We had a great time at the Midwest Toy Soldier Show this year. Now that I am retired, we left a few days earlier to check out some antique stores in the Lafayette, Indiana area and along the way. We arrived Monday night. Tuesday we drove around to the different antique malls in the area. On Wednesday we started setting up and I checked out an indoor flea market. Thursday some of the other vendors started to arrive and the trading started. For this blog post we will talk about the room trading. We will discuss the Show and then what I picked up in a future post, sometime during this week.
I first met Mike Kutnick and spent some time talking to him. I had some things for him, and then I traded & purchased a few things. For some reason, I did not take any pictures of Mike’s room. But he had some storage boxes of Barzso figure and props. He also had BMC boxed playsets and boxed sets. Plus, some rare figures from various makers, like Larry Patterson.
I went to check out Dave Pittman’s & Mike Handly’s room. Dave had come down to our room to inform us that he had purchased collection recently and was selling everything at a good price. I was not really looking for anything is particular, but I found a few things. There were a lot of foam terrain pieces that were discount about 70% from current prices. They also had storage containers filled with plastic toy soldiers and props. They were priced differently. But one was filled with Airfix & Matchbox toy soldiers for 50 cents a figure.
Friday came and more vendors showed up. Around 11am the billboard started to get filled out. Over the next few days, I would walk around the hotel and pick up a few other things from different vendors.
Rich Egan’s room had a lot of nice things. I met him on Thursday night also. He usually will have some vintage Barzso & Conte and Marx products. He sold a Barzso Braddock’s Defeat playset and those Conte foam pieces in the first couple of days.
Rick Eber had a bunch of nice Marx playsets and toy soldiers as usual. He also had that Airfix Combat Pack playset in 1/32 scale that I purchased for $125. It was something that I had wanted for a long time for my collection.
On Saturday, most of the other vendors were setup and trading. I went into every room, at least once over the next couple of days. Some rooms I went back to multiple times.
Jim Clouse and his brother’s room had some foam buildings, custom made terrain battle boards and Barzso figures & props. Plus, some tanks and other toys.
Also in Jim’s room was a preview of the LOD Battle of Bunker Hill playset. There was a foam piece and character figures. Things are still in development and could change. The date of release is TBD, but probably sometime next year. There were 3 character miniatures and older Barzso British & Colonial soldiers. The 2 character figures in blue for the Americans were Col. William Prescott & Dr. Joseph Warren. The model for the British I believe is Maj. Gen. William Howe. Jim Clouse will be doing the artwork for the Playset box and there should be around 125 pieces. The soldiers in the set are around 54mm. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
The next room belonged to a collector named Jim Koshan. He is a big Barzso collector and a history buff. He had some Barzso & Marx products, plus some other things to sort through. Jim had given me the idea to create the British Grenadiers that will be released later this year.
Boyd Moore had a bunch of King & Country products. He was the only dealer at the show that carried a lot of metal toy soldiers. Other vendors did have some painted metal toy soldiers, but it was mainly from their collection or from collections that they acquired.
The last room for the review is ours. The World War II miniatures were finally released. The first set is the US Paratroopers in the gear that they had for the Normandy campaign. The models are based on Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. The second US Paratrooper set was available at the show and will be added to the webstore in May, and so will the Germans. The German Paratroopers are based on the “Lions of Carentan”. Which refers to the men of Fallschirmjager Regiment 6 (FJR 6), the German paratrooper regiment that fought with exceptional tenacity around Carentan during the Normandy campaign. We also had some new Medieval and French & Indian sets. Plus, some classic movie monsters. And the Conte & LOD/Barzso toy soldiers.
This was our best year in sales with the room trading. This year I was able to add a bunch of things to my collection too. I saw a lot of great deals and rare sets. I would have purchased more things, but my car only can hold so much. It was one of the best shows I have seen in years. This is the first major show of the year, that is usually filled with a bunch of products the vendors had acquired over the winter. So they are more willing to make some deals. The crowds were lower this year, but at least for us the collectors that came purchased more. This show is one of my favorites, almost like a convention of old friends getting together. I am looking forward to next year and maybe making some new friends. That wraps up the review for the room trading. I wish I would have taken more pictures of some of the other rooms. I will mention some of them in the next posts about the show & items that I did purchase.
