Plastic Warrior Show 2006
Last year we could not go to the Plastic Warrior Show due to our schedules. This year we planned early and were able to go to the show. The worse part of the trip is coming and going. It seems every year the seats get smaller and smaller on Virgin Airlines. I hope that someday Branson is forced to fly in economy for life. The food was adequate and the movie selection was decent. We arrived on time and went to our hotel. After getting our money exchange, we did Hamley's, which is a large toy store. The store is not the same since we first visited years ago. We had gone to the store to see if they had some Blue Box Roman sets. Blue Box had done some Romans with shield with spikes so you could do a possible turtle. Sadly the store had sold out but they did have Blue Box Napoleonic figures which neither John and I needed. Laurie headed back to the hotel as she was tired and John and I did magazine stand so I could get some magazines for work. Once that was done I took John to Forbidden Planet the largest comic book and science fiction show in London. The shop has many interesting items for sale. Right now they are doing pewter series of figures of the Marvel Superheroes. These figures are put out I believe every two weeks with a small booklet. The same company is doing now Star Wars figures. We did not see anything we need and headed back to the hotel.
That evening we got together with our very good friend Peter Evans. For me the high point of a trip is getting together with friends. We met Peter at his place and then after talking about figures and the next day went to a new place called the Flaming Bistro. the night ended too soon, but we had a big day ahead.
Mrs Duart and Helper
The next morning after getting some sandwiches and drinks we headed to the Plastic Warrior show. For the first time I can remember the underground was right there when we got down on the platform. We arrived at Richmond at record time and headed to the show. Waiting for the set up we ran into many old friends from the England and Germany. One of our friend Juan Herrimada from Spain did not show up and we sorry that he did come. A several old faces were not there Peter Spackman and Michael Ellis. We did see Michael Ellis later who came to visit but not sell.
Detlef in front of his table of goods. The Plastic Warrior show is a great place to did through boxes and find treasures.
Once the tables were set up we were in to take a look around. The show is not one of the biggest shows we do, but it is one of the best show in the world for plastic. Unless you restrict yourself to one type of figure, you are in plastic overload. The spaces of the missing dealers had been replaced by other dealers. One of the new dealers was Duart from Belgium. We have run into this gentleman and his wares at the German plastic show. Once again he had a wide array of plastic. Laurie was able to add to her Starlux dinosaur collection, while John found some six inch Marx and Starlux dinosaurs. While not a new dealer this year he had several table was Barry Blood. His table was manned by his wife Jeanette and his son Nathan. Barry was getting rid of his doubles and items he did not want for his collection. I was able to add two Jescan circus figures to my collection including a woman holding a sign. I found some other items from and went around the floor.
Jeanette Blood with her son Nathan Notice all boxed Spanish sets
From the German collectors we got various German plastic figures including Dom and Plasty items. I found a jester with a mirror on stand which I think represents a city sign. We got to see an old acquiescence Detlef who since the last time we saw him had gotten married. We got a short chance to talk to our very good friend Andreas. His lovely wife Lixi was over but she was out shopping with Detlef's wife. We wandered about and saw other friends like Eddie Oates who had a wide selection of British plastic for sale.
Eddie Oates with his table of plastic
We got to see our very good friend Peter Bergner. Peter showed us his new vehicle for a Volkswagen bus which had been painted camouflage. He needed it for all the items he was carrying at the show.
Peter Bergner with his table of goodies
As I mention earlier the show is loaded with plastic. Some of the items were very reasonable other items are expensive. One dealer had one of the figures from the Cherilea executioner set for 45 pounds or $90.00. At the same table I found a Marx 60mm 1812 sailor for 4 pounds or $8.00. Another table I was able to get a complete Timpo Western Train out of the box for $35.00. Laurie is still giving me the hairy eye ball when we came back with three Timpo trains in the box. One thing I look for are challenges. This year I bought two junk bags from a dealer. I wanted to see if I can make a profit from the bags. I also acquire a large lot of Atlantic ancient figures which I will be working on in the near future.
We took a break and had a lunch at the pub across the street from the college where the show is held called the Sun Inn. The pub food was excellent and filled us up. We had hoped that some of our friends would come over but they did not. After the break we headed back into the show. I stopped by Replicants stand and congratulated Peter Cole on Replicants' 10th anniversary. For their 10th anniversary Replicants reissued their American Civil War kneeling firing, The Confederate helping a wounded soldier, Iroquois in red coat and mount English Civil War firing pistol. Next to Replicants was Steve Weston who was selling the new TSSD Civil War in great coats. Steve also had a limited supply of the new Gung Ho Australian Vietnam figures.
Peter Cole of Replicants
We walked around looking for items. John was looking for Marx figures plus other items he thought collectors would like. I was doing the same and found many interesting items. I found several of the Coma gladiators which go well with the Atlantic ancient figures. One thing about the show there is so much that you can easily miss items. Before we left I came on Stuart Little's table and he had some Men in Black figures for a pound each which I should have gotten but pass because I bought so much. On the other hand we stopped at a table and I was picking up some dinosaurs for Laurie when the dealer commented about the six inch Marx figures he had for sale. Before I knew it the price was lower than what he wanted in the morning and I pick them up for John and myself.
As picture on the front of the website a dealer from Portugal had three of the Marx African figures in 60mm. The figures were listed as Daktari. I had to pass on them as they were $30.00 each! Another item I like, but had to pass were a series of buildings. I did not get a chance to get any information and will find out more in the information.
A sample of the buildings that one dealer was doing.
One of the people at the show was Les Collier. Les came from Australia for the show. Les collects Marx Warriors of the World. Les said he needs some of the third series, but people are holding them off of Ebay because the prices are down. We also saw our very good friend Michael Smith. He had his mix of new figures and reissue Timpo items. John had gotten off of him a Timmee Russian. We did not find anything like that this year. We also got a chance to our friends Brian Carrick and Paul Morehead. Brian told us that his wife Jane was now six months of being smoke free. This was good as the pubs will be smoke free some time in June of this year. After walking around for several hours, we decided to call it a day.
Les Collier came all the way from Australia for the show
The rest of the weekend we did some museums including the National army museum and Museum of London. The last one John had found in our local paper. After meal on Monday night with over very good friends Peter Evans and Ricky Thaxter we had to call it a weekend and get back to our human jobs.