Are there any actual toy shops left? I guess there must be a few but they are a rare species that is for sure: squeezed out by supermarkets and online stores, I suppose. It was not toy shops I was looking for as such though, it was toy soldiers. The sort of pre-painted plastic figures that were once a part and parcel of childhood. Figures made by Timpo, Herald, Lone Star and of course, Britains. Once toy shops, and by implication High Streets, were full of little Cowboys and Indians, Trojans and Greeks, Romans, Medieval Knights and World War Two soldiers. At some point – when I was not paying attention obviously – they all seem to have vanished. Gone!
It is true that toy figures can be found in the bigger supermarkets and garden centres, but inevitably the theme is either agricultural, wildlife, dinosaurs, or fantastical. The last of these offers a number of medieval knights lacking any historical reference or, in most cases credulity. They are merely characters amongst the hordes of monsters and faeries. Some of these are actually very well done. I am thinking of the models made by Scheich and Papo in particular. Certain monsters offer fantasy gamers the opportunity for conversion to useful tabletop pieces. The Papo mammoth is a wonderful model that screams Mumakil! Or would, were a plastic model able to do so!
But these modern toys are not the ‘toy soldiers’ of yesteryear. For one thing they are huge, reckoned at about 1:20 scale, although admittedly it is hard to tell with a dinosaur, let alone a faerie. The only vaguely comparable things I could find that were indisputably ‘toys’ designed for children were bargain bags of poor quality ‘army men’ moulded in single-colour plastic. Big bags of cheap plastic, often generic or nominally American soldiers ca. 1950, have been around for years, formerly ‘Made in Hong Kong’ and these days pouring out of China. Cheap as they are, I find it hard to believe these are a substitute for the more accurate scale figures that were commonplace in the 1960s, lacking both historical context and any sense of collectability.
Despite my lack of success in tracking down toy soldiers anywhere a child might chance upon them, I realize there are plenty out there. Most of the wargamers I know are sufficiently interested in history and modelling that they have acquired the odd collectable model to adorn their bookshelves. That includes models that definitely qualify as ‘toy soldiers’ such as those produced by King and Country, a Hong Kong based company recognized as one of the leading manufacturers of such models. Cast in metal and painted to a high standard in matte, these pieces are elevated above the status of ‘toys’ by their price tag if nothing else, retailing for between $40 and $50 US dollars each for an infantryman and more for mounted figures and specials. W Britains, The off shoot of Britains that continues to make collectable metal ‘toy soldiers’, offers a comparable product at similar if not somewhat greater cost. These two companies are not alone in offering modern painted models of this type, but they are perhaps the best known, and online outlets that sell these will usually have others as well.
Wonderful as these models are, they are adult collectables that are unlikely to see much tabletop action, being rather too precious to risk canon fire, let alone the inevitable attentions of the family cat! The same must surely be true of those metal models made in the old-fashioned style, gloss painted, and intended to resemble the traditional ‘tin soldier’ that would have been familiar to H. G. Wells or Robert Louis Stevenson (wargamers both). Pre-painted and usually available in sets after a fashion that imitates the appearance of the original Britains boxes, these tend to retail from about $250 to $300 US dollars for a box of nine models, depending upon type and complexity. If you have never heard of William Hocker and you are at all interested in these kinds of traditional toy soldiers, then I would suggest you check out the company website (any search on William Hocker or WmHocker will get you there). I say this not least because Mr Hocker has just announced his retirement after forty years making toy soldiers and will cease trading once current stocks are sold. Every model made by WmHocker is a little masterpiece that aims to lovingly recreate those once manufactured by Britains, complete with their own Imperial Durbar, Zulu War and US themed subjects such as the American West and Spanish-American Wars. I do not doubt that Mr Hockers models will continue to command high prices on the second-hand market, and deservedly so.
Of course, I know that traditional 1/32 (54mm) plastic toy soldiers not only continue to exist, but new ones are being made every year. One of the most popular companies to market models of this kind is HäT, who make a large range of Napoleonic subjects as well as armies for the Punic wars. These are in boxes of unpainted figures, entirely comparable to the Airfix sets that folks of my age (and somewhat younger) will remember. Although these certainly do make an appearance in hobby shops, those that still exist, they too appear to have made the transition from toys for children to an adult market. This is ably summarized on the website of another manufacturer and supplier: Classic Toy Soldiers, Inc. This company was founded with the intention of supplying toy soldiers to an adult market, driven by nostalgia and blessed with ample resources with which to relive childhood dreams. As well as selling contemporary designs, the folks at Classic Toy Soldiers have hunted down and refurbished some of the original tooling of yesteryear, allowing the continued manufacture of otherwise long out of production models from the likes of Britains and Marx. Armies in Plastic is another company that pursues a similar market in much the same fashion, with a range that is impressively extensive and especially so for the American Civil War; an ever-popular subject, the main market for all these kinds of toy soldiers being the USA. I realize there are plenty more companies engaged in the same business – essentially selling what would once have been considered a children’s toy to the modern collector – and once again any online retailer will offer a selection.
None of these models, the accurately painted metal collectables, the shiny ‘toy’ soldier type, or the boxes of unpainted plastics, are exactly equivalent to the old Timpo and Britains figures of half a century ago: the individually painted knights, cowboys, and WWII soldiers that once vied with the zoo animals, toy cars, and miniature farmyard machinery for control of the bedroom carpet. WBritains 'Super Deetail' models are the nearest in concept, painted plastic models albeit sold in boxes, but even these are painted to a high standard and relatively expensive. Like their metal brethren, they are collectors’ pieces rather than toys, although not entirely beyond the pocket of the modern wargamer who wishes to add a particular item to their otherwise self-painted force.
Do any readers wargame with these 1/32 scale figures? Well, I know of a few players who do just that, amassing painted forces of these larger figures, skirmish forces often but, where space is available, something like entire armies. Space is the key, and perhaps that is why so many of these modern producers are based in the USA or are based in the far east and manufacturing for a primarily American market, where large, open basement rooms are not uncommon, affording space for a large permanent gaming set-up. As for myself, the only 1/32 wargames pieces I possess these days are gladiators; arena combat being well-suited to larger scale figures, where a player might control only a single warrior. At one time I had a small collection of 1/32 ‘Wild West’ models, inspired by Mike Blake’s Western Gunfight games, and primarily consisting of Airfix figures suitably converted and painted. Gunfights and slightly larger shoot-out, and similar skirmish-level games certainly work well in this larger scale. Even so, if there are wargamers making use of these larger models, I suspect they are mostly of my generation – gamers who recall the original Britains, Timpo and Herald (and Marx in the USA) figures of their own childhood.
Where does that leave the children of today and prospective wargamers of tomorrow? How many of us were inculcated into the world of adult wargames via a childhood love of historically based, realistic and colourful toy soldiers? Was I, and were my contemporaries, subtly transitioned into the wargaming hobby because of the toys we had as children, and the military models we bought from the local toy shop, collected, and built: the airplanes and tanks and ships? It always strikes me as interesting, if not entirely convincing, how many players claim to have been wargaming since they were infants, citing their toy soldiers as prototypes for the wargames figures we all went on to collect from our teens. I imagine tomorrow's wargamers will travel by a different route, although quite what that route will be I cannot foresee. No doubt they will bring a perspective that we of an older generation lack. We who learned in the cradle and school yard the calibre of every major weapon of WWII, the maximum speed of every fighter plane, and such readily useful skills as familiarity with the operation of a lever-action Winchester rifle. But those were different times to be sure. WS&S
THINKING BIG
Rick raises an interesting question regarding 54mm (1/32 scale) miniatures. The editor has seen several larger scale games at wargames shows using a variety of rules. These tend to be memorable, including an impressive looking game of Bolt Action with 1/35 tanks and vehicles. The Skirmish Wargames Group in particular runs large and impressive games, with many conversions. They games are BIG, hardly skirmishes with the amount of figures. Drop us a line if you enjoy gaming big!
This article was featured in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine 127. Discover this issue, and others, in our webshop: