Monday, December 27, 2010

Battle of the Bulge


We had some snow here yesterday, so I had to take some of my Toy Soldiers of San Diego figures outside...


Ambush!


Death in the Snow


Firefight


Riflemen

Sunday, November 28, 2010

German Soldier


Spring in Russia

Toy German soldier by Conte Collectibles.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

Conte Spartans


I originally got the Conte Spartan figures in red because that was the only color you could get at the time, and I sure wasn't going to wait for the other colors.

Then I got some of the gold ones, and was a little disappointed, the colors were off some of the figures. Third time's a charm I guess, I got some of the silver colored figures, and they are definitely the best. It's just a nice looking color I haven't seen since the old Marx Knights, and it seems to photograph well too.


Spartan Battle Line


Arrow in the Neck


Spartans!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Conte Pewter Figures


Here's a couple pictures of two of Conte Collectibles single-color pewter figures that were exclusive to the Civil War playsets. They're selling some of these along with some resin figures now.


Union Flag

Union Flagbearer


Gen. Robert E. Lee

General Robert E. Lee

Sunday, October 24, 2010

TSSD Mounted Sioux Warriors


Here are a couple shots of the mounted Sioux Warriors by Toy Soldiers of San Diego:


Mounted Warrior


Indian Brave

Monday, October 11, 2010

Stonewall's Foot Cavalry


Stonewall's Foot Cavalry

A Marx Toys Confederate figure moves along the Blue Ridge.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Lookout Mountain



Lookout Mountain

Here's a couple of Marx Civil War soldiers posing on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee. I know they could be almost anywhere, you just have to take my word for it that they are on Lookout Mountain.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

French Foreign Legion

Firing Line

French Foreign Legion figures by Conte Collectibles standing on a Classic Toy Soldiers Alamo wall with some reissue Marx Palm Trees in the background.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Jim Bowie at the Alamo

Jim Bowie's Last Stand at the Alamo

I'm kind of proud of this shot. Figures are by Conte Collectibles. The background is a piece of the Alamo from Classic Toy Soldiers.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Pirates!

I was visiting a friend and he showed me these neat but odd-looking pirate figures. I took a few quick snapshots on his front porch and posted a pic to the Yahoo Marx Playsets group. A member identified them as "copies of the original Fontanini pirates made by GPS Gavichi of Italy. GPS Gavichi were notorious for copying other companies products, apart from Fontanini they copied Marx and Elastolin." They are about 70mm in size.


Pirates


Pirate w/Monkey

The above guy with his pet monkey seems to be everybody's favorite. It's a pain trying to get the detail with the cheesy translucent plastic.


Pirate

Monday, June 21, 2010

Giant Farm Woman

Giant Farm Woman

These are from a Marx farm playset, 1950's. I was looking through some of my old shots and was shocked by the giant farm woman.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Marx Frontiersman

Marx Frontiersman


Marx 45mm Frontiersman. This guy came with the early Ft. Apache and Alamo sets.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Custer's Last Stand

Some time ago, I got the Custer's Last Stand playset produced by Toy Soldiers of San Diego. TSSD is quickly becoming one of my favorite producers of toy soldiers. The quality of sculpting, poses and level of detail on the figures are fantastic. Very high quality, but at the same time, they retain an element of "toyness" where I'm not afraid to get them outside in the dirt, and wouldn't haven't a problem with a young child playing with them.

Another great thing about this playset, is you get so damn much stuff with it. The wonderfully sculpted foam hill, lots of cavalry figures and horses, and of course tons of Indians. When putting together a playset, Indians at Custer's Last Stand are like Mexicans at the Alamo: you can never have too many.

When I first got it I set it up on my dining room table. Not enough room for everything:


Custer's Last Stand


Last weekend I got these guys outside and got a few more shots:


Last Stand


Defending the Battery


7th Cavalry


Warrior Triumphant

Friday, May 7, 2010

Crazy Marx Army Men Poses

Inspired by the blog post The Five Worst Army of All Time [via], I took some snapshots to explain some of this to the fine folks at Metafilter.

If you've read this far, you probably already know this, but below is illustrated one of the great mysteries of my childhood, and I suspect of a few other folks.

I never knew what to do with the guy below. Weird karate dude? What's going on? I didn't have a clue.

???

Then there was the guy below. At least I could imagine he was flying through the air. I usually ended up hanging on some of the barb wire coils.

???

The light finally came on when I got the special "Battleground" edition of Plastic Figure and Playset Collector magazine:

Wounded Comrade

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Cunnyngham's Confederates

Here's a couple shots of the Confederate infantry set released by Cunnyngham Collectibles. I really like everything about these figures, detail, facial expressions, and poses are all great. Good color and plastic too.

The Firing Line


Plastic Confederate

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Hanging Out at the Space Academy

At the Space Academy

Some space cadets at the Tom Corbett Space Academy. Marx Toys, c1953.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

I haven't smoked for 2 weeks, 2 days and 12 hours, saving 493.96 cigarettes and $98.79 .