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Mind, those are my personal DO’S and DON’TS and I do not like preaching at all, you must follow your own instincts and experiences (they teach you a lot: actions and non-actions alike). As I have already said before in this webpage, constiously or not, I have been collecting toy soldiers, from an early age, more or less continuosly all my life. So here are my thoughts for what they are worth.
If I give you an optimistic view of the end of it, I am three orders short of completion. Not that it is an important indication for you, but for the record let’s say that STEADFAST is going to provide 9 painted figures to complete existing units or crews (Infantry and Artillery); REPLICA is going to deliver (quite soon I hope) the British Naval Brigade and a couple of French Cavalry units (say 1870 onwards) + some casts to be painted by me + odds and ends; finally DORSET SOLDIERS would finish my yearly order providing the last of the French Infantry and Cavalry + some sets of casts to be painted by yours truly. It sounds like a lot of items and future work… but it is not. Of course there are lots of other manufacturers… but those are “mine” after a long period of collecting them. Of course “maintenance” alone would keep me busy.
As you can see (evident), you can buy directly from the producers (painted or unpainted items), pretty boxes will arrive in due time and you can display your figures (or not) after adding them to your collection. That’s that.
The other alternative (when you want something no longer “new” or even difficult to be done by your suppliers of Toy Soldiers (be that another range or a particular item you did not get when it was there!) is getting items second hand through sellers (mainly ebay in my case).
Of course any collector is obsessed by the idea of getting particular items they fancy, sometimes no longer produced anymore, then you are going to use ebay, (have some tips for you about that experience!) Say for example BRITAINS sets -use James Opie books as a reference- (be those antiquarian stuff end of the XIXth or prewars (WWI or WWII), or post WWII, or even the Centenial sets (see Norman Joplin book) even me who has not the inclination of collecting overpriced (this is subjective of course) “antique” items have a few of them in my collection, but maybe not for the same reasons as other collectors! (as if you care!)
I do digress a lot, mind, as a result of the tardiness of items production once they have been ordered (after all behind much pompous titles trade mark Toy Soldiers are often the production of small dedicated individual artists!) I started buying on ebay.co.uk to get going… (probably the best site by far to get Toy Soldiers in 54mm gloss finish), and one of my purchases was (exactly!) Bengal Lancers, the set called CENTRAL INDIA has two references (or boxes produced), I concentrated in one of them and I was distraught when some horses did not “stand” properly, tried to bend (gently) the horse’s legs and the brittle thing snaped! (broken Toy Soldiers can be repaired with patience and spare parts but it is a lot of work!), so with one thing and another I purchased also the other CENTRAL INDIA set (in fact I ordered 3 boxes -one from a seller- two from another). The last one meaning the ebay seller who sold me two boxes in a single transaction was a nightmare because I was stupid enough to follow the AI updates, I always check the “status” of any order sometimes daily, and to cut a long story short: The items were paid for (easy enough… not talking about a lot of cash), acknowledged and sent to me, there was an indicative delivery time, so far so good, and then the waiting time started. Days, weeks, months got away and no results at all… other items arrived in the meantime (even comparatively other late comers)… and then you see the updates on your summary: IT IS RUNNING LATE, WILL NOT ARRIVE IN TIME, YOUR PARCEL IS MAYBE LOST, IF NOT HERE IN (say for example) FOUR DAYS YOU CAN ASK FOR A REFUND, ETC. So frustrated I did, I asked for a refund, and was glad to be refunded truly and fast in a matter of hours! (ebay is great in this) Everyone is satisfied you may wrongly asume. In the first place when you have find an item and bought it the main reason is because YOU WANT IT… so to be refunded is only a justice monetary thing but not the point at all… AND MORE: two months later the parcel arrived!… quite delighted I was… perfect items!… of course I contacted the seller and told him I wanted to pay for them, I will cut a boring tale saying that finally (including some puzzling emails and ebay messages -it is very easy to fall apart when communicating this way I guess-) finally the trick was done using Western Union (for the first time in my life I tried to send money via postal services!… and thanks to them!) end of story.
We are spoiled individuals, I have to acknowledge, only a Google search away or with luck finding in ebay at first try (NOT always the case), it is nowadays quite straightforward to get the missing items you crave (the more “modern” the easiest I guess) for your collection.
IMPORTANT tip: once you have completed succesfully a transaction on ebay NEVER believe the AI updates of your order!, they are well intentioned and useful updates to be sure!… but not ALWAYS true (Incidentally the same happens when buying books out of print in amazon). For example: in my case (a particular case you think) since I saw when a child Gary Cooper as Lieutenant McGregor in THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER I have favoured Bengal Lancers as collectable Toy Soldiers, my first unit was MINIFIGS 25mm painted by me many decades ago (Skinner’s horse and not even many of them). Afterwards I got them in 6mm (BACCUS); and quite recently (as per collection relative time) in 54mm by Tradition of London including a nice experience because one arrived with a broken lance and was replaced at no extra cost by Erik (thanks for that!); remain with me a bit more : I started buying BRITAINS centenial commemoration sets to complete what I call my British SIMKIN Army (and additions to my Khaki British Army), one turn of collecting not intended but used to fill gaps quickly because usual manufacturer (REPLICA) could not cope with the demand (mine) with enough tempo. You see even if you are old enough, got the financial means to complete your collection and know where to ask (politely) for them… availability and TIME is or are ISSUES.
My advice is of course NEVER lose your patience and wait until the guarantee limit is about to end before asking for a refund, it is a nightmare to try to repay for the items if they arrive LATE but true.
Which leads us to this postulates:
1.- What you like to collect is a very personal choice. Maybe what you like is really minoritary and not understood by fellow collectors (In my opinion and experience respect for others interests is quite the norm and fellow collectors are a very nice bunch) but you also think of other people interests as peculiar to say the least.
2.- People out of our field do not dig our hobby as we do not probably dig theirs. But, even inside the hobby for years does not mean that you like ALL periods and scales and types and finition and style… there are Toy Soldiers you do not like at all and would not bend your back to retrieve from the floor in any case. On the contrary you love so much those kind of Toy Soldiers that you will go to great extense of trouble mending, repairing if need be, repainting and converting to get “piece unique”… and the whole rigmarole.
3.- Even more, if you spend long years into it, you will buy (sometimes wrong items that later on are going to be sold or exchanged) or do not buy (to your exasperation once the occasion gone forever)… no one I know robs or steals for that matter… LOL
4.- So collecting Toy Soldiers is really a very personal thing, James Opie has described to perfection in his books the main categories and ways or tics of collectors, not going to copy that or spoil you the read. Get them. Even if not interested in BRITAINS at all the books are a must read in a general extrapolation to any other trade mark.
