News
18th October 2008
This is my
first posting for a while, I have been either out of the country, working or
out on my new motorcycle as the weather allowed, but as usual I have been
buying soldiers, usually via my wife who does so on my behalf; how many guys
out there can boast that!!!!
I have got a
bundle of new images to go on, including more Panoply Knights by Arkova an old
range by the Over brothers, who now make Whittlesey Miniatures. The old and new
ranges cover the same subject the 100yrs war, and with Arkova they tried to
make individual figures of all of the main combatants of the battle of
Poitiers, 1356. Each figure has the main heraldic devices actually cast onto it
and was sold painted in a simple gloss finish. They are very stylish and appeal
to my taste. They are also becoming increasingly difficult to get hold of,
being out of production for a long time now, Keith Over told me that the moulds
were sold to someone from Ireland many years ago and have never re-appeared
since. I must talk to him again and find out just how many different models
were produced, I have an illustrated list that shows 32 foot figures of
knights, 1 mounted standard bearer and a 6 types of foot soldier, also a couple
of mounted tournament knights.
I have
examples of 21 of the knights and the mounted standard bearer, but 3 of these
are not in the list, so there were at least 35 different knights on foot, all
in different action poses, quite an achievement. They have very unusual bases
cast with the Arkova logo and name of the individual knight, but I do have some
with a plain base and the name of the knight painted on, these usually have
more elaborate shield straps, so perhaps they were earlier castings, again I
must ask Keith. See Robert Hill’s great ‘knights of Avalon’ website for pics of
the new, current range. I will be posting more pics from my collection soon.
As you can
see from the site, I collect all types of toy and collector figures, and the
latest figures to catch my eye are the 28mm plastic multipart figures being
produced in the USA of republican Romans, they have just come out after very
long development and should be shipped to me this week. I don’t do wargames,
but intend to build a complete late republican century century and a diorama of
part of the siege works that Caesar built around Alesia in the Gallic wars. The
manufacturer is Wargames Factory and they are working with Osprey Books, so
there is a good level of accuracy. I can’t wait for them to arrive, just in
time for the long winter evenings.
Hopefully, I
can now get to some shows and see what is out there; maybe the credit crunch
will see some churn in the collecting market. I have booked my usual table at
next year’s Plastic Warrior show and already have a host of unusual figures to
sell; lots of Polish, French and German figures as well as a good variety of
old British types, I was not too well at this years, I picked up something or
was bitten by something nasty on a working trip and it affected by nervous
system for almost a month. Such is life. So (for those interested in other toys
for boys), I then went out and bought a new Harley Davidson Nightster, I judged
that it was fair recompense for the discomfort of that episode.
Look out for
more pics being posted on the site very soon.
17th July 2008
Another quick posting;
Next years Plastic Warrior show at
Richmond, London will be on Saturday 9th May 2009. Arrange your diary
around it. If you collect plastics absolutely unmissable, see you
there. Details will be on the Plastic Warrior website (see Links)
7th July 2008
I couldn’t resist an extra
posting for this.
Did you follow the bidding for
the superb group from the Heyde Delhi Durbar range; a beautiful group in really
good condition that in my opinion deservedly went for just below £1500? This
was possibly the best group of figures that I have ever seen put up for the
auction on E-bay. It goes to show that really good desirable figures will
always make their potential with such wide exposure.
Heyde were ‘top of the market’
toys in their day, but were costly to buy and make, they tried to reduce their
cost, very few individual moulds designed to allow maximum use of each body
type, bending arms and legs and soldering bit on to construct many figures, and
a range of plug in heads. They followed the German zinnfiguren format for
selling large set piece ranges. These figures came from one of them; The Delhi
Durbar range depicting one of the great Victorian Raj parades of British colonial
power. The same format was used another very popular range; The Triumph of
Germanicus, exactly the same type of scene from another imperial epoch, the
Roman conquest of Gaul. Such was the innovative use of figures that if you look
carefully you can see the same basic figures used for civilians and ‘add on’
figures for both of these and also the ‘Fall of Troy range’
I call them ranges and not sets
because there were no strict rules about the numbers or figures that were
included in each large boxed set. If you are lucky enough to own any of the
figures, look out for standard body castings of 18th and 19th century
soldiers (with cross belts or buttoned tunics) painted and converted for use as
exotic characters.
But none of this helped Heyde in
the end; real wars, expensive materials and costly labour ultimately brought an
end to their production. Britain’s star rose with cheaper production (although
they were still expensive) and better business practice.
But these German style figures
have never lost their appeal. There were
a number of other companies producing similar figures; Haffner figures are
wonderful, while some lesser makers copied both and these are also very collectable,
in fact unless you are an expert, identifying some of these is very hard.
Britain’s and Marlborough both in
recent times covered the Delhi Durbar personality figures and special figures
in some depth and there are enough correct troops that would have taken part
from many manufacturers to make a fine themed collection, and if there is a
slight difference in style of size, don’t worry, Heyde figures in the range
were even more diverse; especially the mounted figures; huge camels, small and
large horses and elephants, but when seen en-mass it doesn’t matter; it’s the
spectacle. Athough I have to admit that there is something about the naivety of
Heyde that hits all of the buttons for me as a toy collector. There are
manufactures who have and are releasing Heyde like figures, but we are back to
the original problem, cost, to re-release anything on this scale.
Whatever, a great little group
and I applaud the winning bidder, I considered digging deep and bidding
seriously, but my limited resources are not in this league; not with a new
motorbike on the way.
3rd July 2008
I have been thinking about how to
progress with the site and reflected on what, over the years I have found
useful and attractive in the way of publications and so forth.
Before the web there were only
books and magazines; of these the ones that I found most useful, and still do,
are books that had as many pictures of figures as possible. I still use Andrew
Rose’s great book ‘Toy Soldiers’ frequently, as I do Norman Joplin’s huge tome.
I also have fond memories of Military Modelling in the seventies and eighties
and still eagerly await Plastic Warrior landing on my mat.
Between all of these I can
reflect and get a feel for what I would look for from any source; I want lots
of pictures for comparison and reference for commercial toy soldiers; I want
lots of pictures of older collector type figures because I collect these too; I
also want some background information on each of these; and I also want to know
what other collectors are up to. Not rocket science really, but it does focus
on what really matters to me where space, time and money have to be allocated
to all aspects of my life; my hobbies alone include mountain walking and motor
bikes beside toy soldiers, I try to allocate equal time to all, add to this my
family commitments and work and my life is too full to waste any of these three
resources. I expect this is the similar for everyone.
So, I am applying this reflection
to progress with the website. I am considering putting on hold the ‘how to’
section, since this does not figure in my list, but I will keep adding pictures
to old and new picture sections regularly.
Up to now all of the figures are
from my own collection, but collectors have offered to allow me to show images
of their collections and whilst I still have many figures to show, my
collection covers very specific themes and perhaps the way forward is to expand
in this way.
To find out what would be good to
enhance the user experience of the website, I would really welcome any feedback
on this, and what would you like to see on the website? The user counter shows
that many collectors now regularly use the site (it is not a hit counter), so are
there any areas of collecting that you would like to see covered? I am not
putting any constraints on this, apart from overt erotica nudity (I do have
classical amazons in my collection) and I am not inclined towards running down
manufacturers, other collectors or dealers.
I will be posting more figures
from the French manufacturer JSF with the next batch of pics. This company is
unusual in that they are one of very few that used their hollowcast metal
moulds to reproduce almost their entire range in acetate plastic and then PVC.
Other companies did this during early stages of changing from metal to plastic,
but not on the scale that JSF did. They reproduce their ranges exactly, even
down to moveable arms where they had such in the hollowcast range.
This
innovative maker produced very interesting ranges that were well themed; for
instance the Joan of Arc range of high medieval figures. These included copies
of famous statues and one of her sad demise. They also included in their ranges
a number of tableau figures; where there were more than one figure incorporated
in the design; not just two figures fixed to a base, but integral to the
design, they are very attractive and desirable. The figure of Joan that I have
already put on the French and German figure site is one of these, Joan is
depicted jumping over battlefield debris and a figure of a fallen soldier, all
incorporated in the base, and this is a PVC plastic moulding from a hollowcast
mould, she has a separate brass flagpole with a plastic flag moulded onto it.
What a fine figure. It is a direct take from a huge statue in a town square in France.
Watch out for JSF figures; often they are classed as ‘unidentified’ due
to no marking except perhaps ‘made in France’ on the larger ones. ‘Plastic
Warrior’ has published part catalogue pages of some of the ranges from time to
time. The figures are usually quite full bodied and the early plastic versions
are sometimes almost indistinguishable from their metal forerunners in size
(see another of the pics).
10th June 2008
I have still not been able to get to any of the London shows
except PW, due to a very busy work and social schedule and I am beginning to
miss the fun of attending. When you go to all of them, they can seem a bit repetitive,
but when you haven’t been able to go to any, you realise just what a treat they
are; browsing through the tables, picking up bargains or paying more than you intended
for a really nice figure/s and not regretting it a bit later, and chatting to likeminded
acquaintances and fellow collectors. I
have tried to make up for it by having a buying splurge on E-bay but it is not
the same.
I have put on some new images in most of the current areas.
However, I have a new camera and am not quite used to it yet so they are not of
the quality that I would like; my webmaster and I should be able to sort it out
before the next lot go on. I do all of the photography myself (you might have
noticed) and all of the pictures are of figures from my own collection. I must
get it right though. I intend to expand the French and German figure area next,
more JIM and JSF figures and some 4cm Elastolin’s; early ones in small scenes
if I can find where I packed them away. Also, to show that I don’t just collect
figures from the rest of the world, I may open a Classic British Plastics area,
with scenes of swoppet knights and herald figures; I have some lovely almost
mint herald ACW somewhere, the bugler is one of my all time nostalgic figures.
This leads me onto this posting theme; desirability and how much we are willing to pay. Swoppet
knights are a good example to use. These superb figures are often described as
sought after and rare. The former is mostly right, but the later is not. They were
so beautiful that in their day many people bought them and kept them in pristine
condition. As a kid I used to save up and buy one now and again, but they were
very expensive and unlike my lone star, marx, cherilea and crescents I did not
really play with them, they were the foundation of my collecting. Subsequently,
and considering the small parts, many survive intact and in such pristine
condition. Their desirability rests on their wonderful innovative design and
the fact that they cannot be easily reproduced or reissued. But the price on the
collecting market has gone through a cycle of high prices and then
a fall back to a reasonable level, except perhaps for the rarer variations
(these are very few and do not include different colour shields, crests and so
on, these are from a set of German copies made many years ago, they had strange
bodies but very good shields, crests etc made in different colours, it is
these, put on genuine swoppets that one sees described as rare colour versions,
however the scarce yellow horse trapping is genuine, but I digress)
It only takes a couple of collectors to start a buying spree
and how this happens is a lesson in collecting behaviour. As soon as a
collector starts to seriously purchase a range, especially on internet auctions,
the price inevitable starts to rise as the normal mild bidding starts to kick
in, but then something inexplicable happens; other collectors wonder why they
are not investing in swoppets again and they begin to bid, and a spiral of
bidding begins for the range. People who were not really interested in the
figures a month or so before suddenly feel the need to get one or two now that
the prices are rising again, yet few collectors collect for investment!
I have
been caught up as well, suddenly really needing to get a few more swoppets,
especially now that I know that I have to pay more for them, Why?
And yet I have observed this trend over and
over again, then price reaches a silly level, the interest wanes and the price begins
to fall back. At the moment swoppet knights are now available again for fairly reasonable prices and yet have I bought any?
No. I don’t seem
to need any more of them. I
am sure some expert can tell me why I behave in this way from time to
time, maybe something to do with our boom and bust cyclical ecomony.
This seems to happen more with the desirable ranges of
figures than others, I have seen it happen with Elastolin, Courtenay, Lucotte,
and Heyde figures for instance over the years. Old hollowcast Britains seem to have
a longer price cycle and most figures/sets have now reached a really affordable
level again, I am very tempted to start a cameo collection, such as the early
boer war figures; just a small sample collection. They may not be the cheapest
to collect, but good value at the moment considering that they are genuinely
quite scarce and were made over one hundred years ago. You have to be careful
though, there are a lot of fakes, and clever repaints about, left over’s from
the days when the price of these last went through the roof and such fraud was
sadly profitable.
27th May 2008
To misquote the opening lines of
one of my favourite books, saturday at the plastic warrior show was the
worst of all days and the best of all days; the worst of all days
because I was quite unwell and the best of all days because of the
number of people who came to the stand and showed such interest; from
the moment that I set up until I decided to call it a day, I had a
constant stream of visitors. For me it was a resounding success, it
encourages me to keep building the website. So, many thanks and also
for those who have been kind enough to send very encouraging emails.
I am in the process of constructing the new page and writing of my own
experiences of painting, converting, sculpting etc has started a train
of thought.... I really would encourage other collectors, especially if
new to the hobby, to encompass all aspects; especially painting and
even converting your own figures and to do it in a way that really
appeals to you as an individual.
I am not a great painter of miniatures and the ones that I chose to
paint are in no way the most detailed, modern castings; they are the
work of the late Marcus Hinton (Hinton Hunt), and the era that I have
chosen to depict with his figures (wars of the roses) luckily lasted a
fair timespan, so I can take a few liberties with my painting to be
able to achieve my goal of depicting the personalities, their retainers
and other troops in as wide a range of liveries and liveried
accessories as possible. So I have to first of all collect the figures,
which are quite scarce and then repaint them. But what pleasure I get
from doing this, for me it fulfills one complete aspect of my hobby,
and look out for a whole new batch on that page in the near future.
But what I am getting at is that this is my own personal choice and it
gives me such satisfaction, I know of other collectors who do the same
with britains hollowcast
'Knights of Agincourt', others use 'Detail' figures, and many convert
the original 'Elastolin' range to make new poses. Again,
like my last journal item, these are not done to try to pass off as
original and dupe another collector, they are obvious repaints done for
personal satisfaction in a very personal style. Hinton Hunts and
Staddens were originally sold as castings in their hundreds for just
this purpose.
And we are not talking about recasts
with these but original figures. Recasting is another whole
subject, for instance, collectors have been casting their own 'Heyde'
style
figures to represent regiments that they have desired for years, simple
to do and en-mass very impressive.
Basicly, do your own thing and be proud of the results!
To follow this strand the simplicity of the toy 'Heyde' style
figure is still very popular and in itself represents a whole gendre of
collecting; a good example of this popularity is the post war Japanese
firm of Minikin's fine Punic War Elephant and Crew (there is a picture
in the website of a couple of examples that I have luckily been able to
collect); it is an original model that the manufacturer based on German
toy figures with a superb hollowcast elephant, very bizzare,
interesting and quite a set piece. But it takes an expert to
identify the maker of some of these original figures, there were a
number of different makers of very similar figures both in prewar
Germany and in other countries.
In the near future I
am going to add another batch of of pics of Polish plastics and
some more French plastics, as well as some more of my beloved Hinton
Hunts. I will also put on a picture of a group of Argentinian goucho's
that don't really fit anywhere in my collecting themes. They are very
individaul and show a strong Timpo hollowcast influence that is echoed
by this manufacturers other figures, even down to making figures that
are additions to the Timpo WW2 range that Timpo never made
themselves!!! E C Toys; does anyone know the connection?, must have
been a contemporary one as well. since they are all late 1950's to
1960's.