Old metal toy soldiers are often seen at estate auctions, garage sales and flea markets. Being able to identify the toy soldier’s manufacturer and identification number can make the difference between reselling it for ten dollars and reselling it for a hundred dollars. The problem is that comprehensive identification guides have not been published for over fifteen years. The solution lies in websites like The Toy Soldier Wiki. The Toy Soldier Wiki is a community of collectors who are always adding pictures and updating the history and identification of metal toy soldiers that are no longer produced. Doing a search there by entering a description of your toy soldier will result in finding pictures and historical information for the toy soldier. This will allow you to properly describe it when you resell it and it gives your buyers more confidence in you because of your knowledge of the subject.
Old metal toy soldiers can be broken into two groups. ”American made” and “foreign-made”. The majority of “American made” metal soldiers are called “Dimestore Toy Soldiers” because they were sold in discount stores that were called “five and dimes” like Woolworth. These are further divided by manufacturer. The main Dimestore toy soldier manufacturers to collect are Barclay, Manoil, Grey Iron and Auburn (rubber soldiers). Their soldiers were mainly manufactured between 1930 and 1950. Barclay went on into the sixties but the real quality can easily be seen in the older soldiers. Most Dimestore toy soldiers are three inches tall and made of lead alloys or iron. They have kind of a thick look to them and do not have fragile pieces. For example, hands don’t have fingers and gun barrels are thick so they do not bend or break easily. These were meant for children to play with and they were built tough just for that reason. Remember though, that these toys are not for children. Lead is very dangerous to developing brains and that is the reason why they stopped selling them. That is also what makes them easy to collect. Modern day copies are very easy to spot. “Foreign-made” metal toy soldiers are completely dominated by one manufacturer, W. Britains limited. Britains invented the hollowcast technique in the late 19th century and used it to make soldiers of higher quality for less money than the competition which was primarily German toy makers. It worked and they started the toy soldier market of the early twentieth century. They are still a major manufacturer of toy soldiers today. Britains’ toy soldiers are a lot more detailed and fragile than the American Dimestore soldiers. As a result they often have breaks, cracks, repairs or bent pieces like rifle barrels or soldiers necks because of the soft lead alloy they were made of. Nearly every old Britains toy soldier has a history of variations that affect its resell value. This makes proper identification very important.
Using resources like the Toy Soldier Wiki can help you not only make better deals, it will also give you the rich sense of history that comes from collecting old toy soldiers. Remember, every soldier has a story.