COMMENT TIME V

2/11/11

Stolen Conte Items

It has been reported on Conte Collectibles web site that one of their employees had been selling items from their warehouse to a party, who then sold them on Ebay. You can see full details of the matter at Conte Collectibles web site.

Update on Gary Dutko

We received word from Gary on his condition and what happen. Gary was cutting wood to use on a cooking stove. Because the temperature was so cold he was using some bulky gloves  he use for snow blowing. He was just about done when the blade caught the glove.  It pull it in and cut part of the thumb.  Gary quickly took the glove  off and found a large gapping cut just above the first joint of the thumb (front side). Seeing he was bleeding immediately he went to into a kitchen and wash it off and wrapped it with a dish towel.  Not having anyone home Gary had to dress and drive himself to the ER. There he taken right in and work on. The first thing they did was had Gary move his  thumb and found he could move it  so no bones or tendons were hurt.  They put 5 stitches in his thumb and sent him home.

Gary is mending nicely but is unable to do any conversion work at this time as he needs both hands to do his work. Once we know Gary is backing doing his work  we will let you know.

We are Safe and Sound

You might have heard on the news of an explosion in Allentown. We were not effected by it as we are a mile and half away from the scene.  I was near the area yesterday  to visit my local comic book store (they are fine too) then drove to get some photos copied from the memory card at local camera show.  I know the area well and have travel by those houses many times.  Thank you for all of you who were worrying about us. We wish the people well who had this unfortunate situation.

Update: The death toll is at five people. I had to drive near the area where the explosion was. Glancing quickly up the street, I could see that it look like something out of a war zone.

Rick Berry Sentenced

Rick Berry was sentence to 10 months in federal prison. Because he had previous conviction for same issue in 1993, he was not able to get an alternate form of imprisonment    Rick will have 90 days to get his affairs in order before he will have to serve his sentence.

Gary Dutko

We have heard that Gary Dutko has injured his hand and will be delay in doing his conversion figures. We wish him a speedy recovery.

MFCA

We receive notice that MFCA will be held this year on April 29 and 30. This is a Friday and Saturday. The show will be at the Valley Forge Convention Center, King of Prussia, PA in the lower level.  The show opens on Friday at 12:00 PM to 5PM and Saturday 10 to 4PM. Admission is $15.00 which is for both days. There is no one day admission. The show will have a wide range of new and old figures in metal and plastic.

Plastic Warrior Show 2011

We just got confirmation on the 2011 Plastic Warrior show. It will be on May 7 a Saturday at the Queen Charlotte Hall in Richmond a suburb of London England. This is always a great show. The show is only about 60 tables but it is loaded with plastic from begin to end.  You go around the show and think you have seen everything and a new item pops up. Also Peter Cole should be releasing some new Replicants figures to add to your collection. What they are we will not know until the day of the show. Steve Weston may have a surprise or two as well.  There will be dealers from many different countries. The show is easy to get to from London using either the underground or the train.  A great show put on by Plastic Warrior

Post Office

Several years ago a local supermarket open a postal sub-station. This was a plus for me as I was able to ship my packages with out going downtown to the main post office especially with my foreign packages. The post office is run by two great people Donna and Eileen. Donna has been with the post office since it opened and Eileen came a year or two later.  They like when I come as I have my packages ready to go and will use my packages to train their new people as I am one of the few Ebayers doing foreign.  My only annoyances with the post office is the brain dead that come to use the post office. They take as long with one package as it takes me with 15.  Two weeks ago I had a woman in front of me who was complaining about the price she was paying for her packages.  I could see what was the problem right away. She was shipping in priority boxes when she should be shipping in first class. I told her to go to Uline to get her boxes. The boxes they sell in your office supply stores for $1.99 each you can get from them for $.29 each.  We have one of their warehouses nearby which you can go out and pick up saving on shipping.  I did not think much more about it and then this past week found the woman had taken my advice and was using the boxes I suggested. 

Quinn and His Real Brother

Quinn is the first dog that we know his family. My other dogs have been from the shelter. Quinn was adopt by us due to his jaw problem. Recently Quinn's brother Rif Raff  was at a local dog show where Laurie could take Quinn to see him. When they met they were happy to see each other and gave each other doggie kisses.  They had not seen each other since July.  The picture shows Quinn with his brother Riff being Travis Cramsey.  Travis is the son of Laurie's coworker where she got Quinn. Travis is junior handler and has done a number of dog shows. Quinn also met other puppies and had great time.

Mount Laurel New Jersey Toy Show

Last year Laurie and I went to the Mount Laurel Toy toy show and had a good time. We decided to go again especially  since our very good friend Gerry Watts was setting up at the show. Gerry was going to bring box of junk stuff for me. I like Gerry's junk boxes as they give me a challenge. Can I take a mystery and make it worthwhile.  We also wanted to do the show and see what else we could find.

When we went to the show last year I went down through Philadelphia and seem to take forever. This year we used the the turnpikes of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and got there with very little hassle. What made this route even better was the show had moved to a Westin Hotel which was right close to the our turnpike exit. We got a parking space and went into the show.

The show had two big rooms  and we decide to try the room on the left. We walked down the aisle and found Gerry with his friend Chris. They had tables in front and back. After letting Gerry know we were there so he would not sell the junk box, I added a few other things from his table. Gerry was having a field day with a table of figures for $.50 a figure. Gerry said one person had bought over $150.00 worth of Marx Civil War figures before we had gotten. People were having a fun time going the decreasing mound of figures. If anyone asked why Gerry was selling so cheap it was he had more stuff coming in the coming weeks and had to make room.

 After checking with Gerry we headed to the other room.  In the second row we found a seller with the Ideal sailors mint in the bag. This brought back memories as I had purchased the figures as a child that way in a house party. I asked the price on the figures and was told $100.00 which was out my league for resale.  She did have a bag with HO Fort Cheyenne that I got for resale. We went to the next row and I recognize the  dealer's stuff.  After awhile as you attend shows you start to recognize a dealer's wares. This dealer had circus items and I knew it was a dealer we had dealt with before named Tom. Laurie and I have bought a wide range of items from Tom over the years. Tom and I share a common collecting interest Vaughn Bode the creator of Cheech Wizard. I had met Vaughn in late 60's early 70's and was able to relate my experience with Vaughn to Tom. We usually see Tom at another show and this was the first time we had seen him at this show. Tom said he was doing this show because we had been told it was very good show.  He had some business in Philadelphia so it worked out. I found on his table some first series Warriors of the World reasonable price then I had a surprise. On a shelf was a group of the Miller Jungle figures with the paper hut. I had the hut as child and for some reason it got thrown out. I had never seen one in a long time and ask the price and was able to purchase it and the Miller figures which went with it. They are welcome additions to the collection. 

From Tom's table we walked around and found a few other little items until we came on a dealer with figures and plastic cars. The dealer had a nice mix of non Marx plastic figures that I can resale. Once I had bought the figures I looked at his plastic cars. I had done very well with plastic cars on Ebay and center on one company that has sold well for me called Banner.  I picked up several different Banner vehicles all in excellent shape which I will put on Ebay.  After scouting the main room we did the long hallway. There were interesting items but nothing that really grab me. The show had a number action figure dealers but I usually stay away from action figures as they have little money for me to resale. We headed back to first room we did where Gerry was.  We walked down the aisle and took a look at Chris' stuff. Chris had some Playmates Lord of the Rings items but I did not have my list so I past on them. I did find from Chris  some Smurf items and doll items that I could used for Ebay. I then went down the aisle and went to Gerry's tables. We could see that Gerry had been doing very well. He had sold several HO Airfix sets including the Zoo. By the time we left he had sold off a third of his tables.

Rick Berry of Michigan Toy Soldier

Rick Berry of Michigan Toy Soldier has been charged with misusing a credit card.  You can see the full report  at http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/26615971/index.html

Figures Identified.

Our very good friend Andreas Dittmann has help us identified two pictures we put up. The first is the photo of the woman shown below.  She is from Mokarex and is part of their Provinces Series. Once Andreas gave me the clue, I checked a web site that I have bookmarked for Mokarex. There I found that that Lorraine figure we got was part of the province set. The set had two series. Each set did six provinces with a man and a woman to represent the province. I did not recognize the figure as being Mokarex due to two things.  The first was I had not seen these figures in our travels as we had only seen the military and the ancients. Second the plastic of the figure is white where the other Mokarex figures is gray.

The other figures that Andreas identified the ancient Olympians are by Manruba. Manruba is a company from Germany that made figures for general market and for surprise bags.  Andreas mention there are English copies of these figures in hard plastic.  The figures are 54mm in size and have been changed to have the runner with a Olympic torch. I have not seen that variation and will keep a lookout for them.

Once again we would like to thank Andreas for his help. I have found while having the internet is fine.  It is through great friends like this that it make your hobby worthwhile.

CTS New Figure Offering

Classic Toy Soldiers is showing on their web site 8 new WWII GI's  that they will be releasing in the near future. The figures should be 54mm so they fit in with their playsets that they put together. You can see a picture up on their web site.

AIP New Offerings

AIP will be releasing two boxes  of Modern Forces. Each box will 16 figures in 6 poses. The figures are based on Figarti metal figures. You can see pictures at AIP's  web site. The figures will be out in February.  Also noted that AIP has moved so update your information on them.

Putty Hill Toy Show

I had heard how good the toy show was in Putty Hill Maryland and discuss it with Laurie on doing it. Laurie and I reviewed the distance and found it was only about 2 and 1/2 hours from our home so we decided to try it. One other advantage was we could route our drive through the Lancaster area so we could stop and do a few things in the area on the way back.

We got up early on Saturday and  headed out to the show.  The trip was pleasant and we arrive at the show with no problems. The show was held at a Tall Cedars of Lebanon that Laurie recognized as an old Acme Food Market. We paid the $4.00 per person and started to look around.  We entered the show and started to look around. One of the first tables we found some Marx Fairykins and Marx Disneyland Playset parts. From there we went to check in with our very good friend Gerry Watts.  Gerry had some items for us and we purchased some additional items. From Gerry we walked over to our friend Mark Hegeman. Mark has wide variety of Marx and other figures. He had some MPC Ski Patrol items that I know people want and got some Cherilea like swoppet knights. Mark had the Marx Prince Valiant figure in blue. This version was test run were done of the various Marx molds which I had not seen in 20 plus years.

I had been told that Jim McGough of CTS  did the show as dealer.  I found that odd as it was six hours from his home.  We got over to the next row and there was Jim with a wide range of items for sale.  His tables were loaded with items from playset figures to action figures. Jim told us that he had done this show with a friend years ago and like it. He returned as he has people who look for him. We talked about doing Ebay and if he still had the barrels of figures out in the back. (One of the legends on Jim was he had so much stuff that he had it laying in barrels on his property.) Jim told us that the  barrels and the snakes in them had been sold.  From Jim's tables I was able to get two pieces of information. One he had either the Durham German troop carrier on the card or display card. It was called the Gray Ghost. The other item of interest was he had four inch figure version of some of the Marx six inch figures. Jim did not know when they were made only that they were Marx. I had gotten some of them unpainted of these figures from Mexico and thought they were down sized copies years ago.

After finishing talking to Jim we walked over another dealer we had not seen in years. We use to see him at various shows and he disappeared. It turn out he had been doing shows but he will only do two day shows as his overhead is so much he needs to have a two day show. We could see why because he is loaded with so much different and good material. In figures  he had the German ancient Olympic figures which we had only seen them in Germany and it was at least  ten years since we saw them in Germany.  We also got the figure at the beginning of the article. It is a woman holding a pastry. The base states Lorraine.  We will keep that figure.

What we liked there were dealers we did not see before and found some good items for resale on Ebay. One dealer annoyed me when he call me daddy in front of Laurie. It made Laurie feel young again and she kept calling me daddy the rest of the day. 

We saw a number of old faces. Allan Ford was buying up Marx Vikings for resale. Norm from Norm's finds on the Marx Group had gotten  a number of Payton items cheaply. We saw Carey and got from him some items for resale. Harry Davis  was running around. Pat  was buying some interesting items for his collection.

After two hours we call it quits but got stop by two last minutes purchase. Mark had two Elastolin knights with out weapons which I bought. Somewhere I have weapons and I will put them on the side until I fid them. Gerry had some Nardi  figures which his friend Chris had mention to Laurie earlier at a different stand. We had gone to look for them and could not find them . Gerry had purchase them and had set them on the side for us.  Once we had done our  final purchases we headed back to home. We will be back.

The Boys

I have not talk about our three dogs in a while. They are doing well.  Quinn has grown from two pounds to 12 pounds. He can now jump up on the sofa or chair which is not making Sparky happy. Sparky is still not thrill with Quinn and we have at least 10 growl downs a day. Percy is getting along well with Quinn. Quinn still has not learn that you do his business outside. We took Quinn to meet friend's German Shepherd. Quinn was scared of the big dog. 

We will be doing some videos on Quinn in the near future. I hope to put them up on Youtube.  

Odds and Ends

Our very good friend Chris Salomon let us know an episode of Psych used AIP WWI Germans and Americans in a story. Chris got the How to Train a Dragon tub and likes the figure. I saw the ad for them in Wal-Mart's, but did not go in at the time and have not seen them.  This and next month  various toy fairs around the world will be happening but I do not expect much new to show up. TSSD is talking about a set of figures but nothing definite on what it is.

Last year we shipped to 32 different countries besides the U.S. This year we are only in 10 days and I have sent to four countries. I am amazed what items we have been selling on Ebay. Check us out at stadsstuff.

Happy New Year

Well another year has end and a new one has started. This past year was a rough time for many collectors and dealers due to the economy. Many shows stayed the same or had a decline in attendance. Collectors had to reduce spending due to finances being cut.   Because of the rough times some makers held back on producing new plastic while other makers stay on course. The next few months will tell if we are out of this downturn or not.

For us here at Stad's it was a good year. We found our niche of selling on Ebay and moved some very interesting items over the year. We are looking forward to increasing our presence on Ebay. Ebay also allows us to connect with some old friends and to make new friends.  We will continue to go to shows and flea markets this year to find more exciting items for resale and for the collection.

Pirate Elves

Going through a lot of figures we recently acquired I spotted these pirates with turned up shoes. One could say they are Barbary Coast pirates or elves. Who knows?

Marx President Mystery

One thing I like is the mysteries that can turn up when going through figures. This past week I acquired some Marx presidents including some in bronze.  When I started to sort the items out I noticed right way the presidents in bronze were smaller in size. As you can see in the picture above the Marx president in white is bigger to the one in bronze. The president in bronze was pantograph from the Marx figures. Also the bottom of the base of bronze figure is different from the Marx president shown. The bronze figure has a large circle while the Marx figure has two small circles which were for the injector pins. The questions are who made the bronze presidents and where they were sold. We will keep checking.

Brian Johnson

I have just received news that Brian Johnson had a massive heart attack. He is alright after quad bypass operation. He is resting at home after that  rough experience.  so if you know Brian  send him an email.  I am not posting his email due email skimmers.

Christmas

Our Christmas was quiet. I had the day off so I relax a little. Laurie got  some dragons and money. I got knights and other figures. The boys got biscuits and tennis balls. I also got something I had asked for last year a fruit cake. Yes I know fruit cake gets a negative vibe, but I enjoy fruit cake. My parents and I would go to this auction where they sold closeouts at great prices.  Each year they would sell fruit cake at Christmas which we would buy. Last year I did not see any and mention it to Laurie. This year she was in a store and they had fruit cake for one day as the next day they were sold out. It brought back a good memory as I enjoy the cake. In the afternoon we went and saw Little Fockers.

Day Two

Since Laurie and I had Wednesday off we decided to hit another market. I had picked up the last time some items for Ebay and I wanted to see if I would be lucky again. After doing some mailing of packages we went to the market. I knew that there was a temporary stand for trains. We went in and I found a couple of plastic cars and Mattel cabin with Marx telephone poles. We walked around the building and found nothing else. We walked outside and  check the few dealers outside. I was just about to turn around when the last dealer had a box of figures.  I asked the price. The dealer said the figures were a $1.00 each or the whole box was $20.00. Sticking out of the box was a Peco Davy Crockett no accessories which I knew would pay for the box. Handing the dealer the twenty dollars I then took the find to the car. It was a nice close to a good year of hunting.

After checking several other stands we went to a place called Hoss. They have a salad and soup special. The restaurant had a special for $.99 more you could add a hamburger which we did. The food was good and we headed north to take care of some obligations.  We found out a restaurant we liked called Knotty Pine had closed. It had been a favorite of my late uncle and aunt.  I found out later that it had closed after 73 years of business. On the way back we stopped at another market where I purchase two more items for Ebay before heading for home. .

Birthday

My birthday is December 21.  To me anymore it means just another day. Usually I don't bother taking the day off from work, but this year I decide to take the day off.  I decided to do something I had done years ago with my late aunt, uncle and mother which was go to a flea market.  We had been down in Orlando Florida and done the Disney World and other attractions.  I said for my birthday I wanted to go to a flea market, which we did. I found some Johnny West items, which I sold. Since Laurie had the day off we went to a farmers market called Root's Auctions.

Root's Auctions has special part in my legend as it was where I bought for several years various Marx pieces. The dealer had gotten from the Marx Warehouse. The items were from Marx heritages sets. My mother and I would go down there every so often and I would go to this stand. I would take pressure cooker lid that they had for sale turn it over and use it to place Marx figures mostly redcoats and Mexican shako and presidio hat figures that I would buy. I paid a dime a piece for the figures. The stand is long gone, but I always stop in at where the stand was when I am there and remember.

The weather was nice so we went to the market. There were no vendors outside except for food vendors, but I knew there was a toy dealer in one of the buildings. We went to the toy dealer and bought some items but no figures just a Nanny Doll, Soldier of the World Action Figures and plastic vehicles.  Satisfy we found something for Ebay we did the main market building.  One other reason we did the market was for the food. I knew that two stands we did at the Bird in Hand Farmers market had stands at Root's. We stopped at both stands and made purchases. The one stand is a meat stand called Hummer's Meats. We had gotten from them some cheese and meats before and were well with their food.  This time Laurie got some lean hamburger and slice of ham for Christmas. We also got something called a Amish Wedding Pie. It is chicken, turkey and bread filling. We thought we would try it.

As we were walking around we came up on a small toy shop. In the shop they had  New Ray items. We were able to get the some sets of New Ray Western sets and rodeo set I did not have. 

I also picked up an Amish set I did not have which I need for an article for Plastic Warrior. Satisfy what we had found we head to our favorite diner for a meal and then we stop at another market for some cider and pork chops before heading home.

Toy show at Merchant's Square

I actual ended up doing one more toy show for this year. A toy show is held twice a year at Merchant's Square which is an antique and collectibles mall in the south side of Allentown. They have an area which is set aside for various types of shows. I had not been at the December show in the past as it would be after our trip to London. This year we had to pass on London as the airfares were too high so I took the day off and did the show.

I arrived 20 minutes before the show opened and saw our friend's John's car. As I walked over John got out and opened the  back with some items for sale. I bought a few items that I needed and we then talked about the shows. He told that Hackensack had been bad for him this year in selling. He related how the markets had been poor and finds had not been good. He did tell me that he did get a good score at one flea market late in the morning. When he was getting ready to pack up he found an Auburn army train and Auburn western train both for $25.00. They had been passed up as the dealer had them in the back and was selling furniture.

After talking about some other things we got in line. The doors opened at 10:00AM and we went to the show.  I started to walk around found some items right away including some chubby Marx horses, two wagon drivers and MPC Space accessories. Another  dealer had some Marx jungle accessories which I purchased. John found some items too.  I walked around bought  other items which could be use to fill out the Ebay list.  There were several dealers missing but I did find enough items to satisfy me for taking the day off. After making my purchases I walked around the building and found comical Alien figure for Laurie's collection. Once that was done I went home then took Laurie to the Lancaster area to buy some food and and get meal at a place we like before heading home.

York Toy Show

The last toy show of the year for us is the York Toy Show. The show is a nice two hour drive from our home. We got up early and were at the show just before the doors opened. The show had a nice line which moved quickly. We entered the building and turned left as show has two big halls. At the first table we came too we found this nice Thomas Toy Mexican on burro for $5.00. Laurie liked so we purchased it. The dealer said he had done no sales the night before to the dealers. In fact Laurie's purchase was his first sale of the day.  We started up the aisle and noticed right away the number of dealers was down and quality was down.  Still we found buys here and there for the collection and resale.  We found two dealers with junk lots which I like to give me a challenge. One of the lots had Pyro marine Dukw missing one axle and the other  had the hard plastic 60mm buckboard missing the hitch. We saw Kerry who had a wide range of items for sale.  He had a nice selection of Tom Swift books for sale along with Marx items. we also Tom and Pat who were looking for some more items to their collections.

After putting our purchases in the car, we went back in and did the right side of the show.  We saw Harry Davis who had some playsets for sale and few accessories. We continued down the aisle but were finding very few items as this side was heavy with die cast.  In the second aisle I found a Rin Tin Tin coloring Book. I found one last year at the show and swear it was from the same dealer. In the second row we ran into our very good friend Gerry Watts. Gerry has a wide range of plastic and metal figures.  The plastic figures range in various price with treasures in every bin. Gerry had some pieces for me which included the 70mm figures I showed recently.  I dug through Gerry's bin and found some more items for the collection.  From there we found a new dealer in plastic figures but did not have anything as it was mostly Hong Kong figures.  We went down the rows and saw Ken Ward and few other people we knew but I was not coming up with anything major. I bought a bunch of Dolls of All Nations and Van Brode figures.  We were just about done when we found a dealer with the mold a rama Jimmy Cricket. One of other collections is mold a rama pieces. I had gotten some of the dinosaurs at the New York World's Fair years ago and have added pieces over the years. Jimmy is one I did not have and we added it to the collection.

We headed back to Gerry's table and bought a few more items and talked about the show. Gerry said the show was slow and he was missing people who used to buy his metal figures. He had done better at Langhorne even though only 162 people came through the door. He had two parties who had bought heavy and made the day while other dealers were frustrated by the lack of business.

After saying goodbye to Gerry and his crew, I went back to a dealer on the other side who had a carded Doll of All Nations card. I was able to get it for a good price and also got some MPC Planet of the ape Figures including one I did not have.  I then went to another dealer bought some new items as early Christmas presents for myself. (I have this quirk I need to have some toy soldiers for Christmas due one Christmas  getting nothing but clothes.) We stopped back at Kerry and I bought some Marx six inch Romans and Vikings.  From the show we headed back and stopped at a new eating place called Millers as our regular spot is closed on Sunday. The food was very good but we will stay with our regular place Bird in Hand  as we like certain foods they do better and they are cheaper.  Once that was done we headed home.

Planet of The Apes

MPC did a a number of character playsets. One of those playsets was MPC Planet of the Apes. The set had five hard plastic pieces two different ape warriors one firing rifle another with a sword. You also had figures of Dr Zira and Cornelius. These first four figures I see all the time. Once years ago when I had my discount store I could have bought cases of Dr Zira and Cornelius from a wholesaler in Philadelphia. The fifth figure Dr. Zauis I can not remember seeing if I did it did not register. I finally acquired him for the collection at the York Toy show. He was in a group of other figures including three other Planet of the Apes figures and the mounted Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu. The price was very reasonable. I will be talking more about the York Toy Show soon.

Unknown Figures

Once again our very good friend Gerry Watts came up with some unusual Figures.  In a lot of Foreign figures he had for me were these three unusual figures. They are 70mm and are missing spears. I am figuring they are from a nativity set. Who made them that is the question.

Hackensack 2010

My report on Hackensack is up and ready for your enjoyment.

Hackensack 2010

Armies In Plastic

We have received reports that Armies in Plastic are releasing two other sets besides the Zulus and 24th Foot. First up are Prussians for Franco Prussian War. These figures are in picklehaub  helmet with the spike.  These figures will be available in four different colors. The figures are the same as WWI German in picklehaub helmets minus the figure throwing the grenade. The other new set is 8 new poses for either WWI Doughboys or Marines. These figures should be available first week in December. One report has AIP doing modern Iraq and Afghanistan modern figures in the future.

Update

We talk to Mark Hegeman on the Medical figure in the display and he states that the figure has no unusual parts. In fact the figure is with weapons.

Odds and Ends

I am working on the Hackensack Show Article and hope to put it up in the next few days. We have gotten reports that OTSN was off this years. Like other shows dealers were missing and sales were down unless you had playsets.  My schedule changes next week so I will have Sunday and Monday off.  I will be working hard  to put up more items on Ebay. We are doing well with even though I hear others are not.

This is an interesting piece that Mark Hegeman got off Ebay. It a store display for the MPC Ring Hand.  It is very interesting as it has the military helmet in a brown instead of silver. Also I notice when posted a picture it has a medic.  I will find out from Mark if there are any unusual accessories.

Allentown Toy Show

The Allentown Toy show used to be my favorite show. Every year I looked forward to the show. Over the years I had gotten many great items for myself and resale.  I worked to get a table at the show. I would set up at the show and sell and buy. The bloom started a few years back to fade. I would spend two days at the show (the show is only open to the public one day the other day is dealer and early buyer day) and feel it was wasted. I  share the table with my friend John so I could reduce  my cost. With the human job it got hard to get the two days off. I finally gave up my part of the table to John.  Last year I could not get the day off for the show and did not feel bad about it.

This year I had Saturday off so I went to the show.  I could have gone on Friday but early rights cost $50.00 a person and I had too many other jobs that needed to be taken care of so I waited until Saturday.  I got at the show five minutes after it opened.. I had to wait in line for ten minutes  before I could get in. Inside the door was my very good friend Les Barley who was in charge of security for the hall.  After talking to him I enter the hall and started down the aisle. Like so many other shows the aisles were nice and wide.  I stopped at the brothers Koslowski tables to see what they had. In years past they had one booth, now  they each had separate areas.  They had some items but nothing I was really interested for the collection or resale. I headed on in my quest.

Allentown has a lot of the cast iron and tinplate toys that sell in the higher end of the spectrum. Several auction houses were there to offer their catalogs for sale.  Between these high end were all manner of toys including plastic figures and playsets. The problem with most of them was the  price was high.  A Britains scout car in the box for $65.00 or Marx Civil War Lot for $135.00. I saw three of the Mattel Switch and Go Lost in Space figures for $45.00 which I passed on even though I needed two for my collection.   I saw Dean Mr. Lipitor Man and congratulated him. Dean had gotten a second commercial from Lipitor which was the first person they have done that. He faked pain on hearing that but I know he is glad for the money he is receiving .  

I continued on not finding anything of note. One dealer had some Michelin man items but I decided to pass on asking the price. I saw an partial Untouchables playset which was for sale at $900.00. I felt this was the same set I saw at a two other shows.  One dealer  had Rel Western Set which was load with Marx items plus Rel. He want $60.00 and I saw that it was sold.  I noticed that a number of dealers were missing and one of the lower ends had lots of space.  I final found some items at one dealer I know for years, Kerry. I always find good items from him and this year was no exception. 

After doing Kerry's table I headed for my old spot. I stopped first to talk to Ken Chapman who I have known for over 30 years. He inform me that he was only doing a few shows anymore and had move on to Ebay. I then went to my old spot where Mike Russo was manning the table. John was not there as he had to go to a funeral and would not be in until noon.  I got an item from Mike that he was holding for me and purchased some items from John's table. Mike had told me it was slow and had bought very little the day before. 

I left Mike and headed for another go round when I hear someone yell they let you in here. I turn to see it was my very good friend and licensing lawyer Andy Levinson. Andy had gotten me the rights years ago for the Jackie Gleason figures we did. Andy is a character and half. I still remember when my mother, aunt, uncle and I took him out for dinner when we visited Los Angeles. Andy was working there for a time for one licensing company. Since then he has return to the east coast where he does licensing work for various companies. We talked about old times his daughter who remember sleeping under a table when she was child has graduated from Temple University and is aspiring actress.  After a bit  of talking he had to leave so I went over to Les who was relieving one of his people on the doors.  While I was talking to Les another  of my old customer came by and talk. He used to stop at the business and give Jasmine broccoli, which she like.

After that person left I did one more tour around the hall.  I did not see anything else for to buy and head back to talk to Mike. We talked about Hackensack and how the toy market is doing.  Once that  was done I headed to a large Garage sale on the other side of town.  There I got got four books for resale and headed home.  

Chiller

Chiller was a big disappointment this year. The problem was too many people and the show was not trying to control the crowd. We got to the  show around 1:00 PM and went in the front door right away we were hit by the crowd. We made our way through the crowd  to get our wristbands and were told to go outside. For a moment we were thrown off as the line looked like it was four blocks long. Fortunately we had pre bought our tickets and found that we had only wait a few minutes in a different line. We went back in and did one area and check out the guests. We saw Zacherley and said hello. He is 93 and looked better than some of the stars half his age that were at the show. We went to the other area which I called the pit.  The place was mobbed so we looked at the various stars. Patti Duke  had a long line and I did realize how short she was . John Astin was not at his place so we headed to see our good friend Marcus Boas. We  caught up on how he was doing then headed toward the dealers area. The dealers area was boring as it seem  that it was the same  dealers were there and many seem to be carrying the same items they had at the last show. We looked for Barbara Eden and company when we found where they were we were told it was an hour wait.  We decided to get John Astin's autograph and call it a day. We got his autograph and talked with him for a few moments.  We tried to get back to our friend Marcus' room and told that it was now one way and had to go back out and then into his room. In his room Marcus told us that fire marshals were clamping down which was our cue to leave.  We left after about two hours. We will not go back on unless they have someone we really need to see.

Robin Williams

One of the questions people have ask me over the years does Robin Williams still collect plastic figures. We know from various articles on him he had plastic figures as child. One article I read many years ago said he gave them up when his father talked to him about the horrors of war.  Recently I read an article  on Steve Balkin the last of toy soldier dealers in New York City. The article talked about the various famous people who had come into Steve's shop. One of those people was Robin Williams. I had not been in Steve's store in years as I do not get into the city like I used to.  I did know that Steve  showed up at the Hackensack show and just as we were leaving we ran into him and I was able to get my question answered.  Steve said that Robin had bought metal figures from him. Steve had visited Robin's home and the only plastic figures he saw were action figures. He had not seen Robin in a few years but said he was a very nice person. Steve saw an old friend so we had to end our conversation. 

Little Big World Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties

by Jeffrey Hammond

Little Big World is a look at why we collect and what we collect. Jeffrey looks at his collection and the items he has acquired. Some such as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans he had as a child. He relates how these figures were part of  his life as child and how they are a part of his life today. His section on Ebay is interesting as he relates  of bidding and the way some people pay silly prices for things.

Ebay

Besides selling on Ebay I occasionally go shopping on Ebay.  I do not have the time and patience some people do on surfing Ebay  It seems they are on Ebay almost all the time. I prefer to go to a show and find items for either resale or for the collection. Laurie and I usually make a day out of it and go out to eat after the show. Most of the time if I find an item on Ebay, I leave a bid  and let the chips fall. If I get it I get it great, if not no skin off my back.  Once awhile I get a great item such as above. These are Reamsa Medieval figures. As far as I know they have not been reissued. They will be added to my Spanish figure collection which I have a number of figure from this country.

Some times I will get amazed at either the silly prices people pay or try to sell items. One of the Barzso woman pirate figure sold for $32.00. Another party wants $500.00 for a Marx Lone Ranger Figure bag. It is just amazing what goes on Ebay.

One fun story on Ebay, I bought a bunch of figures from a party and  got a interesting question. The dealer asked if I was related to the Stad who had done the photos in the O'Brien's books and why was I buying these nothing figures. . I replied back that I was Stad, who had done the photos, and I had a person who like these figures.  I was not upset with the question as honestly 10 years ago I would have passed on many of the items I now buy at shows.

An Interesting Figure

When I go through a box of figures sometimes I will  purchase a figure for the pose. Case in point the figure above. I got him out of a box for $1.00. He is Britains Swoppet Cowboy with  wrong parts. I have not figured out which figures the different parts are from. I will put him aside and use him in a story when ever I get time with all the other projects asking for my attention.

East Coast Toy Soldier Show

The East Coast Toy Soldier Show will be held on October 31 at the Farleigh Dickinson University in Hackensack New Jersey. The show itself will be in the Rothman Center. This is a great show. Many of the major dealers will be there selling their items including Conte Collectibles. This is a great chance to see what Conte Collectibles has and will be coming out. You will also get a chance to talk to Richard Conte himself

Last year we had Don Ducotte of Heritage Miniatures show up with his swapables. These are great figures hopefully he will be back this year.. George Guerrio will be there with his displays for sale. Our very good friend Gerry Watts will have tables of metal and plastic to astound you and that is just the tip of the iceberg of surprises that await you.

Laurie and I will be in around 9:00AM depending on who drives. We will be the show longer as we will be doing Chiller on Saturday this year instead of trying to do two shows in one day. If you want to meet us just look for the guy with the army ditty bag and the woman with red hair.

Weston Toy WWII British

Steve Weston has done a service by adding a WWII British figure group to go with your Conte and TSSD Figures. Wisely Steve has done all action poses.  In the bag of 12  you get six different poses standing firing, kneeling firing, firing submachine gun, firing Sten gun, grenade thrower and laying firing Bren gun. The kneeling pose is different than the standard one leg likewise the grenade thrower is from a kneeling.  A great group of figures to add to your collection.

Nurse Figure Identified

Kent Sprecher has identified the nurse figure we showed recently. The figure is from a set by Houghton Mifflin Ready to Read for Kindergarten and First graders. the set was done in the 80's. My friend John when got the nurse figured thought it might be from an educational set had asked another collector who had a number of pieces. but this other person did not recognize it. The nurse figure is from the second set which was done in tan while the first set which I have seen a number of pieces are in red.

Checking In

It has been quiet since OTSN. I have done a few flea markets but very little in toy soldiers. The summer has been over all quiet. I had taken schedule at work so I could do shows on Sunday before work, but found myself find little if no items so I relax instead. This month will be busy with toy soldier and toy shows with the last one being Allentown Toy Show on the first Saturday in November. I missed the show last year due to work and this year will first time in about 20 years I am going in as admission instead of doing a table. In years past I was bored behind the table and annoy with all the work to prepare and the low sales.  I will be curious what I will find after the dealers have been through the place.

At Hackensack I hope to pick of Paragon's second set of Apaches. I really like their figures. I don't know if I will get any of the other new figures out depending on budget as I have Chiller the day before and what I find for resale at Hackensack.

Andygard Jet

I keep a watch out for Andygard items. I had as child their battery operated  armor car. The armor car mold was used later for army ambulance. This above is a jet I got in a lot of other planes. I do not if it is complete or may also been used for a sand toy. I will have to  keep looking for more examples.

Mash

These two figures are from a Mash Playset. The figures are nicely done. At the moment I have no idea who made the playset. I can seeing these figures being mistaken for Atlantic medical figures.

Western Figure Find

As you may remember our very good friend Peter had found for us over in England Mounted four inch western figures. The figures have shown up here in the Dollar General stores. The figures are sold two foot figures to a card. There are three different cards we have seen.

In Case you missed it

Floyd's Report on OTSN

Processed Plastic Ironman

Recently I purchased the Processed Plastic Ironman figure for my collection.  I have the figure but not loose. I remember going to the New York Toy Fair years ago for new toys.  I walked into Processed Plastic's showroom and seeing the various sets and saying to the salesman that I would be picking them  up when they hit the stores. Famous last words, I never did see them in the stores. I never saw another set until I visited a New York City Comic Book Convention. The set was Captain America  figure with a truck and I believe some  army men. I did not pick it up has I just stocked up on Kenner Super Power Figures and I was using the bus to get home so I had no room to add it to my purchases.

I relate this to a friend about I could not find the figures and he told me that he had told me had the figures for years. I told him no you did and shortly there after receive them in the mail.  They were the version you see above with the hole in them. The hole was done so you could put a string for them to sail along like they were flying.

Processed Plastic retool the molds to make them into Dungeon and Dragon Figures.

Maybe Not

TSSD has announced that they have decided against doing their Rev War figures. This decision was done because another maker is going to this period and they did not want to duplicate. At the moment TSSD is revaluating their plans what they are planning for the future. They are also looking into resin due to the high cost of doing plastic figures in China. As we get more details we will let you know.

Stupid Toy Soldier Collectors

Steve Weston has on his site some of the stupid questions he encountered at OTSN. The best one was someone think his new WWII British figure were Vietcong. This was despite  the bags being label WWII British.

OTSN Thoughts

The show is over until next year. From the reports I got the sales were good for most dealers. Some dealers reported poor room sales. It has been reported that the sales on Friday and Saturday were slower than last year.  What I am gathering is the buyers were more selective in their buying than in years past. Where in the previous years the buyers might pick up some extra items besides their needs collectors were staying with only items they needed. You will hear of how playsets sold. That is to be expected as this show is the place for playsets. Floyd Wilson who did the show for the first time said one person came in to the show bought three Ben Hur playsets and a High Wall Castle then left.  There were some rare pieces for sale like Gunsmoke Miss Kitty and Johnny Ringo. Floyd has promised pictures and a report which will give an idea on the show. He stated that he and his wife remarked how friendly everyone was. If you have not been to this show I recommended it as it is a different experience from normal toy solider show.  you will be over whelm by the material.

One report on the Marx Forum  stated that two companies will be doing Rev War figures. We know the one is TSSD and will be working on the other.

Unknown Nurse

Here is a picture of unknown Nurse I picked up from my friend John at the Macungie in August. The figure is 70mm. Does anyone recognize it?

OTSN Day 2

Playset magazine has more photos up you can the new foam pieces from TSSD and Weston toys WWII British. We will have a review in the near future as a set is coming in for us. The Barzso's Collectibles Fort William Henry is $330.00.

OTSN

Jim Clouse  has put  up pictures of Wednesday at OTSN at Playset magazine's web site.

Try the link below if it does not work go to http://www.playsetmagazine.com

http:///www.playsetmagazine.com/OTSN2...tsn_2010a.html

Barzso Collectibles New Playset

 The new Barzso's Collectibles playset is Battle of Bushy Run.  This battle was during the French and Indian War period called Pontiac's Rebellion.  The British were sending a relief force of 500 men to Fort Pitt when they were attacked by a group of Indians. The battle lasted over two days leading to the defeat of the Indians.  Besides the playset Ron has done another fort  to go with the set Fort William Henry.  More details as we get them.

TSSD 2011 Plans

Toy Soldiers of San Diego has announced their 2011plans for plastic figure line. They will be doing a line of Revolutionary War Figures which will be in the scale of Accurate, Marx etc. They are planning British, Americans Continentals in correct uniforms, Indians, cavalry etc. We will keep you posted as we get information. 

Back Again

We have been quiet the last few weeks due to the computer acting up. For some reason it was going into safe mode so I sent it to the shop for check up and a clean up. The place I went to was a company called Enter.net. I had taken the previous computer there and was please with their work. They are efficient and I had the computer back in 3 days. Right now the the computer is working fine. I will try the photo upload tomorrow.  One interest thing about Enter.net they are in the building where we used to be, so it like going home.

We have been watching the chatter on OTSN and it has noticeable quiet over previous years. It will be interested to see what will happen. We will report what we hear. So far nothing on the new Barzso playset.  People will have Conte Collectibles back at the show to ask on his plans and see  his metal figures. Playset Magazine should have more on its next volume on Marx.  Also people will look what else is showing up in new and old figures.  We will keep you posted.

A new section is coming up called More of Less. This will be our section for other items other than toy soldiers.  One of the items is called Stupid People. For example someone looking for the special ingredient called scratch.  This section should be up in a week.

The last two Friday afternoons I have taken Laurie to the Lancaster area to enjoy some of great food of the Pennsylvania Amish. The first time we went to a Chinese Buffet, but this time I decide we try a Pennsylvania Dutch buffet or smorgasbord. Looking through a magazine I had acquired on the previous trip, I found one in the town of Bird in Hand which we were going anyway because we had some food stops in the town. We stopped first at the Bird in Hand Farmers Market where we got some great items including a Black Raspberry Rhubarb drink.  Then we tried the Bird in Hand Restaurant and Smorgasbord. The food was excellent and Laurie got her pork and sauerkraut the way she likes it. After that we went to two other places for some good food before heading home.

Another Peter Evans Finds

Our very good friend Peter Evans keeps coming up with great new items that he finds in the pound shops or other place. His latest find was a large mounted Roman on horse. There are three different ones and they are copies of Revell Epix figures. The picture does not do the figure justice it is a nicely detail figure.

Atlantic Civil War Cannon

Atlantic sold this item as America Civil War cannon. The cannon as you can see does not look like any Civil War cannon. The cannon looks more for medieval or Renaissance which make you wonder if they were planning a line and never carried it through. The cannon can shoot shells. 

Interesting Figures Update

We have heard from two people who have identified these figures. First our friend Whit Knight recognized the figures being part of a large knight's castle by Supreme. Over very good friend Peter Evans said that the figures were sold over in Europe by Simba in large knight playsets. Both people related that the figure were with either catapult or prison wagon. 

Hasbro Army Figure

Here is another interesting figure I found recently. It is marked Hasbro copyrighted 1966  and made in Hong Kong. The figure is nicely detailed.  As to how many other figures are in the series I do not know at this time, but we will keep looking.

Weston Toys WWII British

Steve Weston is showing on his web site six new WWII British which he will be showing at OTSN. The figures are all action poses and will sell for $20.00. You will get 12 figures in 6 different poses.  You can see samples up his web site.

Interesting Figures

I love going through junk boxes. First it gives me a challenge  to see if I can recoup my money if I buy the whole box. Second is what interesting figures I can find in the lot for myself. I am interested odd poses case in point the three figures above.  The one on the far right I got last year at flea market for a quarter.  Until this past week I had not seen any more of these figures until I bought a massive junk box. The two figures on the left were in the lot.. All three figures were made in China. The one on far left has a quiver on his back.  The middle figure is walking with a axe behind his back, while the figure on his right is reaching for his dagger. The figure are 54mm and  what is most interesting are their helmets. The helmets are construction hard hats. I figure the sculptor had no  information on helmets and took a guess. I love to know what set these figures go to and it there are any more. 

Chiller Theatre

Chiller Theatre which will be on October 29 to 31.  The guest the have lined up are really exciting this year. They will have Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and Bill Daly from I Dream of Jeanie, John Astin, Patty Duke, Debbie Reynolds, Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and many more. Our very good friend Marcus Boas will be back. We are planning on doing the show on Saturday so we have Sunday open for Hackensack.  Check out their web site at www.chillertheatre.com

Penny

Gloria Winters who played Penny Sky King's niece on the television show has passed away. She was 77 and had Alzheimer's.

18 Fun years

Today was Laurie and myself  18th wedding anniversary. It seems only yesterday that we were first getting started.  It was a quiet day, the night before we went to our favorite restaurant in the area Olive Branch for some Mid-Eastern food. Today we ended up at another restaurant Clinton Diner after getting at a hassle waiting for a table at another restaurant. We were better off as the Clinton Dinner the food is good, price are very reasonable and you get so much we have leftovers.  The dinner will be on the Food Network on a new program about Hamburgers. This show will air in November.

I had the day off and other than running to flea market to pick up items from a source we stayed in and relaxed due to the weather.

Can not win

As I mention above I went to  pick up a load from a source. One of the items was a junk box which I love to go through as I find interesting items for myself and to sell. One item I found was seven camera men from a race set which I will put up as a lot on Ebay.  In figures for myself I found two interesting hard plastic firemen and Tonka Green Beret figure. The only problem is it is the same pose I already have. I never saw the figure and in less four month it comes up twice.

Correction

We have to thank Thomas Blacquier that the Supreme WWII Russian Figures are copies of Italeri not Esci. I should have remember as I just sold some original Italeri Figures off.

Marx Museum

We have up pictures from the Marx Museum  for you to enjoy you should take the time and see this interesting museum related to our hobby.

Marx Museum

Supreme Figures a Review

I have gotten a chance to do my review of the new Supreme Figures.  You can look at the review  below.

Supreme Figures

Marx Museum 10th Anniversary

Francis Turner and Family

One of the other events we attended when we were in West Virginia last May was the tenth anniversary of the Marx museum in Glen Dale. This museum was put together by Francis and Jason Turner. The museum is nice showcase of the Marx heritage with various toys and playsets. The various rooms are augment with videos  that tell the history of Marx.  To celebrate the tenth anniversary the museum was open free for the special event. Also  there was free food and sodas.

After cutting the cake everyone was directed to the one area where Francis and Jason showed various items including the mold for the Louis Marx and Davy Crockett Figures.  After the show and tell Francis told of the special guest they had earlier this year Louis Marx JR. Francis got choke up and Jason had to take over with the bomb shell. Louis was interested in expanding the museum to promote his father's legacy. If everything comes to fruition this is will be a new era for the Marx Toy Museum. We wish them well and will keep you posted on what happens.

Nearly A month Away

OTSN is nearly a month away. People are still speculating on what new playset Barzso will be doing with no idea what it will be. They will just have to wait until the show. Cunningham Collectibles may or may not have its next offering of Civil War figures which will be Union figures out West which will be run in blue and gray.  TSSD will be releasing set 17 which is dead cavalry with a laying firing pose and new officer pose. Paragon hoping to have another set of Apaches for September. 

Besides the figures listed above there will be new foam pieces plus many old  figures to look at the show. This will be the biggest concentration of old Marx playsets for sale. With this show you can also sit around with other collectors and swap stories.

Laurie and I will not be there. With the addition of the new dog plus our schedules it is not cost effective.  We hope to do the show in the future.

Odds and Ends

I have finally got the Supreme Egyptians, Russian Napoleonic Infantry and the  WWII Russian Infantry.  I have taken pictures of the sets and will do a review this week as my schedule permits.  We were out at the flea markets today and toy soldier wise it was a disappointment. I did find other items which I can use for Ebay so it a worthwhile day. No hints on the Barzo's playset for OTSN. The reissue of the undersea wreck  that Hobby Bunker is selling  is from the Marx Undersea Exploration Playset one of the last playsets done by Marx. The Lemax Halloween items are starting to show up at the AC More and Michael's. I have check Michaels and the selection was poor. I have not gotten to AC Moore. Check out Lemax on line there are some very interesting items. Another item I will try to get up are the pictures from the Marx Museum.  I had to get a replacement  power  cord for the new camera last week. If I had gotten it from the manufacturer it would have been $24.99. I got the same power cord on Ebay for only $3.88! I also have in a new computer it is my first laptop which we will using to get more Ebay items up on web.

Quinn Update

We have now had Quinn for two weeks and he has gain two pounds and is twice his size.  Percy and Quinn are playing with each other but Sparky is not sure of the new addition. 

Das Awkscht Fescht A Show report

I got up around 5:30AM and was over at the correct location for toy town by 6:30. I found a spot to park outside the show and walked over. I later found that they had parking in the back which they were charging  $2.00 per car to help out a Boy Scout Troop.  I was glad that we had not found the show the previous day as Laurie would had problems walking over the rough stones and unevenness of the area. One other thing I did not like the area had rusty metal pieces laying  around.  I surveyed the area and felt there was only third of the dealers from years past.

Despite all the negatives I found the show worthwhile. As I started my walk I found a bag with a large Ideal Roy Rogers with some Marx pieces for 10 dollars. I then found a few Guts figures and nice knight item from Hong Kong. About half way in I found my friend John and Mike Russo from Stockade Miniatures stands. I look at Mike's items and found  a few items I was interested in. I looked for Mike and John told me he was running around look for Revel Viking Ship box he need. Mike had the kit but not the box. John told me  that Mike got a Marx Jim Hardy figure in the bag for $4.00!  Annoyed that Mike was not there I went hunting for him.

I found Mike several rows over carrying Toy M-16 on his shoulder.  I said you had some items I want to buy and moved him toward his stand. On the way we stopped at one stand where he bought a Superior Prehistoric set for the mountain. we next stopped at Steve Falken's stand as he always has great prices on items.  I made a purchase there and said I would be back after I took care of Mike. I knew if I did not get Mike back to his stand he would be out buying again.

Once we got to Mike's stand I bought a number of items including some Atlantic Western and Britains Eyes Right figures.  Once I was done with Mike. I went back to Steve Falken's table. Steve had been one of my old customer during the list days and Laurie and I attend his wedding. I was able to find a number of other items that he was putting including Airfix and Britains items. I ran into Tom Stein and bought some Marx 60mm cavalry.  It was that kind of day everyone was finding items.

I stopped back at John's Stand and talked. He told me the field was opened yesterday and he had started selling as early as 11:00 AM.  The one bad thing about the new location was the train tracks were right next to the field and the trains came through every hour waking you up. I bought a number of items from John's stand. Just as I was getting to leave a party that pop ups at the shows looking for items for resale came up. He mention that he heard two western towns sold the day before for $90.00. I reviewed my wallet and seeing that I had spent near my limit I decided to pass on the toy show at the school and headed home.

Das Awkscht Fescht Update

We have found out that we had been given some wrong information on the location of Toy Town. The show is  not down Brookshire Road but is down Route 100. I apologize for the wrong information. Because of the distant from the Toy Town  and Eyer Junior High School I have decide to pass on the school this year.

Quinn Update

As you can see from the pictures on the Index Page and Comment Time Percy and Sparky have different attitudes toward Quinn. Percy is starting to bond with Quinn and has played with Quinn a little. Sparky does not want anything to do with Quinn. It will take time.

Quinn is doing well and is enjoying his new home. For the moment he is too small to go out with his brothers for walks. 

Three Mascots

Since I started this business our dogs have served as mascots for the company. The first was Cindy who was at the start. Then we had Jasmine who was with me when we were at our old location on Twelfth Street. With the passing Jasmine we added Spartacus or Sparky to the family. I always loved to tell the story how he conned Laurie into picking him.  A year we add another mascot Percy. Laurie felt Sparky needed a buddy. They get along great. Well starting today Sparky and Percy have a new brother Quinn. Quinn is a Daschund puppy, we have adopt. Quinn has jaw problem a parrot mouth it is articulate like a human instead of dog.  He needs exercise  for his jaw like a teething ring. He weights 2.19 pounds and six weeks old.  Right now the boys are getting use to him and will take awhile We hope to have pictures up soon.

Das Awkscht Fescht

The Toy town for the Das Awkscht Fescht is back.  

Odds and Ends

Toy soldier news has picked up a bit. TSSD has announced they will have at OTSN their cavalry causalities figures which will included a prone cavalry firing  and another officer.  They also have a hint of their Sioux Indian casualties. They have several foam pieces coming out including Reno's hill for Custer scenes and Alamo foam pieces. Over on Steve Weston's website you can the upcoming AIP Zulus and 24th Foot figures. These figures are due out later this year.

Plastic Warrior Magazine has gone color. The addition of color has not ruin this great magazine. The latest issue has an article on an Italian company called Cane. This company made a great series of figures some were copies others like their pirates and musketeers were their own design. Another article deals with Australian plastic figures which a number are copies of Marx figures. One set of the Marx figures that was copied was Marx 54mm Robin Hood figures except for the Maid Marian figure. It looks like the company copied the Dom 54mm Indian Maiden for Maid Marian.    

Tonka Toys

At the Marx Convention I got this figure. At first I thought it was a Russian figure  and only picked up the one figure.  I did not get a chance to look at it until I got home and realized that it was by Tonka Toys. The figure is 60mm and there were other figures in the group. Does any know when the figure was made and what for? I would like to get more of them.  Why I did not look at the other figures I was looking at other items on the table and got distracted. Also this dealer was on the second floor and the only thing I hate about the second floor it is too dark .

Marx Convention 2010

I  have gotten the article on the Marx Convention  done  you can  read at the spot below

Marx Convention 2010

Odds and Ends

Sorry that our report on the Marx convention has taken so long to report, but I have been back up with Ebay and other work.  I hope to have it done at the end of next week. The picture above is of Norm who reports in the Marx group of his finds at Thrift Stores. The bucket he is holding  was loaded with Nickel figures to go through lots of fun.

I will also have a report on the Marx Museum's 10th anniversary.  They had some exciting news which will take the museum in a different direction.

Also we got some great we got some great shots of the Marx Museum. You should make it to your to do list to visit this and the Kruger Toy Museum as well.

Second Childhood Nostalgia Convention

In May, Laurie and I went to New York City to the Second Childhood Nostalgia Convention. Our very good friend Marcus Boas had told us about it and we decided to go see it.  We parked in our usual spot in New York City and headed to the Holiday Inn where the show was held. As we entered 9th Ave we ran into a Food Festival which when lined the streets up to the hotel. we took our time and enjoy the sights and smells of the food stands. Laurie and I tried the several places before we got to the show.  The show on one hand was a disappointment. The dealers area was joke with no one there. I picked up a few items for resale but was disappointed in the dealers area.  We went over to the guest area and had a fun time. We first stop to say hello to our very good friend Marcus Boas and talk how he had done at Chiller.  Then we went and met the various guests. The first one we stop at was Henry Darrow from High Chaparral. Henry was surprise to hear he was done as a figure in Spain. as I was telling him this his cousin had him sign an English Annual from the show. We talked about his career and what he was doing presently. He was enjoyment and a pleasure to speak with about his career.  The next person we talk to was Will Hutchins who was a hoot and half. We talked about his show and a person while Laurie and I were there another person talked to him about Elvis Presley which he did a picture. I remarked to him about how I seen him in Allentown years ago at a toy show. He remembered the show and told how he had been picked up by the show the promoter in the rain. After the other toy show the dealer took him over to the Allentown Toy show.  I still owe him a  picture of Laurie's finger nails.

From Will Hutchins we stop at William Smith from Laredo and too many movies to mention. I talk to him about several things but time has not been kind to him so we just got his autograph.  Also at the show was Zacherley the movie horror host. We had seen him at many Chiller shows and I finally got his autograph as he is 92. I remind him of my bad joke at a Chiller I told him of being married 18 centuries which got a slap on the arm from Laurie.  Laurie talked to Anita Gillette who been in Moonstruck and Quincy. Laurie felt that Anita was jealous that she had met Richard Chamberlain. We were just about to leave when Joe Franklin showed up as I reported early got him to sign the second half of  a photo I had.  With that accomplished we said goodbye to our friend Marcus and head home.

Egg Soldier Cup

Another item that Peter Evans sent us was the Egg Soldier Cup. People have commented on this item, Peter found out some additional information of it. He had talked to designer and found that the uniforms are based on the Chinese army and not the Japanese army. Many people assumed it was a copy of the Britains Deetail WWII Japanese officer. It is not. Just another strange thing for the collection.

Combat Corks

Our very good friend Peter Evans sent us this item combat Corks for you wine bottles. At first I thought it was a lame idea until I looked at them closer each figure is holding a bottle. The grenade thrower is now throwing a bottle which in your stories could be Molotov cocktail. The figures are based on Matchbox figures.   

7/05/10

Paragon Apaches and Cavalry

One item that I was able to pick up for myself at the Marx convention  was the Paragon Apaches and Cavalry. I was able to purchase each set from Marxmen for $17.00 each. Each box has 12 figures in six poses. The figures are nicely detail and are 54mm. I like the Apache kneeling firing the rifle. He has bandolier of bullets  hanging from his right arm, which is a very nice detail.

The cavalry are a good companion to the Apaches. Good action poses again my only minor quibble would be the leg stance on the cavalry standing firing looks awkward. I like the cavalry with the sword and pistol. These figures will work well with your Britain Deetail cavalry and Apaches, Britains Herald Cavalry and your Airfix cavalry.  I can not wait to see his mounted figures.

New Supreme Figures

Our Friend Brian Johnson clued us in on three new sets from Supreme. They are 1800s Russian Napoleonic, Ancient Egyptians and WWII Russians.  The Russians are copies of Esci figures. Classic Toy Soldiers  has them and I will check my AC Moore for them as well.

Dedication

In this day and age many of us do not realize for some people that it can be a real hassle to get some of the shows. We get into a car and drive to the show. Not everyone drives for various reasons. Cast in point Bob Mulero. Bob lives in New York City where it makes sense not to own a car due to cost . This lack of a car has not stopped  Bob from going to the Marx Convention in Wheeling West Virginia. 

Wheeling does not have a major airport the closest airport is Pittsburgh. There is no train service.  Bob had to use bus service. He had to go from New York to Pittsburgh which was a 12 hour bus ride. He first went to Philadelphia where he had to get a bus to Pittsburgh. There he was bother by a pan handler. Then from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh  with no sleep and passenger getting into an altercation with bus driver over their luggage. From Pittsburgh Bob then had to take a local bus to Wheeling finally arriving at the show.  We took care of seeing that Bob got over to Moundsville and back to the hotel.

Bob collects Disneykins and was find a few to fill some shadow boxes he has. This was second time Bob has been to Wheeling West Virginia. Previous trip was a worse horror story which amazed me he would try again.  The sad thing was Bob had to go back that way as well.

The picture of Bob is in front of the Christmas Tree at the Marx Museum which is decorated with plastic figures.

Fun Time

Laurie and I just got back from a great weekend in Wheeling WV at the Marx Convention. The show put on by Alan Miller was a fun time. We found a number of items for Ebay plus some items for the collection. One of the items we got for the collection were the Paragon Apaches and Cavalry figures. Short review for now is they are nice.  We also went over to the Marx Museum for their 10th anniversary. Francis Turner shared some exciting news about the museum's future that we will be reporting in a few days. We had great meals on our trip except for one spot which I will talk about. We will be doing our report in a few days once I get a breath from the mounds of work. The report will include one collector who because he does not drive took the bus on a 12 hour trip to be at the show.  So stay tune.

Plastic  Warrior show 2010

Click on the Link  below to go to our report on the Plastic Warrior show 2010

Plastic Warrior show 2010

Marx Convention

If everything holds right Laurie and I will be at the Marx Convention. We had a great time last year, we decided to do it again. The show is lots of fun besides the dealers there is the various entertainments.  We will not have a table at the show, but we will be walking around.  Our pictures are all over the this web site also I will carrying pouch 2. I have used small army pouch for over 30 plus years. The army pouch is used to carry the cameras and goodies. I started  using one back in my boy scout patch trading days. Pouch One has been in retirement and I am using a similar pouch that our very good friend Gerry Watts gave me few years back. The pouch has been with me to all the major shows.

Hope to see you there.

Marx Napoleon, Churchill and Moses Reissued.

Going on Ebay the other night I discovered that reissues of the Marx 60mm figures of Moses, Churchill and Napoleon were being offered for resale. The dealer that had them Allan Ford and I have done business over the years and I knew he is reliable. I ordered the figures and received them today. The figures are from the original Marx molds as I was able to compare the Churchill and Napoleon figure to originals. Also a giveaway on Napoleon and Moses is a marking on the bottom of the base VIP Corp copyrighted 1989. This slug was done for the Jackie Gleason figures that Stad's marketed at that time. 

These three figures are welcome additions to your collection. The Napoleon is suppose to be Louie Marx. Louie had done himself in various costumes in both large and small figures. These figures were given away to friends. Recently a large size Napoleon figure of Louie Marx was sold on the English Ebay site for under $600.00. The 60mm Napoleon figure rarely comes up to the market and goes for high prices. Likewise the Moses figure is a hard one to find. The figure goes for high prices. Years ago I sold the Moses  I had for $300.00 despite having a damage hand.  The Churchill part of the English Royal Family group goes for around  $25.00 last I saw.

You will be able to tell the reissued figures from the originals two ways beside the slug on the bottom already mentioned. First the color of the new figures is wrong the ones we have seen have been done in Light blue silver and bronze. Second is weight as the the reissue figures are lighter being soft plastic while the originals were in hard plastic. 

We will post more details as we get them. Meantime let your fellow collectors know of this new development in our hobby.  If you are interested in the figures Allan has them for sale on Ebay for $13.99 free shipping. He also has for sale Reamsa reissues and various Marx pieces, His dealer code is 610allanf.

What Do I collect

People wonder what do I collect? Many people think that I have many rare and expansive figures that I keep for myself. The truth is most of those figures go for resale. I had picked two expensive figures at Plastic Warrior that at first I was going to keep for myself, but I decided to offer to other collectors. The figures I usually keep are ones that like usually for the pose. This goes back to  when I did a my stories as a child.  The figure  above is example of that. He is a western figure possible a bandit because he does not have a bandanna he could be use as a good guy. I like the animation of the figure, the way his legs are spread. He has non-cowboy hat which is more realistic as the people in the west did not all wear cowboy hats. Someone painted him gray which shows his details better. At the moment I do not know who made him.

The other figure is a Starlux knight. I picked him because of the Prince Valiant hair cut and  helmet.  I do have other Starlux knights but this is the first time I have seen this one.  I do not worry about completing series as the pose is more interest to me. I am not worried about the figures increasing in value as I am not in it for investment. These figures are for enjoyment. The figures did not cost me more than $4.00 each and they are just as much enjoyment for me as a $100.00 figure.

Here is one of the new Sets that Peter Cole has done. I think they are finest work he has done so far. More on these figures real soon.

 11th Annual Marx Toy and Train Convention

The 11th Annual Marx Toy and Train Convention is coming up on June 18 to 19. This is a great show you have tables to look and great talks to listen to. You have two Marx museums  in the area plus much more.  For details go to http://www.toyandtrain.com/convention.htm.

Odds and Ends

We should have our article on Plastic Warrior Show in a few days. We had a great time at the Plastic Warrior show seeing our friends and finding new items for our collection and resale. I was able to get Laurie's her Indian food fix. We do not have a Indian restaurant locally to enjoy. Now we are getting ready for the Marx Toy and Train Convention. We have done the show several times and enjoyed each time we have gone to this show.  I will not have a table at the show. If you would like to meet Laurie and me just asked Alan Miller the show promoter as he will know if we are in. The show is great fun.  I have been busy putting items up on Ebay. We finding great items check our store stadsstuff.

Timpo Parts

From time to time people asked me for Timpo parts.  Usually I can not help them in their needs. Now I can as our very good friend Michael Smith has set up a Ebay store where you can get  original and reissue Timpo parts including Viking Shields.  Michael's store is timpomodeltoys. Just put his store name in Ebay search and it will bring up his listings. If you  need Timpo parts this will be the place to go.

A New era in Photos

The picture above is from our new camera we just got in. As you can see it is really an improving over the quality of our pictures. We have been wanting to get a new camera but we were  debating if we wanted to change the system already set up. Just as we were going to go to a new system, Laurie spotted on QVC a Kodak Z950 camera with 10X zoom. She quickly came into the computer room to show me. I saw right away it could be the solution I have been looking for to improve our photos. The camera came in yesterday and I got a chance to play with it today before work. I was stunned on the quality of the pictures. Laurie saw the photos tonight now we use it to enhance the work here and on Ebay.

New Marx Figure Uncovered

It is surprising how you find a new figure very few people are aware of. Over the many years I have have discovered a number of new figures both from Marx and other companies. I usually have found my discoveries in the purchasing of large lot of figures and discovering a hidden treasure in amongst the figures. Then time to I get a figure as a gift in the case of the army jeep driver.

At the Plastic Warrior show I was buying figures from our good friend Barrie Blood. Barrie is considered by many people as having the largest collection of different plastic figures in the world. Barrie had decided to sell off some of his extra figures from the collection and I bought some of the figures for the collection and resale. I had just finished buying some figures from him when I spotted a box that had some Marx pieces.  In it was the Tricky Action Jeep.  I asked Barrie how much and he said you have it.  I thanked him and opened the box. In there was the battery operated jeep but more of a surprise was a hard plastic jeep driver in 60mm. The figure is set up for a slot to sit on the seat. The set was done in Hong Kong and it very likely from the 60's. The box has British Crown Colony Hong Kong.  It will be a welcome addition to the collection.

Now that I have listed it I am waiting to see how many people have it. I do not consider it a rare piece right now just an unusual piece. It is amazing how one week an item can be rare and next week  5 more show up. I was told that the Cherilea Baronial Knight that graces our home page show up at the PW show for one hundred forty five pounds ($232.00). Even though it was repainted it quickly sold. This is the six or seventh one to show up yet no one has the separate helmet which we are missing as well.  In the next week we will be photographing an armored stagecoach with Gatling gun and two 90mm figures. Both my source and myself have not seen it so stay tune.

Kier and Joe Franklin

The above photo is of Mr. Kier and Joe Franklin.  Mr. Kier was a gentleman who I used to buy movie photos from when my family & I went to New York City. He was a very interesting person who had his store on sixth avenue, which was piled with movie stills that were of great quality.  My father and Mr. Kier  hit it off the first time that they met and over the years Mr. Kier helped my family with suggestions of some good restaurants and access to a wholesale business so my mother could buy prizes for her card party. 

Mr. Kier appeared once on the Joe Franklin show back on October 25, 1966. The Franklin show was a local talk show on channel nine in New York City. Joe Franklin had the various interesting people on his talk show including Mr. Kier. A photo was taken of the two men on the show and Kier had copies made. I got the photo shortly after the show, which Mr. Kier autographed to me.

Kier's store closed sometime in the 1970's. The above photo was a memory of a very pleasant time.  I had the photo in one of my photo books when I found it about three months ago.  I had decided that this photo would stay in the collection. When we went to Chiller last month, our very good friend Marcus Boas told us about a collectible show in May in New York City. The show would have various guests including Will Hutchins, William Smith and Henry Darrow.  The big surprise was that one of the guests would be Joe Franklin. I was surprised to hear he would be there as I thought he had passed away or retired to Florida. I decided to complete the picture and have Joe Franklin sign it as well. We got to the show and had a great time (more on that another time including how Will Hutchins wanted a picture of Laurie's nails). Joe Franklin was there and I showed him the  photo. I explained to him briefly who Mr. Kier was but he could not remember the show.  I cannot blame him not remembering it because this particular show was almost 44 years ago.  Joe was happy to sign the photo only asking for a Xerox copy of the photo.  I replied that I was happy to do that for him.  The photo will go back into the collection as a remembrance of a time long ago.  

Friar Tuck

One of our interesting finds of the trip was the figure on the right. We did a toy show on Sunday at Kempton Park. On one of the walks through the show Laurie spotted a large size Robin Hood and right next to it a large Friar Tuck.  According to Matthew Thair, the large figures were done for the tourist trade in Nottingham, England. The figures were done around the 1960's. In the guide that Matthew did on Robin Hood for Plastic Warrior, he found Robin Hood and Maid Marian but thought that there may be other figures as well. This may be the first of the Friar Tuck's to show up. The figure on the right is supposed to have a staff in his outstretched right hand, which I can make for him. The interesting thing is that it confirms the figure that I got a few years ago, on the left, was originally a Friar Tuck, but was used as an advertising piece with a beer mug in his right hand instead of a staff.  The only other difference is the shade of the  robe.

Answer to A Question

Some of you may be wondering why I was not at MFCA. It was not that I had to work, I have Fridays and Saturdays off. The answer is Laurie and I were over in England for the 25th anniversary of the Plastic Warrior show. This year has been a real battle to get over for the show due to many factors. We wanted to go over to the show first for the show and second because my first English friend, Paul Morehead, was stepping down as editor of Plastic Warrior. First we had to get a decent priced airfare and hotel accommodations. This took Laurie months to find an airfare and a hotel in our budget.  She found these and then had to deal with the volcanic ash which shut down the airports in England and various places in Europe.  We did make it and we had a great time seeing old friends and finding some great items for the collection. In the coming days and weeks we will be giving you our report on the show, plus the discovery of a new Marx figure and some other interesting information.

Renwal Cannon Set In England

One of the the surprises of the Plastic Warrior show was this English version of the Renwal Caisson and Cannon.  This was done by Triang and looks complete. As you can see the figures and horses are in a gray. Previous to this figures had turned up in brown in England about seven years ago. This is the first one I have seen complete since I discovered the partial one at Renningers Market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania 15 years ago. The partial we found  gave us the true name of the figures not the mistaken name that was listed in an outdated US guide.  I did not get the name of the set or the selling price this vendor was asking. I think I was afraid Laurie would have said "where are we going to put this in the suitcase?" as we can only have one piece of luggage per person anymore per the airlines.

Weston Toys New Figures

Steve Weston has unveiled on his web site his next figure offering, Trail Drive. The set contains four mounted cowboys with horses and six long horn steers in different poses. In the mounted poses you have a trail boss looking back at the herd, dude riding point, flank or swing rider and the drag rider to follow behind the herd. The figures were sculpted by Mike Broadbent, who has done other figures for Weston Toys. The set which is limited to 500 sets sells for 26 British pounds sterling. You can see the figures at www.plasticsoldiers.co.uk . 

4/21/10

Figures From Turkey Identified

Over the past few years, I have been picking up these figures from Turkey. The figures are a copy of a Peco figure. The figures show up painted with different helmets. I have been trying to get a name of who made them, with no luck. Finally this month, a collector from Turkey, Karanlik, has given a name of Esin Plastik. This company was in business from 1970 to 1990. The figures could have been made by other companies as well. We will keep searching.

I Don't when

With this new schedule I can go to yard sales on Saturdays. I usually do ones close by as the trip is not worth what I find. I had a surprise at a yard sale last week when I actually found a figure for the  collection.  A couple of families several blocks away had a yard sale. I was able to find a few items for Ebay and a book on The Beatles for Laurie.  On the next table I spotted a Britains mounted knight with axe. This was the the last version which I did not have. I asked the person the price and was told ten cents. I quickly paid for it and asked if they had anymore. Unfortunately, that was the only one. Still it was nice to find a figure for myself.

Shows

The next few weeks will see a number of toy soldier shows around the country. Next week there will be a show in Indianapolis, Indiana and one in Burlington, Massachusetts. Also a non soldier show, Chiller, will be from April 16 to 18. We will be going to that one as Laurie wants to meet Richard Chamberlain. It is the first time we are going on Saturday. I will go see our very good friend Marcus Boas as well. Then the weekend after that will be a show in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This will be followed by MFCA in Valley Forge on May 7 and 8. Also on that weekend on May 8 is the Plastic Warrior show in London.

With the exception of Chiller, the only show we are hoping to do is Plastic Warrior. We are still fighting airfares and other plans to see if we can go.

Pete Evans' Finds

Our very good friend from England, Peter Evans, is always sending us some interesting items he has found in various Pound and other shops in the London area. Usually he finds army figures  but here and there a surprise appears.  In his recent package were a series of five inch figures sold under the heading of Wild West.

The mounted figure is called Sitting Bull, which is inaccurate as Sioux Bull never dressed like that. The mounted figure is battery operated. The series has a mounted cowboy which is labeled  Buffalo Bill and in no way looks like him.  Peter also sent three foot figures. As you can see in the picture above, the one is a Mexican bandit. I wonder if there would be protests over this figure in the states.

Odds and Ends

It has been really quiet out there. The German Plastic show went well from first reports and had over 500 people go through the door. The King and Country show was held on March 27 and the reports on the show have the show as slow. I get annoyed with one forum when all the people do is take pictures of the new releases. I like to see a picture or two of the show itself.  Next up is Indianapolis in April. We will not be there nor MFCA because we are still working on going to the PW show. Right now we are fighting airfares so that is still in a waiting stage. We have done a few flea markets, but they have been disappointing so far.

I have gotten little time to work on the web site as I have been busy with Ebay and the human job. I have the following items planned: an article on the New Ray Amish, an article from Whit Knight and a report on theTimpo Reunion that was held in March, from Axel Sohnius. One interesting thing Axel mentioned was that Norman Tooth, the designer of the Timpo figures, remembered me from a  PW show. I surprised when I heard this and asked Axel if he had asked Norman why he remembered me. His response was that Norman Tooth was amazed that I traveled so far to buy the toys he had made. I think Norman is amazed how much his toy figures are selling for.  The Legends of Stad has been put on hold with work overload, but I want to get it started as I think it will give you an insight into the hobby.  For one of the articles I have found a photo of Mr. Kier who ran Kier's Movie Photos in New York. The photo is when he was on the Joe Franklin show. Kier's was where I bought my movie photos I collected for many years.  I was able to get high quality photos from him as he was able to purchase from the source that had the negatives. I bought from him from the 60's to the late 70's when he retired. He was an interesting person who besides selling photos gave my family  tips on places to eat and arranged for my mother to get into a wholesale place to buy items for her card party prizes. I enjoyed these photos for many years, but I am now concentrating on the figures so I have put them up for sale on Ebay.

NEXT AIP SETS

Steve Weston showed at the King and Country shows samples of the next two AIP sets.  The two sets are British Naval Party with Gatling Gun and British Mountain Gun with crew. You can see pictures of the sets up on his web site.

Prince Valiant 54mm or 60mm

Floyd Wilson and I have been having a discussion on whether Prince Valiant is 54mm or 60mm? I say he is 54mm Floyd feels he is 60mm. Let me hear your thoughts.

3/17/10

EBay Application for Blackberry

If you are using a blackberry and have internet service you can download a free application for Ebay. The application is designed for buying only, but is good when you are out in the field and need to check a price.  So check it out and see if you can use it. Also check out the Blackberry App World for other great programs.

Allentown Toy Show

I got the chance on last Saturday to get to the toy show at Merchants Square in Allentown. In years past I had to work on Saturday so I passed on this show.  With my days off now Friday and Saturday I decided to give it a look. The show had the 150 tables as advertised and there was a nice mix of toys. For plastic figure collectors there was a nice mix of plastic figure to select from.  Some of the items were high priced, but there were bargains here and there. I was able to get a bag of Gilbert James Bond figures and another bag having two Ideal Eskimo Dogs and a Polar Queen Polar Bear. One dealer had some loose bags of the Play along Lord of the Rings figures which my Friend John and I bought.  I saw a Flintstone playset for $350.00. Another dealer had a Battleground playset for $175.00.  A collector bought a Marx western town two story front, missing roofs and walls for $65.00. Another collector got a Rel Civil War Set. Outside John had bought some items and I was able to purchase a few items for resale.

More Soldiers of the World Information

Michael Purchase has informed us the Soldiers of the World figures showed up in Kellogg's cereal box in Canada in the 60's.  Mike said the figures were in gold. 

Soldiers of the World

My favorite plastic  figure magazine is Plastic Warrior. It is because they get  interesting articles with information and figures I have never seen. Case in point are issues 135 and 136 which had information on the Soldiers of the World.  We got them here from a company called Rubenstein. As I have mentioned before, Rubenstein was a company that did bags of different plastic figures. These bags were done from already existing molds. Rubenstein did make the Soldiers of World. This mold was done first in England as a cereal giveaway for Kellogg's.  These figures were also available in Australia, Finland and Spain. One other thing that was found was that they were never sold as Warriors of the World. Each issue of Plastic Warrior Magazine is loaded with great information.

2/28/10

Allentown Train Show

I did my first show under my new schedule, the Allentown Train show.  This is a show I do not count on getting many items due to a lot of competition.  I still went to see if I would find anything and get over the cabin fever from all of the snow we had this winter. I arrived at the show an hour after it opened and as soon as I got in I ran into Bill Lango of Vintage Castings. We talked a little bit and then I went into the main room to see what I could find. I checked one seller where I had purchased one good item two years ago and found nothing. I then headed down the aisles and stopped at a dealer who had trays of  pieces. The $1.00 figure box had been picked over, but I still found two early French figures for the collection and some items I can use for the list and Ebay. I then went down the aisle looking for more items. I did not find anything that I could really use. One dealer had some bags of Marx but they were over priced. I was just about to leave when I ran into Mike Merwine. I had not seen Mike in about 10 years. Mike had gone into the souvenir business in 1999 of making models of famous worldwide buildings and has developed that into a thriving business. He does lead free pewter replicas of  various buildings around the world.  He did one of Hess's Department Store which is really great.  You can look at his products at http://www.infocustech.com/iftstore/default.asp

After talking with Mike I headed back to one stand where I had seen the New Ray Amish sets for sale. I mentioned that I was looking for these sets in an article I had done for PW. A collector had sent me a picture earlier in the year, but I had accidently deleted it. (Please contact me so I can give you credit.) While I was picking up the two sets for my collection I noticed two things. One was that New Ray is doing their western figures in a series called Life on the Frontier. Also the dealer had two Preiser Elastolin Medieval Cannons for sale which I purchased.  So I was pleased with what I had found and headed to the Farmers Market that was across from the show. Who do I run into but Laurie, who was out shopping.

Next week I will do a couple of indoor flea markets if the weather is nice.

                                                             Belated Congratulations

Beau and his wife of their addition of a son on February 8. The boy's name is Thomas Wayne Cunnyngham.

Congratulations

Whit Knight has informed us he will have an article in an upcoming issue of Prehistoric Times. Whit had seen the article we had done on Dinosaur Collectibles. Whit got in touch with Mike Fredericks who does Prehistoric Times, a great magazine on dinosaurs and dinosaur collectibles. One thing lead to another and Whit ended up doing an article for the magazine.

MPC Dinosaur Color

Speaking of Prehistoric Times, the latest issue 92 gives us insight to the different colors that the MPC dinosaurs were done. According to the caption under a photo of MPC dinosaur in Collector's Corner when the figures were offered by Nabisco Wheat and Rice Honey in the 60's they were done in  purple and  orange. There was an offer on the side of the box. When the person got the extra dinosaurs they were done in  yellow, green and blue.  The author of this caption states that the colors including  shade of blue were not sold in stores.

Also issue 92 has part three on Marx playsets looking at the sets sold between 1975 to 1978.

Odds and Ends

The last few weeks have been quiet due to the weather around here. We had two snow storms which left 24 inches of snow. Laurie missed the second one  due winning a trip to Las Vegas. She got to check out a new hotel and try different restaurants. One morning for breakfast her group was surprised with a special appearance of Wayne Newton. Meanwhile I was digging out the cars and the pavements.

Because of the weather I have held back on going out. I will start my new schedule on Sunday and will do a train show and indoor market on my first Saturday off. It will be interesting who you will met on your team. Last team I had a person that was a professional cage fighter for years. I will be going to some my outdoor flea market hunts in two weeks or so.

The hobby itself has been quiet. I hoping to hear some interesting news from Atlanta and the West Coaster. People at the Western coaster will be able to get the new TSSD mounted Sioux. The photos look like some interesting poses for you western buffs.  Speaking of show there is a great Western Festival south Memphis.  It is the Gathering of Guns 2 which has an impressive line up of Hugh O'Brian, Clint Walker, Ty Hardin, Will Hutchins, Robert Fuller, William Smith and  many more. The show is  June 3 to 5 and you can find out more at www.westernclippings.com.

Chiller  has announced some of their line up of stars for the show they are holding on April 16 to 18. Besides our very good friend Marcus Boas famous artist two names that stand out are Caroline Munro and Martine Beswicke. Chiller will be adding more names to the list in the days to come I am sure.

We will not be going to the show up in New Jersey on March 7. It is a pain to drive to it and I do not do well in buying at that show.  I will be saving my time off for Plastic Warrior which is May.

I am back up with work and I have not gotten a chance to get various items up from people which I apologize. I hope with the new schedule to spend one day updating the web site.

Attention Toy Show and Flea Market Competition

Effective February 21 I will be starting a new schedule. I am taking a Monday through Thursday with Friday and Saturday. I took a middle shift which is the first in 5 years to follow my supervisor. Also the middle shift will allow me to get to flea markets on Sunday and Wednesday before work. I am curious to see what will turn up. Recently Laurie and I did the Wednesday market in cold weather. Despite the cold there were over 30 dealers on the outside which I found some items one was this kit Sky Wave Torpedo Boats which has already found a home.

Hong Copy Surprises

It amazes me what Hong Kong copied over the years. In the picture above are three bicyclists. They had been done in 1962 until 1965 according Peter Cole's  "An Unauthorized History of Herald and Britains Plastic". For some reason a Hong Kong Company did them possible as a cake decoration.  The stands on the two figures is not very good.

Unknown Horses

Here are two horses I got recently. The one on the left was mix with some Michel but is a soft plastic. The other was in a junk lot where I was able  to find it. I believe it is for 30mm figure. If you have any idea let me know.

TSSD CAVALRY AND PLASTIC INSERT

This past week Laurie and I stopped at a hobby store where I picked up the TSSD Union Cavalry. Right now I am behind in my purchases of new items which I hope to catch up when I get to various shows. The TSSD cavalry are nice and are worthwhile addition to any Civil War collection.  Each horse has a plastic insert to hold the horse up. I was starting to place the inset in the recycle bin when it hit me. You could paint the insert gray and use as small rocks. Some sides you might need some covering of moss because it does not look like rock. I will not get time to paint the inserts so let me what someone else thinks of the idea.

Scene Rama Dinosaurs

Here is a nice set of dinosaurs done by Scene Rama that I bought for Laurie. They are not very big the figures are sold for school children to do dioramas. The company also does 30mm Civil War and Indians a nice set of figures for children do their school projects.

Silly Prices

I was looking at a forum and they were complaining about a dealer's prices on the new Hat Napoleonics. This dealer is selling a box of Hat Napoleonic figures for $38.00 which other dealers sell for around $15.00. The people were complaining that this party was charging so high, I just laughed. I have known this dealer for years and know that his attitude is someone will pay my price. At a show many years ago in New Jersey he came up to me and said he could not buy from me as my prices were too high.  I laughed so much I went for the floor. Years after that he introduce me to his young daughter. As I was shaking her hand I said I sell toys cheaper than your father. Everyone laughed.

The truth of the matter is most collectors will not buy from this dealer as they know the true prices of items. It one of the secrets of the hobby when you are buying any item is to know what it is worth. I go into a show or auction I know what item is worth and I do not let myself get caught in that trap. Sadly there are many collectors who do not know.

Checking In

Hope the year has started good for you. I have been busy with Ebay sales and the human job.  This workload has kept me from the web site. We had hoped to do a show this month in Putty Hill but I was unable to get the time off. I did get the the next day off and I found some items at a monthly Garage sale.  I have also was able to buy some items  this week which will go up on Ebay.

The Legends of Stad should have its first piece next month. This section will be a look at our hobby over the years. It seems only yesterday that I started in this hobby, but it is over 32 years. I have been involved and observed many things in relation with our hobby. Laurie gets a kick when someone mentions from my list or how I got them started in the hobby.  I will give you some insight on the hobby like Marx Reissue got started and much more.   It should be interesting.

Plastic Warrior Show

The Plastic Warrior Show is only four months away. It will be held on May 8 at the Queen Charlotte Hall in Richmond a suburb of London England. The show is easy to get both the train and the underground run to Richmond. You get off at the station go up the steps cross the street  go through walkway to the next street turn right you go down the street. The show has only 60 tables, but it is pure plastic soldier heaven. Prices range from very reasonable to Are they serious. There are figures for everyone's budget. You will have figures from around the world. last year I bought a Polish Zorro figure. The dealers will be from England, Germany, France, Portugal ETC. Slated to show this year is our good friend Juan Hermida who will be there with his book Historia del Soldaito de Plastico Espanol (History of Spanish Plastic soldiers) This is a fantastic book which just amazes you on how many figure that Spain produced.  Besides the show there is a pub which has great food.  This one show we are at from beginning to end as we are always finding treasures no matter how many times we  go around. It is just a fun time.

1/8/10

Shooting the Rapids

One of the items Laurie recently photographed was the above card. This card was used to sell some hard plastic Indian canoes by Thomas Toys. The canoes were only about two inches long and contain one Indian paddling per canoe. I had some as a child and the figure either was out of the canoe or the paddle was broken. I did not like the figure as it was small in relation to my other figures and was never used in my stories. This card was acquired sometime go and it had the figures at the time but the rubber band deteriorate. I will have to go into the  collection and see if I have any of the figures 

Update Paragon's Cavalry and Apache

Gene Abravaya of Paragon Scenics and Miniatures now has a designated web site where you see the new cavalry and Apache he is doing Gene has a large plate of  new figures coming out this year and next year. You should take a look at some nice figures coming out.

www.paragon-scenics.com

 Playset Magazine Index

Eric John has placed on his great web site an index of all 48 issues of Playset magazines. Eric Johns has put a lot of effort into this endeavor. If you look for an item in the magazine then Eric's index is place to go.

www.marxwildwest.com

Presidential Figures and More

How many times you wish that someone finish off the Marx President Set. Well someone has done. You can get the missing presidents to complete the set plus much more. You can get presidential candidates, Supreme Court judges plus much more. The figures are in the style of Marx Presidents and are painted. They do the presidents also unpainted. The figures are not cheap the figures range from $15.00 to $30.00. Check them out.

www.verrone.com

1/01/2010

A Look Back and A Look Forward

The year 2009 has  been a rough year for most collectors and dealers. The economic downturn forced many collectors to cut back on their purchases  or sell part of their collection to pay bills. Those collectors who were able to go out in the field found less items than years before. The new items were fewer and higher in price.

For dealers the economic downturn found them fighting hard for the remaining money out there  in the market. The dealers found the shows had lower attendance than in years past. Dealers were traveling hundreds of miles to find people to sell their product. Dealers were competing more and more with the web which forced them to either join it or drop out. Several makers Conte Collectibles, Pegasus and Weston toys put plans for new items on hold for the year due to various reasons. We did see a new company Cunnyham Collectibles put out a new series of Confederate figures with a set of Union figures planned for next year. Several companies such as Armies in Plastic and Hat came out with new figures for the collector. Italeri came out with new pieces but at higher prices and smaller figure count. Near the end of the year saw the reissue of several of the Airfix 1/32 scale set in harder plastic from India. Next year we will see more Airfix reissue with comment of a new 1/72 scale which will have collectors hoping for a new 1/32 scale set.

On the playset front we had three new playsets from Barzso Collectibles, Replicants and Toy Soldiers of San Diego. The Barzso set was a Zorro playset which was in the tradition of the Marx playset. The playset besides containing Zorro and Mexican soldiers included a movie camera crew which some people loved and other people hated. The Replicants' playset was Harpers Ferry which had old and new figures. TSSD playset was Little Bighorn which was an amalgamation of old and new figures.

What does the new year hold for collectors?  The economy has been improving and the market  for plastic should be very interesting. In 2010 we get a new company Paragon Scenics and Miniatures who will be doing Cavalry and Apaches. He is hoping to have  figures out for the Texas show in May. We will have a new web address up for Paragon in a few days. Conte Collectibles is touting a new Foreign Legion playset and several figures have been shown on their web site. They are planning on having their Immortals as companions for the Spartans out in the summer.  Barzso Collectibles will have a new playset, which will be a surprise for most until OTSN. TSSD is supposed to have mounted Sioux Indians in February. They have mentioned on their web site dead cavalry and Indian figures. They are planning on doing foam pieces for the  Alamo. It will be interesting to see if they do a playset this year and whether it will be a similar theme of the 2009 playset or something new.

The year 2009 for us has been a year of rebirth and gaining a sense of direction. The first few months of this year we were in a quandary on how to proceed due to the economy. I found our niche with our Ebay store Stadsstuff.  It pulled up our second half of the year and has shown us the path to further success. This success has come at a price for this year between work and Ebay we have had to let our online list suffer. In the first quarter of 2010 we will get that aspect up and running again.

For 2010 we will see the expansion of our Ebay store to new heights with lots of different items. The main focus will be soldiers, but we will be carrying jewelry, movie items, books and much more.  The web site will also be getting several news items. First we will have a page for our very good friend Marcus Boas who we saw at Chiller. This page will be to help Marcus in getting more work plus show his work.

The second new section we will be doing is a section called the Legends of Stad. This section will contain articles about my many experiences in this hobby. Some of the articles will be on my experience in the hobby such as the first Plastic Warrior show. I hope to find some of the pictures I took. Other articles will be on items I have  found over the years such as the Cherilea Baronial Knight and the Speedwell armored car on fire. We will also look at some of the people of the hobby who I have met like Peter Fritz.

I have plans of finally setting up the plastic figure museum. This is something I have wanted to do for years. The articles here will be on figures new and old, United States and foreign. The information I think you will find informative and interesting as I will include personal experiences I have had with the figures.  One additional thing is that the figure museum will not be used as a sales tool. It is going to be a source for information.

Laurie and I will also finally start our comedy and will be recording for You Tube. It should be fun and I want to have some items up by March at the latest. We will also be putting them up on this web site as well. My sword and sorcery book is just about done. I'm hoping to start the final rewrite this month.

We wish you a Happy New Year and hope you have a good year.

12/18/09

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

I got out early again this week and used the time to do some Christmas shopping. My Christmas shopping list is small as Laurie only wants green (money) and the dogs are already taken care of. I will get Laurie some dinosaurs as well. I got some Papo figures for myself. I have a quirk to get some toy soldiers for Christmas. It goes back to a Christmas long ago.  All my parents bought me were clothes and I was heart broken. I took my Christmas money and went out and got some figures. Since then I buy myself toy soldiers so I don't get depressed. Besides the Papo I got two playsets. The first is the David and Goliath Playset. This set came out several years ago and I was unable to find it locally. I have found some figures over the years, but not the full playset. Someone put the playset up for $.99 and I won it for that price. The other playset I am getting is a New Ray Western Playset that J C Penny is selling. The set contains a building, stage coach, covered wagon, figures and animals. The set sells in the catalog for $29.97. Then I found out that the playset was being discounted to $9.97 so I got it. I had been wanting to get the building and the wagons for some time. So I will have a nice Christmas on the toy soldier front. 

Sinclair Dinosaurs

12/09/09

I finally got a chance to put do a picture of the Bronze Sinclair Dinosaurs that we got last summer from our good friend Gerri Watts. We have the Brontosaurus in green which we got from our friend John several years ago. He picked them up at the Marx meet.  Looking at them I wondered why the dinosaurs were not easy to find so I went to my copy of Dinosaur Collectibles by Dana Cain and Mike Fredericks to find out more on these figures. In their book on pages186 to 187 I found out that they were a promotion at the New York Worlds Fair. they were done in various colors. There is a set of six figures. They are Ankylosarus, Stegosaurus, Trachodon, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus and Brontosaurus. They were sold in bags.  I have no memory of seeing the dinosaurs even though I was at the Worlds Fair several times. I did get one of the hollow blow mold brontosaurus which I still have and is now part of Laurie's dinosaur collection. These are interesting pieces and different from the Marx. If you are into dinosaurs then you need to get the Dinosaur Collectibles book.

Roaming

At this time of the year we try to check out the thrift and dollar stores. I was able to get out early today and Laurie had off so we hit the road. We checked out several sources and found some items for Ebay and us. Not all of the items are toy soldier related as I have gotten a number of other items that have sold well for me. One of our stops is one of the last independent five and dime stores still in existence: Sine's. They nearly went out of business a few years ago and they are a shadow of their former glory. They had a number figure bags, but the figures were ones I already had or were too common. I saw the Mexicans that BMC originally did and are now sold by Americana and are in a dark blue.  We found a few items in there and will be listing them in the future.  

Robin Hood

This is an interesting Robin Hood Figure we  have recently acquired. The figure is about 4 inches high and has Robin Hood on the base. The figure comes with a little card that has GW on the outside and gives the history of Robin Hood. There is no mark on the figure.

The figure  looked familiar and I checked in the Plastic Warrior  Special  Men in Tights  Robin Hood Special. The wonderful work by Matthew Thair has listings of Plastic Robin Hood Figures. In the book I found the figure listed under Large Format. My figure is a little different from that one. The shirt is painted a different color and has a different label. The figure has a bow string which Thair's figure does not. The figure in the book is on a two tier base where my figure is one tier. There is a possibility that the bottom base was pulled off. Still this is an interesting  figure. If you are interested in Robin Hood and Ivanhoe figures you should get the Plastic Warrior Special.

                                                                         11/30/09

Odds and End

Since the East Coast show there have been three more shows. The first show was the Allentown Toy Show, which is my closet show to the house, but I decided not to go. I did not get the day off as I had plans for another show later in the month. The reports I got on the show were disappointing and the number of dealers were down. The number of people who came through the door was also down. One party reported some dealers with quality items and did not sell anything. The next show was the Bucks County Toy soldier Show. One party on a forum tried to put a positive spin on the show, but we have heard from other sources that sales were poor.  Today we did the York Toy Show and had a great time. The line was like what Allentown used to get. We found a number of items for resale and for the collection.  We saw a number of people including Gary Dutko. Gary is doing various conversions of TSSD cavalry which you can see on Ebay.  We got two especially interesting items. One was a 90mm Robin Hood on a wooden base.  The other items are Marx second version knights in hard plastic and painted! The figures are actually the Italian version which were done in Italy. I will be doing pictures of the items on the web site in the next few days work permitting.

I hope you had a good holiday. I will be putting a large number of items up on Ebay in the next month. I hope to get the list up to date in that time as well.  As always do not forget in this time of the year to give to Toy for Tots and help the little ones.

Some Interesting Figures

Here are two interesting figures I got at Hackensack. The Indian on the right is from East Germany. I have no idea who made the cowboy.

East Coast Toy Soldier Show

My report on the East Coast Toy Soldier Show is finally up. I hope you enjoy it;

East Coast Toy Soldier Show

Odds and Ends

Sorry we have not gotten the East Coast Toy Soldier Show report up. The workload has been very heavy this past week at work. I have been dealing with back to back calls  which tire me out. Then I had to direct my attention to Ebay to get that taken care of..  The report has more than 26 photos plus the review of what was a great show. There were lots of plastic to look at and buy including some rare pieces.

New Plastic Maker

It has been reported on various website of a new maker of plastic figures. The company is Paragon Scenics and Miniatures. They are going to do a series of cavalry and Apache Figures. Two of the figures were previously previewed on the TSSD web site.  They will be previewing their figures at West Coaster and then the first two sets will debut at the Texas show. The company has ambitious plans of having two more foot sets out in September and December of next year with mounted figures following in 2011.  If you want to see pictures of the prototypes go to the web site below.

http://web.me.com/paragonscenics/paragonscenics&miniatures/Home.html
 

Handcart Pioneers

At the East Coast Toy Soldier Show last week we came up with these interesting figures: the Handcart Pioneers. Our good friend Chris Salomon had seen these figures at Stockade Miniatures' tables and asked our opinion. We went over to Stockade's table and took at a look at the figures. I recognized these figures being related to the Mormons exodus from the east to the promised land which was Utah. Many of the Mormons could not afford to buy wagons and carried their goods on handcarts. The set is a tribute to those people. The set has four figures three which have two people in the group. The set consists of a man pulling a handcart, a mother with a baby, two children walking hand in hand and a father with a child on his back.  The men are 60mm, the woman is 54mm and the two children seem to be in scale with mother. These figures will work well in a western scene.

We asked Mike Rosso of Stockade Miniatures on how he had found these figures. Mike told us he and his wife had taken a trip to the Western part of the United States and found these figures when they visited Salt Lake City, Utah. 

The figures are made in China for a company call Lehi Enterprises. The company also has two other things made that might be of interested to collectors. The first  is a series figures based on people in the book of Mormon. These figures are three inches high and may not be suitable for your needs.  It is a shame they are not in the scale Handcart Pioneers and many of the figures would be adaptable to ancient armies. The second item is a vacuum formed Aztec/ Mayan temple. This is out of scale to the three inch figures, but would be very good to use in 25mm and 30mm war gaming.

Stockade carries the Handcart Pioneers for $10.00 and the temple for $22.00. If you further information contact Stockade miniatures at either (570) 424-8507 or go to their website www.stockade-miniatures.com to send them an email.

Checking In

Laurie and I had a great time at the East Coast Toy Soldier Show. We got to see many old friends including one or two I had not seen in years. I was able to get some interesting items for the collection and resale. I hope to have my report up in a week or so. I have been back up with work both the human job and Ebay.

10/28/09

Hackensack

Laurie and I will be at Hackensack next Sunday. We will not have a table. We should be in around 9:00AM.  We will only be there for a few hours as we will also be doing Chiller that day. Laurie likes to see the stars and one of great friends from the comic book days Marcus Boas will be displaying his painting there for the first time. We enjoy Chiller as it is a chance to meet the some of the people who we have enjoyed seeing in movies or on television. We hope to see you there.

I will not be attending Allentown Toy show again this year.

Wackiest Ship in the Army with Candy

Our very good Friend Peter Evans send us with items he finds in the boot sales or in shops. These items are great to see as most of them never show over here. Some of the items you wonder what they were thinking. Case in point is the above item with candy. It reminded me of the movie and television show Wackiest Ship in the Army.

The ship came with 8 figures in 6 poses. The separate figures are about 35mm. The boat has a two man crew besides its candy cargo. The front end of the ship has a rocket launcher.

More Peter Evan Finds

The above figures are in a set called Western Rider.  The figures are 90mm pull apart at the waist. 

The Next group are set of modern troops done in China. The poses are 54mm. There are nine different poses.

I believe that these are two cricket players. The figures are 54mm and would be good figures for conversion.

Interesting Arab Figure

This interesting Figure I got off our very good friend Geri Watts. It is a mounted Figure with a swivel waist. It is not Payton as the pose it different and they did not do swivel waist figure.  I will see if it is foreign. The figure is about three inches high.

Color Variation On Payton Army Figures

Over the years I have seen many Payton Army Figures. When I have seen them they have been in some shade of green. That change last week when I hit one of my flea markets last week. A dealer had a bunch of figures  which included the three silver Payton figures shown above.  The question now is where were they sold. Were they part of a set or cereal giveaway as the other items I had bought were cereal giveaways. We will have to wait and see.

10/16/09

Victrix 54mmNapoleonic Figures Are Released

The first 54mm Figures from Victrix have been release. This company has been noted for their 25mm figures and has decide to venture into 54mm. Their first release is British Peninsular Flank Companies. The figures are a multi pose which means you will have put them together. The set will do 16 figures in eight poses. This first set was slated for release on October 5. They are planning on a accessory pack  heads, arms and other accessories to make interesting figures. If these figures are successful they will issue other of the 28mm Napoleonic line in 54mm scale.

You can check them out here http://www.victrixlimited.com/new_releases.php

10/08/09

Roy Rogers Museum to Close

We just got a report that the Roy Rogers Museum in Branson Missouri  is closing in December. It is closing due to declining attendance and revenue. It had been original in Victorville CA then moved  to Branson in 2003. Laurie and I stopped at the museum when it was at Victorville. Most of the contents of the museum will be sold  at auction.

Marx Reissues

Hobby Bunker had at OTSN a bunch of new reissues. While several were items that have been out before the Boonesborough pioneers, marines and Japanese, there is one new significance item. That item is the rare four 60mm chubby mounted cowboys that were in one playset. The original figures rarely show up and sell for hundreds of dollars.  This a chance to own these figures at a reasonable price and in decent plastic. 

Congratulations

Over on his web site Beau Cunnyngham of  Cunnyngham Collectibles stated that his wife is pregnant and due next year. I may miss an earlier announcement  but we want congratulate him on the coming event which will be next year.

Liptor

You know when you see an advertisement for some medicine and they say it is a real person you wonder if it is well in some cases it is. We were watch CSI the past week when a commercial for the drug Liptor came on. Both Laurie and myself took notice as we recognized the person as Dean a toy dealer we know from doing various shows. Dean had a heart attack cleaning out a toy and collectibles warehouse in 2005. It was awake up call and he change his diet and a course is taking Liptor. I know what he means in lifestyle changes I have seen my diet change too. My lunch at work is a salad, raw broccoli, radish and a granola bar.  We are eating more chicken trying to watch what we eat. We all have to be careful as we are not getting any younger.

OTSN  Overview

 OTSN was very subdue this year. The reports we are getting said sales were down from previous years. Saturday which is usually the best day of the room trading was off. The show had the release of the new Barzso Collectibles Zorro Playset, TSSD Custer playset, Replicants Harpers Ferry Playset and Cunnyngham Collectibles Confederates.  The Barzso Collectibles continued its tradition of  a playset and an large add on relate to the set. From the pictures of the Barzso Collectibles Zorro playset the set looks nice, but for some reason they put in a movie crew! For me the film crew is a major turn off. I would have rather had other figures related to the playset instead of the film crew.  The figures in the playset are typical to Barzso's standard.  I hope that he does an add on to expand the fort and walls around Zorro's hacienda.

TSSD as we all know for the past months did a Custer playset. I hear reports some people were backing off from the playset as they had the figures. The set is nice with its hill and various figures. One thing not confirmed was if the character figures of Custer and Crazy Horse are in plastic or resin. Some of the new cavalry poses have odd leg poses which I want to see up close.

The Replicants Harpers Ferry playset we have not had reports on how well it sold. There playset have a cardboard building which some people don't like.  The figures are mix of old and new Replicants figures and are typical to the Replicant's standard. One other thing people did not like that they did not use the uniforms for this period for the Union Marines.

The show on Sunday was very better, but overall it was down. We can attribute this to the economy. With unemployment over 9 percent and higher collectors are having to restrict or not buy at all. Some dealers did great at the show has they had items or clientele that made the show worthwhile.  Still the feeling was a negative one and it hope once the economy picks up sales will pick up as well.

9/29/09

Chiller Update

Chiller  has added several guests to their line up. Besides the ones we have mention earlier they have added Patrick Stewart, Davey Jones and Richard Dreyfuss. Another person added to the show is one of my old friends from my comic book days Marcus Boas. Marcus has done covers for National Lampoon and other magazines.   I got to know Marcus while attending the  comic book conventions in the 70's. Marcus artwork is great and he will display many of his pieces which will be for sale.

9/26/09

OTSN Part Two

More reports  have come in. The sales seem slower than last year. Rick Eber has sold both of the Johnny Ringo playsets that he had for sale.  Rick also sold an Marx Revolutionary War playset as well. There is a lot of plastic figures and to go through, but most dealers have been careful on their purchases. The Barzso Zorro playset is selling well, but no prices yet or why we have a film crew in it. One source felt the number of dealers were down and it was the least he has spent at the show. He was hoping to find some goodies at the show tomorrow. Most of dealers closed early to get ready for the show on Sunday. The Cunnyngham Collectibles  were getting praise and selling well. Likewise people were looking at the Plastic Underground  figures that Ed Borris was selling to add to their Custer playset. We have not heard how the TSSD Custer set was doing, but should hear more later in the week.

As we get more news we will keep you posted.

9/25/09

OTSN Update

Photos are finally up for the Barzso Zorro Playset and the TSSD Custer playset. The first impression on the Barzso playset is nice, but do we really need to have a film crew with it?  Sergeant Garcia  has his sword out. Seeing the box of the playset I see that it is copyrighted Zorro productions and not Disney so I have corrected it my other posting. The hacienda is nice and a worthy addition to any scene. The hacienda can be incorporate with the fort. I hope Ron is doing add on walls so you can make the fort  bigger.

TSSD Custer playset is nice and if you are a Custer buff may want to look at it. Rick Eber has two Johnny Ringo Playsets (one of which sold) and a Gunsmoke Playset at the show.  We will try to contact people today around our schedule to get more impressions of the show. 

I have posted the link below for the photos if it does not work paste it in your search engine or go to playset magazine.

http://www.playsetmagazine.com/OTSN200/Pa...otsn_2009a.html

9/24/09

Barzso Zorro Playset

The Zorro playset is copyrighted by Zorro productions.  According to one report the playset has Zorro dueling with Commandate while Bernardo and Sergeant Garcia look on. The playset comes with a hacienda and playmat. Also to give Zorro  problems are about 36 Presidio Lancers. No note on how many different poses for the lancers. The extra set is a Spanish fort. So far no one has posted any pictures of this playset. We will keep you posted. 

It looks like the secret is out

We are waiting for what the next Barzso playset and it looks like it is Zorro. One of our readers spotted this up at www.fortressfigures.com.  This is the company that does the resin figures for Ron and as you can see they are noting the figure will be used in playset that will premier at OTSN. Now we waiting for the details.  Check out below.

http://www.fortressfigures.com/Fortress_Figures/Blog/Entries/2009/8/29_Masked_Bandit.html

9/22/09

OTSN

OTSN is only a few days away and like last year we will be observing and calling people to get dates on the show. (It is great when you have lots of minutes to use.) The big thing is to see if what Barzso's new playset. There has been lots of speculation so we have a few days to wait and see.  We will keep you posted.

9/10/09

Odds and Ends

Beside the OTSN show there is also a WWII Days  in Rockford Illinois that same weekend. The show will have reenactors with vehicles. It is only an hour west of  of the show and could be an interesting diversion. TSSD is showing their second set of Sioux Indians. The poses look like nice. One thing I like is not all of the Indians have Winchesters so it make for a nice diversity of figures. Their mounted Sioux Indians figures will be out in 2010. They are waiting for their foam painted pieces for the playsets. Still no word on what Barzso is doing for this year. Lots of speculation so we will have to wait until the show.

The History of Spanish Plastic has sold 316 books and there are only a few more days before it will be published. It is not a cheap book, but if you are into foreign plastic this book will be a major reference source for years to come. We just help a collector find out his figure was made in Egypt! That's right Egypt, our very good friend Peter Evans help in indentifying two six inch cowboys.  It is amazing how many figures have been made in plastic. I am estimating that  I have seen 15,000 to 20,000 different figures and I know there is more to see.  Just recently I saw some PVC figures from Australia that included a nurse figure.

We have been busy with our projects. The first phase of my book project is nearly done. I have been writing a sword and sorcery book the last few years. I get to write on only at night usually, but it has been fun with the things I have had to come up. I am hoping to have the final draft done this January baring any delays. One of the delays so far I had with this project was a writer's block  which lead me to write a side story relate to two characters in book which end up 57 pages!  I will tell you more once it is done.

Another project we are working is our Ebay store. If you have watch the store you have seen  we are adding lots of items from movie stills to figures. As I telling people I am dealing with a massive collection of items I don't know what will turn up. I open one box recently and found  figures I had not seen in five years. Because Laurie has been helping me we have moved the photo area upstairs. For now it has been a temporary set up, which soon will get a permanent  spot once I clean out an area.  Once that regular area is up we can add new items to the list.

Since starting the new shift I have gotten back to the flea market I use to do on a Wednesday. The first Wednesday was great I found a ceramic dinosaur for Laurie and I found figures. One person had three Marx pirates a reissue 3 inch Marx fireman and some Hong Kong figures for $2.00! This week I got only a Munster book, the market has a great buy on food products so it was worthwhile. Next week I will try a different market and hope to find a few items there.

End of Summer

We ended our summer hunt last week as I started new shift which does not have Sunday off. I will pick up my Wednesday market again. I have already block out the Sundays I need so I will be at the Hackensack plus we will be doing the Chiller Theatre show the same day.

The summer was good and bad this year. I found the main source in the past  Renningers a disappointment with one exception. The exception was our very good friend Gerry Watts.  Those who get to shows where Gerry sets up know he is a legend for the items he finds. I was able  to get a nice array of items for resale and a few items for myself including a MPC figure I had not seen before. I found very little else there. We also did Lambertville in New Jersey as Laurie has started to deal in jewelry which you will find up on our store at Ebay. I did find a few items there including a 6 inch Napoleon and Marx Fort Apache  playset for $10.00. The best show was the Marx Convention which we did for the third time. The material that showed up was great and I even found a few foreign figures for the collection. We will be back next year.

OTSN

OTSN  is less than a month away. We know that TSSD will have its Custer Playset, Weston Toys will have the new Replicants Harpers Ferry and Cunnyngham Collectibles may have some of their new Confederates for the show. The mystery will be what Barzso's Collectibles will do this year? We will have to wait and see. As I mention before we will not be their due to work and some projects we are doing. We will be watching and getting reports and we will be passing them along.

8/27/09

Chiller Theater

Chiller Theater is  the same weekend as Hackensack. This is a great show to meet stars from our childhood. The line up so includes Stefanie Powers, Ann Margret, Mickey Rooney (Friday and Saturday only), Roger Smith and Peter Fonda amongst others. Check their web site for more details.

8/17/09

Spanish Plastic Figure Book  Finally  to be Published

The long awaited Spanish Plastic book from Juan  Hermida is finally coming out. The book  is over 540 pages and will contain history and photos of the various  Spanish plastic companies. It will also contain a DVD of commercials for Jescan.  The book will be available for a very limited time. International buyers  the price for the book will be 104 Euros with postage charge of 18.60 Euros for the postage to the United States ( Cost in U.S. dollars is around $175.00). This is not a cheap book, but if you collect Spanish plastic this will be the definitive book on this subject for years to come.  If you have more questions go to http://spanishtoysoldiers.blogspot.com The  information is in Spanish exception for the information on international sales. You can see pictures of sample pages.  If you have questions for Juan you can write him at juan_hermida@hotmail.com

Replicants Next Playset

Steve Weston of Weston Toys has announced the next playset from  Replicants. It is Harpers Ferry recreating the attack by John Brown and his men at Harpers Ferry to capture the federal armory. Brown's plan was to arm the slaves and start a rebellion. This plan failed miserable.

The playset will recreate this important moment in the history. The set will contain all new marines and John Brown Raiders and existing Replicants in new colors for civilians and militia. The set will have two character figures one will be  John Brown no mention of what the other character figure will be. Also in the set will be a form board Engine House where Brown made his defense.  The price will be around prices of the previous Replicants sets. 

The Next Plastic Warrior Show

The next Plastic Warrior Show will be May 8, 2010 in Richmond a suburb of London.  I can not say enough of this great show. Put together every year by Paul Morehead the show is a diversity of plastic for collectors in every price range. You can find rare English plastic figures or cheap figures to do conversions. There are figures from around the world one table may have figures from Portugal next to a table with figures from Germany. The show is always full of surprises.  So mark your calendar and plan to be there you will have a great time.

Shows

We have heard reports that some of the shows that have been held this month have not been good. The Macungie show was disappointing and one person who had money to spent for resale and found very little. The Michigan summer show was on a different day than before and people did not come out. One dealer on his web site thank anyone who came and bought. Likewise the show in Gettysburg had poor attendance and the dealers complained that no one was there. Hopefully this was a temporary glitch and the shows will be back  to their old self. We will know more after OTSN.  Laurie and I will not be there as we have to work and can not get the time off and have other projects that are filling our free time. We will be watching reports from various source on seeing what is going on. 

8/04/09  

Marx Toy Kings Book

Rusty Kern has written  a series of four books on Marx Toys. The first one up is Marx  Men the history of Marx from 1919 to 1946.  The book will be loaded with information from Louis Marx's own scrap books. The next one will be on playsets.  For more details you should go to

http://www.playsetmagazine.com/MarxToyKings.html

Comic-Con

The Comic-Con as just ended. This is the convention gets 126,000 people through it for the 4 days and has a wide selection of items for the collectors and fans. Hollywood has discovered the importance of the show for promoting their shows and brings in many of the stars. You should check the various for your favorite show or movie. If you are a fan of Iron Man I can tell War Machine is in the next one as well as Whiplash and Black Widow. One television series that got little notice was Spartacus Blood and Sand. The show is being produced by Sam Raimi who did Hercules and Xena. Speaking of Xena, Lucy Lawless is in the show as Lucretia. The trailer is up on www.imdb.com. The trailer is bloody and gory as it looks they are trying to go for the Gladiator style. It is being made for the Starz network. Check it out.

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