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!
Excuse me if you have already seen this pic (my own for a change) 75mm Customized Playmobil (Just the headgear I guess)
Congratulations to the British. The civic attitude was paramount and those public and privately professionally involved gave a lesson on “how it is done”. There is no better example to compare. Long live the King!
This webpage would again be alive as from today with the usual business of giving you your daily ration (or dose) of Toy Soldiers. Cheers.
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.
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.
I never indulged in that (well, only two figures) because I did found the task herculean and complicated… but diorama makers do it to perfection and you must be aware of rhe cost of it too!
I think they represent a Swiss Regiment (Asociacion Napoleonica Española) seen in Facebook!
When I got my 25/28mm crisis (a deep one) that produced the effect of selling my whole collection on that scale (but for 3 or 4 sentimental minis) I was distraught… I was still reading History and Historical Fiction but wargaming in 25/28mm had lost its appeal… I thought my wargame days were over… I toyed with Playmobils as a distraction mainly having my grandchildren in mind (not that I had much success with that) but the original idea was there. For nearly a decade I collected, converted, added stickers, bought special headgear and weapons and what not… to get the Playmobils the trade mark NEVER PRODUCED!… LOL… in fact I was recreating, in the end, my old 25mm collection in 75mm… but it was FUN!… and there were “things” not possible to do with metal minis as mounting a horse or dismounting at will, getting weapons in hand or not, magnificent sailing ships, skirmishing games were possible and periods like the Lace Wars (Tricorne era… a la Charles Grant) which I never indulged on in 25/28mm were a joy to toy with (that part of my Playmobil collection is in the respective hands of my grandchildren). Of course at the same time I rediscovered 6mm (1/300 in the old days) and went wargaming again. Not that I stopped ever collecting 54mm Toy Soldiers mind…
Today’s pic (extracted from Facebook) is an example of what I mean… probably german readers will love their toys… if really interested see posts about Playmobil and Playmopics in this web page.
Customized Ancient Warriors (Facebbok source)… see what I meant?
The Royal North Surrey of THE FOUR FEATHERS fame (1939 movie). Quite difficult to get the parts!. Legs from one standard figure, torso with stickers -as the arms- resin helmets with stickers… and what not! Sold them too.To understand the process of customization, this is the basic figure that permitted building the Royal North Surrey, the color of the arms and torso matched the legs of the Spanish Conquistador, use the correct stickers (I asked that color RAL) and the rest is mechanical.Guards PioneersThe Line about to Wheel…Full caption…Household CavalryDetailStored in the Cabinet to play another day…Queen Elizabeth the Second… and personalities…I could not resist doing some Highlanders too.
I am afraid the Goldberg are much better! specially those by Gould. But joking aside I did dedicate a whole chapter of my book to those plastic german chaps. They can be customized quite easily once you learn how.
And that is entertaining, specially if you are affected by the syndrome “I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt”. There used to be the middle age crisis -I do not know what middle age is nowadays- at 39 I bought a New Model LOTUS ELAN two seater (front traction) if you know what I mean… Happy marriage does not need a divorce! As I said before let’s put joking aside.
Basically a Click as they are known is a plastic chasis with a head plug that holds all the other parts together. Quite simple concept. But a small engineering feat. They were originally very crude and toys for kids. They evolved. From what I call the third generation onwards they began to interest me. I started buying them for my grandchildren -who already got them never fear- and stocked a few because they were too young by far. Then one thing lead to another IT WAS FUN!… anything that fits the formula TOY SOLDIER + FUN = ENTERTAINMENT in my life. So, there I was, first I learned to disassemble them -YouTube is full of tutorials -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y8KYaO-83o-, and Wikipedia will tell you the full story of Playmobil- and the “creation” of new soldiers, or to be fair, NON existing ranges was extremely funny.
Age of Reason clash!… Fictional Armies now in the hands of my grandchildren. The “tricorne” period is where the availability of parts is better in the markets.
After an intermittent span of ten years since I bought the first one and finally lost interest and got back to wargaming -6mm- and collecting -54mm toy soldiers- I went through many periods, I customized a lot, gifts to grandchildren were made, and complicated conversions were even sold! I have the tendency to sell the parts that does not interest me anymore to raise funds for new ventures, that way I have a real budget -more or less- I always spend more than I cash back but it helps!
So I did the ACW -and then sold the collection because it was too real brother against brother- I did Ancients (sold), I did British Colonials including Highlanders! (sold), I did the 7th at the LBH (still in my hands but for sale), I did the Household troops I already had in 54mm Traditional Toy Soldiers -quite a recurrent job- I did the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea (sold). I did the Spanish and French Foreign Legion outfits (both sold). I bought Ships -customized them- now in the navies of my grandchildren. And I probably forget the Ivory Patrol and a lot of other minor subjects that were also sold. It was real FUN.
Two versions of ACW General Custer.The whole 7th at the LBH… many customs.
I explained it all quite in detail in my book but it is a lot easier to include pics in a blog.
Highlanders… that is not easy!… you need special kits…(for the kilts).The whole Zulu set…also sold!Somehow I collected a lot of Mounties in 75mm too…
Napoleonic Customs… using stickers and resin headgear (Playmobil purists do not like at all… LOL)Guard Inspection at the CastlePiano playing… and look through the window… what do you see?… the other side of the Guards Inspection…Trooping the Colour
As a summing up of the periods I was involved with in the decade or so I toyed with original Playmobils and customized a lot of them (to avoid enamels or painting a lot) with stickers, some felt pen additions and resin parts (mainly headgear), here you have a collection of pics quite self-explanation in themselves.
Wheeling the Line (Trooping the Colour)Carthaginian Army.Peloponnesian WarSecond Punic WarSEcond Punic WarHannibalShips and rol-playing a bit…Close upNaval combatsClose up.XVIII Century Tricorne period… very easy to get the parts…Spanish or Austrian Army (choose the flags and that’s it)Grenadiers and similar… quite complicated headgear to get right.Wargames in 75mmNow in the Collections of my Grandchildren.Only two ever Napoleonics I got… too complicated I guess…Crimean War: Charge of the Light Brigade.Another view.ACW: The Horse SoldiersACW: Union InfantryACW: Confederate InfantryACW: GeneralsDetailHeadgear makes the Man… or the soldier…French Foreign LegionDetailRCMPSee OSPREY book.7th Cavalry 1876UlundiAbu KleaSpanish 1920 tercio de extranjeros… aka Spanish Foreign Legion.
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.
Indispensable.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.
