"What happened to the classic 54mm miniature lines?" Topic

Up until a decade or so ago I collected toy soldiers with my son: Trophy, Steadfast, Alymer, (several others). These were all in more or less 54mm. Finding some old figures stored away resulted in a rush of nostalgia that led me to look up the old hobby.

It appears to me that all new figures are now 60mm, more collector's than toy soldiers, and incredibly expensive. Is this an accurate impression? Are there companies producing figures that still fit in with, say, Trophy? Or has this era of Middle Earth Toy Soldiers passed on?

Tradition of London has 54mm old style gloss toy soldiers. they are pretty good. traditionoflondonshop.com

Hi Tom,

Completely understand what you are saying. If you are okay with painting them, you might try Dorset Toy Soldiers – they are in a classic toy soldier style, are relatively inexpensive, and the owner, Giles Brown, is a pleasure to deal with. Take a look: dorsetmodelsoldiers.com

Not quite as charming as Dorset, but still very affordable, are those by Irregular Miniatures. Again. you'll have to paint them, but they make some great figures. irregularminiatures.co.uk

Good luck with your search!

Daryl

treefrogtreasures.com/forum

Go here, my friend. All of your questions will be answered.

Black Hat Miniatures also do 54mm Toy soldiers, unpainted
castings and painted sets. Sorry, don't know how to do a link.

We own a toy soldier company as well

imperialminiatures.co.uk

Imperial Miniatures and we produce Colonial and British in India castings and painted figures in 54mm…

Most of the glossy soldier companies are based in the UK rather than the USA

Mike

I wonder about the old, plastic, Airfix, 1/32nd scale lines?

Perhaps they're still available.

Been a very long time since I've been in a hobby shop that carried them, and most of the ones that did have closed.

+1 for Giles at Dorset. Most of his (massive) range is either re-mouldings of long-extinct castings or designed to be compatible with the older, 'toy' style figures.

I have not ordered in far too long, but back when I did, Giles was very helpful, willing to provide knowledge and parts for conversions, based on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the hobby.

Airfix at least has been repacked and repacked and repacked.

Still miss those big @$$ boxes Airfix ued to make!
They contained, like, 29 figures or something?

Since then they halved the size…

(Still have a fond memory about my mom bringing me the US Soldiers box when I was a wee toddler)

Ah, I actually have some Dorset packed away somewhere. Along with Mignot and many others.

Thanks for the Treefrog recommendation. I have to admit, it is tempting to dip my toe back in….

The biggest issue is that I have so many 54mm that it would be impossible to go to the 60mm. Are the "new" King & Country 60's? What about the new Britains (Civil War/Sudan/WWI)?

nevinsrip – thanks for that link to the Toy Soldier Forums. It's a fantastic site for toy soldier fans!

I want to thank everyone for their replies. I have been exploring the last couple days and there may be a few options still out there to round out my existing collection. It would appear that Tradition is still a reasonable 54mm line, and some other are not too far off.

+2 for Dorset. I sent Giles a scan of a 9th Lancer from the Indian Mutiny and he was able to put together a matching figure out of "spare parts". Pretty quick service to the US considering they had to custom cast the six figures plus horses.

Just a heads up that Giles has sold Dorset to a new owner but is staying on offering some advice and repair work.

Mike

Thank you for the news, Mike, sad as it is to hear it. One can only hope the service and knowledge at Dorset are somehow maintained. Drat.

I understand from someone who spoke to the new owner at the Toy Soldier show that he sounds enthusiastic and keen to carry on with the business in the same way as Giles.

I was very tempted to buy Dorset and would have if I hadn't already setup Imperial Miniatures with the old All the Queens Men ranges.

Mike