The Future Of The Hobby
I periodically hear this question or see it in wargaming and toy soldier magazines: What is the future of our hobby? Without a new generation of collectors there is not much future. I am going to lump toy soldier collecting and wargaming together here while I share my 'two bobs worth'. There are two significant negatives, one being the broader educational context and the other being the 'You reap what you sow' self destructiveness of the collectors and wargamers.
First up there is the obvious 'aging of the hobby' at least when we are talking about traditional wargaming and collecting. You don't see a lot of young faces at plastic Warrior conventions, wargaming events, or ACOTS conventions. This is partly because the bulk of the collectors, in particular, are involved in a nostalgic exercise, recalling the happy times of their childhood. many of those who had that happy time in the days of hollowcast toy soldiers are passing on to that great toy soldier land in the sky. Those who were brought up with plastic toy soldiers in the sixties are heading there to, if not now in a few decades. As the collectors die of their collections are sold and fellow collectors, in a cannibalistic orgy, buy them up. But what happens as fewer and fewer nostalgic collectors are around to buy those figures? I'll come back to that later.
As for the cultural context we had the backlash against all things military after the Vietnam War and the 60s and 70s age of toy soldiers diminished until regenerated in the later 80s by production of toy soldiers, primarily for adults. Accurate was one of the first companies to produce new plastic 54mm toy soldiers. Call to Arms and Italeri were others. In both 1/72 nd 1/32 new figures suddenly proliferated. But what about the children, and let's face it, whatever Wells said about 'the more intelligent girls,' we are mainly talking about boys?
If we are talking about pocket money purchases the old green army men lingered on. Clones of Airfix, Herald and others could still be bought although with decreasing quality of copies of copies. The worst examples are those semi flat blobs that pass for toy soldiers in to Dollar shops. There are still some surprises - new cheap stuff from China which is actually original still appears. these are the sort of figure that start children on the road to toy soldier collecting.
Getting back to cultural context in the 60s and 70s children bought or were given historical magazines designed for children - 'Knowledge', 'Look and Learn', 'Tell Me Why' and the like. Many of the brilliant color illustrations included battle scenes or medieval armor that caught the imagination. then there were the comics which also included references to history, including war comics and Westerns. Robin Hood, Gunsmoke and a host of other Western TV series and movies come to mind. Early Doctor Who featured time travelling to the Crusades and so on.
Today comics and the like are read mostly be adults and those Western shows are pretty rare. But there is something else - the deadening way history is now taught. Sure there is the help of the Internet and gee wiz technology but there is something off putting about the way history is explained, especially for boys. While on the one hand the amount of history taught has decreased so has the way it is taught, at least in terms of military history. So a bunch of boys excitedly find a history subject about the world wars and enrol. What do they find? Maybe something about the Battle of the Bulge or the Kokoda Trail? What about relative tank and plane technology? Not on your Nelly! They will find out about 'causes of WW1' or 'causes of W2' and then jump to 'results of WW1' or WW2 with possibly some initial discussion of 'women in the war'. Of course the way things are going there could well be sub topics about 'patriarchy, sexism and war' or 'transgender people and war.' The other thing is that the bulk of teachers are female, not that the latter can't do an equally good job at teaching history but, by nature, they are more likely to ignore battlefield descriptions. In case you think I am talking drivel I am talking from the first hand observation as a retired teacher.
Now as for me as a teacher I did not shy away from just those sort of descriptions of the relative merits of two handed axes, cross bows and so on. The causes of wars are interesting but so are the actual experiences and relative efficiency of warriors. I even brought toy soldiers to class and occasionally, usually as end of year activities or lunchtime hobby classes, set up wargames; I did that for both historical - ACW and medieval and Science Fiction, generally Warhammer 40K. So a few figures lost their paint of suffered minor damage. I claimed 50% of all my toys soldier related purchases (figures, paints books and bushes) on my tax refund as they could legitimately be claimed as 'educational resources' so I couldn't complain too much. The thing was at least a few of those students went on to become wargamers and I certainly helped out the local GW shop.
This brings me back to the toy soldier collectors, mostly in their 50s and 60s. Like traditional wargamers how many have rolled their eyes when hearing of Warhammer and fantasy or SF games. On seeing a young fellows eyes light up about a game he played or witnessed in a games Workshop he might get some patronising comment that he should learn about 'real wargames and figures'. or worse, keep the little blighters away from the toy soldiers before they break some.
And if we talk about popular culture as a stimulus to toy soldier collecting and wargaming we are really talking Game of Thrones. There is still interest in all things medieval partly as a result of such fantasy series. But kids do not get more than passing interest from seeing some dusty models lined up on a shelf. They have to have opportunities to play with them. The play factor is generally realized in computer games or someone introducing them to games Workshop, generally SF or fantasy.
The other thing I have noticed, at least in my town is that those playing Games Workshop are also aging. One day, I can see, that will be the new nostalgic collectors market (if it hasn't already).
Assuming that one day the market for toy soldiers will shrink much further will that mean no one will collect toy soldiers? I was at a Melbourne trash 'n treasure market a month ago and was talking to a fellow collector who was disposing of part of his collection. He had quite a few interested buyers but the ones I saw were not, in the usual sense, toy soldier collectors. One example which stayed in my mind was an East Asian lady in her early twenties. I asked if she was a toy soldier collector and she said she just liked the look of them to put on her shelf. Some of the dozen figures she bought were Timpo plastics.
First up there is the obvious 'aging of the hobby' at least when we are talking about traditional wargaming and collecting. You don't see a lot of young faces at plastic Warrior conventions, wargaming events, or ACOTS conventions. This is partly because the bulk of the collectors, in particular, are involved in a nostalgic exercise, recalling the happy times of their childhood. many of those who had that happy time in the days of hollowcast toy soldiers are passing on to that great toy soldier land in the sky. Those who were brought up with plastic toy soldiers in the sixties are heading there to, if not now in a few decades. As the collectors die of their collections are sold and fellow collectors, in a cannibalistic orgy, buy them up. But what happens as fewer and fewer nostalgic collectors are around to buy those figures? I'll come back to that later.
As for the cultural context we had the backlash against all things military after the Vietnam War and the 60s and 70s age of toy soldiers diminished until regenerated in the later 80s by production of toy soldiers, primarily for adults. Accurate was one of the first companies to produce new plastic 54mm toy soldiers. Call to Arms and Italeri were others. In both 1/72 nd 1/32 new figures suddenly proliferated. But what about the children, and let's face it, whatever Wells said about 'the more intelligent girls,' we are mainly talking about boys?
If we are talking about pocket money purchases the old green army men lingered on. Clones of Airfix, Herald and others could still be bought although with decreasing quality of copies of copies. The worst examples are those semi flat blobs that pass for toy soldiers in to Dollar shops. There are still some surprises - new cheap stuff from China which is actually original still appears. these are the sort of figure that start children on the road to toy soldier collecting.
Getting back to cultural context in the 60s and 70s children bought or were given historical magazines designed for children - 'Knowledge', 'Look and Learn', 'Tell Me Why' and the like. Many of the brilliant color illustrations included battle scenes or medieval armor that caught the imagination. then there were the comics which also included references to history, including war comics and Westerns. Robin Hood, Gunsmoke and a host of other Western TV series and movies come to mind. Early Doctor Who featured time travelling to the Crusades and so on.
Today comics and the like are read mostly be adults and those Western shows are pretty rare. But there is something else - the deadening way history is now taught. Sure there is the help of the Internet and gee wiz technology but there is something off putting about the way history is explained, especially for boys. While on the one hand the amount of history taught has decreased so has the way it is taught, at least in terms of military history. So a bunch of boys excitedly find a history subject about the world wars and enrol. What do they find? Maybe something about the Battle of the Bulge or the Kokoda Trail? What about relative tank and plane technology? Not on your Nelly! They will find out about 'causes of WW1' or 'causes of W2' and then jump to 'results of WW1' or WW2 with possibly some initial discussion of 'women in the war'. Of course the way things are going there could well be sub topics about 'patriarchy, sexism and war' or 'transgender people and war.' The other thing is that the bulk of teachers are female, not that the latter can't do an equally good job at teaching history but, by nature, they are more likely to ignore battlefield descriptions. In case you think I am talking drivel I am talking from the first hand observation as a retired teacher.
Now as for me as a teacher I did not shy away from just those sort of descriptions of the relative merits of two handed axes, cross bows and so on. The causes of wars are interesting but so are the actual experiences and relative efficiency of warriors. I even brought toy soldiers to class and occasionally, usually as end of year activities or lunchtime hobby classes, set up wargames; I did that for both historical - ACW and medieval and Science Fiction, generally Warhammer 40K. So a few figures lost their paint of suffered minor damage. I claimed 50% of all my toys soldier related purchases (figures, paints books and bushes) on my tax refund as they could legitimately be claimed as 'educational resources' so I couldn't complain too much. The thing was at least a few of those students went on to become wargamers and I certainly helped out the local GW shop.
This brings me back to the toy soldier collectors, mostly in their 50s and 60s. Like traditional wargamers how many have rolled their eyes when hearing of Warhammer and fantasy or SF games. On seeing a young fellows eyes light up about a game he played or witnessed in a games Workshop he might get some patronising comment that he should learn about 'real wargames and figures'. or worse, keep the little blighters away from the toy soldiers before they break some.
And if we talk about popular culture as a stimulus to toy soldier collecting and wargaming we are really talking Game of Thrones. There is still interest in all things medieval partly as a result of such fantasy series. But kids do not get more than passing interest from seeing some dusty models lined up on a shelf. They have to have opportunities to play with them. The play factor is generally realized in computer games or someone introducing them to games Workshop, generally SF or fantasy.
The other thing I have noticed, at least in my town is that those playing Games Workshop are also aging. One day, I can see, that will be the new nostalgic collectors market (if it hasn't already).
Assuming that one day the market for toy soldiers will shrink much further will that mean no one will collect toy soldiers? I was at a Melbourne trash 'n treasure market a month ago and was talking to a fellow collector who was disposing of part of his collection. He had quite a few interested buyers but the ones I saw were not, in the usual sense, toy soldier collectors. One example which stayed in my mind was an East Asian lady in her early twenties. I asked if she was a toy soldier collector and she said she just liked the look of them to put on her shelf. Some of the dozen figures she bought were Timpo plastics.
A lot of what's in your article I have been feeling applies to a lot of toy genres of late. I don't see kids in the toy car aisle, it's adult collectors. Toys R' Us went out of business because kids want to play video games or mobile apps, not with toys.
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