soldier Show also has another room setup with dioramas and figure displays from members of the NCMSS. Those are not for sale, but are even nicer to look at. This is a really nice and detailed diorama, courtesy of modeler William Herd, of a fighting scene on Italy's Gothic line. The German defenders are fighting from a gun turret and a series of trenches that surround it. The turret is just the tip of an underground bunker, with multiple layers of nice, realistic detail.  

The diorama slopes back to represent the mountainous and rugged terrain of the italian countryside, and makes ingenious use of different figure scales to increase the depth peception in a short distance. Another nice detail are the explosions. It is really hard to make fire look realistic, and not only has William managed to do that, but also he has posed the figures and equipment that were caught in the explosion in mid-air. My quick picture shots don't really do justice to it, but at least you get an idea of the caliber of this scene and the skill involved.

Another nice scene by William Herd. If I recall correctly these guys are alpine French troops.

This is a Tarawa diorama courtesy of modeler David Vickers. Next to it there was a 10+ page document describing all the research and work that went into putting it together. Every detail was researched (like the handles to the tank hatches or the tanks exhaust system) and if necessary it was custom built. Even the palm trees were built from two manufaturers: one makes good foliage with inadequate trunks, the other makes good trunks with poor foliage, so what did he do? He took the best from each and built his own palm trees. Very impressive.

A close up of the action. Definitely an inspiration for when I finally manage to put together my marine landing scene. BTW, did I mention that I also got a few Amtrak's yesterday in preparation for it?

So there it is. Just a few of the sights, but I hope they give you an idea of what the show had to offer.

Click here to see a post about another Toy Soldier Show

Click here to see the Marines holding back a Banzai charge

Upcoming Toy Soldier Show

If you happen to be in the DC area next weekend, the National Capital Model Soldier Society is organizing the 50th Annual Washington Show. It will take place on Saturday, September 10, 2011from 9 am to 5 pm at the Annandale Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College. Toy Soldier Shows are a nice way to see the figures and vehicles first-hand before you decide to buy them and it also affords the opportunity to interact directly and build a relationship with your favorite dealers. Many dealers sell new production items, but there are also those who sell old, vintage figures. You can find figures both in metal and plastic and from all time periods. It's fun even if all you do is walk around and take a look.

UPDATE: here is an after action report about the show.