The Latest News!! 09/03/2023 ~ Gettysburg Toy Soldier Show Review, The New Bucyrus Toy Soldier Show September 10th. Plus, the Chicagoland Toy Soldier and some updates.

September 24th is the biggest toy soldier show in the world! Over 100 dealers from the USA, Canada, Belgium, France and the UK.

The show is at the Schaumburg Marriott, 50 N Martingale Rd Schaumburg, IL 60173. September 24, 2023 10AM-3PM. Admission $10.00, Kids 12 and under Free. Plus 3 days of room trading leading up to the show. Just walk right in the hotel and browse through peoples sleeping rooms and buy, trade and socialize. Free. Contact: Matt Murphy – Hobby Bunker, Inc. www.chicagotoysoldiershow.com matt@hobbybunker.com Ph. 781 321-8855.

The Latest News!! 05/08/2023 ~ MFCA 2023 Show Review Part 1, and some Hobby News.

The past Friday & Saturday was the MFCA Annual Show & Mart. The exhibition is for painters, modelers and collectors of Toy Soldiers of all skill levels and interests.

The Marketplace also attracts hobby vendors from throughout the United States. Vendors providing everything from miniature figure kits, plastic and wood models, books, Toy Soldiers, Militaria, Art, and connoisseur figures.

This was a different type of show than we usually do. Most of the shows we have setup as a vendor have been traditional toy soldier shows. Since Warhorse Miniatures is can be collected as a toy soldier or a model to be painted for a diorama, we decided to check out this show. I have been to this show in the past, about 7 years ago. It is a good show for painted metal toy soldiers, resin miniatures, paints, historical books, and you can even find some plastic toy soldiers.

The show took place over two days. Here are some pictures from the first day. It was hard for me to get around the room. It seemed like every time I left, I had to return to my table to answer some questions. The first day Paul Stadinger stopped by to say hello and he spent some time with us behind the table.

I think this vendor was AC Models. He had resin figures and resin accessories.

Another Vendor that I saw had some old painted metal toy soldiers. Joe Wallis was the name I saw. He is an author of books about Britains toy soldiers. Here is a website about that, http://leadsoldierbooks.com/index.html.

The next vendor was Minutemen Toy Soldiers. George was busy setting up a bunch of the painted metal toy soldiers from brands such as King & Country, First Legion, J.J. Designs, W. Britian and others. You can check his website over here, http://www.mmtoysoldiers.com/.

Paul Amory had a huge selection of the finely detailed painted miniatures for sale. Works of art.

Here are some pictures of the vendor that was across from us.

Here are some pictures of the exhibit from the Artist and our friend, Steve Pyle. He does some amazing work.

Fast Eddie had large selection of mainly Osprey books.

Here are some random pictures from the show.

Here are some pictures of different exhibits from various artists. I was not able to take pictures of everything. The room was packed when I was trying to take some pictures.

Winged Hussar Publishing had a table setup too. I purchased some books from him. You can check them out over here, https://www.wingedhussarpublishing.com/.

We will end the first part of the review here with my table. We had a nice selection of the Warhorse Miniatures resin miniatures. When first opened we had a collector come straight to our table and request a Krampus figurine. We also had a nice selection of the LOD/Barzso resin miniatures, foam houses and plastic toy soldiers. I setup a small display of the Saxons. Mainly the village pieces. We had the Blacksmith shop, Potter shop and the Pig Farm setup with some of the Saxon prototype houses. It was a slow burn for most of the day, but we were able to sell some things that I had for a while now. It was fun to talk to new & old friends.

Here are a few of the different things that I had picked up at Gettysburg a couple of weeks ago. Most of it is Barzso. The Blacksmith shop, some French Tents, New Orleans character figures, a split rail fence and a teepee. The mounted British in the last few pictures are Replicants I think.

The second part of the review will be this weekend. Well, that is it for now. I will be in Annandale, Virginia on June 3rd. Then returning to Gettysburg on August 27th. Thank you for reading.

The Latest News!! 10/13/2022 ~ Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Show, Toy Soldier Review: Publius Franks and Moors, Warhorse Miniatures Updates!

Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Show October 16th, 2022

The Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Show is a few days away. On Sunday October 16th, I will be attending & selling my Warhorse Miniatures, Barzso Playset and other toy soldier products there.

Krampu verus the Warlord…

Here is the Krampus figurine that I had made last year. I will have several Krampuses with me at the show. The fantasy Viking Warlord figure will be available in the near future.

The New “Frontier Raid” set.

I have been working on a new early colonial American set. The set is titled “Frontier Raid”. It depicts settlers reacting to a raid by some Natives or Canadians. Some of the models are new and some have been repurposed from the Saxon raid set. The idea came when a few collectors said they could be used for different settings. I am designing a new French Canadian & Native American Raider set now. The Frontier Raid set is scaled to the 54mm Barzso miniatures. It should be released in a week or so. I am trying to adjust the color to match the Barzso American Militia set.

Saxon Cottage

The new Saxon houses are almost finished. This is the first house, another three being designed. The small cottage should be added to the store in a couple of weeks.

Saxon Potter

I am retooling the Saxon Potter Shop. There is a new model for the Potter. I really like the way he turned out. I am changing a few other things now. I think this set will be ready in a couple of months.

Publius Franks and Moors.
Publius Franks
Publius Moors

The new Publius sets look really nice. The details are amazing. I like the colors they have used. The only thing I did not like is the scale. They are smaller than some of their past medieval figures. They are a little bigger than the Britain Deetail figures and a little smaller than the Conte figures. The heads are smaller too. A lot of toy soldiers have bigger heads and hands than a sculpture/model of a human. It looks like the new Publius figures are 3d sculpted and not hand sculpted like they used to be. Not that I have a problem with that for obvious reasons. But instead of a toy soldier design, they look like a sculpture design. This is one thing I had a problem with initially, in the beginning of my designs.

The show should be fun. It is one of the last shows of the year. Well, that is it for now. Thank you for reading.

The Latest News!! 10/03/2022 ~ Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Show, Toy Soldier Review: Beleriand “The Children of Hurin” set, Warhorse Miniatures Updates and other hobby news!

Sunday October 16th is the Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Show. I will be there with a bunch of the Warhorse miniatures. I will be posting some pictures of the latest sets I am working on below. I will have these at the Columbus show. I will also have the LOD/Barzso toy soldiers, some foreign and vintage plastic toy soldiers. You can check out more information about the show over here, http://www.mwtoysoldier.com/Shows.html.

The Viking Raider Camp is finally finished. The set includes 9 new Viking poses, 3 tents, 3 wooden stake terrain pieces, a campfire and supplies. The cost is $200 for everything. You also have the option to get the set without the Wooden stake defense for $150. As usually the figures are about 57mm. The colors will vary from Beige to Brown.

Saxon Archers

Here is the new Saxon Archer set. The set is made up of 6 miniatures. The price of the set is $42.00.

Saxon Storage Hut Set

The Storage Hut set contains one hut and two peasants. The cart guy has two different cargo options to put inside the cart. The price of this set is $75.00.

Dead Saxons

Another new set is the Dead Saxons. This set contains 3 figures. The price on this set is $20. They could be dead drunk too…

The Raid set

Here is another set that is in production, The Raid set. It depicts Saxon peasants reacting to a Viking raid. The set includes 7 figures for the cost of $45.00.

Here are some new Vikings from Korchagin Studio. A new company from Russia. I like the way they look. I will let you know more details when they come in.

Beleriand Toy Soldiers “Childern of Hurin” set

I finally was able to get my hands on this set from Beleriand Toy Soldiers. The name of the set is “Childern of Hurin”. Based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Being a fan of Tolkien, I had to get these. The Character figures are based on the 1st age. They are about 65mm or so. I really like the details and style. Plus, the color is really nice.

Publius

In the next post I will review the Publius Franks and Moors. That is, it for now. Thank you for reading.

The Latest News!! 07/07/2021. Conte Romans & LOD Barzso American Rangers Review. Plus Some Publius Vikings.

Welcome back for another post about toys soldiers. I hope all is well with everyone. As usual I have been real busy with work, eBay and all of my hobbies. No rest for the wicked… Today we will take a look at Conte’s new Romans, LOD Barzso American Rangers, some Publius Vikings.

I recently purchased some of Conte’s new Romans. They come in 3 different colors of Red, Silver & Gold. The are 1/32 in scale or about 57mm if they were standing tall. Each bag has 16 figures. They are packed nicely. Inside the plastic bag the figures are broken down in separate bags. Plus some have plastic supports.

Some of the figures can be customized with different arms. This way you can have some extra poses. Most of the Romans are armed with a Pilum or a Gladius. I am glad that Richard was able to produce these plastic toy soldiers. Because of the cost we see less plastic injected figures being made. I don’t have too many Ancient themed toy soldiers. The ones that I do have are Barbarians or Celtic Warriors. Now I have some Romans to fight them. We should see some future Roman sets down the line.

Right now you can order from the Conte website, 3 sets for $99 with free shipping. Here is the website, https://contecostore.myshopify.com/.

When I was collecting Barzso Playset products one of the sets that I wish I had purchased was the American Rangers. It is a hard set to find at a reasonable price in the secondary market. Now I don’t have to worry about that because Ken at LOD Toys Soldiers has reissued them again. They are cast from the original molds and in the original lime green color or close to it. This is a great set. They are a little bigger than the earlier Colonial sets but blend well with them.

Renamed “Roger’s Rangers 3” this set was originally released in 2010 for the Bushy Run playset. Seven figures in seven poses.

I just checked the link for these figures and noticed that they are now sold out!!! I guess you will have to keep an eye out to see if the get restocked again. Here is the link for the Rangers, https://lodtoysoldiers.com/collections/barzso-figure-sets-resin/products/rogers-rangers-set-3-lod43.

A few months ago I got these Publius Vikings. As usual they are super detailed. They are about 58mm in height not counting the base. The second Viking in the above picture is a little bigger than the others.

The cost of these figures is between $10 to $25 and can be found on eBay. They are cast in a rubbery type of resin.

These figures fit nicely with a bunch of different brands.

I will have some news in a few weeks about the things I am working on. These will be 3D printed. We are testing some new figures and some other things. Thank you for reading. That is it for now.

The Latest News!! Happy Thanksgiving 2020, Black Friday Sales. Plus Reviews, Previews & News!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope every one is doing well. Hopefully we are able to spend some time with our Friends & Family and to be grateful for what we have.

Tomorrow starts the Black Friday sales. I have gathered what I could find about them. So let us begin….

Check out the sale that Armies in Plastic is having over here, https://www.armiesinplastic.com/.

Classic Toy Soldiers is also having a sale for Black Friday. You can see what they have over here, https://www.classictoysoldiers.com/.