Just Another Day In Dodge City.............

One of my earliest memories, is of Friday morning shopping trips with my mother to the local village shops. These were in Roseville, a small village in Coseley, here in the heart of the Black Country. I was 4 years old and not yet at school. I was toy soldier mad even then, and had a large collection of soldiers which I played with most days. 

Toy Soldiers were sold everywhere in those halcyon days, from the Timpo counter packs in the post office, to Lone Star, Crescent and others in the newsagents and of course B.J. Flavell's bicycle and toyshop (of which more another day!). But best of all, was 'the pram shop' ,which sold everything for babies and very young children, including for some unknown reason, Britain's Swoppets! 

Roseville in the early 1960's with Flavell's toyshop to the right of the picture

Swoppets were expensive (2 or 3 other makers figures for the same price) and my parents struggled to make ends meet, but on several joyous occasions my mother did buy me a Swoppet. I always chose a Cowboy with the removeable pistols and thought they were just the best toy soldiers that could be bought. I pride myself on being a discerning toy soldier enthusiast even at that early age! 

60 years later, I have a modest collection of these figures, plus the glorious Stagecoach and a couple of other wagons. I also have a wild west town that I have collected over the years, utilising all of the fantastic Britain's Swoppet buildings, plus some made by Timpo and others. 

n addition I have a wooden street of Wild West buildings made by a company called 'ELF'. As a child I had this exact same item and was extremely pleased when I stumbled across this one in an antiques centre in the late 1990's. For ten pounds I was able to bring it back home to Apperley Towers for my Swoppet Cowboys to fight over again! 

My Swoppets are bolstered with a few refurbished hollowcasts and a lot of the excellent Replicant figures from the talented Peter Cole. I love the movement that Peter puts into his models and his figures are a mix of civilians and gunslingers which fit in so well. To round off the collection I do of course have the excellent Timpo 'Prairie Rocket' train. Just so the new Marshall, or the outlaw gang, can arrive on the mid-day train!

As with all of my toys, I do still like to play games with them and not just leave them languishing in cabinets or boxes. I am a gamer at heart, so all that was missing now to bring this collection to life, was a decent set of rules. These presented themselves to me in 2017, when Osprey published 'Dracula's America , Shadows Of The West'. 

These rules are for a Gothic Horror skirmish game set in the Old West which sounded interesting. To paraphrase from the rear jacket of the book.......

'It is 1875, and Count Dracula is president of the USA. President Lincoln has been assassinated along with his administration and in the chaos that follows, dominating the Senate, Dracula declares himself president for life!'

This is of course total fantasy, as the Whitehouse could never be inhabited by a malign character with ambitions to become President for life. Nonetheless, my curiosity was piqued and I bought the book.

In my next post, I will talk about the rules mechanics in the context of an actual game, which I will be playing with my very good friend and longtime fellow gamer, John C. So until then...

Tara a bit!