PLASTIC WARRIOR SHOW 2010
A look at the action
This year was the 25th anniversary for Plastic Warrior magazine. This great magazine was started by Brian Carrick, Peter Evans and Paul Morehead. to document plastic figures. Through out the years the magazine has showcased new figures and shown interesting figures from around the world. In 1988 Plastic Warrior started running an annual show of mostly plastic figures which has become the premier show for plastic figures in the UK.
I have been going to the show since 1989. I had gone to the show after my mother had passed away. I had always want to get my parents over to England, but for health reasons for my parents, I was not able to do so. I decided to go to London and put the trip around Plastic Warrior show figuring it would be a once in a lifetime trip. I had such a great time that it has become nearly annual event. When I met Laurie I took her to PW before we were married and she fell in love with the show as well. It is a show we look forward not just for the items we find but a chance to see our many friends we have made over the years.
This year was it was important for us not only to do show but our very good friend Paul Morehead was stepping down as editor of Plastic Warrior due to health issues. Paul is my oldest English friend. I started corresponding with him in late 70's. I had placed an ad in a magazine Military Modeling to correspond with other people. Paul had been one of those persons who corresponded and we had many great letters before the days of the internet.
Getting over to England is getting harder and harder due to the high airfares. We battle for several months trying to get a decent fare, but what makes it hard is the taxes they have added on. Fortunately Laurie was able to get a fare in our budget range for us to get over. Then we got the volcano and its ash cloud to worry about which closed airports in Europe. Once again we got lucky that the ash cloud turn in another direction. We were able to leave on time the day we wanted to. We left a day earlier so we could relax a little. So we left on Wednesday and arrive Thursday morning in the midst of England's election. We arrive in London on time and took the underground to our hotel the Forum. We had stayed at this hotel the first time in London and had not been back due to cost. This time they were the cheapest hotel for us. After dropping our bags off we headed to exchange our money and we went saw a few sights until our room was ready. That night we went out with our very good friend Peter Evans for dinner and talk about the hobby and other things.
The next morning we took our time getting up. We get breakfast at Prêt Manager as the price for breakfast at the hotel is 10 pounds each. For the price of one breakfast at the hotel we both can have a sandwich and a juice. These sandwiches are healthy and fill you up. Once that was done we head to the British Museum. We had been their many times but this time we were going to do a video to use with our comedy. The video Camera recorder I was using fit in the palm of your hand and weight less than a pound. We had fun as we shot our video one point I did the dog's voices and a man who was behind me started to give strange looks. We laugh about it for the rest of the week.
From the British museum we stop at a gift shop across from the museum. In the shop they have various resin figures. I got couple of gladiators and then we headed to Convent Garden. We did not see anything there nor at Forbidden Planet. We then had lunch at Laurie's favorite restaurant Punjab. Laurie found this restaurant on the Travel channel at least 10 years ago and we have been going ever since. What makes the restaurants and Pubs so nice now they are no smoking. Once we were done there we head back to our hotel and relaxed. The room we had was small but we had a great view of London and could see the Eye from our room. That night we ate at the Masala another Indian restaurant. One thing I was doing was taking care of Laurie's Indian food craving as we do not have a decent Indian restaurant in our area. We headed back to the hotel and prepared for the big day.
Barrie and his step son Andrew
Saturday we were up and ready to go. We have been doing this for so many years that we have getting to the show down pat. We arrive on time and headed into the show. For us the show is like an old home's week as we see many of our European friends at the show. Our first stop was with our very good friend Peter Bergner who let me park my suitcase behind his table. I take a empty suitcase as I usually find enough to fill it. We then started to walk around the room. One thing with Plastic Warrior Show I can not predict what will show. One year the show will be loaded with Britains Hospital items and the next year like this very little.
This year we saw an increase of Marx figures. One dealer even had two tin litho two story western town building, which he had sold one by the end of the show. The prices on the Marx went to reasonable to expensive. One dealer was selling western furniture for 3.50 pounds ($7.00) and 54mm cavalry for 3 pounds ($6.00) You had search carefully. This year I did not see any Marx 60mm Arabs for sale. I was able to find some of the common figures such as 60mm Cowboys in peach and the 54mm pioneers in a white.
Uniplast Peter and the Wolf
If you go to the Plastic Warrior show just for Marx figures you are missing the main purpose of the show, which is to see the wide range of plastic figures from around the world. When you walk the show you get the idea of the different figures that were made. One stand two figures made by Uniplast for Peter and the Wolf. The two figure were done in 60mm and are of Peter and his mother. At another stand I saw a number of the Spanish Bull fighters. Our Good friend Barrie Blood had many different figures from around the world including 60mm cowboy with a derby hat with a pistol and carpet bag. The dealer that had the Peter and the wolf figures had Kinder Knights along with Polish figures. The Kinder knights are a put together figure which were sold in plastic capsules which were then placed in chocolate hollow eggs. Another figure we picked up was Leszek Bialy who was a king of Poland. Each table had a surprise for you.
Cole's Saxon Warriors
Each year Replicants does a series of figures for Plastic Warrior. This year Peter Cole did 13 figures the first was a town crier to celebrate Plastic Warrior's 25th anniversary. This figure will be a welcome addition to anyone's Rev War setup Then Peter did three sets Highlanders, Saxon Archers and one Saxon Warriors. The Highlanders come with two extra heads to do conversions. I like the Highlander swing the claymore. The Saxon Archers could be used with your Marx 54mm Robin Hood figures. The Saxon Warriors are some of Cole's best work
Steve Weston of Weston Toys premiered his Trail Drive set. This set contains several different drovers on horse back with long horn cattle. The figures are in a high quality resin and the set are limited to 500. The set is not cheap 26 pounds ($42.00 since we have been over the pound has gone down.) If you are into western this is a nice addition to your 54mm display. Steve had on display the Paragon cavalry and Apache Indians. These figures will be welcome additions to your western collection. The figures are suppose to be out in June. Steve's final items were some resin cactus and a 70mm Aztec figure. Laurie and I like the Aztec but pass as it is a kit and neither has time to paint.
Ron and his wife talking about his his product. You can his new two story house in the picture
Returning to the show again was Ron Barzso. He along with his wife and several friends were doing the show then going to France and Normandy. Ron reminded me that I told him years ago we should not look at these figures as a investment but as something for fun. He has been trying to pass that along to other people that purchase his product. Ron also mentioned that the Indianapolis show was off badly this year.
Ron's special Figure
Ron did a limited run of a female pirate with one foot on a chest. At the bottom the figure was Plastic Warrior 25th anniversary. I also talk to Ron about how many people at Indianapolis asked if he was doing a playset on the Combat television show. Ron winced so I figured that he must have been bother several times. I really don't care what Ron comes out as I like surprises in new figures.
James Opie and me
One thing I lose count on his how many times we going around the room. You have to do that as there is so much plastic you can easily over look things. One stand I bought Soldiers of the World cereal giveaways. We came back to the same table two trips later and I find a Marx Toby Tortoise and Thumper. I felt some dealers as they got more room put items out. Another time we are at our good friend Markus' table and as I was picking up a Dom Tarzan, James Opie was inquiring on some Beton figures. I help James on identifying the figures as one of the companies that did figures in the style of Betons. James remarked it is hard keeping track of all the companies that made figures, which I agree.
Atlantic HO Coliseum and Egyptian Temple
When you go to Plastic Warrior you have to set a limit or you could easily spend too much. Duart from Belgium had the Atlantic Coliseum and Egyptian Temple. These are impressive pieces and the coliseum was sold by the end of the show. We looked at and while we like it where would we put it in the house and shipping would have been crazy. Likewise with the Triang Caisson which was the Renwal caisson over here. It was beautiful piece once again size made us pass. Other items we pass on due to the cost, several pieces of the Cherilea Executioner set show up for high prices.
The two Pauls taking a break from the show.
I got a chance to sit with our very good friend Paul Morehead. We discuss the changeover for Plastic Warrior and the plans for the coming the magazine. The new editor Eric Kemp of Helmet Soldiers has facilities to handle the posting of the magazine, which Paul did not. After that we talked about family. Paul had his son and grandson there helping out. His son had help me years ago when I did a stand. After that we visit with Michael Smith who we had not seen in a year.
Laurie with our Friends Peter Bergner and Andreas Dittmann
Laurie had great fun with our German friends Peter Bergner and Andreas Dittmann with her new t-shirt. At Chiller she saw this t-shirt that says Ich Bin En Zombie and ordered it. She got it on time and wore it for the show. They had a great laugh on the shirt she was wearing. We saw a number of other people Dmitry from Russia, Tomika from Poland and Jan Boers from the Netherlands
A collector looking over some of the buys at Barrie Blood's table
We took two breaks one was for a drink and then we had lunch at the Pub across from the show. We have found that pub food in England is usually good. We also had a cider as the cider back in the states has too many preservatives. We finished our lunch and found that the show was winding down. I went around looking for more items to purchase before the dealers started to close up we found a few items we had missed due to the crowd and head over to the pub for more drinks. Laurie had enjoyable time After a few drinks we headed back to our hotel for a rest and then went to dinner.
The next day we went to a toy show in Kempton Park. We had thought it had been another show we had done years ago, but that one Sandown was the week after PW. We went to Waterloo station and got a train to Kempton Park. From the train station it was a short walk to the race course. Here we were looking for other toys than just figures. We ran into John and Eunice Begg who we had seen the day before. I had talk to John about some Marx items he had gotten including some first series Warriors of the World. We also saw Peter Spackman who had not been at Plastic Warrior. We started to walk around when I first went to English toy shows you would find mostly die cast cars. Now there is a wide range of toys one table may have fast food items another might have trains and still another action figures. We started to walk around and right away we started to find figures. One of the tables was manned by Gareth Morgan who had been at Plastic Warrior the day before but as a buyer not a seller. He said that he set up at Kempton Park as it was a local show. I found from him a number of items that we could use. We did a second circuit and I spotted the large size Robin Hood and Friar Tuck. These figures were sold at Nottingham for tourist trade. We had gotten the Robin Hood figure last year at York Toy Show in the states. The Friar Tuck figure was missing a staff which I can make for the figure. As already report on Comment time, I had got the Friar Tuck figure several years ago with a beer stein. We did one more search and found some more items. After saying goodbye to some of our friends we headed back to the train station and took the train back to Waterloo station. Across from Waterloo station is a pub called the Wellington. We had eaten there before and had their meat pie. Once that was done we headed back to the hotel to relax.
The next day we did Covent Garden again as Laurie want to see if a dealer was there for a gift she was thinking for a friend. Being antique market day he was not. We look over the antiques and found them uninteresting. There was no plastic figures and the metal figures were rough. One of the dealers had the Charbens midget boxers. He first called it Britains which I corrected. Then he gave me a price of 35 pounds which I past on. we walk around an area of Convent Garden we had not done before and we found a book store where Laurie found a travel book she has a hard time finding. After we walking around we went to Punjab's for lunch. One thing as we were eating was to hear the other people talking their business deals. From there we head to British Natural Museum to see their dinosaur exhibit which was very interesting. That night we got together with our very good friends: Michael Smith, Peter Evans and Ricky Thaxter for dinner. Peter is always great in finding great little restaurants that average tourist would not know of. This time it was a restaurant called Todd's. Peter had seen this restaurant when they had gone to a French restaurant and tried it out. The food was excellent. Michael and us had a wild boar sausage while Peter and Ricky had seafood. This is my favorite time of any trip when we can sit and talk with friends. After that we headed back to our hotel with Michael where we talked some more.
The next day we got ready to return and headed to the airport. We can not wait for the next time we can go and enjoy the fun of the Plastic Warrior Show.
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