Besides buying, selling and collecting comics I also collect Star Wars action figures, Playmobil and Toy Soldiers. Some of you might have had the classic Tim-Mee Army Men. They were first produced in the 1970’s and are still produced to this day. Or you might remember Marx Toys Playsets. Some were World War II based. Others were Western Cowboys and Indians based playsets. The golden age of toy soldiers was in the 1950’s and 1960’s. By the late 70’s plastic toy soldiers had started to decline.
Toy Soldier shows started to appear around the country in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s some called it the second golden age when two new companies were created. Barzso Playset was the first company to produce toy soldier playsets again after almost 20 years absence. Then Conte Collectibles did the same in both plastic and painted metal figures.
If you are interested about going to the show you can read more about that over here, http://www.mwtoysoldier.com/Shows.html.
Also if you want to learn more about plastic toy soldiers you can visit my website over here, Warhorse Miniatures. I write blog post on previews and reviews of new and vintage toy soldier sets. Plus reviews about the different toy soldier shows I go to. I also did and still do interviews with the owners of some of the major toy soldier companies. I am trying to build an online gallery one day and keep a history of the modern age of toy soldier collecting. It is a niche market, but a strong one.
Besides writing about toy soldiers I am currently working on my own line of resin based toy soldiers. Hopefully next spring I will have an 8 figure set of Anglo Saxons finished. After that I plan on working on other projects for the future.
Thank you for reading, Mike Prendergast.
