The day started at 3:30am. We were on the road around 4:20am. Around 7:30am we started setting up our tables for the Gettysburg Toy Soldier Show.

Around 9:30am the tables were set up and I was able to walk around to take some pictures. Here are a few before the show started. I was busy for most of the show and was able to take some more pictures again around 2pm.

While we were setting up, I would take a look at some of the tables near to me. To the right of us was Nate’s Garage, to the left was McShaun’s Closet. And across from us was Fast Eddie and a vendor selling Britians Deetail Toy Soldiers.

One of the Vendors near Steve Connell was selling a Conte Saxon Medieval Cog. This is the second year in a row someone was selling this ship. I purchased one last year. The seller was asking $750.

Rick Eber had a bunch of the vintage plastic toy soldiers and playsets again.

Eddie Gries had with him his usually mixture of Osprey military reference books, vintage painted metal toy soldiers, new painted metal toy soldiers, and vintage plastic toy soldiers.

The Gettysburg Miniature Soldiers Store, was setup with some W. Britians toy soldiers and plastic tanks. If you spend some time in Gettysburg you have to visit their store.

Matt from Hobby Bunker was present with his usual selection of everything the hobby has to offer.

Rob Hornung had his hand crafted & painted miniatures with him. Some really unique themes. I like the color schemes and selection of the poses he picks.

Some pictures of random vendors.

Eric Kohl had some artwork, old reference magazines and modern & old painted metal toy soldiers.

David & Kim Cook of MicShaun’s Closet had a bunch of foam buildings, terrain pieces, castles & forts and a lot of the TSSD plastic toy soldiers with them.

Frank had some models and figurines that he had painted for sale.

Here are more random dealers from the show.

Nate’s Garage was right next to me, so I was able to take a lot of pictures of his incredible products. Most of his items are hand crafted or repurposed. He paints everything too.

Here are two pictures of a storage bin that was picked through, throughout the show.

Here were some unique action figures that I never saw before…

Steve Pyle had with him a bunch of his hand painted dioramas. He will convert most of his toy soldiers to make new poses. He also hand crafts most of his props used in the displays. He will be at the MFCA Show on May 3rd & 4th. We will be there too.

Steve also had some of my Warhorse Miniatures painted and displayed.

Here are some random pictures of plastic toy soldiers. You usually can find some vendors that have storage bins to search through. They are usually priced cheap.

Here are some more pictures of random vendors.

Rick Lipp had a nice Navarone set and vintage Marx toy soldiers.

Here are some pictures of vintage playsets.

Jack Eagan had a bunch of painted metal toy soldiers. Some were loose and there were others with the original boxes. He was selling some for $30 or I think it was $25 each if purchased 4 figures.

Lastly, we have a few pictures of our table. Here are some of the latest products we are producing. For the French & Indian War era series, the new sets were the Native Mothers and Gatherers, Huron Indians and 1755 Virginia Regiment in blue. We also did them in red to depict the British 60th Regiment or Royal Americans and in brown for a colonial militia. For the Plains Indian series, we had 5 different types of Teepees, Sioux Indian Warriors and some woman villagers.

All in all, it was a good show. It was well attended, and collectors were buying. We noticed a lot of new people and the crowd was made up of all ages. One collector said he had been collecting for about 30 years and this was the first time he came to a show.

This coming Friday, May 3rd & Saturday, May 4th we will be in Trevose, PA outside of Philadelphia for the MFCA Show. For more information click over here, https://www.mfcaclub.com/2024-show.

We had fun at the Gettysburg Show and will be back there on August 25th for the 2nd Show this year. That is it for now. Thanks for reading.

I hope everyone is safe on this Memorial Day weekend. I have some updates on what I have been doing and some other hobby related news.

The last few weeks I have added a bunch of sets to my store. You check all of the new sets over here, Store.

I have been able to spend more time adjusting, modifying or replacing some things with the Blacksmith shop. I had the Blacksmith replaced. He now looks more Medieval. I merged the spears to the weapon rack and added a base to it. I added a base to the tool rack and changed a few other things. I adjusted the size of a few things also. I am thinking of replacing the shop now too. In the future I will reuse some of these props for a colonial Blacksmith shop. I hope to have this finished by the end of the year.

I just finished working on the second group of Viking Raiders. In about a month I should have the third group finished. When all is done, there should be around 20 poses or so. I will then break all the poses into a few different sets. Hopefully all of these completed before August. Most of these Raiders are in fast paced motion ready to attack or attacking. They depict a raid taken place. To reflect that most of the Vikings are lightly armored. Surprise & speed are their best weapon. They will be made in a Sage Green color.

The Saxons are getting some reinforcements now. I am testing out some new models to create an archer set. There should be 6 poses for this set. I think they should be ready in 2 or 3 weeks from now.

Besides all of that I continue to learn more, add more machines and experiment on making a better product. The store has 16 different sets available for purchase now. I am using a new grey color resin that looks a lot nicer. The Saxons are now made in a brown color. I might have a reddish-brown color soon. The Vikings will be in a Sage Green. In the future I will be able to test out some of the bigger items I have planned.

The last piece of news about Warhorse are these pictures of the Armed Saxon Peasants that collector Steve Pyle painted for me.

New sets are still coming out in Russia. Unfortunately for most of us in the west they are unavailable because of the war in Ukraine.

I received some news from Ken of LOD. “The prototypes for Apollo and Poseidon are being sent this week from the factory in Hong Kong. Here is a photo of them with the existing Area and Athena in the background.”

Also, from Ken. “We will have these guys in red to fill up a troop transport. It is shaping up to be a 15 figure set (6 oarsmen, 6 soldiers being ferried to shore, and three other figures).”

Here is an article about brushes for you collectors that like to paint. Tell me what you think, https://www.paintingmini.com/13-best-brushes-for-miniature-painting-wargames-models/.

Before we start, I just wanted to mention about the world we live in. Not to get political, there are other websites for that. But just as a witness of the events around us. About two weeks ago Russia invaded Ukraine. Most thought that it would be over in a few days. Now it is almost entering the third week. Reports of thousands of Ukrainians and over 10,000 Russian soldiers are dead or wounded.

Besides the obvious loss of life of both the Ukrainians and Russians. This conflict is affecting about everyone around the world. The price of oil has rising, inflation was already high enough. It looks like this year will be another year we will want to forget.

The war has affected the hobby of Toy Solider collecting already. Ukrainian companies have had to put a hold on production for now. The Russian based companies are now having their own problems because the credit card companies and banks have blocked their access. In the USA some collectors are questioning if it is worth it for them to travel to the shows because the rising cost of fuel.

Right before the war started, they had the Moscow Exhibition Fair of Soldiers show or “Sandbox” as it is translated. From what I was told the collectors and vendors had a good time. The collecting community has seen a steady growth in Russia the past five years. We have seen one or two new companies pop up every year.

The show looked nice. From what I see and was told most of the major companies were there. Plus, collectors selling both old and new toy soldiers.

Chintoys and Engineer Basevich had a bunch of their plastic sets. They were showing off their new knights.

HANOMAKA is one of the new companies that appeared last year. They are making some nice World War II sets.

Here are some pictures from the company called “Little Man” or Chelovechek.

Here is Mikhail Glikin owner of Plastic Platoon with some of his new figures.

Here are some random pictures of the show.

Here are some of the medieval sets Prikaz. I think they are starting to use a new resin like what Warhansa uses.

These are the miniatures made by Publius.

Here is another batch of random pictures from the show.

Here is set from the company called Silent Hill. From what I understand this is a group venture of Warhansa and Prikaz. Maybe someone else?

Here is another new company called Tihon Figuren.

We finish off with the company called Warhansa. Only time will tell if these shows continue. It is a shame what the effects of this wear have on everyone.

The room trading phase for the Midwest Toy Soldier Show starts in about two weeks from now. Here are some pictures from the past. The best way for me to describe it is like Halloween & Christmas wrapped into one event. It gets to the point that you have to take a break because you see so much. Almost like the feeling of being “Snow Blind”. The best way to start is to write down all the room #’s and cross them out or put a check next to it once you visit. Each day is a little different. Some vendors are there each day like me. But some only come for one day of room trading or they just do the show. I usually visit each room and take a quick look around. Then return if there was something that I wanted to check out. Unless I saw something rare or really was looking for. One of the best parts of room trading is talking to fellow collectors or vendors. It is a relaxed setting that you can more at your own pace and just hang out.

This year the show looks like to be better than ever. So far there are over 60 dealers attending the show. That does not include a few collectors that might be only doing the room trading. The number of dealers might grow. Treefrog Treasures will be here for the show for all you painted metal collectors. Plus, Paul Amody will have all of his Russian painted miniatures. John Atherton will be bringing his foam products. This is the best way to pick up a castle or big terrain piece without paying a lot for the cost of shipping. David Cook from MicShauns Closet/TSSD will be one of the major plastic dealers. There will be a lot of vintage plastic figures, sets and playsets available too. Rick Eber’s displays will make your eyes bleed…

And then there will be me, with the latest Barzso/LOD Products and of course my new Medieval 3D printed figures & accessories. Besides my Saxons I will have sets of the new French & Indian War Compagnies Franches de la Marine sets. I will be bringing about 10 different sets in all. Most will be on display with some prototypes of things to come. Visit http://www.mwtoysoldier.com/dealer-list.html for more information about the other dealers and the show.

Let us pray that the war ends soon and peace returns to that part of the world. That is it for now. Thank you for reading.

The Chicago Toy Soldier Show is this week. I have never attended this show. I plan on attending next year. It should be a good show for those that plan on going since there was no show last year. Some of the vendors, collectors and toy soldier companies will miss the show because of virus related issues. For more information about the show visit there website over here, https://chicagotoysoldiershow.com/.

While I miss the Chicago Show I will be at the Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Show. This is a nice show. Full of things plundered from the Chicago Show also. Plus this is where Warhorse Miniatures premiers it’s new line of early Medieval England figures. We will have a full display of items available and prototypes of future things to come. You can read about last year’s review of the show over here, The 2020 Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Review.

I talked to Ken Ciak of LOD Toy Soldiers and here is what he told me. “Here are some photos of new items to be released this Thursday. Maid Marian in green along with her cohorts (accessories sold separately).“

“Athena and Ares in green (this is a CTSS exclusive in this color. Future sets will be in different colors).”

“We also have a three vulture set in green for the show. This is the first run and new LOD poses. These can be used on battlefields wherever there are casualties. We wanted a bird to accompany Ares as we have the owl on Athena’s shoulder (depicting wisdom).”

Plus the American Revolution Calvary sets will be available for the show too!!!!

Fellow collector Steve Pyle was generous to paint this prototype set of our Saxon Family Set #1. The last picture shows you size comparison between a Reamsa, Warhorse and Conte figures.

Here are some pictures Scott Walter took of the Saxon Family Set #1 figures. Here is what he had to say about them. “Here is the first test batch of Saxons from Mike Prendergast of Warhorse Miniatures. The first thing that struck me was that, unlike some 3D made figures, these are not brittle and have a really nice texture. All figures come in Burnt Orange (to match the Conte Saxons) @ $40 for a set of five or in a Bluish-Grey (for you painters out there) @ $30 for a set of five. I included a couple of photos with a WBritain Saxon. They go really nicely together, assuming you are wanting to paint them. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice and sharp the details are on these Warhorse figures. Beautiful!!”

Here are some pictures of a few of our new Viking miniatures. They are mixed with some W. Britain figures in the 1st & 3rd pictures. The last picture shows some of the items in the Viking Raider set. There will be 6 figures and 3 tents and some accessories. They should be ready late October. For more information about what sets are available head over here, https://warhorseminiatures.com/warhorse-miniatures-for-sale/.

That concludes this post. Thanks for reading.