Toy Fair Plunder - A Sunday Morning Diversion

Every couple of months or so there is a large (300 stalls) toy fair held at the Stafford County showground, which is about 45 minutes by car. I have got into the habit of going to this show plus another one held 3 times a year, at Malvern Three County Showground. They are both general toy fairs, but toy soldiers are present at both. I thought I would quickly share the spoils of todays visit and also touch upon my buying strategies, if you can call them that!

I always buy an 'early bird' entry ticket. Why wouldn't you? Yes its generally twice the normal entry fee. At Stafford for instance, its £10 instead of £5, but you can get in 2 and half hours before everyone else. The advantages of this are twofold. First of all you can walk round leisurely and see every stall without crowds of people jostling you and getting in the way and more importantly, you get to buy before the majority of the attendees. I am primarily looking for cheap hollow cast figures and accessories and they are not in abundance. So getting an opportunity to buy before anyone else is valuable. These two factors are worth an extra £5 to me every time. 

As I have previously made clear, I am primarily a wargamer and my main focus is 54mm traditional toy soldiers. I enjoy buying unloved, battered, hollow cast figures and repairing and repainting them. I am also happy to buy figures in good condition, so that I don't have to strip and repaint them , but they have to be at the right price point. Todays purchases are fairly typical for me and cover both of these categories. 

The restored Horseguards, awaiting a coat of green paint on the bases

A few months back I bought some Britains Horseguards at a toy fair and didn't notice until I got them home that they were showing signs of lead rot. Unhappy, I gave them to my very good friend John to melt down and reuse for some of his Prince August castings. Not unusually for John, he decided that they were still too good to be melted down and he carefully restored them and freshly repainted, presented them back to me as an unexpected gift. As there were only 4 including the Farrier I needed to add another 2 or 3 to make a minimum of 6 for a unit. I have some unpainted castings which I can use for this purpose but today found a better solution. Three mint condition original figures which the dealer kindly sold to me for a total of £8. So at under £3 each I have completed the unit and can use the other castings elsewhere at a later date. I just need to base them .

The new recruits

Other 'good' figures I found today, included a nice Scots Grey Officer for £5. I already have some poor condition castings awaiting their turn for refurbishment and it will be nice to match them up to this Officer in a unit. 

From the same dealer, I picked up a mint Arab on horse with Jezail rifle. I already have a refurbished unit of these but for another £5 I thought I would start recruiting another unit. 

For a 60 plus year old mounted figure in extremely good, almost mint condition, I consider £5 a very fair price. I prefer to pay under £3 for examples that need work on them. It is worth bearing in mind that modern recasts and similar can cost £8 to £10 each for a bare metal casting. As for Infantry, I will try to pay £1 to £3, possibly a pound or two more for special figures like Officers etc. Again modern castings are £4 or £5 each.

All of the above figures came from a box of 'everything a pound'! I love to see such boxes as these give me the figures to convert, refurbish etc. Missing arms are the biggest issue, but John casts me some from his Prince August moulds which are sometimes just right and its possible to buy recast Britains arms as well. Nothing rare here but all good fodder!

From the same box. Animals are the easiest castings to pick up cheap and generally speaking I have enough and avoid them. Dogs are however useful additions for commanders etc and I want more Britains Highland Cattle. The others were just odd figures that took my eye.

Again from the same £1 box! Can't have too many wells (Taylor and Barret I think), or dog kennels?

The two Britains lying logs are fantastic pieces of scatter terrain and Sniper cover! I must have 5 of these now. The corn stacks by Charbens are again lovely scatter pieces to enhance my rural battlefields. The trunk will be useful and the feed trough a nice little piece. All told I bought 24 pieces from the £1 box and was charged £20. 

My two favourite finds were the Britains pre war village girl and the Johilco Bulldog, both of which I have wanted for a while now. The Bulldog normally sells for anywhere between £5 and £10, so to find it in my £1 box was great. I actually paid £2 for the village girl but again she is normally more than that. Both need stripping and repainting but that will be a pleasure!

So there we have it, another collection of lead waifs and strays bought home to Apperley Towers, for new adventures. I still buy from E-bay, but its not as much fun as searching the tables of the toy fairs. You just don't know what will turn up and very often, very cheaply. I may make this a regular series of posts if there is interest? 

 

Tara a bit!