Alejo Dorca – Page 29 – My Toy Soldiers & Me

Feeling Classical today (54mm)

Not really much to add. Those are the stuff of childhood dreams…

Some real “toys”… (toy soldiers in a true sense)

Wargaming can be done in multiple ways… here is one! (Facebook)

Probably the 4 black spots on the horses are a bit too much a simplification… (loved them) but you need all sorts as you know… excellent buildings and scenography! H.W. must be pleased!

54mm Passion

As a first entry see a group of pics of 54mm Toy Soldiers, probably the “IT” most collected traditional scale in gloss finish. For many it is the “true” Toy Soldier… for me any scale is OK mind… but had to mention nevertheless.

This is actually my first post with the new format of making a new Post each day (well, if you do not count yesterday’s joke)… I still think the true collecting scale is 54mm… and it will always be for me “the true size” of Toy Soldiers.

Zulu War minis (did I really needed to explain that?) film version of course! (as seen in FB)

Pics I Collected from Facebook over the years.

I did not want to “lose them”… everytime I found an interesting pic about my passion I published them daily in this webpage.

They are an eclectic mix to say the least… but it was conforting to see there were other gents publishing and posting pics of Toy Soldiers.

So here they are grouped under the 2018 date.

Hope you enjoy some.

Not my period at all… but sheer quality!

AND IN THE END (III) I once started a Blog (in the proper sense) but stopped very soon. That’s what remains of it! (Edited 2025)

15 Feb 2022

Todays pics are from the late Roy Dillon Collection, the absolute master of the thin red line (in more than two ways) between Toy Soldiers and Military Modeling. Wish I could buy soldiers of that level of craftsmanship… my own collection (Even if I am proud of it) pales in comparison. Judge from yourselves…

The real thing. (Even if the Union Jack should be on the right!)

14 Feb 2022

Conversions by John Firth… very good job!

This Blog is about a inoffensive hobby, but nowadays I can not take out of my mind the folly of the real world… I am glad I stopped my wanderings at 1900… I hate the wars of the XXth and hope I will not need to hate those in the XXIst too… I always enjoyed playing with toy soldiers, loved the gaudy uniforms of the XIXth Century but I am a realist War in the XIXth had no glamour at all… because real war is a nasty thing…

Thursday (if I ever live that long) is my birthday… 70 years old (going on 74 nowadays…)… somehow it would be fitting to stop this webpage then… probably… never got any feedback even if I published my email address several times (adb@andorra.ad)… but the Facebook group has nearly 250 members so… (in fact 2400 members quite stable in 2025) I guess we all know each other in this small interest trend.

Cheers.

13 Feb 2022

Some more pics from the Dilley’s… just love their work!

24 Jan 2022

Another of Tony Dilley’s efforts (Father and son are quite brilliant!)

Have to post later on the 23rd because the 24th would be a busy morning I guess, so for once I am in advance of the clock (quite meaningless in view of the different times zones of the visitors).

Detail from the above mentiones… fantastic detail.

23 Jan 2022

Andrew Stevenson REPLICA METAL MODEL SOLDIERS.

Just a pic today (again).

10 Jan 2022

I will give you two pics as an example of what can be achieved in 6mm (they are not my minis neither my work) both found in FaceBook. Will include the much seen pic of my Crimean Light Brigade to show you “the difference” lol.

Waterloo British Infantry. 6mm. AWESOME!

Blow up!… the minis are smaller… Wurtemberg cavalry Napoleonic convulse times… 6mm again.

That’s my work! Baccus proxies in 6mm and basing included. I am too old for that now.

9 Jan 2022

Look what you can do with mainly Plastic Soldiers and lots of taste! (meaning HARD WORK!)… of course it is the Anglo-Zulu disaster (or victory depending from which side you look upon it). Rather splendid work. Also found on FaceBook.

The pic of today is awfully inspiring… simply awesome. My own efforts were not up to par with this at all. I then was painting the minis myself as you can see on the pics below… nearly all MINIFIGS 25mm.

2 Jan 2022

Roy Dilley’s Opus (just bought a copy via amazon).

A classic that Idid not know of… well that’s been righted. Probably much more Military Modeling oriented than “Toy Soldier”… but divisory lines get blurred sometimes you know…

1 Jan 2022

29 Dec 2021

So… I collect Toy Soldiers… and what if I do?… today I will show you a pic that contains the earliest memories of my hobby… Spanish Toy Soldiers from the early Fifties (and among other things some soldiers done by my sons).

Left to right and clockwise: Policeman on a Bike (JECSAN); RCMP (REAMSA- aka resin); a german with binoculars painted by my eldest son (TAMIYA); two Highlanders by RPWorld Models 54mm lead toy soldiers from the UK; 1/300 Heroic&Ross Household Cavalry for Waterloo (painted by me); Peter Pig Plains Wars 15mm (done by MILI-ART); in the middle a Union Mounted Artillery Officer by OLD GLORY 28mm painted by my younger son. The first two are 70 years old like me… LOL

28 Dec 2021

I did promise… so here it is: the most predictable part of my 54mm collection. It all started with my parents gift of a very big double tray box of Britains when I was very young (Coldstream Guards). Ask James Opie for the number of the set I have forgotten and do not care at all.

The top three shelves: Bands of the Life Guards and Blues&Royals in State Dress; The Royal Horse Artillery; The Blues&Royals.

Special vignettes for the Trooping the Colour Parade; and the bottom one Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 11 shelves in total.

As you all know those are (like the Grenadiers of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard) the most produced Toy Soldiers around the world.

Mainly DUCAL (or Fort Ducal) with some splashes of Tradition of London and other brands (Marlborough and others)

27 Dec 2021

Today I will give you my small cabinet (the colonial one)… colonialism was not “right” seen with perspective… but as usual adventure and conquest has a mighty appeal on the moment… how crazy is History… well, never mind… it gave us brilliant moments and nasty defeats (also as usual). The cabinet was designed with 25mm in mind… it has contained 15mm too… and was finally recycled into the classic scale of the wonderful 54mm Toy Soldier (You will also notice some Military Modelling stuff on the top of it). Here we go:

Next two… Artillery and Egypt 1882 (in fact also Anglo-Zulu War too).

The last three for a total of eleven shelves… British red tunics… “MY” Royal West Kents and British Cavalry… they can go anywhere as per Victoria’s Little Wars.

So, in a nutshell a very eclectic collection built along so many years it is not worth detailing too much. FFL is mainly DORSET SOLDIERS with some REPLICA. Kakhi is all REPLICA, the rest Tradition of London, DUCAL and RPWORLD models… and yes there are some specials and conversions too.

Hopefully tomorrow the even more classical part of my collection on the “big” cabinet (under the stairs).

29 Nov 2021

I “stole” this drawing from faceBook… Daniel Hodgson posted it (REVEILLE) and I could not resist the memories it brought back..

26 Oct 2021

Yesterday was Balaklava day!… forgot to show you the different approaches I did in that long journey in wargaming. Did it in 28mm, 6mm and 75mm. The game in any scale did not include the Russians (firing off the table) the interesting part was the decision making process to see when, where to, how the Light Brigade would advance or charge or whatever… nearly rol-playing wargame.

28mm Foundry (or The Foundry or Wargames Foundry). Sold them long time ago.

Baccus 6mm proxies (there is not an especific range for the Crimean War… but plenty of lancers with czapska, hussars with busby and light dragoons with shako !). Nice game without need of guns, guns and more guns… Still in my collection. The only full unit painted by me on those days.

75mm PLAYMOBIL heavily customized… NO commercial figures I am afraid. Sold the figures but not the horses! The horses are now in the 7th Cavalry USA. LOL

25 Oct 2021

Not much time today. Just a pic of my Maiwand/Kandahar REPLICA collection.

The best pic I guess…

As Murphy really rules today have got confirmation the long lost book has arrived! (at the same time amazon has confirmed the invoice of a second copy!… I do not care better two than none!). It seems that with COVID19 long delays are the norm nowadays.

24 Oct 2021

Sunday, I have ordered again the ACW MILITARY MACHINE book, this time through another channel, the worst that can happen is that both books (copies) arrive!… but I do not think so. Somehow amazon deliveries are getting late more than ever!.

Some British Guards (Welsh) fr0m DUCAL, 54mm.

Fall is behaving itself, another sunny day! I do really have to start writing those “Chance Cards” for the ACW solo wargame (somehow I would like them to be multipurpose and not exclusively centered on the ACW… highly general “chances” applied to most periods… as for example YOUR LEFT FLANK IS SLOW TO REACT THEY DO NOT MOVE THIS TURN or similar… guess I will do a preliminary list, polish it, and then write them down on the blank cards i bought eons ago from amazon.com (BYCICLE STANDARD). Will keep you posted with that list!

23 Oct 2021

Naval Brigade by Andrew REPLICA METAL MODEL SOLDIERS… great stuff in 54mm classic toy soldier style. You can go wrong with Andrew Stevens. Slow but sure!

Decided to start with a pic from FaceBook today to lift the spirits. My own Sailors are from Tradition of London but found those irresistible.

Those Naval Landing parties are really great stuff. He recently did a double tray box for a customer (a lucky chap!) and that means months of work in those. A gun, the Band, Royal Marines wow! That is the perfect gift! Enjoy…

AND IN THE END (II) METAURUS RIVER BATTLE (really “ancient” boardgame): Full Circle? YES! (edited 2025).

The very first game (or wargame) we played with dice was METAURUS (Great Battles of the World series). It was late fifties or early sixties I do not recall exactly (and do not care a lot about the exact date… could look at it on the net… but it really does not matter…).

It was a hit.

I keep buying boxes of plastic (quite hard) additional soldiers to increase the basic main box contingents. My rivals grew out of all historical proportion… I do not remember exactly if I got 7 or 11 elphants in the end!… a silly disproportion… but got a lot of Roman Cavalry too!… sadly never found Carthaginian Cavalry (which existed!… but never was lucky with those). Our battles were masive and cramped… I only stoped buying more troops when I run out of space on the “map”… LOL… now I know “those were the days”.

Fifty or Sixty years later my brother has produced a commemorative edition of limited number of copies (got number 33 if you are interested in those details), and I do not intend to break the seal of my copy. In that half century (or more) many things have happened… I still can remember how I teached the basic and crude rules to my (back then) little brother… that he will from there to build a company (with partners) that produces tabletop games was only a dream (his) but by now DEVIR (celebrating this days its 25 anniversary of existence) launches tabletop games expected to sell 140.000 copies in Spain alone… or 2.000.000 copies worldwide…

I must say that Mr. Rojas was strongly Roman biased, the games he produced (MEATURO and ZAMA) were Roman Republic highlights!… curiously enough Hannibal and the “Carthaginians Armies” are probably a lot more inspiring because they lost (mainly at sea as in all wars)… Europe is not “oriental” because the Romans won. Never Mr. Rojas produced a game about Ticino, Trebia, Trasimeno or Cannas… and he was probably right (mind!)… those were the ancient “big scare” of the ancient world.

With hindsight an Empire build with “business and commercial values at its core”… aka the Phoenician heirs of CARTHAGO… with mainly mercenary soldiers and dubious allies payed for their military services… with very few real carthaginian soldiers in their Armies was doomed from the start against the “citizen roman soldier of the republic” (probably half of a Republican Army was also Auxiliary troops… but they fought to became proper “roman citizens as a bonus in the end”)… It is a fascinating History. Got us all hooked when very young… we do understand it now. It is a matter of values… the higher values and sacrifices pay in the end.

I can also reflect that the “agrarian” Romans (Primary economical sector mainly) won over a “business commercial” carthaginians (Tertiary sector mainly)… both using the same technologies available (Second sector)… just mention this for fun of course. When Hannibal asked for more troops and supplies -basically money- the business decison of the Cartagho Senate was the wrong one… and that’s that.

But the “scare” was so big that the Romans had to erase Cartago from the face of the Earth… literally… DELENDA EST CARTHAGO!… raze the city and plant salt on their fields so they will never raise again… because it was a “Near Run Thing”. The languages we speak are mainly derived from greek and latin… no one cares about what “carthaginians” spoke…

We never looked back after that boardgame with 54mm plastic minis… of course more than fifty years later the plastic minis are gone and forgotten… years ago I bought metal minis to use the map with them… actually after several tries with Baccus 6mm correct figures (meaning Gauls, Carthaginian, Elephants, and Republican Romans).

The private edition by my brother is not available commercially if I understood correctly!… will post actualizations once I got my complimentary copy! (After all it was me who introduced my little brother to wargames at a very early age… that he later will transform that passion into a business still puzzles me!).

Enjoy!

First sketches from a private reedition (100 copies) for the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of DEVIR (a boardgames multinational company which has as CEO my brother!… LOL) fantastic expectations…

My sixties old boardgame still in good shape!

For a time I used Greek miniatures from Wargames Foundry in 28mm (that way both players had elephants!… but it was too symmetrical I guess…

The modern basic “counters”… at least quite “soldiers like”

The “NEW” map. (with very subtle diferences)

The ZAMA game (I never got the original one!)… because I knew how it ended…

And in the End (I)

Slightly smaller than DUCAL but exactly as BRITAINS or DORSET SOLDIERS.

The games you play are equal to the games you make…

I could not resist it, saying farewell and knowing when to quit is very difficult.

I have painted a “new old toy soldier”… a 54mm (ReplicaMetalSoldiers Andrew) a mounted Inspector General of the NWMP in a dark blue patrol jacket – I enjoyed so much the painting of it that I am currently pestering Andrew for a variation on the theme…- and all just because a childhood memory. I was very young when I got a box of mounties (I already had a lot of them) but in that one proudly in front of the lot there he was… a mountie with a dark blue tunic -and yellow gauntlets!- of course it was the commander of the unit!… I always had a crush for that figure (and of course never found one alike)… so in the end I decided to make my own and quite satisfied I am going full circle. Of course the original one was lost forever, but I have still 3 “mounties” over 65 years old.

I am going to update this post with pics and slowly edit the rest, meaning that I think there is always room for improvement.

There he is on its proper place before saluting the flag of the parading mounties.

It was a pleasure comparting posts here… and sure I will post more pics!… and edit existing posts but that’s all. To elaborate would be just a copy/ paste of what I said in my book “My Toy Soldiers and Me” so just peruse sometimes to see editions to come (of the posts of the blog not my book!).

Playmobil “mounties”… customized… and of course the dark blue patrol tunic is there too! Not very good light on that pic. See OSPREY MAA.

Editing this blog would be much more interesting that writing new entries, just yesterday I got one half of my last REVEILLE Leven buildings (Daniel Hodgson is the chap you need for your scenery!), vaguely colonial they would be pressed into service at the battle of Maiwand, NWF and North of Africa indistinctly.

Renaming and ordering the Posts of the Blog by subjects and categories nowadays.

Original pic of my DUCAL mounties in the garden (Pal in ANDORRA) not Canada at all I am afraid.

Summing up, my interests on “toy soldiers” are wide and large. I do not restrict my activities to a single field or even scale, neither period. No original at all, as you can imagine there is nothing more conservative than the Household Division to collect in 54mm, and the rest of my 54’s are in three main themes: French Foreign Legion (with some Chasseurs d’Afrique); Tel el Kebir/Rorke’s Drift aka Brits colonials before khaki; and last but not least NWMP/RCMP. As you can see in Collecting I the minis collected in 54mm have been subject to buy/sell, Scot Grey’s cometh and goeth, same with US Cavalry in gala uniform, Denmark Royal Guard, and some mat finish Spanish miniatures I had because a compulsory swap was made. That is Collecting for me, something alive but with periods of lethargy. Not Original at all I am afraid but a rewarding pastime.

I dedicated a chapter of my book to Collecting (my own experience mind) but the books you need is the one by James Opie: Collecting Toy Soldiers, and THE COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO NEW TOY SOLDIERS by Stuart Asquith. The former has written many excellent books about Britain’s but THIS ONE is the best of all his production IMHO.

By now it should be named The Collector’s Guide to “OLD” New Toy Soldiers. How time flies by…

Guess it is time to start making lists again… first objective get the remaining ACW brigades organized (after a bit of checking up what minis I have used so far), deciding who is gonna paint what… and put a perspective into new projects, mainly completing “things” already exist… Will keep you posted.

Cheers.

adb@andorra.ad

Variations on a theme… see “the” iconic Toy Soldier mounted officer

The real Old Britains ancestors… perhaps one of his best Toy Soldiers figures. (Those are NOT mine)

Actually – once you have finished collecting – you are able to review your prided/priced posessions and understand from where their origins come.

Of course this is evidence itself for anyone knowing a bit about “iconic pieces” (and I do not mean mine!), see also the WOW factor as described by Mr. James Opie one of the best authors on the toy soldier field.

Here in this post you can look at my 9 mounted officers based on Britains Officer of Lancers… changes of arms and heads etc have added “custom toy soldiers”… but they all come from that old BRITAINS masterpiece.

Some of the pics have nothing to do with those but are included as a sample of things you can ask for or convert yourself!

Enjoy! (I did)

The other “similar” 8 Toy Soldiers in my collection

Those are from REPLICA: US Cavalry Officer, Guides Officer, Naval Officer, General Roberts, General Wolseley.

Done and painted by Andrew Stevenson from REPLICA

DORSET Toy Soldiers, 17th lancers Officer, Imperial Guard Lancers (Napoleon III), Scots Greys Officer

Bought as casts and painted by me, the head and arm are “converted”, and also the sword is added to the lancer officer.

And this Coldstream Officer converted from a US Cavalry Trooper (new head and right arm) has nothing to do with the “variations”… just added on to explain the concept of “variation”

This one is from Antony Spencer fron DORSET SOLDIERS (as anterior pic)

Indian Army Lancers 54MM: W.Britains and Tradition of London

I finally ended messing with those sets… in the end it has been a year long (on and off)… but it is finished.

It is interesting in a way because trying to bend horse’s legs to add stability to the toy soldiers I broke some (the alloy used is sturdy but brittle!) and then I bought replacements, learned to repair, paited redundant figures… in the end lots of fun!

I segregated the pics from an ancient post I was complementing as things caught form and progress was evident.

Finally decided to put them alltogether in one Post

A part of my collection consists of Bengal Lancers in Parade Dress, I first got the Tradition of London dismounted figures at the front, and then bought some W.Britains Centenial sets to have the mounted Toy Soldiers… as usual I elaborated a bit and got for the mounted sets a British Officer, an Indian Officer and a Stndardbearer… buying two sets of each it gives you two “redundant” figures a bugler and an officer… Antony Spencer from DORSET SOLDIERS did some of the conversions… and I did the rest. Nearly finished.

*A simple paintjob transform an officer of Hodson’s Horse (Blue tunic) into a Governor’s Bodyguard Officer (red tunic). Quite easy and straighforward.*

*As it was broken… why not try to repair?*

*Success with the first quickly implied disassemble the next one…*

*Now, using the two unbroken parts… a horse with a good rear leg and tail appears… (add a new head and right arm… and a brand new Toy Soldier will be added to the collection)*

54MM Toy Soldiers. Making “piece unique” toy soldiers with my leftover bits and pieces (first post of 2026 with more than 25 pics)

I am now proceeding to adjust my collections and do things that were on standby for a quite a time… using replacement pieces (arms, heads, etc) and even disassembling W.Britains damaged horses (one I did broke myself and the other horse come without a tail…)… just a bit of harmless entertainment to polish the end of it.

I learned to disassemble the horses using a vice, a screwdriver and a hammer! (long years messing with toy soldiers without using a hammer!). But so far so well, I did a “new” horse with two different parts (one from each horse – a bit with tail and a bit with a good rear leg -) see pics (worth a thousand words).

So, now only remains to paint them.

In the meantime I elaborated a kepi of a French Adjudant FFL, Put a flag arm on a redundant figure, painted the flag of a Bengal Lancer… and planning to reuse the broken bits before ever contemplating throwing them away to the bin

Enjoy! (Surely it is fun to repair things and give them a second chance!)