Today was the Midwest Toy Soldier Show. They also had room trading on Friday & Saturday. I was unable to make it. I will return next year again. From what I have heard it was still a great show but attendance was less as expected.
I hope to attend the Columbus Toy Soldier Show as a vendor in October.
Last week it was announced that the Chicago Toy Soldier Show is cancelled.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 of the 40th anniversary Chicago Toy Soldier Show to 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟲, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭. Thank you to everyone for your continued support of the Chicago Toy Soldier Show. If you would like to purchase a limited-edition version of this poster, with artwork by Doug Dearth, please visit us at www.chicagotoysoldiershow.com/store“
Here is a new figure from Plastic Platoon. I think it is a limited edition figure.
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LOD031 and LOD032 are available on the website and will be shipping to dealers on Monday (6/8), https://lodtoysoldiers.com/.
Both resin sets have their roots in classic Barzso Playsets. Set 31 with figures from the Last of the Mohicans and Set 32 with a nod to Braddock’s Defeat.
LOD031 is $25.00 for 8 figures and LOD032 is $35.00 for 10 figures. Those prices do not include shipping.
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Here is LOD029 Barzso Aztec Sacrifice figure set. The figures are sculpted really nice. The details are amazing. Ken is coming out with a bunch of newly remade Barzso sets. Some will be out next week and more by the end of the month.
I had hoped to be at the Midwest Toy Soldier Show but due to all the madness I was unable to attend. Last week I was able to get out and found a few vintage toy soldiers and other toys.
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Here is a simple plastic ranch fence that I found for a dollar. The scale is really nice. It is made out of hard plastic. Magua approves….
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I found these two Tim Mee Army trucks at different places. The “Battle” damaged truck was $5.00 and the other one in better condition was $7.00. I remember having some of these as a kid.
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I also found a few bags of mixed figures and vehicles. This Tim Mee Howitzer was in one bag. I like the fact that it can be hitched to the truck and other vehicles too.
These vintage Tim Mee Army Men were some of my favorite toys growing up. The figure running with the ammo cans is cool. I also found another Soldier with a motorcycle. They are 60mm.
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Here are some bulls and another fence that I found.
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Here is Marx Tree that my girlfriend found for a few dollars.
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Here is another figure that my girlfriend Carolyn found. This Marx British Red Coat cost me $1.00. I never had any. It is really well detailed and fits well with the Barzso figures. I am not a big Marx collector. I only have a few of the World War II figure sets. Plus some western figures that I have picked up here and there. The Marx Toy company was almost gone when I was was growing up. I was lucky enough to have the Navarone Playset as a kid. I will try to get a few more of these British if I come across them at the shows.
For the last few years Jeff Imel of VictoryBuy, & BMC Toys has been asked about any plastic female soldiers. Women have served in the Armed Forces of a lot of countries for many years now. Jeff started to look into making an Army Woman set. After receiving a letter from a 6 year old girl the project really picked up. You can read about this over here, Her Own Toy Story: How A 6-Year-Old Girl’s Letter Launched ‘Plastic Army Women’.
Recently Jeff started a campaign to raise money to fund the project on Kickstarter. You can fund it over here, Plastic Army Women Kickstarter. They met their goal in the first day. A couple of days later that had reached Stretch Goal #3 and probably by the time this post is finished it will reach Stretch Goal #4. They have collected over $26,000 so far. I have pledged $25.00 and will do a review of the figures once I have them next year. The sculpting looks really nice.
When they started the project they had 6 poses planned. Now that they have met the goals it has increased to 12 poses.
I recently talked to Jeff about the Army Women. He said “I had read your post about the Cunningham Collectibles Confederate set that mentioned James Van Schaik as the sculptor. I made a note at the time so he was on my list of potential sculptors when looking for someone to make the Plastic Army Women prototype in a hurry this summer.” I am glad that my site helped in some way.
I asked him a few questions. Are you surprised that the goal was met so quickly? Do you have any plans to expand on the set to included anymore poses?
He answered. “Yes, I was shocked goal was met in 12 hours. I have ideas for expansion, but not sure I can work those into the Kickstarter. I designed the Kickstarter to primarily fund production and fulfillment there’s not a lot left over in the budget for Sculpts and tooling. Currently, it could still be a couple of years before I break even on the development side of things. I am thinking about it though. Another idea I’m kicking around is adding a couple of playsets as rewards in the campaign. I have 2 ideas, one is a WAC Training Camp, the other is a Tan vs. Green Plastic Army People Playset. I’m not certain I’ll have time to pull any of this together though.”
We talked about some other things like where are these Army Women going to be made? He said “I haven’t finalized the factory yet. I currently with 2 factories in the US and one in China. I am leaning strongly towards having them produced in the US.”
He also stated, “The key to the Kickstarter success was having a good base of supporters at the start. I have an email list for the Plastic Army Women Project Newsletter. Those supporters are the reason funding happened so quickly.”
Jeff also mentioned that “they are scheduled for molding this week and should be available early to mid-December. I had the holes in the bases closed up so they match other figures better. There’s a ton of these out there in lighter gray, so these will be charcoal gray.”
There are a bunch of new BMC Toys products on the way. The latest BMC Toys American Hero Collector Series production is on the way and scheduled to arrive by early December. The shipment includes 6 new items:
WW2 D-Day Tank Battle Playset 36pc
San Juan Hill Buffalo Soldiers vs Spain 32pc
Border Wars US Army vs. Mexican Villistas 34pc
Civil War Battlefield Accessories 18pc
United States Presidents Series #1 Figure Set
Blockhouse Walls Accessory (off-white)
Jeff also said that, “Also, I’ve purchased the Sell Toy Co. inventory and mold of the Jagdpanzer IV Tank Destroyer.”
Jeff keeps bringing sets back that have been out of production for a very long time. He was happy to find or acquire other molds to bring these vintage figures to a new generation.
As I predicted as I started writing this article they reached the next Stretch Goal #4. Now we will see the figures in both Green & Tan.
When I was on vacation last month in Georgia & Virginia I found a few vintage Tim Mee Army Men. I will take more pictures of all of that in the future. Here are some of the hidden gems that I found in bags of figures I got.
The small change of the hand with these figures makes a big difference. One is encouraging his fellow Soldiers to come forward. The other is attacking by throwing a grenade.
The Tim Mee Army Man with the grenade in his hand was the original pose included when the set first came out.
At some point the mold had problems or got damaged. The new figure had his hand changed to be open.
Here is the missing marching Tim Mee Army Man. At some point the mold was damaged and this figure was taken away from the set.
There is a mystery about what had happened to the mold or molds. Either it was damaged some how or just worn out. Some of the figures I have look like bad casts, showing wear. Maybe some of the last marching Men to be cast?
Here are some older Tim Mee Army Men & one Army Woman. I think this set was from the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. There are two stretcher bearers, one wounded Soldier, a Nurse and rescue dog. The Red Cross flag was in the bag, I do not know it if is original.
I think Jeff will meet all his goals with the Army Woman set and will continue to bring us more vintage sets back from the grave.
Yesterday I saw on Stad’s Stuff a preview of the latest set from Plastic Platoon and on the Plastic Platoon page of FB. Finally some nice plastic World War II Fallschirmjäger or German Paratroopers. These are highly detailed museum quality figures. They will come at a premium price which does reflect the quality of the work. They should be available sometime in November or soon after. I will have to get a set of these.
The Battle of Crete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, also Unternehmen Merkur, “Operation Mercury,”Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης) was fought during theSecond World Waron theGreekisland ofCrete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, whenNazi Germanybegan anairborne invasionof Crete.Greek forcesand otherAllied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island.[11]After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tacticalhesitation and German offensive operations,Maleme Airfieldin western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. Over half wereevacuated by the BritishRoyal Navy; the remainder surrendered or joined theCretan resistance.
The Battle of Crete was the first occasion whereFallschirmjäger(German paratroops) were used en masse, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from decrypted German messages fromtheEnigma machine,[12][13]and the first timeGerman troopsencountered massresistance from a civilian population.[14]Due to the number of casualties and the belief that airborne forces no longer had the advantage of surprise,Adolf Hitlerbecame reluctant to authorise further large airborne operations, preferring instead to employ paratroopers as ground troops.[15][16]In contrast, the Allies were impressed by the potential of paratroopers and started to form airborne-assault andairfield-defence regiments.
I am glad that they made these figures. I hope that we get some World War Japanese figures in the future.
BMC announced that they are bringing back two classics. The first is the M42 “Duster” AA Vehicle from an original Payton mold. The second one is Marx World War II Russian Infantry from an original Marx mold. I like the moves that Jeff has taken the past few years in expanding BMC with using classic molds or retooling old molds.
If you could not make it to the Big show in Chicago there are still a couple nice shows to go to before the end of the year. Next week on October 21st is the Columbus Ohio Toy Soldier Show. There should be a lot of plastic there. If it is like the Indiana show it should be great. Presented by the Midwest Toy Soldier Group.
Yesterday I got in the mail a postcard about the East Coast Toy Soldier Show. It was titled “A Tribute to Bill Lango”. I was saddened to hear about his passing earlier this year. There is some talk on the net that this might be the last East Coast show. I hope not. I will be going to this show and will have a full report afterwards.
It has been almost a month since my last post. I was planning on doing a post in the beginning of the month about some vintage toys soldiers that I had picked up from Europe. The main focus was going to be of this huge box of figures that I had purchased off of eBay.
Unfortunately my Father passed away. He was 81 and had been ill the last few years. He joined the Navy when he was 16 and served 4 years from 1955 to 1959. He later joined the NYPD in 1961 and retired in 1989 as a Lieutenant. He shared with me his love of history and we traveled to many different Civil War Battlefields over the years. He wasn’t a toy collector, but he purchased many historical related toys over the years for me and my brother when we were kids. That got me started as a collector years later.
I am going to keep the post short. There are a few new sets that were released or will be released soon.
LOD released their new Revolutionary figures this month. I had pre-ordered 15 sets. I received them about 10 days ago. The figures are are the 1/32 in scale. Here are pictures of them below.
The sculpting is really nice and blend very well with the other Barzso colonial figures. The weapons were bent on a lot of these figures but straightened out by using the hot & cold water treatment. The British regulars are my favorite set out of the 4 new sets released.
Besides all the great action poses these sets have, one of my favorite poses is the British soldier that is marching with his rifle held to his chest and resting on his shoulder.
These figures will fill in a gap of much need poses for any collector of early American history figures.
The Chicago Toy Soldier Show is less than a month away. Barzso Playset will release the Yorktown playset. This will Barzso’s last playset. I was lucky enough to pre-order the set at the Indiana Toy Soldier show. From what I hear, it will be great. After setting up some of these figures for a small display I have no doubt it should be nice.
We also got some to see the new Christmas figures too. They should be available in the cream color next year. They remind me of the vintage Christmas figures from my childhood. Head over to the LOD Enterprises Toy Soldiers now!
X-Force has some new sets coming out soon. The first of the Celtic Barbarian sets is out now. These figures are 60mm. 60 CBT 01 Warband (Infantry)
Here are the latest pictures blown up of the future Celtic figures that should be released later this year.
These figures look really nice. I will have to add these to my collection.
Here is the latest from Paragon. They should be released in the near future.
Our final set in the Alamo series will be a combination of infantry and cavalry. There will be 12 figures in each bag and 4 horses.
There will be additional bare heads and heads wearing Presidio (Zorro type) hats. The two cavalry figures will each have an additional right arm so you can have lots of figure combinations.
Look for them soon!
This will be their last figures in the Alamo range. I think they will have some more Wild West sets coming next year.
Here is the redone BMC Iwo Jima playset. They added a couple of things. The main difference is the color to the figures with is a great improvement. This is my favorite playset they have made so far. You can see more over here BMC Toys .
That is it on the latest hobby news. I have a few preview pictures on the box that I got earlier this month. I will go into detail about that next time. Thank you for reading, take care.
I have been following the blogs on BMC Toys for most of this year, reading about the development of their toy soldier playsets. Some of the past World War II playsets are coming back this month. The boxes have been updated and so have a few other details too. BMC Toys made a lot of different toy soldier playsets, plus bagged sets of soldiers and other accessorizes for plastic toy soldiers.
The other day I was able to ask Jeff Imel of BMC Toys & VictoryBuy Inc. a few questions. I am glad he had some time to answer them. Thanks again Jeff.
Warhorse Miniatures: Hi Jeff, I just wanted to thank you for taking some time to answer some questions. I see that you are President of BMC Toys and VictoryBuy Inc., can you give us a brief history of yourself, VictoryBuy Inc and BMC Toys?
Jeff: Yes, I’m President (and Chief Bottle Washer) of VictoryBuy Inc., and BMC Toys® is now a brand that is part of my company. I started dabbling in online retail in the late 90’s on a variety of platforms and products. Early 2002 I went full time with the business (then Ferretbee Enterprises) and in 2015 incorporated the company as VictoryBuy Inc. BMC Toys was founded by Bill McMaster in 1991 and began producing original historically themed plastic soldier playsets shortly thereafter. He used his experience as a Toys-R-Us purchasing agent to start BMC Toys Inc. and brought the classic army men playset to a whole new generation. Bill operated BMC Toys until he unexpectedly passed away in 2014. I worked with Bill’s family and together we found all the people and parts needed to continue production of the BMC Toys product line. New production was made in the same factory that has been producing the line for over 20 years and will be in stock around September 8th.
Warhorse Miniatures: I see that the old World War II BMC playsets are coming back in late August, can you add anything about the process and changes to any of these sets?
Jeff Imel: My original intention when I began the process of continuing BMC Toys production was to just send an order to Bill’s manufacturing agent (Thomas Leung in Hong Kong), and get the products back in stock as quickly as possible. I soon found that some of the products had licensing agreements that were no longer in place without Bill around. The artist of the fine art used on several of BMC products was very helpful and we reached an agreement that allowed me to sell what was already on hand, but he had a new licensing agent that I couldn’t reach an agreement with for new production. The licensing issue, along with the fact that most of the package art was so old it was on film and not in a digital format, led me to redesign the packaging from the ground up. I decided to reduce the size of the large playset boxes to help cut down on freight costs which have increased tremendously since the sets were first introduced, and also upgraded those boxes to a sturdier and more reusable tray style that was often used for vintage playsets. Once that was decided, I figured since we’re redesigning the packaging, now would be the time to make any other changes or upgrades. We (myself and Thomas) reviewed of all the contents, colors and tooling (molds). Thomas suggested sticker sheets might be a good idea for the vehicles, and I already had this in mind since it worked out well on the Tim Mee reissues I offer. I wound up designing the sticker sheets and most of the package design work myself, which turned out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated, and delayed the new production by nearly a year. I decided to have the Bombed Farm House mold improved a bit, and had a new mold of a flag and rock formation made as upgrades to the D-Day Normandy and Iwo Jima boxed playsets. The flag and rock pieces are copies of pieces from the original BMC Alamo set, although the new flagpole is thicker since the original had a tendency to sag. I made minor color changes on some of the accessories, and also increased the piece count of the Appomattox bagged set.
Warhorse Miniatures: BMC made some interesting playsets, like “Battle of the Little Big Horn”, “Battle of Yorktown”, “Gettysburg”, “Alamo” and some others. Do you have any plans of re-releasing these?
Jeff Imel: The early BMC Toys molds (pre-1998) were owned by the factory in China that produced the sets. The owner of the factory passed away unexpectedly, and the molds were sold to another factory. The products were then sold under the Americana Souvenirs brand. Since I don’t have access to the original molds, there are no current plans to reissue the early sets.
Warhorse Miniatures: Are there any plans for any new playsets? What are your plans for BMC?
Jeff Imel: No new playsets are in development yet. I have some ideas, as well as some projects that I found in Bill’s files. So far, my focus has just been on relaunching the existing BMC Toys product line ‘American Heroes Collector Series’. There are a couple of smaller projects I’d like to develop soon. One is a set of Coast Guardsmen that would plug into the D-Day Higgins Boat. There is also a tank project that Bill developed that is ready for the mold phase. In the short term, I’m adding a new product line to BMC Toys, the ‘Classic Army Men Collector Series’. This line will feature recasts of vintage figures and accessories made in the US. The first product in this line is a recast of the Lido WW2 GI’s. The next product is a 1950’s mold from DK Toys and Novelty. It’s a set of WW2 Soldiers that are copies of the early Tim Mee figures. My plan for BMC is to relaunch the products, and maintain it as a retail toy line sold in hobby shops gift shops and eCommerce. I see the product line as a bridge between the inexpensive toys sold in the mass market and the more expensive hobby shop plastic figures.
Warhorse Miniatures: Thanks again Jeff, is there anything else you would like to add about VictoryBuy Inc., or BMC Toys?
Jeff Imel: When I work with venerable brands like Tim Mee and BMC Toys, I generally see my role as that of caretaker. This was driven home even more when I met Bill’s son James to complete the sale of BMC. As we shook hands he said “Take good care of my Dad’s company.”. I take that to heart, and it reminds me that these aren’t just pieces of plastic, but are encapsulations of people’s memories. They’re a small physical representation of the soldiers they’re based upon, the artists that designed and sculpted them, the business people that brought them to market, the mold makers, factory workers, and the now several generations of folks that play with, collect, and in turn share them along with the memories with the next batch of youngsters. A bag of plastic army men seems like such a simple thing, but it actually takes a lot of people and a lot of work to produce. I have too many people to thank for their help in relaunching BMC, so for today, I’d just like to thank and remember Bill McMaster and his family.
I was glad to learn more about Jeff and BMC & VictoryBuy. It should be interesting to see what they produce in the future. I will run out and grab a few playsets soon, they make great gifts for the young & old a like. So don’t miss out on these sets this time.
I like the “AMERICAN HERO COLLECTOR SERIES”, especially now when it seems that History is being erased. Here is a list that I grabbed from the BMC blog page, that you can go to through the link above.
Here’s a rundown on the changes to the BMC Toys product line in 2017:
40028 ACW Appomattox Figures 26pc:Piece count increased to 26.
