Michigan Toy Soldier has been issuing a series of Thank You Cards since 2004. These cards are included in each order we ship and include company and return information. These cards also feature collectible Toy Soldiers on the front. To date we have issued 23 different cards. Our first first card was in use from 2004-2005 and we printed 10,000 of these cards. In 2005 we started issuing different cards each time we ran out. Each of these cards are printed in runs of 2500 pieces and we issue four per year on average. Do you have them all?
This is the very first Thank you card we produced. It was in use 2004-2005. We printed over 10,000 of this card before we started changing the figures with every reprint. This card features two 7cm composition cowboys produced by Lineol of Germany in the 1930s. Why were these two figures chosen to be our first Thank you card? I'm really not sure other then to say these have always been among my favorite toy soldiers of all time. It has a lot to do with the dynamic sculpting and the chiseled facial features.
This card features the rare Cromplasto Mexicans. These figures were issued in the 1960 & 1970s in Italy. They are 7cm plastic figures.
These are rare World War I German work party figures made in Germany by Lineol. Produced in the 1930s, These are 9cm composition figures. There are about 12 in the series.
This card featured two dimestore figures. These figures, representing U.S. Doughboys were made in the USA by Barclay in the 1930s & 1940s. They are hollowcast & made of lead and 7cm in size.
Over the years people have asked me what are my favorite figures. Well these are it. Made, beginning in the late 1950s by Herald (England), these are 54mm painted plastic figures. Only four poses were ever made and all four poses were issued as both Union and Confederates. I've never been quite able to put my figure on why these are my favorite figures but I think it's just the clean, simple sculpting that manages to convey dynamic action and motion. I've loved these figure since I was a kid.
Issued in the 1950s and 1960s by Chialu of Italy, these 7cm, composition Cowboys and Indians are among the most dynamic western figures ever made. Like most European companies they issued an extensive range of western figures. For some reason (the old westerns on TV, I think) Cowboys and Indains were, and still are very popular in main land Europe. France, German, Belgium, Spain and Italy all had many manufactures of old west figures. Of all of them, Chialu is far and away my favorite.
I first met Ted Deddens of TedToy Miniatures back in 1992 at the Chicago Toy Soldier Show. I was drawn to his range of American Civil War soldiers. Still my favorite ACW metal soldiers. This range is painted in the traditional gloss style but with a historical style of sculpting. ted has issued many many imaginative sets over the years but none have struck my fancy as much as this Christmas set. It features three Elves standing at attention and presenting a freshly made set of toy soldiers to Santa for inspection. TedToy Miniatures are made entirely by hand in the USA!
Tim-mee Toys, Lido, Marx, Ideal, all these manufactures conjure up images of the classic green army men! For this card we feature five classic poses from Ideal to represent the days gone by spent endlessly fighting backyard battles. Blowing up stuff, shooting off heads with B-B guns. Things were much simpler then.
This card features a set of Normans by Elastolin (or Hausser). Hausser began issuing plastic Elastolin figures in the 1950s. Sold in departments stores and hobby shops through out the USA in the 1950s-60s-70s and early 1980s these figures have become highly collectible. Most figures were issued in 2 sizes, 40mm and 70mm. The figures featured here are the 7cm variety and are 1st version. Collectors refer to Elastolin plastics by the versions or "painting". There are four different versions for most figures. Version 1 is the earliest and features a "stained paint" on ivory plastic. Version 2 or Painting 2 which were issued in the 1960s were mold in white plastic with the flesh and everything else painted on. Version 3 from the 1970s featured the figures being molded in flesh colored plastic and everything else painted on. Finally Preiser bought the molds for these figures when Hausser went out of business in the early 1980s and has been issuing these figures ever since. These figures are considered by many to be the "Cadillac" of plastic toy soldiers.
Timpo Toys from England started lead hollow-cast production in 1949 and this use of lead was halted around 1956 to make way for new plastic ranges. In the 1960s Timpo came up with the "Swoppet". A swoppet is a figure with interchangeable parts. Each figures parts can be changed or swapped with other figures to make completely new figures. Timpo plastic figures are popluar with collectors through the world having been one of the most widely distributed figures in toy soldier history. They could be found in toy stores and hobby shops throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and South America. Here we feature two cowboys from the 1970s.
As a child David Cowe peered wistfully through Wellington shop windows at shiny new toy soldiers he couldn't afford. As with generations of small boys before him, the toys represented an imaginary world of battles won and lost on exotic shores. Fast forward to the early 1980s and Imperial Productions. Based in New Zealand, Imperial produces 54mm solid cast toy soldiers in the traditional glossy style. The figures pictured here represent British infantry in the Napoleonic Wars.
Pictured here are 3 post war GIs by Manoil. After the war companies raced to produce figures that resembled the WWII GI. Up until the war most figures depicted the GI (or Doughboy) in the WWI style Brodie Helmet. The figures here are some of the first to depict the WWII GI in the classic M-1 helmet. These are another example of excellent sculpting making the figure. The sculptor managed to get dynamic figures with the confines of a two dimensional mold. It wouldn't be long before plastic took over and the dimestore figures faded away.
Landsknechts (singular Landsknecht, German plural Landsknechte, were European, most often German, mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers from the late 15th to the late 16th century, and achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenary of the European Renaissance. What made the landsknechts so conspicuous was their elaborate dress, which they adopted from the Swiss, but later took to even more dramatic excess. Doublets, deliberately slashed at the front, back and sleeves with shirts and other wear pulled through to form puffs of different-colored fabric, parti-colored hose; jerkins; ever-broader flat beret-type hats (or Tellerbarrets) with tall feathers; and broad flat shoes, made them bodies of men that could not be mistaken. The St. Petersburg collection (also known as Aeroart) issued a series of these colorful characters in the early mid-2000s. Each figure is hand painted in Russia and issued in limited numbers of 200 or less.
C.B.G. Mignot of France, more commonly known as Mignot is the oldest toy soldier company still producing figures from some of its original designs. These 55mm figures are solid cast and made from a soft metal (i.e. lead). Traditionally, always high priced compared to its competitors and even considered "connoisseur figures" by some, these figures have found a permanent home among collections, on the shelves with W. Britain, Heyde and other less expensive makers. In 1950, for the price of one set of Mignots, you could buy five or six sets of Britains. These figures are from the American Civil War range which débuted in the 1950s. The range included Union and Confederate marching & fighting, artillery, wagons and also a unique series of camp figures. Still charming 60 years later even with their distinctively French looking features.
Ahh! Those loveable Italians and their interpretation of the American Wild West. European kids went crazy for the Wild West in the 1950s & 60s. And the European makers didn't disappoint with 1000s of different figures in all forms, materials and types. Picture here are two plastic "swoppet" style figures made by the Italian company Nardi. A swoppet is a figure with interchangeable parts. Each figures parts can be changed or swapped with other figures to make completely new figures. Over the top sculpting and poses from the Italians make their figures some of the most unique toy soldiers ever made. I have yet to find any documented proof that indians wore pink trousers.
For reason we still aren't sure of, we came up with a series of buttons featuring colorful character faces from some of our favorite figures. These were passed out at shows we attended. There was 200 of each button produced. Now highly collectible these buttons are rumored to bring 1000s on eBay and a complete set were recently featured on Pawn Stars. "Chumlee" claims it's the best purchase he ever made!
Series two of the infamous MichToy buttons debuted in early 2009. With only five different ones these are rarer then the Series One issues. These were passed out at shows we attended. There was 200 of each button produced.
With this card we decided it was time to toot our own horn and feature one of our Old Northwest sets. These three fellas come from the very first set in the Old Northwest Trading Company series "Camp Life in the American Civil War". Sculpted by Doug Dearth these are from the set ACW-006 O Be Joyful. ONTC is dedicated to producing highly realistic, historically accurate 1:32 scale (2 1/4") painted pewter historical figures and vehicles.
Bond...James Bond. Hands down Thunderball is my favorite Bond film of all time. I remember watching it in the theater when I was kid and being mesmerized by the underwater battle. Lo and behold almost 50 years later Andrea Miniatures releases a figure kit based on that classic underwater battle. I did the only logical thing and commissioned MichToy's own Dave Youngquist to paint it up for me. The finished product is presented here in all it's award winning glory!
Until recently no 1st version examples of the Elastolin 7cm plastic Romans were known to exist. For years collectors speculated as to whether they were ever made in the 1st painting style. Well they do and they surfaced on eBay from a collector in South America. For the uninitiated, collectors refer to Elastolin plastics by the versions or "painting". There are four different versions for most figures. Version 1 is the earliest and features a "stained paint" on ivory plastic. Version 2 or Painting 2 which were issued in the 1960s were mold in white plastic with the flesh and everything else painted on. Version 3 from the 1970s featured the figures being molded in flesh colored plastic and everything else painted on. Finally Preiser bought the molds for these figures when Hausser went out of business in the early 1980s and has been issuing these figures ever since. The figures pictured here are among the rarest of all Elastolin plastic figures.
This card features Morgan Miniatures from the U.K. Gareth Morgan captures the Spanish invasion and the collapse of the Aztec Empire with a series of unique 60mm scale, matt painted, white metal figures. No more than 400 painted figures will be available annually. Each figure is individually hand-painted in the connoisseur style and usually no two figures will be painted exactly the same. Michigan Toy Soldier is proud to be the sole US distributor for this exciting range of figures.
For the 2009 Holiday season we reached way back to the 1940s for this classic dimestore figure of Santa on skis by the manufacturer Barclay. Sold in the 5 & Dimes (hence the name Dimestores) through the USA this must have been an extremely popular figures as it can still be found at collectors shows on a regular basis.
For our 20th card we decided to toot our own horn again and feature one of our Old Northwest sets. "Here we feature "Forever a Rebel" from our Images of War series. This series from the ONTC depicts the famous photographs, paintings and illustrations of armed conflict in three dimensions. The ONTC art and research staff interpreted these famed images and painstakingly recreated them in highly realistic, historically accurate 1:32 scale (2 1/4") painted pewter figures and polystone display bases for a unique model sure to enhance any military figure collection. This is the first set in the series and features the three Confederate prisoners immortalized in the photograph by Mathew Brady. Along with Brady himself the set also comes with a Union soldier standing guard over the prisoners.
For our 21st card we reached back to the 1960s and these figures of Roman Gladiators from the French manufacture Clariet. These figures are 54mm plastic and were packaged in individual window boxes. They are from the Ben-Hur series. This series featured a number of figures and two chariots with Ben-Hur and Messala. After the release for the 1959 movie many manufactures such as the US company Marx and several European manufactures released figures to capitalize on the popularity of the movie.
Roger creates unique and exquisitely details dimestore figures from old original dimestores. He uses damaged discarded figures to make all new poses. He has written several articles on he creates these figures for Old Toy Soldier magazine including "How to Paint Dimestore Conversions" , OTS Spring 2007 Vol. 31 No. 1 and Dimestore conversions using Epoxy Putty. OTS Magazine Summer 2010 Volume 34 No. 2. You can find his figures for sale at the Chicago Toy Soldier show every year. This pair featuring a doughboy posing for the cameraman is from my personal collection.
This is a two piece hand-to-hand scene featuring a Confederate officer and Iron Brigade corporal battling on a set of hasty works. Sculpted by Ken Osen, Master painted by Dave Youngquist. Limited edition of only 300 sets. This is the first in the exclusive Blue/Gray series. It is available exclusively from the following Blue/Gray Dealers: Michigan Toy Soldier Company, Old Toy Soldier Home, Tedtoy Miniatures, Toy Soldier Shoppe
These French Poilus were made in France from 1930-1939 by Resistex. They are 65mm (7cm) composition figures and are from my personal collection.
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