LOD has started a series of 70mm Greek Gods.  High quality at a midlevel price.  Seven figures so far.

Ares.

Athena.



Poseidon. 
Apollo. 
Athena II.
Aphrodite.
Hera.

TihonFigureN is another Russian maker of very high quality figures.  Not cheap, but worth the price for their best stuff.  This set of 18 includes several "gun dwarves."  

This castle playset comes with three inch figures that are like a poor man's Papo/Schielch.  

Photo from an ebay auction.

3D printing is almost certainly the future for high end figures of all types.  It is still fairly expensive to print the figures compared to mass production, but that may change in the coming years.  Below are the first 3D printed figures I purchased off of ebay.  The are a random assortment of super cool poses.  These are in 54mm scale.  It would be easy to spend a fortune on these figures.  I intend to be very particular about the ones I buy going forward.

Biplant is the corporate successor to Oritet.  They recently released these sets of elves with dragonriders including three colors of dragons.   They are about 60mm.

Photo stolen from a demon.

Hello you wonderful people, monsters and other dungeon crawlers.  I am back from my long absence. 

Around three years ago, I was diagnosed with life changing health issues.  Issues for which medical science has no effective treatments.  So, my priorities changed and I went on a personal journey of exploration to find alternative treatments and solutions.  My path turned a bit dark and eventually drew the attention of law enforcement resulting in a host of criminal charges.  My trial was an absolute circus with the prosecution recklessly tossing around terms like "atrocity" and "ritual sacrifice."  I fought the good fight in court but the deck was stacked against me.  The final result was my sad, and untimely, execution by the State.

Fortunately, my younger brother has a real talent for unspeakable acts of necromancy.  This past solstice he pulled me back from my convalescence in the grave.  Sure, I had to give him back his soul and his spell makes me cluck like a chicken whenever he says the word "burrito," but that is a small price to pay for a new lease on life.  I do mean lease as I must pay the rent every equinox and solstice from now on and eat a very restricted diet, if you know what I mean.  At least I was able to get a lot of work done while in the dirt and I will now be able to get back to regular weekly posts for the next several months.  I have a lot of new figures to catch up with.  I hope you will all enjoy. 

Beleriand Toy Soldiers of Russia has released a super high quality series of 60mm figure sets based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Children of Hurin.  They are among the best figures ever to come out of Russia.  They are very expensive ($10-$15 each fig).  Sadly, they are made of a very soft material that can distort under pressure.  That makes storage a little complicated.  

Set #1 Children of Hurin.

Set #2 Orcs.

Set #3 Donath

Set # 3.1 Donath

Set #4 Nargothrond 

Set #5 Dorlomin

Stock photo.

Set 5.1  Dorlomin.

Stock photo. 

Set #6  Beren & Luthien 

Stock photo. 

Safari has released a new set of six 60+mm figures called Heroes & Monsters. 

One last figure from Russia.  This is a 60mm evil queen/vampire/witch.  I am not sure when or by whom she was made.  What ever you want ot call her, she has bad girl written all over her.    

I am going to miss Russian made figures. 

These are the last of the Russian made figures I was able to buy off of ebay before the war started and all the Russian sellers got kicked off.  A few Russian sellers are back on ebay but they are listed as operating out of Albania.  Imagine that.  

Some of the figures are made to be classic greek style Amazons and others are just female Viking style warriors. 

Publius classic Amazons. 

Viking Women

Scale Shots.

Dollar General has released  another new set of figures for Halloween this year.  The new set is called Witch Characters and has traditional pointy hat witchs in eight poses.  These are not as cool as the skeletons or the mummy army, but the are much better than last year's so called Ghost Pirates which were really just lame pirates with nothing ghostly about them.  These girls are made in the same scale as the other sets (42mm - 50mm).  They seem to be flying off the shelves.  Get them while you can.  

I think the one the with the star wand was moleled after a woman I dated in the 1990s.   

This is the last set of Russian made orcs I have left to post.  I do not know who made them.  There are a bunch of amazingly talented people producing their own figures in the Tehnolog Fantasy Battles style.  These orcs have a primitive look with excellent detail and mean looking faces.

Scale Shot

After being delayed for months, EMCE finally relaased their Nanoforce Star Trek figures.  There are two sets of 12 figures from the Original Series and Next Generation.  The figures are around 50mm but 3mm of that is base.  They feel a bit smaller than they stand.  Excellent detail, 

Original Series

Next Generation

I am going to post about all of the Russian figures I have in backlog over the next few days/weeks.  Ebay has cut off Russian sellers and I do not have the direct links I had a few years ago.  Who knows when, or if, this stuff will ever be on the market again.  Sadly, the soldiers that Russia is exporting these days are no longer toys.  
These are around 54mm - 60mm.  The detail is outstanding.  This is only the second set of Russiam made Orcs I have found that includes a magic user.  

I do not know the actual name of the company that made these, but I love them and hope they keep making more figures.  These are some of the best orcs ever.

I have recently acquired the original superheroes that Timmee turned into fantasy figures after they gave up their liscense with Marvel.  Their was only one run of the superheroes and each figure came in just one color.  All of the Hulk, Green Goblin, Doctor Octupus and Namor figures are green.  All of the Red Skull, Spiderman, Ironman and Human Torch figures are red.  All of the Captain America, Thor, Dr. Doom and Falcon figures are blue.  

I do not believe I have seen any pictures of them side by side before.  So, just for fun . . . . regular and color ehanced versions.  

 SCS Direct is at it again.  They have just released a second series of their Fantasy Creatures.  Twelve new figures in the same old light and dark gray.

Darren Hatley is a fellow cllector and long time friend of this Blog.  He lives in England in a hole in the ground and boils all of his food.  Darren has an amazing collection but takes things one step farther by creating his own unique custom figures.  He is a true master of the art of customizing figures.  You may have seen some of his creations on Stad's Stuff a couple of years ago.  You will get to see far more of his work here.  It is my privilage and joy to let him present his works of art and describe them in his own words in the first ever guest post on this Blog.  So, with no further ado . . .    


Hi my name is Darren.A.Hatley. I'm 51 years old and i live just outside London England. I started collecting Toy Soldiers and other figures when i was 4. I now collect mainly plastic 1/32 Scale ie 50mm to 60mm or 2 inch to 2 and half inch Ancient, Medieval Soldiers/Warriors and Fantasy figures. My collection has grown to around 5000 figures, About 1000 of which ive converted and painted in some way or another. I started converting and painting about 15 years ago, 1st off because i enjoy it, But the main reason was that i was always frustrated that there were not more figures that i wanted in 1/32 scale being made, Especially Fantasy figures. Of course there are some really nice figures but not enough. So i searched the internet and i found that there were many companies from all around the World making Fantasy figures from 35mm up to large scale but not as toy soldiers. Some were 1/32 scale but most were not. However i found that with some imagination patience and skill many of these figures could be made to be 1/32 toy soldier scale. 99% of my figures are between 50mm and 60mm which is my preferred scale size. Almost all of my conversions are unique one offs as i dont like multiples of 1 pose unless its a row of archers. There are basically 2 types of ways to convert, The 1st is say moving a figures own arms into a different position to make a new pose, And the 2nd type is mix and match different figures together, Some of my conversions are made of 4 or 5 separate figures. Simple conversions can take just a few days to complete, Where as harder conversions with a full paint job can take up to 3 weeks. I always try to pin my figures together as well as using Super glue and American made Quick Grip glue for maximum strength. Also the Quick Grip can be manipulated into clothing skin and muscle. My aim is to have an army of 1000 Fantasy Monsters of which i'm up to about 700 now. So here are just some examples of my work.Regards Darren   


Toy Major Custom Skeletons


I love these Toy Major Skeletons but I thought they had Great potential for many more dynamic poses, So I mixed and matched there body parts and came up with these figures.










































Russian No Name Goblins & Werewolf Knight



They are nice figures but i thought they were a bit short, The Knight and Werewolf were 45mm and the Goblins were 40mm and as i may have told you before i like most of my figures to be 50mm to 60mm so that they all fit nicely together in scale size and of course they fit nicely with my 1/32 scale Ancient and Medieval figures. So these were more straight forward conversion, I simply cut the short legs in half pinned them back together again at there new height size and then filled in the gaps with bits of plastic and glue as armour. I liked the Metallic Blue colour of these Goblin figures so i left them as they were and painted the new legs with Metallic Blue paint to go with the rest of the figures. I used string for the Werewolf legs and plastic silver armour from a Knight for the No Name Knight. So now the Goblins are 50mm and the Werewolf and Knight are about 52mm






























































Helm Toy & Others


This next figure is a Black Demon i made from a Native American body with a DFC Demon head, The Shield i made from bits of plastic. Then the figure has a full paint job.These next 6 figures are Helm Toy Ogres/Orcs and another Creature. I extended the bodys and legs to make the Ogres taller, And moved the Creatures arms and gave him a different weapon, And gave them all a full paint job.The next 3 are Mummy figures in which i carefully wrapped up 3 Cherilea Nubians and Egyptian figure with masking tape and gave them a shield.



































Reaper Bones

These next 11 figures are from a company called Reaper Bones Miniatures, 6 Orcs/Goblins, 1 Lizardman, 1 Tiki or Merman, 1 Gnoll and 2 Ogres. They are made in China but are American designed i think? Most of these figures come in at 35mm to 40mm but the top half of the figures are just about 1/32 scale but they have tiny legs which ive replaced with bigger longer legs, Then ive covered the waist and top of the legs with a loincloth made of plastic and Quick Grip glue which is quite hard and takes time to do but very rewarding when finished. Then a full paint job on every figure.




















































AD&D
These Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures and Pathfinders Battles figures have been going for about 15 years now. They make all kinds of Brilliant well detailed and prepainted Fantasy figures. There are many sets and Thousands of figures been made, But 95% or more are way to small or large to fit into 1/32 scale. However 5% or a couple of figures from each set is either 1/32 scale or can be converted to it. I have done nearly 50 figures from this range and here is 7 figures to show how they can look. Perhaps the hardest part of the conversion with these figures is matching the paint colour of my converted pieces to the prepainted figure.



































M.U.S.C.L.E.S.



Mattel M.U.S.C.L.E. made these Great weird and wacky Men and Monster wrestle figures back in the 1980s in the United States, And there have been quite a few more made in recent years mostly He-Man Muscle figures so overall there must be around 300 of them. Although they measure from 40mm to 45mm they are basically 1/32 figures with small legs. So i have cut the legs off around 50 of these and replaced them with longer legs and they make great 1/32 or 54mm to 60mm figures, Here are 5 examples of these figures i have converted.
































SCS Direct


I really like these SCS Direct Monster figures which are a good toy soldier size, But i like my figures to be as dynamic as possible. So i made new poses for these figures and gave them weapons and shields and as i usually do with most of my figures a full paint job.











































Gormiti & Such


Gormiti figures from Italy are mostly to big and chunky to really fit with 1/32 toy soldiers, But i came across a series in a pound store which came in at 40mm to 45mm but with a bit of converting fit really well as 1/32 figures, Here are 4 examples of these figures.The next 2 figures i have no idea who made them and in what country but i got them on ebay a while back. They are a Sharkman and Alien type figures, So i gave them weapons and different taller legs and a full paint job and i think they make really good Fantasy figures.
























































Monster in my Pocket & Converted Demons



These are 2 Monster In My Pocket figures. I made them taller as usual as they come in at 40mm to 45mm, And i stuck some extra bits to them that i thought might improve there look including the vines on the Tree Monster using bits of plastic and of course a full paint job, And the weapon on the staff of the Charon figure.  These are 3 Red Demons i put together using bits and bobs of different figures and the paint job as standard.








































Nolzurs

These next 3 figures the Minotaur and 2 Dragonborn Warriors figures are from a company called Nolzurs which are very similar to the Bones Reaper figures in material colour and size, They only came in at 35mm to 40mm so they needed a lot of work to bring them up to 1/32 scale. On the Minotaur i stretched out hes Torso and legs, And on the 2 Dragonborn figures i had to stretch the Torso legs and arms and of course a full paint job for all 3. They took up to 3 weeks to finish but were i think worth it when i had finished.






























Arco, Yu Gi Oh & Orc


These next 2 figures are Arco: Dragons and Monsters Cyclops and Lizardman, I replaced there original legs with longer legs to bring up there height and paint job.The next figure is a Yu-Gi-Oh Black Cat/Panther Warrior, I moved the arms for more dynamic pose and put him on taller legs and full paint job.The next figure is a mixture of 3 different figures i put together to make this Orc Warrior and of course paint job.






































Navia Dratp & Massive Darkness




This is a Navia Drapt figure from Japan, I moved hes arms and gave him another weapon, But the hardest thing about this figure was that i couldn't match up the colour paint to the original colour so i gave him a complete paint job which wasn't my original intention.These next 3 figures i brought from a website here in England from a company called Massive Darkness, They needed quite alot of work. I made them taller by either stretching the legs of the Troll and making a loincloth out of plastic bits, Stretching the Demons body or putting new legs on the Orc and a loincloth made of glue, I moved the arms for more dynamic poses and added weapons and shields, And a full paint job on all 3 figures.













































WWE MIghty Minis

As well as doing all kinds of Monsters i also do Human figures and as soon as i came across these 6 WWE Mighty Minis figures which are of famous American wrestler figures i thought they would make excellent Fantasy Barbarian Warriors. So i stuck the bodies onto Tehnolog Gladiator legs, And i use the Brilliant Russian made Tehnolog for many of my conversions, Then i gave them weapons and shields. For the hair of the Warriors i carefully and patiently manipulated the Quick Grip glue for the affect. The rock that one of the figures is holding i made from a small toy elephants body, Obviously cutting it to a shape of a rock and then using 2 small screws fixed it to the wrestlers hands.



















































 Lizardman!

This Lizardman figure took me about 3 weeks to make and is made from 4 different figures. He is one of the hardest figures ive ever done especially the skin which is made from thin pieces of plastic and the good old quick grip glue carefully put over the top of a human torso figure.



















































Merman Before & After



Over the last 6 months or so China and Hong Kong have been bringing out some brilliant but unbranded Fantasy figures like this Merman i recently did. As you can see the original red Merman is nice but only 40mm tall with the typical small legs. So i cut the original legs off and put him on a Tehnolog figures legs and then i moved the arms into a more dynamic pose, I then replaced the weapon on the left arm with a Warhammer Lizardman shield, I then put a horn on hes head and more barnicles onto hes body and then finished with a full paint job, This figure also took about 3 weeks to do.





















Warrior Before & After





The original figure is a drinking buddy figure i got from a supermarket. I then cut hes arms and legs off and added better ones, Gave him a long main using the quick grip glue and a full paint job and turned him into a Warrior.

Mars is another Ukrainian company that does not believe in copyrights.  These are full on Pirates of Caribbean ripoffs, and that is hard core cool.  










  

I am selling off some stuff.   Check it out here:  FOR SALE