Hello – Page 9 – My Toy Soldiers & Me

PLAYMOBIL: Playing with Playmobils was and is a rewarding experience (I)

This is a summing up, there are more Posts in this present web page about Playmobil Toys… probably never intended to become Toy Soldiers (in the true sense) at all mind, but the GEOBRA brand did enjoy producing Pirate Ships and Romans (probably very reality hard core violent subjects in the real world)… so it is more a matter of deluding themselves I guess.

The Sport of Kings it was called, and small profesional Armies took rendez-vous (more or less) shooted a bit to each other and claimed victory (sometimes both sides) see Barry Lyndon film.

Football and TV had not yet been invented so you had to do something completely different if you follow my thoughts.

Seriously, the potential as entertaining friendly wargaming is there, I recognized, collected, customized, and give as a gift to my grandchildren (I am more into lead Toy Soldiers myself). But still have kept some in my own collection!

Yesterday, we took a look at their collections, well preserved (to my surprise!) and reorganized the whole lot. It was my intention (completely wrong) to buy from them instead from ebay the imaginary “scraps” of the lot because I feared once interest outgrown it is always the bin nowadays… LOL… WHAT A SURPRISE!… Now I will probably buy some items (the less interesting that anyway they will inherit no matter what!) to give them pocket money… but will preserve their collections (the best parts)… and stop messing about with them. Sometimes with the best of intentions you are proved completely wrong!

If I have time (and interest) I will probably write a fastplay set of rules for them. (I only know about the “3,5 inch rules” that are not bad at all… but I love them more concise and not so complicated.

Have some pics (I will add more today I think!) as a summing up.

Colonel Le Sage et the three Geste brothers

Texas Light Cavalry Company C (Dusty Fog’s own)

Yesterday pic, nice Spanish Grenadiers with custom headgear. More pics today.

How time flies!… I remember showing themselves how to parade them… they have grown up a lot! the elders are 17 and 15 this year… and I thought (maybe wrongly) that their interest would have faded and toys forgotten… LOL. I did not mess up with the small boy in the middle and his even younger sister because they still play with them from time to time I have been told.

I heavily customized some characters in their collections, and it was FUN!

Those are my personal pets (I still have some in my collection… YES… I have a small collection myself too!)

The Band of the Guards took me a lot of time to complete… hard to find Tubas I remember.

Trooping the Colour is one of my pet subjects in any scale…

Have changed the eapulettes of the Officer’s… they look better now.

Even the HRH Queen (Elizabeth II) and Prince Philip (and other officers have been also modified thanks to the counsel of Mr. Angus Mac Legol)

French Foreign Legion (I sold some of them)… the rest are for keeps.

Playmobil NWMP (II)

My first post of 2023… well… I guess it would be a continuation of a theme… a la Oliver Curwood (if you know who he is)… as a child I was fascinated by the North West Mounted Police… and recently got the sledge I was waiting for… so here it is… on the trail up North!

Enjoy!

An eskimo guide
opens the trail for the NWMP

Playmobil NWMP Customs

You know I also indulge in Playmobils… do not ask me why… I explained in my book no longer in print (LOL)… Actually waiting for a sledge from a standard set to go patrol up North… he always get his man… And YES I will post a pic of the mountie on his sledge once received…

Seriously they are fun to manipulate and even role playing with them.

Enjoy!

PS: I achieved (the Blog) 130.000 visitors today… I must thank those who do assiduously!

Using two different figures you obtain two new one’s to go North!… mind, the eskimo head has gone to increase the ranks of the French Foreign Legion…

Another view… the headgear on the left one is a resin custom, the rest is standard Playmobil pieces.

Playmobil French Foreign Legion Customs

I sold half of them to an ex-legionnaire, but the main thing was to experiment with a black&white pic for a change!

Hope nobody comes restless again… I just love the films about it… romantic and post-romantic stuff (see BEAU GESTE all versions and also BEAU IDEAL… BEAU SABREUR -with Gary Cooper_ has been “lost” for decades… UNDER TWO FLAGS… MARCH OR DIE… spectacular “irreal” battle scenes (the “arbis” would have shot them away from a safe distance) in full colour and a great Gene Hackman and a very subdued and nuanced performance by Terence Hill in one of his best roles)

Curiously enough I still have a couple of dozens of Playmobils to play with… habits die hard!

Enjoy!

I thought… why not a bit of black&white?

Playmobil by GEOBRA

You know I am a 6mm orthodox (more or less) solo wargamer… a collector of 54mm Toy Soldiers (part of them used in traditional old style games)… but also a Playmobil fan with my grandchildren. Let me explain why… probably you do not care at all for those german toys (mainly quite pacific oriented!)… but some of us perversily used them in wargames and role-playing… LOL

As always a picture is worth a thousand words so here have some… have in mind I collected Playmobil soldiers mainly for years without knowing they could be dissembled and rebuilt exchanging parts!… quite easy once you know how… the method of kitchen scissors and a towel is my own as seen in YouTube!

Lets start with the US Cavalry (You all know I have a fixation with the French Foreign Legion thanks to P.C.Wren) but this is not my only obsession… John Ford and John Wayne (and Richard Widmark, Ben Johnson and a lot of other mainly from Ford’s stock company) plunged my young imagination into it… as Errol Flynn of course!

Well, here is a theme overdone by Playmobil thanks God! See some pics:

A tyiycall US Cavalry Trooper (1876) 7th Cavalry. Black hat.

Same as above dissembled (18 parts you can exchange at will) The only part not Playmobil standard is the resin carabine hand painted by me. Steiner models produces a range of weapons.

The head act as a plug that keeps the lot together (german engineering), actually a great idea that permits personalization.

More pics:

Same figure with kepi and saber goes to the ACW and the Michigan Brigade in a flash!

You like the Cavalry trilogy? a change of hat and there you are… as you have deduced the choice of weapons is a must… saber, revolver, carbine… you name it… bugle etc.

Another hat and the Apache wars comes to mind!

Many times only a change of hat does the trick! In subsequent entries you will be introduced to my battle of Dorking outfit (not related to Dorca at all) and will see how my French Foreign Legion Playmobils double as Prussians with the change of hat!

More will follow.

Enjoy!

The whole 7th (nearly sold them once! happy I did not.)

Playmobil Russians (not available commercially of course)

Playmobil has a policy of not encouraging War Toys or Wargames (idiotic if you ask me when the most popular sales are the Pirate Ships… nothing worse than pirates in my book… and also produce Imperial Romans and even a Circus (Roman you know)… hundreds of fans indulge in making for themselves Napoleonic Armies (a forever popular addiction)… why Playmobil do not produce sets os soldiers or Military Bands eludes me completely… after all they do the pieces that you can collect bit by bit and then mount on… the most difficult part to get are Hats (some astute manufacturers in resin do) the rest is fairly easy to get. There are even flags adhesive manufactured! So there you have it we have those Armies after all… and Playmobil can manufacture James Bond Aston-Martin etc. Toy Soldiers are NOT their forte (a part from the ACW which they did!… and a lot of soldiers to do AWI/7YW… and cowboys and redskins)… a strange world we live in.

When Russians are made through customization…

Gettysburg wargame in 75mm (PLAYMOBILS)

I once sold a collection of ACW Playmobils because I did not want my grandchildren to fight brother against brother… LOL… if I had new they will enjoy playing videogames with plenty of shooting and killing with machine/laser/guns… oh dear!… I feel like a Neanderthal sometimes…

Recently have bought Playmobils (AGAIN) Prussians to fight the Brits at Dorking à la Wells… missile launched from canons… hope that the smaller of my grandchildren will appreciate… have my doubts (sometimes he thinks older than me).

Enjoy.

Big Table of course!

See the chairs!… For ONCE! this is not an estatic DIORAMA!… I thought I was the only fool that indulged in that!

Battle of Dorking with Playmobils

Well, this is a pic from ebay (and not a very good resolution) but once the parcel arrives I will substitute for another one… yoou get the idea I guess.

Better resolution on the General. (Quite true to size)

Russian Playmobils (1812)

The Line Units (Clicks Napoleonicos España)… great conversions!

Most of you would not be interested at all but Playmobils are FUN to customize… 75mm means your fingers are able to do it without much trouble or craftsmanship… the results are great but a bit on the expensive side… those who do enjoy making very big DIORAMAS… you need all sorts as you already know.

Playmobil Russians (75mm) Edited 2025

When Russians “saved” Europe from Napoleon! (1812)… Playmobil

Click Napoleonicos España does an excellent job converting and customizing Playmobils… of course those are not commercially available… Facebook as usual.

Some new (2025) pics!