Many American Dimestore companies produced toy versions of tanks, but none compared to the variety produced by Barclay. Barclay manufactured six versions of tanks. All of their designs generally resemble real-life tanks, but only their pre-WWII version of the Renault F.T.-17Â tank comes close to being an accurate model of a real tank. The Renault […]
I’m always looking for new useful tips and suggestions I can use when visiting toy soldier shows. Suggestions I can use to make my visits more enjoyable. But most of the information I read about toy soldier shows, that is posted on forums, chat rooms and blogs, are previews and reviews about the merchandise and […]
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 […]
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 links and […]
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…
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 […]
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 […]
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, 1/6th […]
