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Re: Why people choose particular armies and periods.
Graham Korn
Following on from the thread about the interest in the new figures for WSS, I\\\'m interested in why people choose a particular period or army. For me it\\\'s quite varied
1) Thinking the figures look cool - I love Dark Age stuff, big sweaty men in mail oooh errr!
2) Films and books (both fiction and history) often inspire me.
3) Politics, very much a lefty so can\\\'t resist having Spanish republican forces or people\\\'s army for VBCW.
4) Crap equipment, this mainly relates to WWII, I love the early part of WWII and am quite turned off by late war with wall to wall King Tigers and Panthers.
5) Sides that lost, always want to see if I can do better, nothing better than winning with natives against modern rifles.
6) Less popular units, so my Desert War figures are Indians and Italians, although I also had to have the Fighting French when Strelets brought out the FFL figures, don\\\'t suppose I was alone in that.
Some people mentioned in the thread that nationality didn\\\'t play any part in their choices and that is certainly true for me. I would be interested to know what motivates other people.
This is a great question for both fun and for manufacturers information.
As a young kid, television and movies here in the U.S. played lots of war shows and movies. The ones that I enjoyed the most were:
Always liked and still do to collect single sets and Playsets:
* "hand to hand combat" action/dramas.
* Infantry and Cavalry participants
* U.S. Cavalry, Indians attacking Cavalry Forts
* All the Beau Geste movies
* ACW and British Colonial Era Wars
* AWI
* Roman themes, FFL, Crimea, War Lord and Normans
* Love WWI uniforms and helmets
* Love Colonial Wars and uniforms
Very limited interest in late WWI on because:
* Too mechanized
* Not a big killing machine collector after late WWI
* Enjoy WWI biplanes and WWII Infantry armies but very limited tanks
In summary, I have always enjoyed the good story of man against man. Figurines and static accessories such as Forts, Stockades, Horse Wagons, small Cannons and Crews. I'm not a Wargamer so I don't need complete ranges, and buy figures I like. I do enjoy sets with both sides, but don't mind the wait. The wait, in fact, gives me time to save up and enjoy other interests in my life.
I've already bought the old collectables such as Giant of Hong Kong and Airfix sets from the 1960's off eBay. I will continue to buy Strelets latest Ancients, new current themes, up to early WWI especially. Like Italeri's FFL Fort just released.
I have always believed living life's "Life Stages", ie Early Childhood and Toys, School Days and Sports, Early Adulthood and Family, Middle Years and productive work, Retirement and simple life. Airfix brought me heaps of joy as a kid, and Strelets is satisfying my enjoyment with new products at the latter part of my Life Stages. In the middle stages, there were too many distractions. To me, each Life Stage has it's * Advantages and * Disadvantages and Limitations. Early and Later Stages have given me the best of the best of the enjoyment in soft plastic toy soldiers.
Strelets is the ultimate manufacturer of Man-to-man fighting figures, and the reigning Golden Age King of 1/72 Soft Plastic Toy Soldier Manufacturers in my book - "Long Live the King!" ... and me.