WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE TOY SOLDIERS?

Are there any actual toy shops left? I guess there must be a few but they are a rare species that is for sure: squeezed out by supermarkets and online stores, I suppose. It was not toy shops I was looking for as such though, it was toy soldiers. The sort of pre-painted plastic figures that were once a part and parcel of childhood. Figures made by Timpo, Herald, Lone Star and of course, Britains. Once toy shops, and by implication High Streets, were full of little Cowboys and Indians, Trojans and Greeks, Romans, Medieval Knights and World War Two soldiers. At some point – when I was not paying attention obviously – they all seem to have vanished. Gone!

By Rick Priestley

It is true that toy figures can be found in the bigger supermarkets and garden centres, but inevitably the theme is either agricultural, wildlife, dinosaurs, or fantastical. The last of these offers a number of medieval knights lacking any historical reference or, in most cases credulity. They are merely characters amongst the hordes of monsters and faeries. Some of these are actually very well done. I am thinking of the models made by Scheich and Papo in particular. Certain monsters offer fantasy gamers the opportunity for conversion to useful tabletop pieces. The Papo mammoth is a wonderful model that screams Mumakil! Or would, were a plastic model able to do so! But these modern toys are not the ‘toy soldiers’ of yesteryear. For one thing they are huge, reckoned at about…

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Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy (Digital) - 1 Issue, WSS 127

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