As you know we having talking about the new 54mm Russian Romans and Russian Revolution Figures that came out this year. The problem has been trying to get the figures. Dealers have shy away from them for various reasons. The Russian Revolution showed up at OTS and quickly sold out.
Pvblivs has gotten a Paypal account so you can now ordered direct from Russia. You can get Pvblivs Romans set one and two and their friends’s Russian revolution figures. The vost is for the figures you ordered shipping and 5% Paypal charges. I ordered four sets of Romans which costed me $45.15. They were shipped on September 20th and I got them October 4.
You can contact Yuri at the following email sovsold@narod.ru for information, prices and to order.
Paul, I visited this site. It is in Russian. Any suggestions?
Do a right click and then click on where it says “Translate” it will be in a sort of foreigners version of English but understandable.
Thank you.
Yury says his new Teutonic Knights (4) are available at $9.
Lynn
Glad to hear the knights are out. I will add them to the collection.
Yury says there are four sets of Revolutionaries plus an add-on set of four. The Romans come in either red or od green. The knights in blue or black.
Lynn
You can see pictures of the various figures on my web site. I will be ordiering later this week myself on some figures.
Paul, are you referencing the two shown above or are there others I am overlooking?
Hi, I checked your site too Paul, I didn’t see any of the knights, however, I do have really bad vision problems, so perhaps they were there, and I just didn’t see them. BTW, I really liked your site Paul, good job on it, I hope you do well.
Ed
I will get a photo up of the knights. I am planning on buying them for myself and friend. The figures are nice.
Thanks Paul, they are very nice. I really like the 2nd from the left one. Too bad they don’t come in a slightly lighter color though.
Also I know someone was asking in your archives about the Hobbit figures, by Bridge Direct, they are out now. They are producing a line in 3.75 inch scale. Some are smaller than that. I think Gandalf is 3.75, and the dwarves, and Bilbo are smaller maybe 3 inch.
So I am thinking that man size figures are the 3.75 inch. They come with weapons, and are pretty nicely articulated, the sticker are the cost for the figures, otherwise, they are very nice. The Dwarves could make very nice Vikings. They would be like 7 foot tall berzerkers compared to 54mm scale however. I may get some of them.
Ed
thanks for the heads up on the Hobbit figures. I will have to get to a Target or Toy R Us to see them. We can only hope he does some smaller size figures. It will give Laurtie something to get me for my Birthday/ Christmas. (My birthday is on End of the world Day December 21.)
No problem, my pleasure. Happy early Birthday just in case as well, Paul (Lol). They have pictures up on various sites, as well as youtube, so you can check them out before you spend your time driving somewhere to see if you like them or not.
The Dwarves could make Vikings, or Saxons, or a few different dark age factions.
If you like, 70mm (3 inch scale, or 1/24th scale). Some of the Dwarves will definitely excite you. I like that scale personally. I loved the Play Along figures. Too bad about the Line ending. I actually tried to get them to make figures for me. They flat out refused, money amounts never even came up. They are not the only company that flat out refused me either. I deal with rejection very well, lol.
The feet are not articulated , which doesn’t necessarily hurt a pose, but if the ankles would have been articulated, or made slightly outward it could make a big difference, on the pose possibilities. It may not affect some of the figures regardless though, because of the leg articulation, I can’t tell yet, so take this with a grain of salt, and do not let it detract from you trying the figures. I don’t have the figures to play with, so don’t even know if it will be a problem or not.
If its not a problem, these will be great figures. The best ever done in a 3 inch scale, in my opinion ( I am not counting GI Joe, nor Star Wars figures, because while I own some, I did not really collect them, and consider them larger scale figures). The reason I am stating this is because of shear pose possibility, 10 – 12 points of articulation !!! Play Along figures will be hard to beat, the closest to them in my opinion were Heroes in action by mattel. I tried to buy the Heroes in action molds from mattel in the late 80’s. They would not sell them. I would have gotten investors if necessary. I wanted to use those molds to make different time periods as well, like western, and medieval.
I am always either a dollar short, or late though.
Regardless, the new Hobbit figures will be great figures. Definitely, some of the best ever done in the 1/24th scale, and plastic, and for the price ( price is a little high for plastic, but consider the prices of things now). I know many Toy soldiers collectors that are reading this, are going yeck. Keep in mind this is my opinion, and you are entitled to yours. I still consider these Toy Soldiers. Anyway Paul, when you complete your book, will you do a talking book too ? Because I want to buy one, I would also like to buy one of your 1st editions, and would like you to sign it if possible. It will be for a gift, to my best friend.
Thanks Paul
Ed
Mattel is very protective of its molds, unlike other companies they do not sell or lease them as far as I have seen. Also the molds are in foreign countries which make them expensive to ship here. Play along might not have been interested in your offer for several reasons. If you were wanting to do more LOTR figures it might have complicated their licensing agreement. Second they may have been bother by other people who want items done and when money amount was brought up the other party disappeared. Finally the status of the company at the time could have stop them from looking new projects. Toy companies do not have a long life span for everyone that survived from our childhood 10 or more have gone under.
The book is done I had to split it in two parts for e publishing as it is 300,000 words plus. I hope to have it formatted by someone in the next few weeks and part one ready to go. Part Two has a new prologue and another section to be added. It has been rough with Ebay taking a lot of my time these days as sales have been good. I will announce when it is out.
Thanks Paul, You are right of course on all accounts about Mattel, and Play Along.
I can’t remember the lady’s name at mattel I talked with, and it was around 1987.
She was in charge of their archives, and vault. She sent me numerous copies of old advertisements of those figures. They did swat, and recuse, as well as ww2. I really liked the British, and German versions, which I never had seen, I own some now, and they are really neat figures.
Anyway she told me that they never sell their molds, and don’t even consider it, whether they plan on retiring the molds or not. Which those molds were retired. She thanked me for my interest however. I did not mention the numerous plans I had on bringing other time periods into my line.
On play Along I talked with their President. She was a very nice lady as well, she listened patiently as I excitedly explained some of my plans. However on all accounts she said it would not be possible, nor feasible. I even asked if they could sell figures in bulk lots, they were already producing, without the packaging to me. Again not possible, I did figure that was because of the contract agreement they already had. However, I did mention that some of the figures they produced could have been considered generic in nature, she still declined.
It wasn’t until about a year later that I heard the company had been sold, and then figured out why they couldn’t sell bulk, nor produce figures for me, because they must have been in negotiations at the time of my call with the company that bought them.
I was really sad to hear the line ended as well. They were some great figures. Unfortunately I had talked to other companies as well, and for one reason or another they all turned me down. Either because they didn’t want to make action figures in smaller scale, or they were a toy soldier only company that didn’t make action figures.
It appears very few people agree with me that articulated figures are toy soldiers also.
It also appears, that many toy soldier collectors despise action figures, and that action figure collectors prefer larger scale figures, and do not like to consider their figures toy soldiers. Its completely baffling to me.
Personally, I always wanted nicely detailed, and nicely painted figures which is a big plus, that I could move their head, arms (at the very least, at the shoulder), wrists, and waist.
The shoulder, wrist, and waist are important points to articulate. The legs needed to be in a nice stance, preferably advancing, or fighting stance, the legs don’t necessarily have to be articulated. I wanted separate weapons, helms, or helmets I could put on the figure, and in some cases even armor pieces, Capes, and cloaks as well. I also wanted different time periods, western and medieval mainly. With the figures falling in the 54-70mm scale range.
Plastic type is important, because if its hard plastic, it can be too brittle, yet it needs to hold nice detail, and can hold paint forever. I have seen some figures in metal that meet some of these criteria I am describing, however they are very costly, and can be damaged quite easily, definitely not something you would, or should play with.
Most have no articulation at all either, some of the older ones may have a couple points, they are really expensive, and highly prized by toy soldier collectors. I am not sure of all the makes out there, the world is a big place for me. I also am no expert on plastic types. Another half way decent line were the can do figures by dragon. Some of their figures weren’t bad at all. however, the plastic on at least some of the figures was a little brittle, and perhaps thats why the line didn’t do so well. Maybe it was their scale, the 70mm size, I confess, I don’t know.
Perhaps my dreams of producing figures, was never meant to be. I did try though, and will at least keep dreaming about producing my own line. Maybe one day. Perhaps no one would ever even have wanted them either. Especially in todays economy, and most kids are into computer figures now anyway, not miniatures. The day/s of Toy Soldiers and little plastic men, may be over soon, maybe even forever. I for one hope not, but what do I know.
I am not a sculptor, nor expert painter, nor even wealthy ( not with money anyway).
Also Paul , a few other things. In your archives you and Floyd Wilso were discussing the Prince Valiant figure done by Elastolin/Prieser, whether it was 54mm, or 60mm, not sure if anyone responded to your question on that, but I own that figure, and it is a very nice figure, anyway, I measured that figure, it was a long time ago however so I will have to go by my memory, because I have all my figures packed away now. If memory serves me he was 57mm maybe 58mm, So he makes a nice leader figure for 54mm scale, He would be over 6 feet tall. However he fits in nicely with 60-70mm figures as well. I also like that figure with the Dulcop Zorro cape, if you never put that cape on him, try it, it makes him look really good. I like that cape, you could even paint it easily. It even looks good on the leader figure for the hero in action figure by mattel, and various other figures.
Also on your book you can email me on total cost and address to send my check Paul, when its done. I do also hope you do a talking book version, I can no longer read books. My friend can tell me about it if you have no plans on that however. Anyway thanks for everything Paul.
Ed
It is very hard to deal with the toy companies unless you have a name or the right connections. I was lucky on a project as I had a source, who had the connections. To make plastic figures is a very expensive proposition with low rewards. If you are interested in making plastic figures talk to Nick at TSSD.
Floyd and I were talking about the Marx Prince Valiant figures whether they were 54mm or 60mm. Elastolin Prince Valiant figures are 70mm. I will be putting up a photo of a copy of the Sir Gawain figure which is 60mm.
The book will be available from Smashwords. A talking version will have to wait until it is picked up by a regular publisher, which I can only hope. With so many books being published it will be a long shot.
I believe you Paul on producing figures, because of my own experiences. I may contact Nick, I have bought from them in the past, but it was long ago. I also apologize about the Valiant figure, I thought it was the Elastolin one you guys were talking about, oops, my bad. Which I thought was curious, because I was curious about him, and what scale he actually was as well way back when, and thats why I measured him myself. So many years ago, lol, He makes a tall man in 54mm range, and a still growing young man/man, in the 70mm range, based on their other figures. Like their Robin Hood figure (which the cape also looks good on, lol). Anyway, sorry for my confusion.
I did think the marx ones were 60mm, but I do not own those, so don’t know about them for sure, plus didn’t know you were talking about them. I do own the black knight which I like him, but can’t remember what scale he is, I think its 60mm also. I think he was with that set, but I never bought the whole set, so again not sure about it.
However maybe because the Valiant stories were about a young Prince Valiant, he might be slightly smaller ( as if he is still growing perhaps), he is in the Elastolin line. Thats very curious. Also that Dulcop cape looks and seems to be molded perfectly for that figure, as a matter of fact the figure looks so good with it on, if you take it off, the figure does not look right, lol. I know thats hard to believe, but if you have the figure and put that cape on him, you will see what I am talking about. Its amazing.
You know thats a mark of a good sculptor as well, to slightly alter the size of the figure, based on what they perceive. The Matt Dillon figure is like that. It makes him very special, because he is taller than 54mm. the Lucas McCain figure isn’t, and Chuck Conners is 6’5 in real life. So your question on the Marx Valiant is very interesting.
Also on the Pvblivs knight figures, I like the 2nd one from the right not left the most, because he reminds me of the marx black knight as well.
I hope your book gets picked up as well. I will have my friend buy it when its out from smashwords. I hope it does very good for you Paul. Good luck.
Happy New Year! Ran across this discussion. I was wondering and this question is for Ed Connell. If you are interested in “Action Figure” type Toy Soldiers why not track down the owner of the Marx 12 inch Johnny West, Knights, Vikings molds? These would be awesome figures downsized to 60mm! Great head sculpts on these figures, I really liked the Gen. Custer, Capt Maddox, Geronimo, Johnny West and the Silver Knight. Didn’t have the others but they look great as well.
The molds are in Mexico It might be tricky to downsize them to 60mm