Last Thursday, March 13th we arrived in Lafayette, Indiana to take part in the Midwest Toy Soldier show. After driving about 11 hours we checked in to the hotel and then went to an antique mall before eating dinner. I then walked around the hotel as a few vendors were room trading a day earlier.
I looked around and talked to a few collectors/vendors. I took some pictures of John Anderson’s & Papa Joe’s rooms.
On Friday we got up early and went out to check some local antique stores. We got back around noon and started some room trading. We were open until around 9pm, closing for about an hour & a half to get something to eat. I took some pictures of David & Kim Cook’s, Rick Eber’s, Rich Egan’s and our(Warhorse) rooms. I would walk around to check out the other rooms and return if a collector had a question. Carolyn would call me when that happened. I did find some nice things each day. I spent more this year than I have done the past few years.
I hung out talking to some of the other guys to around 10pm or so before I headed to bed on Friday. We got up early and opened the room around 9am for day 2 of the room trading. More vendors and collectors arrived Friday night. The Room Trading chart was updated for Saturday. When you start the room trading you should write down the room numbers and names. Then check them off as you visit them. It is easier to keep track of the rooms you visit this way. Sometimes the vendors might close for a little bit. We had the room open to around 9pm again.
Here are pictures of John Anderson’s room. He usually has a bunch of vintage playsets and bags of figures. I think the prices on the playsets are fair. I am not a Marx collector, but I see him sell a lot of them each year. He has some good deals with the bags of toy soldiers, which I do get from him. He does a lot of buying and selling every year. He usually leaves the shows with no inventory left.
John Atherton was at the show too. He was touching up some of the foam products late into Saturday night. I did some trading with him, and we had hung out a little. He is a fun guy to talk to about the foam products.
Next, I visited Joe Baker, a legend in the toy soldier community. He had some of his collection for sale and the Speira 3d models too.
Every year there are a few collectors that come to the show to sell items from their collections. Sometimes they come to sell everything at once. One collector was Brain. I had talked to him and hooked him up with John Anderson. They then made a deal to sell him everything he had after the second day of room trading.
Cal & Sue Luckett did some room trading and set up at the show too. They had a bunch of bagged vintage toy soldiers and some playsets too. I think this was their last year of doing this at the Midwest Show. I picked up a few figures from him.
Another collector named Mike also was selling off some of his collection. He had a bunch of different types of toy soldiers. I purchased some Atlantic Bison from him. The custom King Kong set was cool. Plus, the painted figures were nice too.
Rod Roberts and his son Tera Roberts had some of Rod’s collection for sale. They had some vintage plastic soldiers and some nice painted ones too.
Gary Wendeln was selling off some of his collection too. He had some old painted metal soldiers and vintage plastic too. Plus, some Barzso foam Castles and forts.
Steve Connell had some vintage plastic soldiers, playsets and some painted metal boxed sets not pictured.
David & Kim Cook had a bunch of the TSSD bagged plastic soldiers with them. Plus, lots of other plastic brands from around the world. Also, some foam products too. He had a few prototype foam Alamo buildings with him. I think these last two will complete the TSSD version of the Alamo.
Rick Eber always has some quality vintage playsets and plastic toy soldiers. They are mainly Marx, but he does sell other brands too. He had and sold a rare Batman Playset.
Rich Egan was selling some vintage Conte, Barzso and Marx toy soldiers. He always has some nice Conte & Barzso playset with him. Plus, a lot of loose or bagged figure sets.
Mike Handley & Dave Pitman had a bunch of vintage plastic figures to pick through.
Rick Keller & Rick Lipp had a bunch of vintage toys and playset with them as usual.
Mike Knutick had a bunch of Barzso toy soldiers. Plus, some comics and other brands of toy soldiers.
Larry Lovely had some vintage playsets and a bunch of vintage plastic to pick through too. He prices were really good.
Todd Nace also had a bunch of vintage plastic toy soldiers to pick through.
Most of the vendors were selling vintage products. But there were a few like me and Papa Joe selling new products. Joe makes mainly western themed houses. But he has some modern buildings too. The look great with the vintage plastic toy soldiers. He also makes some 3d props too. Plus paints some toy soldiers.
Joe Saine had some playsets, bagged toy soldiers and boxes to pick through. I think he had some painted metal sets, but I seem to not have any pictures of those.
We will end the review with my room. Here are a few of the products I had. I had most of my Native American sets and French & Indian War sets too. I had a few of the older Medieval sets and the new Saxon Huscarls.
Lastly, on Saturday evening. Larry Lovely had pizza for everyone. Then Larry & Tera Roberts played the guitar & sang. Kim Cook sang a few songs too. We had some fun before going back to the room trading and then getting ready for the show the next day.
There were some major thunderstorms & twisters in southern Indiana and Missouri. The same thing happened as last year. I think this effect the size of the crowd that attended. The size was less than the previous years. Plus, the March Madness might be a reason. Years ago, when I first started attending the show it was in early April. The weather was nicer, and it seemed to be better attended. We still did well, besides the smaller crowds. I do think that these shows will cease to exist in about 10 years. The market is shrinking with both the vendors and collectors. I heard the NJ show was not well attended too. Unless there are new vendors and collectors start attending these shows, they will start to disappear like the Northwest Toy Soldier Show.
That is the end of the first part of the review. I will try to finish the second part that is about the Show itself. Thank you for reading.
