Welcome to my blog, 'Tales From The Toy Room' and this, my very first post.

Over the last few years, I have derived a lot of enjoyment and inspiration from reading blogs by fellow wargamers and toy soldier enthusiasts. I have wanted to share my own toy soldier adventures for just as long, and despite my somewhat inadequate computer skills, I am finally here.

The first challenge was to come up with a suitable name and perhaps more importantly, one that was not already taken! 'Tales From The Toy Room' was my first attempt at a name and I was really pleased to find it was not taken in any way. This early victory has however been overshadowed by technical challenges and I beg patience whilst I improve the overall look and functions of the blog.

The toy room is a very real room, situated on the first floor of Apperley Towers, here in the heart of the Black Country. It serves as a library, wargames room and repository for my various toy soldiers and paraphernalia and is my happy place away from the ravages of this increasingly insane world we live in. 

For those who have never heard of the  Black Country, it is an informal designation for a relatively small area of land in the very heart of the industrial West Midlands. You will not find it on any maps, and its boundaries are a subject of much debate. Dudley is the heart of the area and Wolverhampton its Northern border. It was famously described in the 19th century as 'black by day and red by night' because of the numerous iron foundries and coal mines and is believed to have been Tolkeins' inspiration for the land of Mordor! Thankfully its very different now, but a trip to the Black Country living museum is highly recommended if you are ever in this part of the world.

Enough of my heritage, what am I going to be writing about in this blog?

Fundamentally, I shall be talking about toy soldiers, and predominantly the traditional 54mm toy soldier scale. I may delve into 40mm as I introduce my beloved Elastolin armies, and may go even smaller to 25mm with my fantasy and middle earth forces. My declining eyesight however, makes anything smaller than that non tenable!

I want to document, the acquisition and painting of new forces, the repair and salvage of veteran soldiers, games played out on my trusty 6' by 4' table and everything in between. I shall talk about civilian figures, scenic items, books and rules systems! Clockwork trains and diecast cars will make an appearance as they move across my wargames table and boats and planes are in my plans too. 

So, a wide remit and hopefully something for everyone, although toy soldiers and yet more toy soldiers, will be at the heart of everything I post. 

No blog entry can be complete without photos of toy soldiers, so here are a few of an imminent solo game between the forces of Royalist Albion and the Socialist Rebellion. 

This game will be the focus of a future blog post, but until then, I will leave you with the traditional black country words of farewell until we meet again ........

Tara a bit!