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Home>>>Resource
Center>>>FAQ's Frequently Asked Questions
Read, learn, and if you have a question that you want answered, please use
the special e-mail link at the end of this page to ask your question. We will answer
it promptly by return e-mail. Those questions considered to be of a broad appeal
will be added to the FAQ page.
For many reasons.
We carry a greater variety of old and new
plastic and lead soldiers than any other company we know of in the world.
We do this full time.
We turn the average money order or charge
around in 5 days or less. We're the only company to offer interest-free layaways and
company-wide sales on a regular basis.
We market thousands of hand-painted
plastic figures, and are the only company to produce a 180-page illustrated photoguide
showing over 4000 current and discontinued soldiers.
We have a liberal return policy, and
treat all our customers honorably, solving all problems in as fair and customer-friendly a
manner as possible.
We offer 52 hours of phone time per week
for questions, orders and other assistance.
We try to offer the best service in this
community, which is why we have been able to keep so many customers satisfied for so many
years.
Follow this link to read more about OUR COMPANY
HISTORY.
When plastic toy soldiers began to lose their popularity in the Vietnam
War Era, most of the companies producing them went out of business or discontinued
production. Their molds were then sold off. The figures were missed by those with a
nostalgic passion for their "little men," but there was a time, about 15 years
ago, when all these molds seemed good for was holding up the rear axle of someone’s
old Nash Rambler. There was just no demand for old Marx, Timpo or Cherilea figures, so no
one wanted to risk the expense of using the molds.
But then something wonderful happened. Toy soldier dealers began
convincing the gentlemen who had purchased the molds to produce figures again (to Re-cast
them) in limited numbers for the collecting market.
Figures which had originally been produced by the now-defunct
manufacturers are therefore called "originals," while the newly-reissued
figures, cast today in very limited numbers (as few as 5,000 at a time) from the old
molds, are called "recasts."
The limited numbers also account for the fact that these figures seem
to be fairly expensive to the uninitiated. The reason for this is "economy of
scale". When someone casts only a few figures from a mold, instead of millions, the
cost of the mold and its upkeep, plus the time to set up, run and take down the mold in a
busy factory results in a higher per-figure cost.
— New customers often call us and say, "I can still buy a bag
of soldiers at Toys ‘R Us for $3.00, or about 15 cents per figure. Why aren’t
the recast figures you offer sold at the same price?" The answer is simple: economy
of scale based on supply and demand.
Companies which sell soldiers to Toys ‘R Us or other toy stores
turn out millions of figures at a time. This is not the case with the manufacturers of
recasts with whom we deal. At this point in time there may be as few as 20,000 plastic
soldier collectors in the U.S.A. And although you may not consider yourself a collector,
just the fact that you are reading this paragraph classifies you as one because you are
interested enough in these "little men" to collect them at your age!
What this means, however, is that there is very
little demand for recasts. As a result, they are produced in very limited numbers,
sometimes as few as 5000 at a time. This means the cost of each figure is higher because
each limited run must still cover manufacturers' production and marketing costs.
There is a charge to have a catalog mailed to you, to help cover printing and postage
costs. To order our catalog, click on the "Order Catalog" buttons or text links
found at the tops, bottoms and sides of all our pages. A catalog is included free in every
order of goods.
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No.
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We often receive toy soldiers from their manufacturers with an uneven distribution of
poses. The reasons vary, but the most common explanation is that the figures were
produced in uneven numbers. We have no choice but to pass that distribution on to
the customer.
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The Toy Soldier Company
100 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10024
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Do you have a store?
Sorry, we do not have a retail store. We sell only through our website
and mail order catalog.
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Why aren't all the items in your print catalog
available on the web?
We are constantly adding items to our website, but it will be some time
before we have everything listed online. The reason is that we have so
many soldiers!
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How can I order an item from the print catalog
online if I can't find it on the website?
To order items not accessible on the web shopping cart, we offer a
blank order form that you can fill in and send to us over our secure
server. You'll find it on the Ordering Information Page ( use the top
navigation bar and click on Ordering Info) then scroll down the page to
the special secure order form found in the section titled: TO ORDER
PRODUCTS THAT ARE IN THE PRINT CATALOG BUT NOT YET ONLINE.
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How do I order the same item in multiple colors?
When I try, the shopping cart indicates that the item is 'already added.'
The shopping cart is designed to prevent you from ordering the same
item more than once. This makes it difficult if you'd like to order the
same item in different colors. To do so, order the quantity you'd like,
and select a color from the list presented. Then, when you are ready to
check out, use the Special Instructions box on the order form to indicate
your preference
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