Last week was the Chicago Toy Soldier Show or now called Chicagoland Toy Soldier Show. Hundreds of rooms were booked in the Chicago Marriott Schaumburg hotel. The room trading officially started on Thursday September 19th and continued on Friday & Saturday. The show was on Sunday, September 22nd. I heard that over 400 people attended the show itself.

We were not at the show itself. But I had some friends take some pictures and gathered others from the internet. Jason Evans took some pictures of the room trading.

Austin Miniatures had new Marines and some older sets like the WWII Japanese Infantry. Plus, their wargaming scaled miniatures.

David & Kim Cook of MicShaun’s closet had a bunch of the TSSD plastic toy soldiers, LOD/Barzso products and foam terrain pieces. Plus, a bunch of other things.

Mike Kutnick had a mixture of vintage Marx plastic toy soldiers, Barzso resin figures and this year some of our Warhorse Miniatures.

Here are some pictures of Nate’s Garage custom toys.

Rich Egan has a nice mixture of vintage playsets, Barzso products, Conte Toy Soldiers and vintage Marx toys.

Jason said “This Marx set was from 1964, titled Beach-Head landing. It’s so cool watching them unbox these sets. The sets are donated every year by Craig Remington. Rick Eber always does the actual unboxing itself.”

Collector Jacob Kendall sent me these pictures that he took of the show.

Here are the pictures that Jason Evans took of the show. Mike Kutnick had some of our Warhorse Miniature products with him. I heard that W. Britain had a nice setup.

Rob Hornung had some unique hand-crafted toys for the show. There was nice selection of vintage plastic figures, antique & modern painted metal soldiers and vintage toys. Plus, a great battle display.

Here are some more pictures that I got that Matt Murphy had posted on Facebook. I heard that there was a lot of foot traffic for the room trading and the show was a success. That’s it for the Chicago Show. You can see more pictures of the show at the Treefrog Treasures forum, chicago-show-2024-pictures, We will start attending the show on a regular basis in 2026.

I have been busy working. The testing continues on new products. The British models have been updated. There were some things that were fixed and changed. There will be a bunch of different sets coming out in a couple of months. I will be adding more products to the webstore soon too. Most of the Plains Indian sets have been added.

In about 20 days we will be setup at the New Jersey Toy Soldier show. It is in Wayne, NJ. Hobby Bunker will be at this show too. This will be our last show of the year. We hope to see you there.

We hope everyone is safe, a lot of people have been affected by Hurricane Helene. Our thoughts & prayers are with you.

Greetings everyone. In this post we will be looking at two different toy shows. Plus, some hobby news. So let us begin…

Bucyrus Toy Soldier Show

We packed the car Friday night and started our trek to Bucyrus, Ohio early Saturday morning. The trip was about a 7-hour drive. We stopped at a few antique stores once we got to Ohio. After we checked in, we drove around the area of Marion and discovered a few places to check out. We made it a little adventure. We like to see different parts of the country. As collectors we are always on the hunt to find something in the wild.

We got up early the next morning and drove about 25 minutes to the Bucyrus Fairgrounds. We started setting up in a building that held about 60 tables. There was a small kitchen that was serving breakfast and lunch. The room was clean and well lit. The first vendor across from us was setup already as we walked in. He had all kinds of vintage toys.

All the vendors at this show were collectors, except for me. Either they were professional dealers that buy collections to resale or collectors downsizing. You can find some good deals from collectors looking to let go of things.

Besides the toy soldiers & related items there was also vintage toys, action figures, comics and some trains.

There was a lot of plastic toy soldiers at this show. A lot of vintage Marx sets to search through too.

There was some Barzso toy soldiers too. Plus, a lot of loose figures to go through from all different brands.

There were some old metal toy soldiers too.

They were different kinds of collectibles like comics and sports cards. Not much though. It was mostly plastic toy soldiers.

There were some nice playsets too.

Larry Lovely was the promoter of this show, and he did a good job. For being the first year the crowd was not that bad. It was small but it was not the worse show that I have done. The show should be better next year. They will change it to be on Saturday. It will be the same day as a fair that takes place there.

We end the review of the show with my tables. I had a mixture of my Warhorse Miniatures, LOD/Barzso toy soldiers and foam terrain pieces. We now will see some of the things that I picked up for myself below.

This time I found some vintage Airfix British 8th Army toy soldiers. These are some of the most iconic toy soldiers in my own opinion. I had a bunch of these guys growing up, both originals and knockoffs. The Officer figure was missing.

Here are some Barzso Daniel Boone figures. Daniel Boone, Mingo and I think Daniel Boone’s dog with a baby. The other items are part of the Blacksmith shop.

Here are some Barzso Davy Crockett character figures. First is Davy fighting a bear. The other figures are George Russell and Polly Crockett. The last picture has one of my latest protypes in blue next to Polly.

Here are the Barzso Gladiators. I have a bunch of Gladiators from different brands. This was the only ones that I needed to finish that mini collection for now. I was lucky enough to get them for $10. One day I will make some new figures for the Coliseum.

Here are some more Barzso fence sections. I actually got these at Gettysburg. All of the Barzso items I had purchased from Steve Connell.

I found this at a garage sale. I think it is part of a G.I. Joe set. It was marked Milton Bradley.

I found this tree in an antique store for $2.50. I think it was made to go with trains.

I found a bunch of plastic Star Wars toy soldiers in an antique store in Ohio for $20. They are 1/32 in scale. The Snowtroopers are some of my favorite Star War figures.

Last week was the Chicago Toy Soldier Show or as it was relabeled the Chicagoland Toy Soldier Show. In February the Garfield family announced that due to problems with the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg they were cancelling the show. It shocked the toy soldier community. Some were hoping that the Garfield family would continue the show somewhere else. But it did not happen. Matt Murphy came to the rescue with setting up a new show in a new place not that far from the original spot. Some people where concerned on how the new location would be.

The Chicago Toy Soldier Show was on Sunday, September 24th. But before the show they had started room trading on Wednesday September 20th. Most of the pictures I have were either taken by Jason Evans, Hobby Bunker or fellow collectors. I was not present at the show. I hope to be there 2025.

Here are some signs in the lobby of the hotel. Now let’s see some pictures of the room trading.

AeroArt and Hobby Bunker had their own “store” set up on the 2nd floor. They were open from Wednesday through Sunday.

The first room we have pictures is of David Cook. MicShaun’s Closet own’s the TSSD line of Plastic Toy Soldiers. They sell most other brands of Plastic figures from around the world. Plus, a bunch of foam products.

Here are some random pictures of different rooms.

Ron Barzso was back to do some room trading. He had some old stock and a few playsets to sell. Plus, as always he made a lot of memories. He signed the Barzso Playset book for Jason Evans. I have to get Ron to sign the copy of the book I have.

Here are some pictures of the rooms belonging to Steve Connell, Kirk Larson and Agan Jack.

Here are some more random pictures of the room trading.

Here are some pictures of Robert Hornung’s room. He creates everything by hand and paints them too.

Rob’s son had created a 1930’s radio show. A radio serial that was called Zip Carson and The Death Ray of Mars. Zip Carson and Margaret Allen were the main characters.

Here are some pictures of Mike Kutnick’s room. He always has some great stuff. A really nice guy.

Here is another guy that creates and paints everything. Nate’s Garage makes some awesome toys.

Here is another good guy, Scott Canady. He brings a bunch of vintage toy soldiers and playsets to the shows.

Here are some pictures of Treefrog Treasures’ room.

Rusty Kern of Playset Magazine had his room set up for everyone to visit and to pick up some magazines. That is it for the pictures of the room trading. This is just a fraction of what was going on. I heard that there was around 100 rooms setup.

In between the days of room trading there were other events going on. One of those events was the raffle of 3 Playset boxes for charity. Two were empty custom boxes. Scotty Canady, Mark Murphy & Rick Egan won a custom playset boxes. The artwork was done by Ron Lizorty. The box that Rich won was signed by Clint Eastwood. It was a custom made playset with toy soldiers inside.

There was a collector that had a Mint Marx Playset from 1957 that was opened and displayed for all to see.

There was a social media campaign to make collectors aware of the change with the show and what companies would be there.

Here are some pictures of the collector’s lining up for the show. I heard that the show was really busy this year. Probably the best attendance in a very long time. Around 800 people or so attended. It was nice to see this show survive after being in limbo. Some thought that the show would be less than what it was. From what I heard it was very successful thanks to Matt Murphy.

Here is the hallway leading up to the main show room.

W. Britain’s tables.

Here are some pictures of different vendors. Scott Canady is in the first picture.

David & Kim Cook of MicShaun’s closet.

Treefrog Treasures.

Here is Warring Warbirds. I think the planes are carved from wood. They are really creative.

Here are a bunch of random pictures of the show. Some show Ron Barzso & Ken Ciak.

Here are a more random pictures of the show.

I heard George RR Martin was at the show?? He is a collector of miniatures. That is it for the Chicago show. It should be even better next year. I can’t wait to attend in 2025.

Here is a video of an American Civil War diorama that fellow collector Vic Badd Guy created. He painted a bunch of Speira Miniatures. He also created the burning house effects and the terrain.

Some of you might have noticed that I have shut down the store page on the website. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we are in the process of moving. Production has been paused until we are settled in the new house. Hopefully by the end of November we can start again.

Today would have been my Father’s 88th birthday. He was a navy veteran, served 28 years in the NYPD as a Lieutenant and a Great Dad. Happy Birthday in Heaven Dad.

That is it for now. Thank you for reading.