35th East Coast Toy Soldier Show October 2017 Part One once again it was time for the last major toy soldier show for us in the United States. We get a change to find a few things and see old friends and maybe a new one or two.
35th East Coast Toy Soldier Show October 2017 Part One The Trip
All week long I had to keep a watch on the weather as they were reporting us getting a Noreaster. I had driven to shows in all kinds of weather but as you get older it gets to be less fun. From the reports I saw if we got in early and did not stay long we would be alright. The trip to the show was not bad, we only started to get rain a half before arriving at the show.
I dropped off Laurie at the door and parked the car. At the entrance to the show I met Steve Savino of Toy Hunter fame and Bill Lango the promoter of the show. Steve had stopped in before going to Chiller a horror show where he was set up. He noted the people were going in for their autographs of the various stars and heading out after a quick glance of the dealers room. After saying hello to Bill Lango I headed in.
35th East Coast Toy Soldier Show October 2017 Part One The Show Starts
The first tables I headed to were of Gerry Watts. Gerry had a wide range of plastic and metal figures for sale. We had set up for Laurie to relax his table as her walking is not good. After saying hello to Gerry on the left and Chris on the right I started down the tables.
I stopped at George Guerriero of Minuteman Toy Soldiers to pick up some Playset magazines for a friend in Europe.
George does sell plastic figures, but his main area is metal figures.
Next stop was at the tables of Dick Jackson. Dick always has a wide range of plastic.
In this photo you can see that Dick has some of the Marx six Inch figures
The case has diecast Corgi and Dinky military vehicles.
A nice array of figures, on the left are Elastolin knight. the right side has Beton Baalerinas on elephants , Warriors of the World Redcoats and Reamsa Romans.
Next I stopped at the tables of TommyHill. (He is the one in the cowboy hat.) Tommy always has a wide range of items. I dropped off what I got and headed for Plastic Row.
See Part Two
Wow, Tommy Hill. Probably 15 years or so since I last saw him. Really, really good guy.
He always had a ton of plastic in large bins, that you could spend hours sorting through.
I was considering going this year, but the weather just didn’t cooperate. It’s funny, there was time when that show was the something that I looked forward to for months. It was a chance to meet with like minded collectors and people that you spoke to on the phone or wrote letters to. Yes, we actually wrote letters!
There was Schutzen Park/Hackensack in November and the NJMM show at the Ukrainian Church in March or April. That was it.
Paul, did you happen to run into any of the old timers like Ed Bielcik, Al Striano or Mark Harris?
That would be my main reason for going. Just to see some of the old faces.
While I’m typing this, I’m thinking about all the names of those who we have lost,
John Stengel and Bill Hamilton, in particular. It wouldn’t be the same not seeing them there.
Ed, Mark or Al did not showed up. Mike Poko and someone else whose name is escaping me from the old days were there. While you miss the old timers there are others. We made contact with Mike Pendergast and had a great time. We always have a great time with Gerry Watts and Chris Lamont. Many great stories are passed around. I hope to have part three up tonight or tomorrow morning.
I might have been at the first Schutzen too many years ago.