Our very good friend Axel Sohnius took a bus from Dusseldorf Germany to get to the show. Axel left the night before and arrived in London the next morning.
The weather was nice in London so after a night riding on the bus, I decided to visit some tourist sights before I took the train to TwIckenham. Two men on the train I was on also got off at the same stop and headed to the same road like me. It was not difficult to find the location and the room behind the restaurant where we found Paul Morehead sitting at entrance desk. There was no early admission so the dealers could set up. When the official time had come the crowd broke through the doors. When I came there shortly before 10:00, I found some of the sellers still unpacking their boxes and putting figures on their tables.
As you can see from the photos every table was full of customers until pass the midday. As I made my first round through the room, I quickly found some nice surprises for me. This time the oracle had fulfilled again and I discovered figures that don’t turned up in Germany unless British dealer carries with him. The room was stuffed with tables and almost every table offered lots of figures. Some dealers had shelves on their table. People like Barney even had a showcase for his best and rarest pieces. A group of sellers had set up sort boxes to present things orderly. The next group offered for sale their figures in rows on the table so you could easily find the different brands and figure series. Some had boxes of figures depending on the prices e.g. 10 Pence, 50 pence, one pound and so on up to 5 pounds a figure But boxes with an unsorted figures in a muddle are of big interest to because you can root your spirit of discovery.
The usual sellers from the UK were there such as John Begg and Steve Weston together with Peter Cole. I don’t know all the names of the PW show cast. Germany was represented by Peter Bergner, Frank Rossbach and some more. I talked Andreas Dittmann and others who came as buyers.
Unanimously all I have talked to said that is was a very well visited show. The dealers had good business. Some of my friends have told me that the present venue is smaller than the old one in Richmond, but I can’t confirm it. (Editor’s note it is smaller than Richmond.) It was certainly worth the trip.
Some people expected a special new figure on occasion of the 30th anniversary. The PW boys had decided to celebrate the day with four special issues of Plastic Warrior that were offered with a reduction of price only for the day of the show. Peter Evans was so kind to pose with the magazines. You can see the Roman Figure special edition. The other ones are reviews of three companies from the UK: Hilco, Taylor & Barret and Gemodels. (Editor’s note PW also had a figure done of Allan a Dale.)
PENTAX mag
I met another person on my way back to London, who had come for the 1/72 scale figures and was disappointed not to have found so much as he expected. I told him that PW is more specialized on the 54mm range. On the other hand this collector was very pleased to have found books on uniforms and wars so he made his way home with much contentment too.
An excellent show report, with excellent photographs. I can easily see the English show has a different mix and flavor of toy soldiers than the American shows. And for a non-Englishman, Axel has an excellent command of the English language.
Don
Because the European shows have such a mix of different figures from U.S., I enjoy them more. I have more of chance of seeing something new over there than here.
Axel and most of the other Europeans that we deal with speak very good English. We feel bad that we can not return the complement of speaking in their language.
I see a box of Britain’s Super Deetail Missing Pose Paratroopers on a shelf there.Wonder if they sold and for how much??