Chicago Toy Soldier Show 2018 Ed Borris’ Report we have Ed thoughts on the show. I will let Ed tell about the show. 
Chicago Toy Soldier Show 2018 Ed Borris’ Report Report
List of events.
I arrived early Wednesday about 10:00AM, finally got up to our room about 1:30PM
Some of Ed’s Conversions
I was surprised by how busy it was for a Wednesday, I don’t recall that in previous years so many dealers would have arrived. Before I even got in the door I ran into John Stengel Jr. & Nick Cameron of Crown Miniatures.
More of Ed’s conversions
We had a ton of stuff this year with over 40 playsets , plus many bagged TSSD Sets, Replicants Boxed Engineer B and this year we were selling for Jeff Imel of Victory Buy, who sells BMC, Timmee and Lido. Jeff revealed some proto type colors and his new bunker building.
Anyway, we finally got set up about 3:30PM and opened the doors for sales. Our sales on Wednesday were the biggest during the entire show, mostly other dealers buying out stuff.
Chicago Toy Soldier Show 2018 Ed Borris’ Report Thursday
Thursday was the slowest of the days with light traffic, Friday the traffic picked up but our sales were modest . Saturday the crowd picked up and it was pretty brisk all day again though our sales were modest for the most part although the sales were heavier than Friday.
Sundays was a mad house from 10 to just past noon, there were times when we had 10 or more people at our seven tables , sales were pretty good, the attendance appeared to me to be up from last year, Ton Lozowski told me people were lined up around the corner of the lobby like it used to be in past years.
Ken Ciak had his new Boxed Santa with elves, reindeer and his sleigh as well as prototypes of his upcoming Amazons, at least that is what I was told, I didn’t have a chance to see much at the show as we were really busy most of the show.
Chicago Toy Soldier Show 2018 Ed Borris’ Report Len Hardt
Len Hardt had a fantastic 55 Days of Pekin set in his room, Rick Eber has his usual cache of vintage quality play sets. Ron Barzso had his usual set up of the Yorktown set , he had two redoubts set up in the lobby of the 5th floor. On Friday I did two demo’s on conversions on the four floor lobby, the first session was well attended and it was fun with a lot of questions be asked, I converted some figures in a hurried fashion just to show how I work and my technique.
Chicago Toy Soldier Show 2018 Ed Borris’ Report Purchases
I didn’t really buy much I bought a 10 figure set of Marx Alamo Mexicans in teal or aqua a rare color and a matched set of four put together cowboys and of course the Yorktown set . That was basically the extent of my purchases.
Ed with his Yorktown Playset
We had the old TSSD suite this year and our room seemed to be the gathering place , the usual attendees were Jeshua Newman and his father , Jim Pogwidz, Mark Fuentes, Tom Lozowski and a guy named Mike I don’t remember his last name though.
There were many things going on this year one of which was a war game for kids in the main lobby prior to the actual show, I was so darn busy most of the week I didn’t have a lot of time to wander the halls or visit as many rooms as I usually do.
The surprise item for raffle on Saturday night was the Kurt Douglas autographed playset box again, Rich Egan was kind enough to donate it again for this years auction. I also presented the Little Ronnie figure to Ron Barzso prior to the raffle with a short speech he seemed genuinely touched and honored. One of the items being auctioned off were the Stad World of Plastic Figures newsletters a total of seven, which I won. I look forward to actually sit down and read them. The MIB set opened was a late edition Alamo, even though it was a sealed set, some of the defenders came broken
I completely sold out all of the 19 Little Ronnies I had brought to the show and most of what I had left of the figure of me.
Overall I have to say the show showed marked improvement in attendance over the last few years.
I’m probably missing some things, but I was really, really busy this year, which is why I am still exhausted.
Photos are by Ed Borris and Tom Lozowski
Good report, Ed, and good photos.
I usually end up exhausted at OTSN just spending three days/two nights looking, visiting, socializing, and buying. I can readily imagine the exhaustion that comes from operating a two-room suite, as well as setting up & taking down 7 tables of merchandise on Sunday.
And Len Hardt’s diorama this year — “55 Days to Peking” — was excellent, as usual. I especially liked how Len used two of the BMC San Juan Hill haciendas — sitting one on top of the other — to create a 2-story Peking embassy-style building.
That Hacienda has been re-done to create a multi purpose bunker complete with AA guns on top and a flat roof that should be available soon. It would make a great D-Day bunker. It is also stackable so, you could make it two stories or actually probably as many as you want, I believe his plan is to sell it on its own.
That’s interesting news. Jeff Imel of Victory Buy has made some excellent improvements in the BMC WWII sets, and this sounds like a perfect idea for any kind of WWII strongpoint.
I remember that just a few OTSNs back, Deanna of TSSD (or maybe it was Len, again) also used the building as a very credible Vietnam War/French Indochina building.
I can say this, if Victory Buy does not make it, it will not be due to lack of effort on Jeff’s part, he is one hard working dedicated dude. Quite a few kids came to the show and Jeff’s offerings were of great interest to them, quite a few of them got mom or dad to pop for the items too.
Ed, I agree; Jeff’s efforts at Victory Buy have done a great service to the hobby. I am really looking forward to getting his “revised” bunker system. The San Juan Hill set remains IMHO one of Bill’s best efforts – if only for that Spanish stronghold (or whatever you want to call it); it will be nice to be able to get an extra to really play with for real. Kudos.
Oh yeah Ed, really love your conversions – as usual.
I’ll second Ed’s comment on attendance on Sunday, it was markedly increased.
Thank you for the great report and the great pictures .. really impressive !!!
I’m very interested in seeing the reworked BMC hacienda. This is one year that I’m not sorry to have missed the show, though. If I were there, I would have missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Timmee Russian collector freak that I am. I now have 4 poses of the test-shot tan Timmee Commies (having added 3 poses) and have 11 of 12 poses in that ghastly lime green (added one more pose). Sometimes fate is on your side.
The MBC bunker is actually pretty cool, it now has a flat roof with sand bags you can place on top and AA guns up there. Looks good I’ll see if I can find a picture somewhere.
Ed, always love seeing your conversion figures. Wish you would do some WW2. Come’on, you know you want to. LOL
I could except I don’t have any to convert. I just finished up converting some cavemen, and now I have Greeks and Trojans on my plate. I didn’t have any of those either, but the customers supplied the figures.
Ed – Did you take any picks of the cave men? I’d love to see what you came up with. They’re small too, that had to make it a bit tougher.
That was supposed to be ‘pics’. Don’t know what happened there.
Yeah it was a little tough, I’ll check I should have some pictures.
The LOD Santa, sleigh, reindeer and Elves are great! I had them out for display at Christmas and my wife and daughter liked them. Great sculpts and colors. Tey remind me of the Hong Kong Santas and sleighs I had as a kid, but these are much better!