Directly from my Vault (as captured in Facebook)… There are Collectors that keep their figures in the original boxes without even once sort them from the rubber ties… to each its own way of collecting and enjoying the hobby!
It certainly it is not mine.
Enjoy!
Hiriart do lovely Toy Soldiers (or did I do not know if the company still produces those marvels).
It seems proper to picture the Prussians from time to time… one of the shortest living “States” in Europe… but boy they did make it happen with a loud BANG!
Even today you can recognize some late Prussians in TV.
As a wargamer I stop at 1900… even Omdurman has a nasty ring to it… but as it is and was… revenge has always been a mighty motive… but I can not abide the Boer War (Second) Concentration Camps (an Spanish original idea from Cuban insurrection times…)… call me silly but it is like that… I have the remains of a stupid sense of honour (it would be too long to argument so lets keep it at Toy Soldier level).
It is hard to me to accept Toy Soldiers “casualties” in wargames… so… imagine what I think about “civilian casualties” or colateral damage as cynics say…
Enjoy the pics!
End of the XiXth or last third of it saw the last of the “nice” pre-industrialization uniforms…Gorgeous examples I must say…
Having a look at the chat in Facebook I have found this impressive sets of Britain’s.
I was born too late to collect those sets I guess… but nevertheless I have always liked them. Can you imagine when Toy Shops stocked those red boxes?… I do… with Nostalgia.
Quite an “antiques” approach today… you have to like authenticity, rarity, exclusiveness, original paintjob, many years long actual state, in a word: VINTAGE Toy Soldiers…
If you look closely at the pics you will see the figures that are pictured in the rightly famous among collectors book by James Opie “Collecting Toy Soldiers” (Paperback edition in English).
It is not my speciality at all and I do not have the financial means to go chasing for rare sets in public auctions… (but if I had would not do at all… would go for paintings or rare first editions of books if you understand me), and what is more I have a penchant for the bright shiny new toy soldiers be that new future vintage or not… I do not give a fig if they will become vintage because I won’t be threre…
I guess that really Vintage means not bright and shiny anymore and the charm is “another thing”, the fact that the paint has gone away in parts (faded or fallen out) provokes in me an unnatural desire of scrap the remaining paint and do a new paintjob and use gloss varnish on top! (maybe I am insensible to the concept vintage at all… but I keep my first toys in that way for nostalgia reasons… even if they are cautxuc and less than ten items… and nearly as Old as me…) so I am in it for nostalgia reasons after all.
I guess Collectors of VINTAGE Toy Soldiers deserved a Post… well… here it is by courtesy of John Mullenger! (as seen in Facebook).
Enjoy!
Vintage Toy SoldiersA couple of shelves full of treasures… see on top right corner the figures used on the cover of the James Opie book.They would get high prices on an auction… because of their rarity.Another view…
I am unusually happy with myself, as yesterday I discovered where I had put my old colour catalogues of DORSET SOLDIERS (from Giles brown time!)… that would facilitate enormously my emails and chats with Antony Spencer the actual “magic maker”… Only Old Hands would understand what I am talking about… but never mind… we old men are like that!