This year Laurie and I did something different that we had not done in a long while, we set up at toy soldier show. Our very good friend Erwin Sell, who had set up before at shows decided to expand the number of tables he had previously due the various new products he had including his new tank and asked if we could help. He need someone to help watch his tables. We said sure and the next thing we know, Erwin gave us space to sell some of our items. We decided to do it as I had some large items I do not like to ship and to see what we could sell.
We got at the show around 8:00AM and set up. Once we set up, I roamed around to see what was out there. First thing I did was check in John Stengel JR. to get the latest status of the Action Casting figures. John said he is in the final stages of productions. He has a lot of interesting ideas. One thing I got clarified was how he is making the figures. John told me that he is hand pouring the figures not using hand injection machine as reported elsewhere.
Going down from John JR. we talked to John SR the Marxman. He is doing a line of recasts of Marx figures and accessories. He calls them Paintables. John Sr. had a number of the figures on display and ready for sale.
Some of the figures John had recast are the 60mm Marx Annie Oakley, 60mm Pilot running with parachute, 60mm paratrooper. mule with pack and much more. The figures and accessories are made of high quality resin plastic. The figures come with a separate base. John did this as there were complaints out at OTSN about the figures being too close to the originals. I will talk more about this in a separate review. The figures are various prices the Annie Oakley figure is $15.00, the pilot is $8.00 and the paratrooper is $6.00.
I talked to Tony of Armies in Plastic and he said he had two camel corps coming in shortly. One will be Egyptian Camel Corp and I missed what the other one was and will find out.
Rick Eber always has a large selection of plastic figures and accessories mostly Marx. Rick also had nice selection of playsets including a Sears Center.
Here you can see a Marx Super Circus and Artic playset pieces with a gold mine in the back.
Another look at the Super circus and Artic pieces
Various Marx military and some Premier spacemen in the lower left
Some of the various tin litho flags Marx made with the Six inch WWII German bayoneting
The hard to find Marx Military Exchange
Marx Zorro Playset with character figures
Marx Rin Tin Tin and Gunsmoke Character figures among others
Marx Covered Wagons in various colors
Marx Ben Hur Figures and Accessories
Another person with lots of plastic figures was Bob Jones. Bob always has a selection of plastic from Marx and other companies to select from.
Some of Bob Jones’ bins of figures.
Various Marx Figures including a falling horse and rider
More of Bob’s Bins
Plasticraft Space Vehicle along with some Marx Space Pieces
MMarx 60mm Civil War figures
Marx Boy Scouts
Marx miniature western town
Still more plastic.
Another stand I stopped at was Heritage Figures run by Don Ducotte and his wife. Don makes the swappable line of figures which include 1812 soldiers and sailors, knights and Vikings. Don has not done any new figures this year as he and his wife moved to Virginia due to his wife’s work and he had to leave his equipment in Florida. Don and his wife are moving back to Florida in the spring and he hopes to start new product at that time .
Some of Heritage Figures Robin Hood and Merry men
Paul, we all appreciate the good reporting and the nice photos. It’s the next best thing to being there. I’m glad you and Laurie could get in the middle of the action with Erwin at his tables.
On another note, I’m starting to get slightly worried about the Viet Cong and other new figures from John Stengle Jr. I’m not blaming him; I know he doesn’t want there to be delays any more than the rest of us. But the fact that he’s using what appears to be a somewhat new and unknown process for making plastic figures makes me wonder if his process is really going to be suitable for multi-figure production. I saw the prototypes at OTSN, and I’m hoping it works out for him. If it does, the hobby will have, for the first time, what it has long needed: quality sculpted plastic Vietnam War figures.
Don
As I said I talked to John Stengel JR. and he is working out the kinks. He is trying a new way to make figures and it is a learning process. We wish him well.
Does “Paintables” have a website to order from?Would really like to see re-cast Training Centre Trucks!If the new VietNam figs are in a resin similar to Barzso’s first figs that will be a negative factor for me.
Brian
I have told that there is a web site, but it is not working or up. As I get news we will let you know.
http://scottmingus.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/dobbin1.jpg
Do not know if this link or photo will work ,but I have been dying to know who the maker of these figures might be (Stadden ?)
Mark
I am not sure if it is Stadden, I will see if a friend can tell me if it is.
Thanks Paul,any help will be appreciated .They come from the Gettsburg book ( from a series using toy soldiers in photos to illustrate different battles ) I had the book since I was about 8 years old and these are some of my favorite figures especially the figures on the left they seem to have very good detail especially considering how old they must be !
I believe John Jr is using a process similar to what is used by Plastic Underground. Since it is a gravity pour basically there are some issues with the mold being filled and bubbles in the figures. The way his dad explained it to me, he may pour four figures before he gets one good one. I guess those are the kinks he is trying to work out. I guess it would be helpful if he had some type of centrifugal force device that would help the pour get into all parts of the mold and eliminate the bubbles. Something similar to what is used by Replicants.
Ed B
Replicants has a small injection machine to do their work. Peter Cole had done sculpting for Britains.
The way John JR is doing his figures you will have bubbles that you have to get them out.
There is a technique for removing air bubbles from a liquid poured in a mold ; The mold is placed in a bell jar and an attached vacuum pump pulls the air from the jar. This will also draw any air bubbles out of the liquid in the mold; The process must take place before the liquid begins to solidify. Hope this helps.
TD
Thanks for the information it will be passed along
Thanks for the mention, Paul. You also reported the HTF situation correctly (other news pubs and blogs got it wrong). The new projects for ’15-’17 are Jeanne D’arc knights, WW1, and American Revolution. Some ACW figures may also pop out.
Don D
I pride myself on getting accurate information to share with my readers. I will go to the party or get the information from very reliable sources.
For the record, HTF “Swappables” are also injection-molded of beautiful polyethelene on a small machine, like the AB100 PLASTIC INJECTOR INJECTION MOLDING MACHINE on eBay.