Last month was the Chicago Toy Soldier Show. This was the first time that I had attended. Carolyn wasn’t able to attend because of some heath issues. Hopefully next year she will make it. In this post we will do a review of the room trading. In the next post we will do a review of the show itself.

A couple of months before the show I started building up my inventory. A week before the show I was making a lot of US Marines, which was the latest set.

I arrived at Chicago early, on Tuesday afternoon. Luckily, I was able to check in early. After an hour I was settled in my room with all of the toys. I then went to see who else was here. Rick Eber and Graig Remington had arrived the day earlier and were open for room trading. I then realized that I had forgotten to take my camera. So, I had to use my phone. I took some pictures of Graig’s rooms; he had 2 of them set up for the trading. For some reason, I forgot to take pictures of Rick’s room.

I had taken a quick look at Eber’s room which was full of mainly Marx’s Playsets and toy soldiers. Then spent most of Tuesday hanging out with Graig and his assistant Jason Bruce. Both are nice guys to talk to. One room was filled with mainly vintage Marx playsets and some Barzso playsets. The other room had a lot of Conte playsets. They had a lot of vintage Conte toy soldiers. Sold in bags and by the peice. I was not planning on buying much, but then I started looking. And then I started finding things… I also was searching for some things for a few friends. I find it is better to get there a day early to see what other dealers have.

Here are some of the things that I had picked up on the first day. I traded some things and spent $250 on these foam terrain pieces. Most are by Conte, except for the hard foam/epoxy Pacific piece that was made by Bresica Miniatures.

On Wednesday, I started setting up in my room while watching the Paul Knapp show from the day before. I set up all the WWII products, and the Conte & Lod/Barzso toy soldiers. I then walked around and went to Remington’s room again. Later that day John Salatellis arrived. I wasn’t room trading to the public until Friday but did some private sales in my room. After John purchased some things from me, we walked around to see who else was open now.

After a while of looking, I returned back to my room to rest. Later on, I walked around meeting other collectors as they started to arrive. Everyday Graig Remington & Rick Eber were the only vendors open after 9pm. I then spent another day hanging out with Jason & Graig.

On Thursday, it was more of the same. I walked around again and met more people. I did a few more private sales in my room and checked out any new rooms that had opened up. There still was not too many people set up room trading yet, but they started later that afternoon. One room that I did check out was the Austin Miniatures room. I was able to check out their new foam pieces. I had already spent most of my budget for the show at this point. I really liked the Church and Farm house setup. The Farm setup was $600.

I spent most of the day walking around looking again and talking to people. I went back to room to finish setting up some things, like the Lod/Barzso Fortified Abby. That evening Evan Oelrichs of Combat Collectibles had arrived. I had a stash of treasures that I had found for him the previous days.

On Friday, I got up early and walked around to see who now was open. I was able to check out Eric Koopmeiner’s room. He had a bunch of vintage Marx Playsets and items. He also had some custom playsets too. Eric said, “His room was busy as Hell”

W. Britian had an Apache preview which was very nice.

Late Afternoon I had opened my room for the room trading. Evan was setup with his Combat Collectibles inside my room. His World War I models looked awesome.

We closed shop around 9pm and started walking around again. I saw Steve Connell and took a look at what he had.

And then spent some time in Remington’s room again.

Here are some pictures, that Jason Evans took. I had asked him what he thought about this year’s show. “Here are my thoughts Mike. I will start off by saying that the Chicago toy soldier show weekend since I’ve been going (2005), is one of the highlights of the year for me. I always look forward to seeing friends that I only get to see once a year(you can’t beat seeing people in the flesh, and hanging out). The show will never be what it once was, that’s just a fact. Half of the vendors, and probably even more than half of the collectors who once attended have passed on. So obviously attendance will keep going down every year. Even with new younger collectors, the numbers will never be what they once were. I just don’t there is enough interest in the hobby. All that being said, the show still seems to be doing pretty good. There is still a bit of traffic in the hallways for room trading, and I think the show attendance was decent, given the bad weather. I think some people won’t drive in the rain, the show always seems busier when it’s nice out. That’s just my observation. As far as the hobby, I think the 3d printing will definitely be the future of the hobby. You guys have endless possibilities with the 3d printing. And seems like you all are getting better at making the figures less fragile. I personally will still collect painted metal, I just really love it. But I also love the nostalgia of the plastic/resin figures, reminds me of my youth. I would like to think these shows have a good 10 years left, I sure hope so anyway. I will really miss not going to a toy soldier show. I think Matt and the other show organizers would be doing themselves a favor by coming up with more extra fun events. They have had special dinners and luncheons and even breakfast, where there was a special speaker (most of the time it was one of the manufactures) anyway, those event added a little something extra fun to do over the weekend, and to top it off, you usually received a painted metal figure that you could only get at the event. That’s the kind of stuff that extra fun to me.“

Here are some videos of the room trading. They did a nice job going through most of the rooms.

Overall, I had a great time. I found some good deals and things that I didn’t know that I needed. Evans & I did well with the sales. The best part is talking to other collectors and sharing ideas with them.

For the past 10 years, guys would tell me you have to go to Chicago. This was the first time that I had gone. So, on Tuesday through Thursday I was mainly a collector. The rest of the week, I spent as a vendor. Most of the vendors were open at the same time we were open. It is hard to do both room trading as collector and then a vendor. The rooms are spread out on three different floors for the most part and it is a big hotel to walk around through. Most of the vendors did close early too. I collect plastic or resin miniatures and there was not as much as I thought there would be. But I did find some nice things with the dealers that had them.

Thank you for reading. That is it for now. I will have another post about the show in the near future.