Toy Soldiers – For Big Kids Everywhere

The odd part was that I didn’t own a toy soldier costume or anything like that – I was purely into the whole toy soldier idea. Now we did play soldiers and cowboys and Indians when we were kids but we grew up on the poorer side of town so costumes were a luxury we couldn’t afford. After all we had our imaginations and a kids mind can conjure up incredible things.

But back to toy soldiers and my ongoing love for the little plastic and metal heroes. I didn’t really have one specific type of toy soldier that I preferred over other ones but I do remember one of my first bags of toy soldiers being a set of Napoleonic soldiers, cavalry and artillery. History was always my thing when I was a kid (it still is now) so these were perfect for me.

As I grew up little-by-little I found myself reading a huge amount about World War II so this type of toy soldier started to appeal to me big time. It wasn’t long before I had an extensive collection of toy soldiers from this era in a variety of scales – big and small. Of all of those my Pacific War collection was my favorite – maybe it’s a past life thing but I’ve always had an intense fascination with the whole Pacific theater during World War II.

All of these prized soldiers were kept in their own special case which I kept stored away for safe keeping – no other toys mattered as much to me.

The great thing about toy soldiers for me was that anywhere could become a battle ground. A window sill could be used for a quick skirmish. Your back yard could become a jungle battleground in no time. Or you could dig little trenches (I got in a lot of trouble for this)and have running battles that way.