October 2025 New Jersey Toy Soldier Show, this is a small show, but even small shows can turn up treasures for your collection and resale.
October 2025 New Jersey Toy Soldier Show
The New Jersey Toy Soldier Show is held three times a year. It’s a smaller show and the last two times, the crowd waiting for the show to open was less than 10 people. However, you can still find treasures if you look closely. After the doors opened, a collector in front of me went to a table and bought a Marx Civil War mansion, minus the porch, for $12.00. I looked to see what the person had passed on and discovered the dealer had four Reisler GI’s. Reisler was a toy soldier company from Denmark. They produced various hard plastic 35mm and 54mm figures. Later, they started making soft plastic unpainted figures. The four figures I found were first produced between 1951 and 1953, according to the Reisler website. Many of the poses, such as the soldier with the binoculars, are copies of Timpo GI’s. Others, like the soldier with an overseas cap and at attention, are original figures. The price was very reasonable, only $2.00 for the four figures. One final note: take a look at the eyes on the two soldiers with overseas caps.
From this dealer, I walked to the opposite end of the show and worked my way back towards the entrance. I found a Britains Deetail German motorcycle with sidecar and two Starlux figures in the box. One of the highlights of this show is that Hobby Bunker offers bags of plastic figures. Some of them are reissues, which I can resell, or they are foreign or American plastic. I found the resin Conte Collectibles Alamo pieces and reissues from Marx, such as the Indian figure above. Another dealer had various plastic figures including the Jescan Turks from the Lawrence of Arabia set. My friend Gerry Watts was there, selling both metal and plastic figures. After about two hours, I headed home. On the way home, I stopped at the Clinton Station Diner.