Sierra Toy Soldier Company
April 2008 Newsletter.

To all subscribers welcome to the April edition of Sierra Toy Soldier News, written on a very nice spring day, here in Los Gatos.

Well we finally had our first vacation in 5 years. We were joined by our daughter Suzie who had just turned 18. However as usual we didn’t take the easy route, and take a leisurely trip to Hawaii where we could relax by the pool and unwind. Instead we went to Hong Kong for Easter, and had a marvelous time. The last time I was there was while it was still a British Colony. A lot has changed mainly more people, cars and more high rise buildings. One thing that has not changed is the energy in this city. It is still one of the most exciting cities in the world to visit.

There is plenty of activity night and day. In fact one guide book said that if New York is a city that never sleeps, Hong Kong doesn’t even blink. At night the lights of all the buildings come to life, and there is even a nightly laser show from the tops of all the skyscrapers. We got to see these both from above on the peak and from the water as we were crossing between the islands by ferry. There are also many night markets open displaying a colorful array of goods. So many sights and sounds so little time to take it all in.

Hong Kong along with the rest of China were making preparation for the Olympic Games. We heard from most of the manufacturers that the preparations for the Olympics is just one reason for the delays they are experiencing with their factories. The Chinese New Year always has a huge impact, but this year the very cold weather before the Holiday also impacted production. There were many other factors that caused changes in the factory output. New labor laws have come into effect that favor larger factories producing much larger quantities of individual items than are produced for the Toy Soldier Collectors. Things are just beginning to settle down and get ready for this new year of the “Rat”.

John Jenkins and wife Susanna were wonderful hosts showing us the sights and sounds of Hong Kong. We also visited Gerard Prime of Frontline and Gordon Neilson of King & Country, on what they like to think as their private Island off the coast of Hong Kong. A small island without roads and with minimal facilities apart from a huge variety of restaurants. Eating is serious business in Hong Kong.

We met with King and Country Andy, Helen and had a delicious lunch with the team We spent some admiring the King and Country Museum. Highly recommended. Between this and the shop we have plenty of new ideas for displaying items in our store. More play time! We discussed many ways of how we can all introduce new collectors to the Toy Soldier Hobby.

We also visited Ken Clarke-Jervoise of East of India and saw Ken’s new Roman Collection about to come out. Ken spends an enormous amount of time doing the research to make sure all the details on his figures are historically accurate. Finally we visited John Jenkins Studio, or as I like to refer to it Santa’s Grotto. All this was packed into just five hectic days. We just wish there was an easy cure for jet lag, as this really got us on our return.

This month we have exiting news from Britain’s, King and Country, East of India, John Jenkins, Grenada and a few more.

Please check our What's New Toy Soldiers page, which covers the new releases from Britain's, Conte and King and Country. Also check out the Being Retired page, for the latest updates on the pieces being retired by Britain's, Conte and King and Country.

Welcome to a very sunny Northern California.

March Newsletter

If you missed our March newsletter and you would like to read it, March 2008 newsletter.

Events

Bay Area Militaria Show – April 12, 2008.  This is a great local bay area show, for those that like toy soldiers because we are there, Military medals, Uniforms and all sorts of both original and reproduction military hardware. The show is located in Hayward, CA. Whilst not a toy soldier show, it is for collectors of military memorabilia and is great fun.

Britains at Sierra Toy Soldier - May 2008.  Date to be be determined. See William Britains section for details.

William Britains

In May we are planning on hosting Richard Walker and other members of Britains in our retail store for a Britains event. So for collectors of Britains figures who would like to attend, please email us, subject line Britains event and we will be pleased to provide you with details.

The exact date has yet to be finalized as we are trying to organize it so it coincides with an event held by one of our favorite customers. Every year he opens his home to local schools and has dioramas set up in every room of the house and sets up the most incredible Civil War Dioramas. With the aid of volunteers takes the local school children through a visual history of the American Civil War. If you would be interested in attending, please let us know.

In stock now
Scenic Collection

• BR17612 – 18th-20th Century Hay Stacks with Sheaves of Wheat – 5 Piece Set – Perfect on any battlefield, this set will add instant life to any diorama and valuable cover for your troops!
• BR17613 – 18th-20th Century Harvested Corn with Sheaves of Wheat – 5 Piece Set – Imagine rows of Union Infantry, Redcoats or French Infantry making their way through these great scenics.

Zulu
These are the best figures I think Britains have ever done.

• BR20000 OSPREY ART SERIES – Zulu iNdluyengwe Regiment – Standing Firing #1
• BR20001 OSPREY ART SERIES – Zulu uMbonambi Regiment – Advancing #1
• BR20002 OSPREY ART SERIES – Zulu iNdlondlo Regiment – Throwing Spear #1
• BR20003 OSPREY ART SERIES – Zulu uThulwana Regiment – Throwing Spear #1
• BR20011 Zulu Warrior Advancing with Knobkerrie #1
• BR20005 Zulu uMbonambi Regiment – Charging #1

Updates

• BR17869 – WWI British Royal Field Artillery Limber with 18 Pound Gun is now SOLD OUT. It is also now due in at the end of June. For those of you that pre-ordered this item, we have enough to fulfill all our orders, and will be sending them out in July.
• BR20009 – Rorke’s Drift Hospital – This piece will be serialized and certificated to just 400 pieces worldwide. So please do not wait to long if this interests you.

View the Britain’s Collection, .

Britains Retirement News
Britains have also announced many retirements, essential they are retiring items from the 2007 catalogue to make way for new pieces. So if there was an item you were thinking about, please do not delay too long as stock is very limited. View Britains retired pieces.

King and Country

It was a real pleasure to visit in Hong Kong the King and Country shop, which whilst compact (small) is packed to the ceiling with goodies. But the real highlight was visiting Andy and his team at their offices. Seeing the museum which if you are ever in Hong Kong they will be pleased to show you, was fantastic. It is brimming with the history of King and Country and almost every figure and vehicle produced. Also some that never went into production. A series that was never produced was a collection of pirates, see the photos. It was never released because there was not away to economically ship the pirate ship. We have a tentative date for Andy and Gordon Neilson to visit us at the store for a King & Country event in early October. More details to follow.

King and County photos.

King and Country - Scheduled to arrive late this week.

1776 American Revolution
“HESSIANS!”
When the revolution in the American Colonies began Britain found herself, as usual, quite unprepared. Global commitments stretched the Army to breaking point and reinforcements were urgently required to deal with the upstart rebels. But where to find them? George III and his Government utilized their Royal links to the House of Hanover to seek help with the many princely states and duchies of Germany. For a hefty price many of these penniless states were only too happy to rent out their armies in the British cause. The House of Hesse provided a large proportion of these German mercenaries to fight (and die) in the Americas. The latest “1776” release portrays a typical Regiment of Hessian Grenadiers wearing their long pigtails and tall mitre Grenadier caps.

Details of the Hessians arriving this week.

View the 1776 Collection.

King and Country - Scheduled to arrive late April.

WWII - Waffen Collection
“Hitler’s Paris Visit” Following the defeat of France in June 1940 Hitler made his one and only visit to the French capital. Early one morning the Fuhrer and his entourage toured the deserted streets of Paris “sightseeing”. The few pedestrians and policemen were amazed to see a small convoy of German Mercedes staff cars stop and view many of the city’s most famous landmarks. They were even more amazed to see Adolf Hitler among the “tourists”.

• WS106 -- “Hitler’s Paris Visit” An all-new, second version of the older “Hitler’s Staff Car”.
• WS107 -- “German War Correspondents” Three SS War Correspondents following the Fuhrer’s progress through Paris (or elsewhere).

Plus six different sets of “early-war” Waffen SS in action.
Left out of the last month’s newsletter.

• WS108 The Panzer 1 Ausf.F.

View Detailed information on the new Waffen figures

View the complete Waffen Collection.

“Remember The Alamo!”
These new additions make some welcome add-ons to this “signature” series. This collection was scheduuled for late April but has now been moved to mid - May, sorry for the delay.

View detailed release information on the new Alamo releases!

View the complete Alamo Collection.

King and Country - April announcements, May Release

For WWII Collectors
For may it is the turn of the Americans to land on the beaches. This we are introducing a new Sherman Tank and to accompany it a GI tank crew.

“The Big Red One”
One of the most famous American fighting infantry divisions of the War, the 1st Infantry Div. better known as “The Big Red One”.
Six great looking two-man action sets featuring the GI’s of “The Big Red One” as they would have appeared in Normandy in the days and weeks following the invasion.

And Now For The Opposition.
The one and only ’88 the scourge of Allied infantry and amour alike. From Alamein to Anzio and onto Arnhem the mighty 88 was the artillery piece of the Second World War. Equally adaptable as an anti aircraft gun or in the anti tank role the 88 came in several different “guises”. This K&C latest version is one of the most different.

• WS103 “The Flak 18 (sf1.) aufZugkraftwagen” Planned Production Number for this item is just 750 models. Order Now!

View detailed information on the D-Day Americans and the German Opposition.

Streets of Old Hong Kong
As usual, we have a delightful little “Streets of Old Hong Kong” set to finish up with.

• HK167 “Street Lantern Set” A giant decorative street lantern being painted by two skilled craftsmen.

King & Country Retirement News.

This month we are retiring a lot of terrific sets, We decided not to Hyperlink the following as some of these may be gone, by the time you read this. So for a complete update of what is still available, please visit our being retired page.

• AR040 “Standing Ready”
• AR042 “Kneeling Ready”
• BR054 “Supply Wagon Set”

• LAH061 “Oath Taking Ceremony”

• NA013 “French Grenadier Officer Marching”
• NA016 “French Grenadier Drummer”
• NA088 “Scots Grey on Collapsing Horse” – Sold out

• BAR001 “Mounted Chieftain”
• BAR002 “Attacking w/Axe”
• BAR011 “Standing Warrior”
• BAR012 “No Mercy”

• IC027 “Chinese Gate”

View the King & Country Retired page.

East of India Collection

While in Hong Kong we took an opportunity to visit with Ken in his studio. Whilst there we saw the prototype for his forthcoming series of Romans, they are wonderfully detailed and very heavily researched for historical accuracy. He hopes to announce them

Roman Preview

Figarti

• G3007E V2 Rocket. Scale is 1:30 / 60mm. We understand only 100 are being made, and following the success of the VI Flying Bomb, these will not be around for to long.
• B38032 Long Range Desert Group 30cwt. Chevrolet.
• B38033 Long Range Desert Group 30cwt. Chevrolet.

View the Figarti Collection.

John Jenkins

As we mentioned earlier John and his wife Susanna, were our hosts for much of the trip, and showed us around Hong Kong and walked us around until our feet nearly dropped off. One of the major highlights of the trip for us was visiting his small, and very compact studio, and meeting Mandy his assistant who does all the packing work. Here we saw not only the new releases below, but also lots of the future releases, plus the new series of French and Indian wars he is working on for release in 2009. If you think his stuff is great you have seen nothing yet. The best is still to come. We promised john we would not take pictures of the new items as he does not want to pre-announce. So in the meantime, here are a couple of pictures of John at his sculpting desk.

Pictures of John’s Studio.

New Announcements
John has announced 3 news sets and the Stockade for May release. We have new sets for

• The Battle of Monongahela
• Battle on Snowshoes
• Battle of Chippewa
• Raid on St Francis

View the complete Jenkins Collection.

Grenada Studios – St Petersburg, Russia

Well our friends in Russia have been busy creating not only some new figures, but as a result of a special project they worked for a customer they have modified some of the existing Ancient Greek figures, and now painted them as Spartans. So the following should arrive in the summer.

View details of the new Spartans and Crusaders

Visit the Grenada Collection.

Action Figures

• IGN-AR052 Roman Tribune - Attic Helmet
• IGN-JS060 Swordsman Kenkyaku
• IGN-JS066 Ninja

• DID-N80051 45e Regiment D'Infanterie De Ligne "Frank"

• S70004 Toyotomi Hideyoshi -- International Version

• DRF70620 Uncommon Valor, Iwo Jima 1945 (Six Figures Set) - (Limited Edition)

View our Action figure Collection.

Retail Store

We are open Monday – Saturday 10.00 – 6.00pm. We are closed on Sundays, but more than happy to open if you are visiting the Bay Area.

Just a reminder for those of you living in Northern California, or perhaps just visiting, that our retail store dedicated to toy soldiers is open 6 days a week.
The store is located at
Los Gatos Village Square,
15466 Los Gatos Blvd, #108,
Los Gatos, California 95032.
(408) 358 3910
www.sierratoysoldier.com