Floyd's Report on the OTSN
We received a report from Floyd Wilson on the OTSN show. This was Floyd's first visit to OTSN and it is great to see some have a magical moment. A magical moment is when you go to a show and are overwhelm with the amount of items that are there. I have several and been able to share in others who had theirs. WE will have pictures soon and will add them as time permits.
I was a subscriber to OTSN from 1983 through early 1995, so I had read about it there and in PFPC, being retired now and hearing good things about the show from Paul Stadinger, Bob Wilson and others, with help from Don Pielin and a huge push from my wife, we made the reservations and attended.
Before going to the show, I printed up a photo list of what I was looking for…it included, at the top of the list, the MARX 60mm Maid Marian from the Richard Green Robin Hood sets number 4721 or 4722. My list also included some “scraggly trees”, a castle top cone, the ‘light’ tan MARX deer, a 60mm Knight’s horse, the Britain’s Herald Maid Marian and Sheriff of Nottingham on his horse, the ‘Casualties of War’ Maid Marian, someReplicants, a number of Britain’s and a few missing PFPC's. Quite a list I know.
I drove to the show, from North Dakota and my wife flew into O’Hare, on Thursday September 23rd. Upon check-in, the first thing I did was get the room maps and dealer listing from Don Pielin’s room, then I proceeded to Steve Weston’s room to pick upsome figures he had set aside for me. Steve is a wonderful person who had many greatfigures including his new British WWII sets. From there I went to Rick Eber’s room. Rick had many hard to find MARX figures, sets, and other items, and was very helpful.From there I sort-of spot-checked rooms, going to see Ron Barzso’s room, Michigan Toy Soldier and several others. In one room that was packed full, selling many current andolder plastic sets as well as loose Conte figures for $1.50 each…if you bought enough,he lowered the price to $1.00, I found a stack of old PFPC magazines, after looking through them I found issue number 1 and issue number five. I asked the guy how much they were, he said “Six dollars each”, I went to pay for the two I needed and he said “Oh, I’m sorry issues number one through ten, are ten dollars each”…I laughed at him and said; “Do you think I am going to argue over eight dollars, when I am holding them in my hands?”…Anyway I paid his price…I did have a couple of my missing magazines.
Since it was close to the time my wife would be arriving, I went to our room, and read my new magazines until she arrived. Following her arrival we spot-toured a number ofrooms on the fourth floor…it was a good thing my wife was there…she spotted a castletop cone in one room…I had missed it …also four castle top pennants. In another room, she found a light-tan stag, and two excellent condition MARX 60mm knight’s horses. That evening we asked the hotel desk clerk for a good steak house, he suggested Chicago Prime Steakhouse. It was excellent, there are a lot of good eating-places near the hotel,the next night we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen, and it was wonderful.
On Friday we started our systematic tour of the fourth floor going from room to room in an organized manner, checking off each room as we went, it took us all Friday to do the fourth floor. On Saturday we did the fifth floor the same way. The reception held by theshow’s organizers was very well attended.
On Sunday we attended the show, going in early, at around 8:00 AM there were many more items on display including some wonderful dioramas and vignettes set up by the manufactures and dealers. We purchased a few items that we had not seen in the rooms.
Observations:
The show was simply “overwhelming”, it was so great to see and be able to touch and hold so many of the figures, I have only heard about, or seen in pictures. To see all the new King & Country, Britains, and plastic figures was an experience we will not soonforget. More than that however, it was the people…it is dangerous to list people, because you inevitably miss some, however Steve Weston, is a class act…he enjoys the hobby and is committed to its growth…his approach of providing different figures from what isbeing produced is providing collectors with choices to expand their collections withgreater variety and interest. Ron Barzso obviously loves the hobby…his new “Fort William Henry” was on display in the fifth floor, and is massive, and another one ofhis “classic” playsets, he also showed his “Battle of Bushy Run”. Ron also had a lot of hisplastic figures there for sale and some pieces from older sets…his castle pieces, made mehope to someday own one of his castles. Ron was very open and willing to spend timewith us. I believe he was a little under the weather on Sunday from something he ate.
Rick Eber was most gracious, and willing to let us look through his massive number of Marx figures and sets, he had many of the more rare figures, in excellent condition, at the show, for sale. A lot of the other collectors at the show, pointed us towards Mr. Eber for hard-to-find items. Francis Turner spent a lot of time with us, telling us of hismuseum, and the visit from Louis Marx’s son. We bought a MARX Museum shirt from him. Allan Ford is very knowledgeable and spent a good deal of time talking to us.
Richard and Nancy Conte, along with Joe Baker were very helpful in the Conte Collectibles room. We purchased several items, metal and plastic. Mr. Baker showed ussome of Conte’s Collector Club figures, including the female hunters, and the Robin Hood sword fighting figures…very impressive. Gene & Teri Abravaya from Paragon Scenics & Miniatures do an amazing job on their diorama items and gladly explain theirproducts. Ken Osen with Hudson & Allen Studio produces beautiful diorama structures Ted Deddens with TEDTOY Miniatures spent quite some time with us, reviewing his business. While Michael & Myszka Hall with Sierra Toy Soldiers and Rick Berry from Michigan Toy Soldier, both of whom I have bought from, were very friendly. JohnStengel spent considerable time with us in his room, talking about and explainingdifferent MARX pieces. Todd Nace was very helpful and Rick Keller is obviously a very knowledgeable collector who takes the time to help. Roger Garfield and his wife were a couple of the friendliest people at the show. Don and Kay Clark went out of their way toassist my wife and myself. Daniel McLean’s (Toymeister ) wife was very informative and willing to help with anything. While Dave Pittman and Mike Handley from theCincinnati area went out of their way to assist us and offer help in the future. The two guys we met in the Treefrog Treasures room, including Shannon Reuss, were amazing in their willingness to help us, we talked about some of their products and their forum.
Regarding Rusty Kern and his books…it was busy in his room when we were there, Iasked about his new book and he opened a pack of books, wrapped in plastic, he handedme the book…to me it appeared it was the first book? As I was leaving I asked him ifthere were going to be four books…he replied “Three”…my hearing isn’t the best, so I am no help to you there Paul.
The one gentleman, that really made the show forus, was Doug Whalen from Virginia Beach. Doug had an old ‘Playset Magazine’ from2006...on Wednesday or Thursday; he called Rusty Kern inquiring about a Marx Ben Hur Playset. Rusty, who was at the show, told him that he should come up to the show, because he thought Doug could find a set, and other items he was looking for. Doug had not planned to attend the show, but knew it was going on. Doug flew up to the show,and by Friday he had obtained three Ben Hur sets, and some Marx ‘High-Wall-CastleWalls’ along with a number of other items…he was in seventh heaven! Doug, my wife and I spent some time talking about the sets and pieces he had found. Doug talked about having these sets as a child, about his brothers and the different sets they had as kids youcould literally see the joy in his eyes, as he went through the sets and talked about them with us. It was one of those moments we have all had as collectors, and my wife and I got to share a portion of his joy. When we left him, he was going to try to pack the figures,for shipping and leave…his show attendance was a complete success. I guess what I am saying is that the people at the show, collectors, dealers and manufactures were just awesome, these are people who want to help you…to show their products and to help you learn about the hobby. A lot of the collectors are older people like myself, but in many discussions they all feel the same attraction towards toy soldiers.One gentleman from Texas, who was born in the 40’s, told me that you could tell whensomeone was born by what they collect. We talked to so many wives, at the show, who absolutely supported their spouses hobby…it was great meeting all these people.
Products;
Regarding old plastic, we saw a ton of MARX, sets and pieces, it is difficult to explain, and there were so many sets and figures. I saw several Lone Ranger & Tonto figures, a few Gunsmoke Miss Kittys and other character figures from the set, at least one Custer, 3 Annie Oakleys, 2 Johnny Ringos, a Zorro & Tornado along with all the character figures, a Super Circus set and a lot of two-story western towns. I must have seen five or six Ben Hur sets. One collector, whose room was on the third floor, must have had 20 playsets for sale, including four fairly complete robin hoods, two 54mm sets and two 60mm #4719 generic sets. I did see one Richard Greene set character figure, Friar Tuck. We saw many collectors carrying out a prized possession MARX playset they hadobtainedWe saw quite a bit of Auburn, including a set of old football players, Lido, Conte, and Barzso plastic, along with TSSD, including their new Civil War Wounded set…very nice.
Paragon’s ‘Battle of Apache Pass’ and their new one due out soon ‘Ambush’ are amazing. They make nice figures; their sets use TSSD horses. On the metal side, a lot of Conte, King & Country, Britain’s Old & New, Minot, and others. Frontline and Del Prado were well represented also. I was very impressed by the Black Hawk Toy Soldiers ‘Templar’ figures, especially “The Battle” and “Bernard of Clairvaux”.
The St. Petersburg Collection figures from Russia, are exceptional, and in quite a few rooms.We got to see and examine the King & Country Egyptians, which I have admired for a while. The largest areas of interest seemed to be the Zulu wars, French and Indian War and WWII, with some Civil War, especially in the dioramas.
A little while ago Paul Stadinger had a brief note on his website, regarding Whitetower Miniatures of England, after visiting their website, I told him “Thanks”, now I have another “must have figure”…their Rebecca from Ivanhoe. The figure did not lookthat good on their site, however she is the only version of that character I haveseen…Whitetower Miniatures was represented at the show, by one of their dealers, Steven Boettger. He had a significant selection of their products including the RobinHood and Ivanhoe series…but they only sent him one of each for the show…I purchased Rebecca...she is much nicer than her picture.
My wife was impressed with the sheer amount of King & Country figures and vehicles…they were everywhere! She did not know what “Dimestore” figures were before the show, I don’t think she cares to see anymore, and she noticed a number of Snow White & The Seven Dwarves metal sets, many manufacturers - all old.
The Figarti “HMS Victory” was on display in the fourth floor lobby and was beautiful.The ship is approximately 5’ 10” high, 5’ 4” long and over 22” wide. If my memory serves it sells for around $6,500.00 “delivered to your door”.
We had a great time. Of course I did not obtain my number one figure I was looking for, Maid Marian, from the MARX Richard Greene 60mm Robin Hood set, but I guess I expected that I would be extremely lucky if I did. We heard a lot of “I have it at home” and “Last year there were some here”…sort of like when you go fishing, nothing is biting, and everyone says, “you should have been here last week…they were jumping inthe boat!” A number of people told me that if I send them a reminder, they will look for me.
Finally, I want to mention the huge international aspect of the show, we met people from all around the country and from Canada, France, Germany, England, Australia and Japan, all of us sharing a common bond of interest in toy soldiers.
We loved the show, I was able to fill a huge chunk of my want list, see a lot of great figures, and met some of the greatest people in the country…what more can you ask?
Finally Paul told me to make sure that my wife got to go to the Woodfield Mall…we did,she even bought something. [Editor's note it has been a rule in my family that we share the day. Part of the day may be for me but part of the day goes to other members of the family. For example last year we did Hackensack then went and did Chiller for Laurie to see the stars. )