Monthly Archives: May 2022

  1. With the White Stag Through Thick and Thin

    John Jenkins Designs' planes are certainly amongst the best toy soldiers vehicles produced. They are rich in details and exceptionally well painted. The planes from the Knights Of The Skies collection are my favorite as they often have surprising color schemes and beautiful nose arts. One of the best looking pieces released so far is probably the JJ-ACE-37 - FOKKER DVII (Degelow); a plane flown by a very interesting pilot.

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  2. Messalina - The Peplum Fantasy

    Messalina is probably one of the most famous historical figures of Ancient Rome. Her scandalous behaviors and her participation in a plot against her husband gave her quite a bad reputation. Today, she is seen as the incarnation of the Roman vices and this is what this new RnB042 - Messalina figure is all about.

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  3. The 3rd New York Regiment Officer

    The Continental Army, raised on June 14 1775 for the Revolutionary War, led to the formations of several regiments within the Thirteen Colonies. In most of the cases, those regiments were sharing the same sewing pattern for their uniforms, only changing the colors of the fabrics. In the world of toy soldiers, this means that creating a new regiment is quite easy as the same figure can be painted in many versions. John Jenkins seems to have understood this and keeps covering new regiments by adding new recruits to his Drums Along the Mohawk collection. The latest addition being the JJ-SNY3-01 - 3rd New York Rgt Infantry Officer.

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  4. The Tunisian campaign

    During World War Two, the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942 can be considered as the main turning point for the North African front. From that moment, the allied forces began to steadily push back the Axis troops. The last chapter of the liberation of North Africa is known as the Tunisian campaign and lasted from 17 November 1942 to 13 May 1943.

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  5. Mother’s Day

    This Sunday, in many countries around the world, people will celebrate Mother’s Day. This celebration seems a bit hard to combine with toy soldier collecting, but King and Country actually produced a lot of figures depicting mothers and childs. This week, we will have a look at one of those pieces: the HK253 - Mother & Child.

    This piece is from the collection Streets of Old Hong Kong. This collection depicts the daily life of Hong Kong citizens as it was during the very late nineteenth century. When it was launched, this collection was clashing with the usual war themed toy soldiers. This was particularly appreciated by the collector’s wife when they were accompanying their husband to their favorite toy soldier store. Eventually, this collection became one of the most successful amongst women collectors, initiating many of them to this hobby. So, for Mother’s Day, choosing a piece from the Streets of Old Hong Kong was almost mandatory.

    The HK253 - Mother & Child shows a young mother carrying her child on her back. She is feeding her kid while walking and holding her umbrella. The beauty of this piece not only comes from the relation between the two characters, but also from the detailed painting job. It is richly decorated with fine hand painted details to recreate patterns on the fabrics and decorative embroidments. The back of the t

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