Collectors Showcase 55mm collectible ACW toy soldiers

I was fortunate to be a guest author / signer at the recent Gettysburg Militaria, Relics, and Book Show at the All-Star Complex near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. My host was Jim McLean of Butternut and Blue, a Baltimore-based dealer of toy soldiers and Civil War books. Among his specialties are 55mm figures from The Collectors Showcase, which are among the finest (and more expensive) collector figures on the market today.

I had a chance to look over several of these figures that Jim had for sale on one of his vendor tables in the dealer hall at the All-Star (the soccer barn). The attention to detail is unbelievable, and the quality of these metal castings superb. While not cheap (a 3-figure set of infantry retails for $79.50 US, for example) the value per dollar is high relative to many other makers of this generic genre of 55mm – 54mm Civil War figures. I think some of the competitive figures on the market today are rather cartoonish and not well proportioned, but The Collectors Showcase toy soldiers are indeed as advertised “fine museum quality.”

A wargamer’s delight: Brad Gottfried’s new series of map books!

The Maps of First Bull Run: An Atlas of the First Bull Run (Manassas) Campaign, including the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, June-October 1861 is a new Civil War book by veteran author Bradley Gottfried.

As a long-time Civil War buff and miniature wargaming enthusiast, I am always looking for well-crafted maps that depict the deployment and movement of troops during various stages of Civil War battles. Often, period maps are lacking in detail or intermix movements from throughout the various stages of the engagement, often “muddying the waters” in terms of gaining an understanding of which regiments were in what position at what time in the battle. This new book is an invaluable resource to help demystify the often fluid situation at First Manassas where positions often changed hands, troops were shifted frequently, and official reports and records unclear in recounting the timeline of what transpired that summer day.