By: Jamie Delson, proprietor
I have been a dedicated collector of toy soldiers since 1952, when
my father gave me my first set: a Britains Herald Highland marching
band. In my youth I played with soldiers on the living room rug, in
my bed when sick, on the rocks of New York City’s Central Park, in
the back seat of the family car, on vacation and in my parent’s
attic, where my collection resided until I moved into my own
apartment. I always kept up with the hobby while pursuing a writing
career, then found (to my surprise) that I could make a living out
of the passion I felt for these little men. After all, it’s not
every little boy who can advance from a setup on the kitchen table
to a 10,000 square foot toy soldier warehouse, as I have done in the
past 57 years.
Although I made my living as a screenwriter and journalist for 20
years after finishing college, my passion for toy soldiers always
led me to spend my spare time and cash on them. As a child, I did
setups and played wargames with friends and alone, developing a set
of wargame rules for 54mm which I played from high school through
the 1970s.
But at the end of that decade I began playing wargames with a
different slant: instead of fighting massive battles with thousands
of figures, the game evolved into more of a skirmish/role playing
extravaganza. This led to a close look at my then huge collection,
did I really need 100,000 figures if the game only required a few
hundred guys?
In 1984 I decided to sell off part of my collection, so I took
ads in a few collector’s publications and published a catalog on my
IBM computer, expecting to make a few extra dollars (which would,
naturally, be put into new soldiers). I called my venture "The Toy
Soldier Company".
When I began the business, there was only a tiny market for
little men. It was limited to a dedicated group of collectors who
were only able to purchase original American figures from "The First
Golden Age" of toy soldiers, the 1950s, 60s and 70s. There were no
recasts available at that time, and even the thought of a company
starting up to sell newly-designed soldiers seemed unimaginable.
My first catalog reflected this market, and contained items
solely from my personal collection. But as the size of my American
"inventory" shrank with each sale, I realized my competitors had me
at a disadvantage: all had access to a wide world of tag sales to
which I had no access. How could I restock my shelves without taking
road trips to the garages of the Northeast states?
I had to take a different course, create a niche apart from the
others in the field. I had been quite successful at selling off old
English lines, such as Airfix and Timpo, plus that great Italian
maker, Atlantic. Why not take this strategy farther? As there were
no American manufacturers turning out quality products, I began
importing the few ranges of first-rate plastic soldiers being
produced by such European companies as Starlux, Preiser, ESCI and
Britains, as well as such soldier-related toy lines as Playmobil.
A fledgling market was beginning in the metal soldier field at
this time, establishing itself in the great void left by the demise
of Britains lead manufacturer almost 2 decades earlier. I picked up
such "new" lines as Tradition, Dorset, and Marlborough, which still
remain active sellers 26 years later.
Shortly thereafter, to complement the imports from the current
manufacturers with which we were opening up the American market, I
set out on a course to locate, contact and persuade companies which
were no longer producing soldiers, but which still owned the molds
capable of doing so, to do limited production runs for which I was
convinced there would be a market.
With all the figures flowing in from Europe, the company was
expanding and needed new quarters. At first, I filled my apartment.
Then I stored the overflow in a neighbor’s closet! (The Toy Soldier
Company Annex). A real warehouse was required. We expanded into an
800 square foot artist’s loft in Brooklyn, in an area called DUMBO
(Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). This lasted only a year
before we moved again, this time to a 5,000 square foot warehouse in
Jersey City, New Jersey.
Soon after we moved into the new space, we concluded several
deals to obtain tens of thousands of reissues of plastic figures
made by such European companies as Dulcop and Jean Hoefler. At the
same time, we began offering plastic recasts by Marx, which became
(and still remain) one of our most popular ranges. Following up our
successful sorties into the metal model field, we picked up more
manufacturers such as Britains Metal Models, Imperial, Steadfast,
Bastion, Under 2 Flags, VC Miniatures and Reeves.
Over the following years we were able to pick up dozens of other
manufacturers of plastic reissues, such as Timpo, Reisler, Reamsa,
Jecsan and Oliver, while also closing deals with individual
entrepreneurs all over the world who have sold us anywhere from one
to dozens of plastic recast sets from such makers as Cherilea,
Charbens, Marx, Ideal and others. Always on the lookout for more
metal lines, we expanded by incorporating Alymer, Britains Vintage
Replicas, Imrie/Risley and Conte Collectibles.
As a result of efforts by myself and the other leading dealers in
this field, all the nurturing and development of this market in the
1980s paid off. Toy soldier collecting had grown and matured to such
an extent that by the end of the 1980s new, original plastic
soldiers began to appear. Such entirely new manufacturers as
Accurate, Classic, Barzso, Armies in Plastic, Toy Soldiers of San
Diego, BMC, IMEX, Dragon Models, HAT, and others (none of which
existed when I was a boy) have fed this appetite for newer and
better toy soldiers. The explosion of interest in these military
miniatures has resulted in what many are now calling "The Second
Golden Age" of toy soldiers.
