When ever I’m interviewed by the media one standard question they never fail to ask is: “Why do adult men collect toy soldiers?”, and my standard reply is: “Because they (toy soldiers) act like a bridge
to our past; a bridge to our childhood.”
I guess that’s a pretty accurate answer because so many men share a [...]
A very limited number of autographed copies of Norman Joplin’s new book, Britains New Toy Soldiers 1973-Present will be available at the 26th Annual East Coast Toy Soldier Show, Sunday, November 2nd.
BRITAINS NEW TOY SOLDIERS 1973-PRESENT, by Norman Joplin is the first comprehensive book to document the history and products of Britains New Toy [...]
The Penninsula Museum of Art in Belmont, California started their new fall exhibition on September 27th. The “Obsessions”, fall exhibition, illustrates the history of museums (and especially art museums) in honor of the Centennial of the Manor House, home of the Peninsula Museum of Art. A highlight of this new exhibit are British toy lead [...]
If you are like me and remember the colorful comic book advertisements for Toy Soldier Sets that ran on the back pages of most typical comic books back in the 1950s through the 1980s then you’ll enjoy visiting WELCOME TO THE WORLD Of COMIC BOOK TOY SOLDIERS. It’s a great site with cool [...]
Berdan Sharpshooters were an American Civil War regiment of sharpshooters named after Col. Hiram Berdan (1823-1893). The 1st and 2nd regiment were selected from various Northern states in 1861, through a rigorous test of placing 10 consecutive shots in a 10″ space about 200 yards away without use of a scope. Believe it or not, [...]
Posting on the 1st and 15th of each month, Mannie Gentile’s Toy Soldiers Forever Blog features photos, reviews, discussions, conversions, and play about 54mm Toy Soldiers of the American Civil War. Mannie’s most recent topic is a feature about blue plastic toy soldiers. Now, how cool is that? Visit Mannie’s blog…
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No other American Dimestore figures have raised as much speculation over their evolution as a small group of early production Manoils known to collectors as “Hollow-Base.”
Figure in the center of my photo is a regular two hole base Manoil. It’s flanked by two hollow-base figures.
I theorize that since hollow-base castings were, and still are,
extensively used [...]
Boy Scout Signallers, Post war 1954 - 1959, set number 163, contained five Boy Scout figures with rotating arms holding semaphore signal flags that could rotate in a full circle to form any semaphore signal.
The Scouts in Post war sets wear olive-drab shirts and shorts, with brown belts, black knee socks, olive-drab Boy Scout [...]
It should come as no surprise to any toy soldier collector that a traditional style toy soldier maker with the name Beau-Geste would introduce yet another set of French Foreign Legionnaires.
Beau-Geste has also released three additional sets. A nice touch is that Beau-Geste has also posted the image sources they used as the inspiration for [...]
Those of us who collect toy soldiers and military miniatures in either 54mm size or 1/35 scale, seldom, if ever, get to see and appreciate the great work that’s going on today with 1/6th scale figures. So it was good news for us when we read nerdsociety.com’s review of the recent Weekend of Heroes, [...]
