Osprey Men-At-Arms Book

I gotta tell ya, this book I got is awesome. Almost 400 pages of color plates, the ones that Osprey is known so well for. It's a big, heavy hardcover book with a nice slipcase. Amazon has it for a pretty good price, and you never know, keep an eye on it, and you might be able to grab it for a discount at some point. But it's just awesome. Got me reading about all sorts of historical time periods I'd never been interested in before.

Taken... again

I've been taken, abducted if you will, by the evil snare of video gaming once again. It happens sometimes. The toy soldiers start to gather dust, the shiny new parts of my collection don't seem so shiny, and I don't even bother to pick up the latest troops knocked over by the cat. All I can think about is getting back on this confounded computer to continue my journey as The Witcher. (beware, hide your children, it's rated M, which stands for "More Fun Than You Should have on a Computer")

But seriously, and I know most of you probably don't fall into the video game playing demographic here, but this is the most awsomest... yes, it's a word... awsomest game ever. No kidding. I almost thought about skipping the Colts game this past Sunday to keep playing. I didn't, but I THOUGHT ABOUT IT, and that's the scary part.

Anyhoo... so what you think about this new picture on the Conte site?

The Haul

As you can see, my Christmas turned out pretty well. The first picture is of three buildings from Hobby Bunker, Hand-painted by my wife. I have no idea when she had time to do it, but it was a surprise!! The second picture is of course the Barzso Fort Boonesborough.

I also got the new Osprey Men-At-Arms 4oth Anniversary book, full to the brim of color plates. Possibly the best book ever put into publication.

Hope all your Christmas days were wonderful. Rock on.

Happy Holidays

Hope this season finds you someplace warm and comfortable, in the company of friends and family. And if you've been really good, maybe there will even be a company of reenforcements under your tree.

(and if you ain't been good, it may be a good idea to start setting up a special operations team to go out and find some reenforcements for New Years!)

The Cost of Business

Here's an article from Yahoo news about the cost of creating toys with today's safety regulations. These "safety" regulations are becoming a problem not just for big name companies, but also small production companies, and that includes all of our favorite toy soldiers that have anything to do with overseas production. I would imagine TSSD, Conte, possibly Hat, Italeri, and Imex have to deal with this when making their plastic toy soldiers.

May be a rough road ahead for awhile.

Invaded by Silver

As you can see, my silver spartans showed up. Again, I can't say enough good things about these figures. Sculpting, posability, the fact that they are Spartans..., can't really go wrong.

One thing to be careful of, if you haven't already found out. The wrists on these guys are a bit fragile. I snapped off two only seconds after they had come out of the package. And one guy has a perpetually floppy shield arm.

I haven't attempted to switch arms for fear of ruining more of them, though I'm dying to try.

I wonder, none of my red ones have even thought about breaking, but the silver ones, they snapped right out of the package, and a couple more are just a twist away from permanent separation. Wonder if the color somehow affects the strength of the plastic, or if I just got really lucky with my red ones, or really unlucky with my silver ones.

Please don't let that warning stop you from buying them though. Wonderful figures, and the small breaks are nothing that a little superglue can't take care of.

News article about Roman Battle Site

Saw this on Yahoo news and thought it was interesting. It's an article about a previously unknown battle between Romans and Germanic Tribes. Has an interesting picture slideshow along with it. Makes you wish a toy soldier maker would really delve into this part of history.

A glimpse into Ancient Greece

I bet you didn't know that the ancient Greeks were one of the first cultures to build adobe buildings... and there were palm trees everywhere... and they collected Aztec monuments to decorate the outsides of their adobe forts. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Birthdays galore

Stephanie's birthday is in December, and mine is in January. For her birthday, this past weekend we went up to see Harry Connick Jr.'s Christmas Show. I have to admit, it was pretty awesome. That guy can sure put on a show. We saw him at the Chicago Theater and stayed at the Hard Rock hotel on Michigan Avenue. It was a fun little trip for us, though I could have done without the six-story Macy's building. Lord help me if I ever get caught in that behemoth again.

For my birthday, I'm picking up for myself a few more of the Conte spartans. If you zip on over to Ebay, you can pick up a set of 12 cards, including each of the different sets, in silver, for $150. These are being sold by Conte.

New TSSD CW Set

I got the latest from TSSD on Friday. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful figures. I love that they went with something a bit more unique, because, let's face it, Civil War has been done a lot. Not saying we can't use more, but it's nice to see some "colorful" poses being offered up. My favorite of the set, and possibly one of my new favorite poses is the kneeling figure firing a pistol. The motion of the figure is apparent immedietly. And of course the wounded figures are much appreciated. I know some people find them a bit of a waste, but for me, a scene simply isn't finished till it has some casualties.

I took a few pictures of a western scene that included a few of the newest figures and posted them to my flickr page.

Fiddlin with the decor

Seems to be a fairly quiet time for toy soldiers lately, so I'm playing with colors a little bit. So, if you show up, and it's like bright purple or something, don't worry, just trying out some new things.

I'm looking forward to getting the new TSSD CW figures. Plus, I'm keeping tabs on the updates at the Hat page and their latest 1/32 previews. I haven't ordered the new Weston Cav figures yet, but if santa doesn't leave em' under my tree, I'll put in an order after Christmas.

AIP, which I don't mention very often, does have some new figures coming out. I haven't gotten anything from them since their WWI figures (which are still the mainstay for WWI collecting). But they do have some new Napoleonics coming out soon.