August 2024 Gettysburg Toy Soldier Show, I am back from the second show of the year back at Gettysburg. While this show had fewer dealers and participants, it was still great.
August 2024 Gettysburg Toy Soldier Show The Fun Begins
I have enjoyed this show and look forward to each edition. The drive to the show takes me about two and a half hours as I stop at Rutters, a convenience store for a break. I got to the show and found a spot before the doors opened. A woman came up to me seeing me with my cane. She said she was part of a prayer group that was at the hotel and asked if she could pray for me. I told her about my fall in the basement two years ago and thanked her. After she left, the doors opened for the show.
I entered the show and saw there were fewer dealers than in the May show. Still, there was plenty to look at. Here you have various figure boxes to go through.
You could buy from individual figures to playsets. Several dealers had the Barzso Yorktown playset for sale.
Dealers had bags of figures to look at and possibly buy.
This dealer had various tin litho ships for sale.
Another dealer had various Marx Arab figures and accessories for sale.
This is the table of my friend Bob Hornung. Bob does various metal figures on various figures.
This dealer had the most hard plastic trees I have seen in one place.
I wonder how many times you would have stopped at these tables.
These are battlefield pieces done by Paul Knapp. I will find out more about them.
There were many playsets for sale. Here are different versions of the Fort Apache playsets.
I always like to stop at Kerry’s table you never know what you will find.
Another table filled with goodies.
Still more to look at.
These are just some of the Warhorse Miniatures which we will showcase in the next post.
Thoughts
The show once again was lots of fun. I was able to get various items I normally don’t see such as Marx Arab accessories. For myself, I got the original Barzso Collectibles Robin Hood. LOD has them out in green but I wanted to get the original color for personal reasons. Despite the small crowd, the dealers did well. You can see a video of the show from Paul Knapp here.
Finally, I met one of my readers LaRue Hemric who was happy to meet me. It was a pleasure to meet him.
Hi Paul. We had a great show, our best one-day event so far. It was super busy up until around 12:30pm. Then the crowd trickled in. But we still were selling things up to the end. There were more collectors selling things off for the second show. Some of the bigger dealers like Hobby Bunker didn’t attend. I wasn’t able to look around until the end. The crowd was bigger this year for the second show than the previous year. I will be in New Jersey Toy Soldier show this October in Wayne, NJ next.
This message is for Erwin.
I have several sets of OWN soldiers. I am trying to remember what this company was and how many sets were produced. I think you may have been involved. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks,
Jack
I first came aware of the OWN figures when a French collector contacted me. He had been offered the OWN figures by a Russian dealer. I could not find anything and posted an article. A year later Erwin contacted me that he had found the molds in China. erwin will have to give more details.
Paul, this question is for you. Whatever happened to the large US 51 tank mold? As a kid I received it as part of a 1972 deluxe Desert Fox set. After several years our golden retriever decided to chew up one item in his life – the tan 51 tank! I would like to replace it but most of those tanks go for $180+. Thanks in advance.
=
I have no idea.
I learned early not to leave any Garden Battle set ups out over night as my Fox Terrier just loved the taste of plastic in the morning!!
I bet it could be scanned and 3D printed easy today as many former rare vintage are getting scanned today and sold online already ..
Old mold if found require thousands to start producing them as need retooling and not industrial machine will be used unless 3 thousands or more batches -pieces made in one run .
Yes! I gave my girlfirend’s son a set of recast Marx British Infantry. Like any kid, he left them set up on the floor overnight. And, evidently, like some dogs, ol’ “Jax” happily chomped on what he thought was some kind of tasty chew toys…
As far as the Tank 51 mold, I seem to recall finding recasts of it in 99-cent “army men” bags in the 90’s. I didn’t pay close attention then. So maybe the mold is still out there.
Nowadays, someone could scan an existing model and replicate the tank– even add modifications…and in any scale. Kinda scary…but cool.
I would really like to see all the 1/32 Airfix vehicles and Tanks available on 3D printing.
Thanks for the input. The 3D printer option sounds interesting. I don’t know if Quaker Oats or others own the copyright on the design.
Another vehicle that is missing from my collection is the Aurora/Timpo/Sears British tank sold in playsets in the early ’70s. These are usually sold only with the sets at high dollar values. Just like the M-51 I may have to bite the bullet and pay for the items.
Never understood why they used the British Chieftain tank as a US/German WW2 tank in that Set but they are outstanding especially if you can find one with all the small parts(Bed Roll,pennant,jerry cans etc).Sometimes 1 will show up on Ebay that no one notices that you can pick up at a decent price.
Brian
It was the molds they had available. Just as the used the Bren gun carrier. They saved money as a new mold would have been expensive.