The march of the toy soldier: The market for a collectible

✍ Scribed by Donald C. Wellington; Joseph C. Gallo

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 403 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-2545
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00189208

✦ Synopsis

Fate is sometimes kind. During the past decade it has become kind to certain middle -aged men who can once again play with the toy soldiers of their youth. This happy circumstance has been made possible by the market changing to a purely exchange one.

Tiny soldiers have an ancient history. The earliest ones date from at least the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt. Two groups of painted wooden figures, one of Egyptian heavy infantry and the other of Numidian light infantry, were found in the grave of a Prince Emsah of the 12th Dynasty. [l ] The great era of thetoy soldier did not, however, come until the 19th century when two types were somewhat popular. They were fiats made of tin and solids made of lead. Both materials, especially tin, were quite expensive to be used in making toys and the resulting relatively high price of toy soldiers inhibited their widespread use. A technical breakthrough came in 1893 when William Britain developed a process for producing hollow -cast figures from a casting that consisted of only a metal skin and was hollow in the center. Much less lead became needed in the production of a figure and hence it could be produced quite cheaply. Britain began producing figures representing certain famous regiments in the British Army and eventually produced all the Foot Guards, most of the cavalry regiments, many of the regiments of the line as well as many foreign regiments. The figures were in various parade, firing, and charging stances. Some were in dress uniform and some in khaki.

Although other firms copied the technique, Britain's finn dominated the market which can be characterized as a good example of monopolistic competition. Its prices were much the same as its rivals but its output much outstripped theirs. As the technique was relatively simple, it could be easily copied and differences in technical aptitude eamnot have been significant. About the only technical difficulty is that care must be exercised in the casting and hence shoddy castings could sell at a lower price. The other