They were about in the sixties, and made fab castles and 12 inch action figures...
yes unfortunately, I was a child then,lol....
I remember having a gold knight from the noble knight collection....no dolls for me....
Thanks dad...you started all this......
Britain's knights for me. Plastic ones with nice weighty metal bases. You could swap and change the weapons.
AWESOME :D
I had a wooden castle, can't remember the manufacturer but I played with it a lot with my Britains, Timpo and Airfix toy soldiers.
On a different note if there is anyone out there how likes nostalga pay a visit to: Soldiers In Silloth, a small museum in Silloth Cumbria devouted to one mans collection of toy soldiers.
The owner/curator is a nice chap who knows a lot about his chosen hobby.
:)
Thanks for that info skywalker, when we go to Cumbria we stay in Cokermouth, and are often popping along the coast between Silloth and Maryport to walk the dogs. I'll look the museum up the next time I'm there.
I had a wooden fort made in Germany and masses of Timpo Confederate and Union soldiers. The fort was made of individual wall sections so it could be set up in a varity of ways. Had a gate and all sorts of associated gubbins. I had two or three waggons as well, and artillery.
*Sad story*
As a child I spent many years in hospital. Every time my parent visited they brought me 2 foot or 1 horse Timpo figure. We we BFPO at the time so I only got to see them once a week.
Seems, their products are quite collectable now...
On another note I had a great action man with sledge...cool..
Mainly Britain's figures for me. "Swoppet" knights were undoubtedly my favourites but they were pricey.
Two wooden castles, source unknown.
I never had a Marx castle though my Dad built me one for I think my 7th birthday along with loads of Timpo knights etc..I was about 3-4 foot long and about 2 feet wide...I think I played with it everyday for about 3 years
Quote from: get2grips on 04 February 2014, 12:03:30 PM
Britain's knights for me. Plastic ones with nice weighty metal bases. You could swap and change the weapons.
AWESOME :D
I still have a bag full of knights with interchangeable weapons over at my folks' house! Used them togheter with my playmobil western fort ;D ;D
I was using proxies already ;D ;D :-[
Quote from: petercooman on 04 February 2014, 01:42:13 PM
I still have a bag full of knights with interchangeable weapons over at my folks' house! Used them togheter with my playmobil western fort ;D ;D
I was using proxies already ;D ;D :-[
That is funny ;D
We had the Action Man sized knight, Geronimo and a 'cow girl' as we called her. Many happy days spent playing with these and Action Man :)
I had a load of the old hollow-cast lead soldiers. Sadly, they were very prone to losing their heads. The solution was a matchstick rammed into the head and then down into the body. Worked for a while, anyway.
I has a marx mini playset Blue and Grey, a bit bigger than Airfix, hard plastic and painted, lots of interesting extras, how I loved that set.
Had one in the very early sixties which I used with my WOR Swoppets.
Quote from: cameronian on 05 February 2014, 03:29:02 PM
I has a marx mini playset Blue and Grey, a bit bigger than Airfix, hard plastic and painted, lots of interesting extras, how I loved that set.
Bet you wished you'd kept it: ;)
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Old-1960s-Marx-BLUE-and-GRAY-Civil-War-Miniature-Playset-Vintage-MARX-MINI-TOY-/231050488884
I had loads of Airfix. And a spring action gun. Then one day my cousin appeared with dice and a Charles Grant book.
That day, I ceased to play with toy soldiers and began wargaming.
Really miss me fort and Swoppetts.
Quote from: Dour Puritan on 07 February 2014, 04:01:54 PM
Really miss me fort and Swoppetts.
You can still get them - if you've got deep pockets. :'(
http://www.xxl-sale.co.uk/search/?q=britains%20swoppet&campid=5337249842 (http://www.xxl-sale.co.uk/search/?q=britains%20swoppet&campid=5337249842)
Quote from: Sunray on 07 February 2014, 10:48:57 AM
That day, I ceased to play with toy soldiers and began wargaming.
That's a beautiful thought, Sunray.
Hello
I didn't have the wooden castle but I did have the 1960s castle play set:-
(http://cf.collectorsweekly.com/stories/IwCio3mf.m.EvCauzotWyA.jpg)
The Airfix Infantry Combat Group assaulted this castle many times after the knights that came with it got broken (superglue might have fixed them now but nothing at that time would do much good) the Airfix Germans fought bravely.
(http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/SetScans/AIR1703a.jpg)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Older-AIRFIX-1-72-scale-German-Infantry-WW2-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/zyoAAOxyVaBSpP2O/$_57.JPG)
Disagreements with my friend on the efficiency of shooters led us to to start using dice on whether a 'hit' was made or not. The madness grew from there :).
Cheers
GrumpyOldMan
Wow Thanks for posting that GrumpyOldMan that brought back so many happy memories , My lunacy started too with these sets, was great to see them again :D :-bd
All the best
Sean
Quote from: seano1815 on 08 February 2014, 09:44:51 AM
Wow Thanks for posting that GrumpyOldMan that brought back so many happy memories , My lunacy started too with these sets, was great to see them again :D :-bd
All the best
Sean
Indeed. The ACW cavalry were in high demand with us - you could convert them into almost anything. Anything on horseback, that is.
Was it just me or were prone toy soldiers the best? :-\
Oh those Combat Group and Germans brought back a few memories. The Combat Group was 1950s era though. WW2 Brits did not appear until the 1970s. These first edition Airfix were very fine - more 1/87 H0 scale - the Airfix tanks were too large at 1/72. I finally purchased Roco minitanks which were very good models.
Never understood why Airfix did not mould in hard plastic - the same as their kits. So many conversions would have been possible.
Ah - but you could. When I still used the Combat group I had Bren Guns, done by chopping the rifle out of the charging figure and taking the bren from the 8Th army set.
IanS
Quote from: Sunray on 08 February 2014, 07:30:53 PM
Never understood why Airfix did not mould in hard plastic - the same as their kits. So many conversions would have been possible.
Iron, rather than steel, dressmaker's pins for spears. Iron ones could be hammered to produce a proper spear head.
Plasticene and banana oil cloaks.
Drawing pin shields.
Horses, legs and torsos pinned together (steel pins this time) to make mounted versions.
So many conversion options!
Bees' wax was the conversion material of choice for us. Mind you, you had to ensure they were well and truly varnished in the summer. ;)
Found this in a local museum display at the weekend:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1779092_10151882204797522_1991530328_n.jpg)
I think I had that. :-[
I certainly had this ...
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Combat-Board-Game-1968-Lt-General-Sir-Brian-Horrocks-by-Morton-Productions-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/V5MAAOxy5jxSa-Kn/$T2eC16J,!)wFIZbh4wpWBS,-KmfELg~~60_35.JPG)
I certainly had the Battle of the Little Big Horn, I'd completely forgotten about that!
Hello Leon
Quote from: Leon on 03 March 2014, 06:13:06 PM
Found this in a local museum display at the weekend:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1779092_10151882204797522_1991530328_n.jpg)
Yes I had this, the horses were in a waxy plastic (resin?) that broke easily, have a few unbroken ones left.
Cheers
GrumpyOldMan
cool
Quote from: Fenton on 04 February 2014, 01:40:08 PM
I was about 3-4 foot long and about 2 feet wide...
You were a pretty stout fellow, weren't you Fenton? ;)
Sorry, couldn't resist that since I had to laugh about it all the way through the rest of the comments... :D
Cheers!
Rob
I still have a box with the tanks, SP guns and aircraft from Combat! Though the board and the vinyl terrain are long since lost.
My introduction to board wargames was a game the local vicar had back in the early sixties. Hard to believe now, but in those days I was a choirboy in the local church. After choir practice the vicar and his wife were kind/ foolish enough to invite all the boy choristers back to the vicarage where we were allowed to run riot for an hour or two. They had a game not unlike Combat! but with cardboard counters of infantry, tanks and artillery and a printed map board.
Hadn't thought about it for years (possibly decades) and then last year I was at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow for a talk about their collection of WW2 stuff and there was a modern reproduction of the game, done about 50% bigger for display purposes, on show in the section on children's wartime games.
Of course never thought to take a note of what it was called or who produced it :(
Also, on the German and British Airfix sets. Took me ages to find out why some Germans troops had been issued with pogo sticks :-[
Quote from: Ithoriel on 04 March 2014, 03:34:28 PM
Also, on the German and British Airfix sets. Took me ages to find out why some Germans troops had been issued with pogo sticks :-[
;D ;D ;D
I remember that one: weird looking weapon. Was it accurate?
Up to about 100m I think.