Welcome to our first post of 2014, last year was an interesting year for us. Laurie and I got to do two trips last year. The first trip was to London, England for the Plastic Warrior show. Despite being in a new location the show was great as always finding items for the collection and resell. More important was seeing many old friends including Peter Bergner and Andreas Dittmann from Germany and Peter Cole and Paul Morehead from United Kingdom. We have to thank Brian Carrick again for the great surprise of the show, another Speedwell armor car on fire. This has been my holy grail item until I found one over eleven years ago. Another surprise was to see Laurie’s honorary brother Michael Smith. Michael is an interesting character, who has disappeared into the woodwork again. Finally our trip to Plastic Warrior and London would not be complete with spending time with our very great friend Peter Evans. Peter always comes up with great restaurants that the average tourist would never finds. We have a great time with Peter which was too short.
Our other trip last year was to Las Vegas. Laurie had a great time at the Bull Riding Championships. I enjoyed seeing an old friend Ray Mathei, but we were both disappointed with Las Vegas. The problem with Las Vegas, there is very little different with Las Vegas and the other casinos that have pop up around the country. The city needs to come up with something to make it different again.
I was pleased with our results this past year both in finding items and selling them. We were amazed how much we found despite all of the competition. I am feeling that 2014 will be another great year.
For the collector of new plastic figures 2013 was a great year. You had several new companies come into market. Austin showed up with their western figures and this year will do WWII Marines. We had two Russian companies come out with a great selection. Engineer Bassevitch did several sets of Russian soldiers that were welcome by collector. Pvblivs did a range of different figures including pirates and Indians.
Companies such as TSSD, Paragon and Armies in Plastic continued to produce figures to add to their existing lines. Expeditionary Force showed up at the end of the year with Greeks which were in 54mm and welcome additions to ancient armies. This year we should see from TSSD Mexican cavalry as well Paragon having new figures.
So what does 2014 have in store for Stad’s. We have a number of items planned. Somewhere in the first part of the year we will be setting up a sale list on this site. I am moving some items from EBay and also giving another outlet for other items that we have in quantity such as the MPC Sea Creatures. Next I am going to be doing be testing of various ideas that are non-toy related. One of my other great loves is comedy and I have finally decided to get that going . Laurie and I will be doing comedy bits on twitter, the web site and video. I will also be expanding my writings. Last year, I had published part one of a sword and sorcery series I . Part two will be coming out in the first quarter of the year with a short story out first.
We will be continuing to find items for resale and reporting on our hobby. I getting the ready for the return of Toy Hunter on January 29 and will reporting on the show.