The latest issue of Plastic Warrior has unvieled a new figure company Expeditionary Force. The company was founded in December 2010 by Scott Lam to meet the needs of gamers and collectors. Scott decided to meet the needs of the gamers who feel 1/72 scale is too small while 54mm was too big for gaming. Scott decided on 40mm for his figures. Using his knowledge from his former business career, Scott contacted sources in Southern China who did work for Japanese toy companies to make his figures
Scott’s first two sets are Vikings and Anglo Saxons. Each set has nine foot figures and one mounted. Each figure is made of PVC and painted. A set of 10 figures for $32.00. The set comes from Singapore as that is where Expeditionary Force.
Future plans include American Civil War and Anicent Greeks.
If you are interested in these figures go to
http://www.expeditionaryforce.com.sg/
Those are some nice figures. I wish they were in either 1/32 or 1/72 as I’m too old and don’t have enough room to start collecting another scale. It’s the main reason I stayed out of 28mm.
Wayne
They are nice figures but are not in a scale I collect so I will pass. I wish them luck on their project.
Nice looking figures, make me wonder what other areas they will be covering in the future, I guess that all depends on how well these sell.
Ed
They are planning American Civil War and Anicent Grreks
On a positive note, it looks like the bearded ones would make good dwarves for 1/32 scale LOTR armies.
I was hoping for Alamo, I already have a bunch of 40’s in metal.
If you go to the “Future Releases” tab on the Expeditionary Force website, they have pictures of their upcoming Civil War and Ancient Greeks. They look just as impressive as their Saxons on the first page. But like a few of the others, I’m getting a little old to just up and start collecting a brand new size beyond my normal 54mm – 60mmm.
Those of you attending the show at Indy this weekend. I should have vintage Marx, a Gibbs set, some painted Plastic Underground cavalry and Indians, Some TSSD Earp figures, Barbarians/Romans and possibly some Atlantic figures, maybe even some of the new Paragon Mounted cavalry. Stop by, shoot the breeze, but some figures, just look around.
I fully expect to see you there, Ed. I already can recognize you, since I saw your photo on last year’s collection of photos on the Indy Show website, where you are identified as talking to another collector. I’m planning on departing Michigan around 6:00 AM tomorrow morning (Friday), and am set to spend both Friday and Saturday night there before the show. I expect to arrive at the Marriott around noon on Friday, and will then beg the front desk to let me into my room a couple of hours earlier than the 3:00 PM check-in time. If they don’t, I’ll still commence hitting any open rooms. I know at least Fred and Jane Baurer are actually thinking of checking in on Thursday. Like you, they’re from Indiana. I’ve never arrived at the Indy Show earlier than Saturday before, so I don’t really have a feel for how many room dealers are set up on Friday afternoon and evening. I’m hoping it’s something like OTSN in that respect.
I’ve heard an unconfirmed rumor that Allen Ford and his wife may not be there this year due to a non-toy soldier committment in another state. Too bad, since I always like his stuff and always buy something from him. I like how he organizes his vintage Marx figures in neat, well-arranged trays.
Looking forward to meeting you there.
I’m actually live just outside of Chicago, so I have a drive down too. No Allan Ford, oh man, that’s a bummer. I’ll be sharing a room with Kutnick’s Kollectibles, someone I got left off the list. We’ll have a good supply of TSSD for sale, the new stuff. looking froward to it, should be fun.
Well, the hotel was nice, the ballroom was great, large and very well lit.
Ron Barzso’s new figures were nice nice, I’m going to buy some and I don’t collect AWI. I thought the British charging and getting shot poses were excellent , on the American side I liked the kneeling firing poses and the running poses, not the running poses holding on to his hat, but another one.
As far as the show goes, I thougt the room trading traffic was down and the show attendance was down. My total sales for the show Sunday was one dollar, yes one dollar. It would have been nothing, but I coaxed Calvin Ploughman into giving me a dollar and I gave him a re-cast 60mm cavalry to say I made a sale. Lots of extended looks, lots of questions, but nobody pulled the trigger. Usually I see a number of people walking through the show with playsets under their arms, this year I saw only one. What I sell is targeted for the medium range buyer, my lowest figure price other then some re-casts is $5.00 with the majority being in the 25 to 40 dollar range. While I have a good time talking to old friends and making new ones like Don Perkins, I may have to re-think my Indy philosophy or give some thougth to not attending next year, I’ll probably give it one more shot though. What works at OTSN, doesn’t seem to do as well at Indy.
My sales during the room trading wasn’t bad, not what I had hoped, but not bad. I did manage to pick up a number of figures for my collection and for converting. also managed to pick up some item for future re-sale, so all in all it wasn’t a total loss, but disappointing.
Ed
Sorry to hear about the diapointing sales on Sunday. The crowds can tough. Was anyone selling on Sunday? I will see the MFCA show next month and get an idea on the pulse of the hobby.
The new Barzso Collectibles figures sound interesting I am sure everyone is waiting to see pictures of them.
Yeha people were selling, seemed to me that people weren’t in a buying frenzy though, they were looking more for specific items to round out their collections. Others may have done well, just not me.
Have a question about the Timmee Knights, does anyone know if any of them came some factory paint on them? I bought a bunch at Indy for a really reasonable price, but some of them look like they have some silver paint on them. It looks a lot like some of the Lido knights and the way they had the factory paint.
Ed
As far as I know Timmee did not paint their figures.
Ed, my own observations on the Indy Show are listed under “The Boys”. I put them there before I saw yours under this post. However, I’ve had Timmee Knights both as a child, and have purchased them as an adult at OTSN. Have seen them at about 20 toy soldier shows in the East and Midwest, and don’t think I’ve ever seen them with factory paint, or even collector paint.
I thought it may have been factory paint, because the only color used on the figures was silver and it was like a total paint job, just like highlites in the areas with recessed circles like on the horses blankets and the knights skirts (?).
I must say I saw many strange things at the Indy show, one of which was in Mark Robbs room, he had thousands of figures many of them vintage that had their bases cut off, this included some Conte resin and a Barzso character figure. I could have been mistaken, but it appeared that there was a large bag of vintage Untouchables figures that suffered this fate. I also bought some horribly painted Marx 60mm Indians and revised pose pioneers who were otherwise in fine shape, there was like ten of them, but the price was right, $20.00 and this included some other miscellaneous figures and parts from Fort Apache including two complete blockhouses. If the paint comes off and so far it looks like it will, it was a good deal for me.
Since the Timmee knights came in all sorts of colors, I can easily imagine a collector trying to make them more “realistic” by spray-painting them metallic silver. And what you’ve now got left is the residue of the silver spray paint. I tried doing it myself with my boring blue-gray Airfix knights a few years back —- spray painted a group of them metallic silver and another group of them metallic gold, just to brighten them up. It didn’t work very well, but within a few years, most of the spray paint had flecked off, just leaving traces of silver and gold.
Perhaps, it’s just that I remembered the Lido knights had a partial factory paint job that reminded me of the way these looked and I thought maybe they did these the same way. Maybe somebody just tried to imitate what Lido did, if they didn’t do factory paint jobs some one was up to no good.
Ed, I just noticed on the Toy Soldiers HQ website under their Timmee section, it displays a blister pack of Timmee knights, made either in Germany or for the German market, all in a silver color with painted highlights. The multi-colored highlights are clearly painted, and it appears the basic silver figure is, too. If I knew how to paste on their website so you could click on directly to it, I would.
I went there and saw them, mine are painted like those are highlighted, except the knights are red and white, the horses are highlighted the same way. I guess they could have been all silver at one time and most of the paint flaked off or somebody tried to mimic what those blister cards did, hard to say what these guys went through in the 50+ plus years since they came out of the factory. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were all silver at one time as they the only place the silver remains is within those little recessed links og their chain mail and in the groves behind the ones shield arm between the arm and the shield straps, also the red looks duller then other reds I have , like it was once painted and the paint was removed.
Ed
Interesting on your Timmee knights.Timmee Germany did some interesting variations of the Timmee product. They did the knights in different sizes and poses that were never made here. Two of the poses that were only done in Germany were pirate with pegleg at the steering wheel and U.S. army with a mortar. I had talk about them years ago on our travels to Germany for the Germany Plastic show run by our very good friend Peter Bergner. We were able to pick up some items back. Kent Sprecher did an article on the Timmee Germany figures for Playset magazines. The figures were not common at the show as they are not as desired as the Timpo figures.
I guess Timmee had a factory here in Ilinois not too far from where they have the OTSN. I was talking to Kent at one of OTSN’s and he mentioned he went over there and talked to them. While they were never as desired as other makers figures, they certainly were never the worst figures made. I mean even as a kid if given the choice between Timmee GI’s and Lido it was Timmee hands down. I really like their knights although I’m not all together sure why, of course I also like Ausley’s, but that’s more of a childhood thing, I never had the Timmee knights as a kid.
Ed
I had some of the Timmee army and civil war. I agree they were not worse figures. I always liked their army with bayonet rifle at waist.