The Latest News!!! 06-28-2020 ~ New Show this September in Indiana. “Tippecanoe & Toy Soldiers 2 Show”. Plus some hobby news.

June 28, 2020June 28, 2020 / Warhorse Miniatures / Leave a comment

The MIDWEST TOY SOLDIER GROUP is hosting a toy soldier show this September in Lafayette, Indiana. There was a demand for this since the Chicago Toy Soldier Show had been cancelled. They are calling the new show “Tippecanoe & Toy Soldiers 2 Show”. Titled after the Battle of Tippecanoe which took place near the location of the show.

The show takes place on Labor Day weekend Sunday, September 6th from the hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Plus ROOM TRADING on Friday, September 4th & Saturday, September 5th through out the days. Located at the Courtyard by Marriott’s Conference Center, 150 Fairington Ave in Lafayette, IN 47905. You can read more about the show at http://www.mwtoysoldier.com/. I will have a table at the show and will be doing a report on the room trading and show. You should make a mini vacation around this show because who knows what is going to happen later on in the Fall.

I have a few updates on some products that are now released or will be released in the near future.

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Here are two pictures of painted Mars sets. The first picture is of WWII German Night Hunters. The second picture is of WWII German Paratroopers. These sets should be available in August. Sergey said that the WWII Finns and Russian Assault Troops are available now.

The Plastic Platoon WWII Russian Assault Troops are in production now. They really look nice. Some of their best work.

Small Medieval House ~ $45.00

Large Medieval Tavern ~ $75.00

Medieval Stone Cottage (small) ~ $42.00

Medieval Stone Cottage (large) ~ $54.00

LOD is really busy remaking the Barzso Playset products. Besides the new figure sets they have been re-issuing. They’re releasing the old Medieval houses & cottages. They’re also working on other products. You can visit their page by clicking on this link https://lodtoysoldiers.com.

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Well that is it for now. Thank you for reading.

The Latest News!! 04-05-2020 ~ Toy Solder Review ~ Italeri Gladiators ~ Previews from Mars! Plus some Hobby News!!

April 5, 2020April 5, 2020 / Warhorse Miniatures / 2 Comments

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I hope everyone is doing well. I bet a lot of you are getting stir crazy in your home or stressed out if you are working. Today I have another short post. The first part is a review of a old plastic set from Italeri.

I picked this set up a few months ago. I am planning on using these figures with my Playmobil Coliseum set in a display one day. The scale says 1/32 but they are more like 1/35 in scale. There are sixteen figures in this set. Eight different poses of two each. There are six Gladiators and two animals. Made out of tan plastic. Like a model they had to be broken off the spruce.

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The first group of Gladiators appear to be posing ready to set some type of contest.

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Here we have a Lion & a Bear.

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The next group of Gladiators are of action poses.

The set is sculpted well. Nicely detailed. The poses are good too. I do have a few complaints. It feels like the set is incomplete. Even the box art is different from the figures included. Most of the poses don’t connect with each other. They should have made the poses interact with each other better. There should be two standing poses instead of three. If there was another action pose it would have felt more complete.

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Here is the hobby clipper that I used to remove the figures from the spruce. It makes so much easier to remove the plastic parts.

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Here is a preview the new Mars WWII Russian Infantry set. They look nice. The grey set will be sold in limited numbers. I hope to get a set of each once the virus clears up.

Here another Mars set. Viet Cong Heavy Weapons team. The gray figures are prototypes. All the sets are 1/32 in scale.

At Work

I should have some more time off after next week. Hopefully I don’t get sick while I am at work. I will be updating my site when I have more free time.

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Don’t forget to keep checking out my new page I added, Toys for Sale. Each month I will be adding more items. I hope to sell mainly at the toy shows in the future.

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Also you should check out some the Toy Soldier website. Most are still out during the Virus shut down. Armies in Plastic is one of them. Check them out at https://www.armiesinplastic.com/.

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Classic Toy Soldiers is another Toy Soldier company having some specials. You can see more at their page over here https://www.classictoysoldiers.com/.

Check out My Favorite Links page and visit all the other links. Take Care for now. Be Safe. Thank you for reading.

The Latest News!!! 12-24-2019 * Merry Christmas, LOD-Barzso Lexington Green Foam Buildings & Mars WWII German Elite Winter Infantry review.

December 24, 2019December 24, 2019 / Warhorse Miniatures / 2 Comments

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas & would like thank everyone who visits my page.

In this post we have two reviews. The first will be of a new toy soldier set from Mars. The second is a of the re-released Barzso Lexington Green foam buildings by LOD.

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Last week I purchased the new Mars German Elite Infantry (Winter Dress) WWII set. I got them from Kent of http://toysoldierhq.com/. The set came with 15 plastic soldiers in 8 different poses. The scale of the soldiers is 1/32. The color is a light gray.

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I like this figure set. The quality is not the best. But it’s not that bad. The quality of Mars is getting better. I like the poses and the captured Russian weapons that some of the soldiers have. Also the sniper and mortar guy are great. Mars reminds me of the vintage Airfix or Matchbox toy soldiers that you would get from the local hobby store. These are the type of toy soldiers that I had as a kid. I will show a few comparisons below with other companies.

Finally my Airfix German Mountain troops can have some fighting poses in winter gear to help them.. The Mars figures blend well with them. At least the last set of hard plastic Airfix figures that I got.

They are too small to go with Marx Germans.

They are a little smaller than the Conte Germans. But you mix some of them together. They don’t look that bad.

The same can be said when compared to TSSD Winter Germans. The Mars figures are smaller but you can still use them. I bet when they are painted they will blend better.

You can have them fight against the Biplant Russian Soldiers too.

Here are some 21st Century items that I used in this display.

I liked the way this mortar guy looks when I used him with this German Artillery piece.

Here is a display with a W. Britain German Panzer. They look nice when used as Panzer Grenadiers. The flash problems are not as bad with this set. Some of the molding errors actually help these figures if you are going to paint them. The marks on some of the helmets give you the worn look. Plus on some of the figures you will see the same effect with the uniforms. I am glad that the scale has improved to let us use some other brands that we already own. Most toy soldier collectors that purchased these sets want to add some reinforcements to their existing collection of other brands.

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I pre-ordered a couple of the newly re-released Barzso Lexington Green foam buildings now made by LOD.

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I ordered the Clapboard House in green. I have the Barzso Lexington Green playset with two Clapboard houses in red & white. So I wanted a different color that came from the factory. These are great to increase the size of your Lexington Green playset or just by themselves in a display. You can also use these house for different time periods besides the Colonial era.

I also got the Buckman’s Tavern. It was sold as a add-on to the playset, plus the Concord Bridge. I missed my chance with the tavern. I am glad that it was re-released. Just like most of the Barzso items that had been artificially increased on eBay over the years the building are being offered at ridiculous prices too. Now is your chance to purchase these buildings at an affordable price. If you had missed them the first time, get it now before the are out of stock again. You can check what Ken is selling at his https://lodtoysoldiers.com/ page. Check out his blog section for the latest news or send him a message to see what is available. Don’t get ripped off on eBay.

I hope a Chaos Champion hunts down the eBay price gougers, lol.

Over the past few years I have been looking into ways to create my own figures & items that you can use in displays with toy soldiers like the rigid foam buildings and terrain pieces. Hopefully next year I will have some announcements. Stay tuned…..

Here is a Viking prototype. He is fighting a Conte Saxon in front of a Barzso cottage.

I need to make a few changes.

Here is a sketch for a set of Anglo Saxons that I am planning to make. I will have more information about this next year.

That is it for now. Thank you for reading.

The Latest News!!! 12-08-2019 ~ News & Reviews ~ Mars French Old Guard, Conte Romans & LOD Santa’s Workshop.

December 8, 2019 / Warhorse Miniatures / 5 Comments

In this blog post I have a couple of updates and a review. The first update I got today about Mars from Sergey.

Here are some photos of the Mars French Old Guard set. These are 1/32 in scale. The should be available soon in the USA. They are on eBay from an Ukraine Seller. I wonder how they will compare to the Airfix Napoleonic Figures?

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“Somewhat better photos of the first test shots. A couple figures standing closer to how they were designed.”

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Conte Romans are getting closer to production. Here are some test shots from the molds. Richard said that they are close to being finished. They need a little more work.

I purchased the LOD Santa’s Workshop a few weeks ago. It is a Christmas novelty. The year before I had purchased some of the Santa sets that had the sled and elves.

The Santa Workshop is a big house. It comes in two parts. It also makes a good place to store the Christmas toys 😉 These Christmas sets are really nice. I use them around the house for displays. The have that vintage look to them. I will be using these for many years to come. You can go over the LOD website to see all North Pole sets, https://lodtoysoldiers.com/product-category/north-pole-sets/.

Hasbro officially revealed two more of the 6″ Black Series figures yesterday at Comic-Con Dortmond: Clone Commander Bly and the Sith Jet Trooper.

This concludes another blog post. Thank you for reading.

Toy Soldier Review ~ Mars German Don Cossack (WWII)

October 31, 2019 / Warhorse Miniatures / 4 Comments

During World War II, the Don Cossacks mustered the largest single concentration of Cossacks within the German Army, the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps. A great part of the Cossacks were former Russian citizens who elected to fight not so much for Germany as against the Soviet Union. The XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps included the 1st Cossack Division and the 2nd Cossack Division.

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Mars just released a set of Don Cossack soldiers that served in the German Army during World War II. I recently picked up a set from Kent Sprecher. Here is the link for Kent on eBay, 32023 Mars 1/32 WWII Don Cossacks (German Allies) toy soldiers 15 in 8 poses. You get 15 figures in 8 different poses in 1/32 scale.

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Let’s start the review. I was very happy to get this set. Mars hit a home run in my opinion. I was surprised to find out that the scale of this set about the same scale as the Conte Germans. Now my German forces finally have some Axis Allies in the same scale. They also look nice when compared to Marx Germans too. Even the Plastic Platoon figures are about the same scale. The only flaw that stands out to me is the flash that cuts down most of the figures faces.

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The scale is one of the major drawbacks to most of the other Mars sets. Previous Mars World War II sets really didn’t compare that well with most sets. Unless you were a big collector of MPC figures then you were out of luck. Most collectors will pick a scale that they like to collect. You have 1/35 scale which is what most “Models” are. Then the classic scale of 54mm or the original 1/32 scale which most Marx figures are. Then the “Big” 1/32 scale which came along with Conte & TSSD figures. My favorite is the Conte Scale.

As I was writing my review a few days ago I was sent some pictures of the new Mars WW II German Elite Infantry in Winter Dress. These figures look really nice. I hope that these new figures are also a little bigger than the previous sets. Kent should have them in stock in a few weeks.

The East Coast Toy Soldier Show is this Sunday. I will be there and will have a review of the show most likely on Monday. That is it for now. Thank you for reading.

The Latest News!! 07-27-2019 ~ Mars 1/32 WWII Japanese Paratroopers Update

July 27, 2019July 28, 2019 / Warhorse Miniatures / 2 Comments

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I just got these new pictures that includes all the poses for the 1/32 scaled set of WWII Japanese Paratroopers by Mars. About a month ago I did a post showing the first 4 poses. You can read that post if you missed it here, The Latest News!! 06/30/2019 ~ Mars 1/32 World War II Japanese Paratroopers, MicShaun’s Closet & John Jenkins Anglo-Saxons Shield Wall.

There are 3 new poses in the picture above. The figure Standing firing the rifle, the figure about to throw a grenade and the Officer kneeling shooting a hand gun.

The newest pose in the above picture is the figure with the anti tank weapon. I was wrong about the figure having an anti tank weapon. He is carrying a flamethrower!!! That’s really cool.

Here are some close up pictures of the other poses. You can see more in the earlier post. I will add more pictures as I get them here and do a review when this set is released sometime in a few months from now.

Kent Sprecher of Toy Soldier HQ just informed me that he will have this set in a few weeks. So take a look at his website soon. He also has the Mars Zombie Pirates & Mars Pirates of the Caribbean in stock now. So check out his site with the link above and see all the vintage items he has in stock. You can also go to his eBay page to purchase toys he has listed here, Kent Sprecher on eBay.

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Just a quick update. I’ll have more in a week or two. Thanks for reading, until next time….

The Latest News!! 07-19-2019 ~ News & Reviews. Plastic Platoon, Chintoys, Prikaz, Conte & Mars.

July 19, 2019July 19, 2019 / Warhorse Miniatures / 6 Comments

Here is a quick recap of what has been happening this week. Plus a review of Chintoys sets 017 & 018.

Here are some pictures of sculpts that were sent to me by Plastic Platoon. They are Plains Indians from the Tribes of the Sioux & Cheyenne. I guess these will be available sometime before the end of the summer or early fall. The details are excellent. These figures are more like a set of Character figures than a regular set. I wish that some of the poses were crouching or running as they would have been at the Little Big Horn. Maybe we will see some figure sets of hand to hand fighting. Or even some mounted figures would be even better.

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Here is another figure that is being made for the Conte Romans sets. The details are also excellent. I can’t until these available.

Lion King with alternate arms. Here we have freed him from his ‘flag’ and are turning him loose for hand to hand combat. ; (also have a 3rd left arm holding round shield)

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Mars sent me some pictures of the way the box will look for their upcoming set of WWII German Panzergrenadiers.

Here are some pictures of the new sets that have just been released or will be released this month by Prikaz. They are about 56mm or the big 1/32 scale. I will update the catalog page with prices and more pictures soon Prikaz Toy Soldiers

Here are the 6 figures in the Viking Shieldwall set. Three figures with shields standing and three figures with shields kneeling. This set sells for $37.00.

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Here are some pictures of the figures from the new “Hunters” set. This set goes for $37.00

Some more pictures of the new Artillery Set. This set has 8 figures and a cannon. This set goes for $100.00.

I ordered the two new sets from Chintoys last week. These sets come in various colors from blue, blue-gray, red and brown. Maybe even more colors? I ordered the the sets in blue. You can find these sets on eBay right now.

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