I started to specialize my toy soldier collection in fantasy around twenty years ago when I realized just how many figures and sets are available.  Nobody else I knew of was collecting this stuff.  When I really got into it, I started having a blast finding and learning about a whole category of toy soldiers that other, and much older and knowledgeable, collectors were ignoring.  It has been my pleasure to share what I have learned through this blog.  
Some fantasy toy soldiers are much harder to find than others and some sets are very difficult to complete.  Their are fairly common sets with just one or a few super rare figures that make them hard to complete, and other sets are all very rare.  Below is my best guess at the twenty rarest. I have tried to add pictures of individual figures that make certain sets hard to complete.   These are all complete sets of original figures, no bootlegs and no worries about color variations, just the base figure sets.  These were all commercially  produced  and mass marketed.  There are no custom figures like the insanely rare sets made by the Alliance of the Free on this list.
My list is based on twenty years of experience collecting and conversations with other collectors since I started this blog. That is all I have to go on.  So, the rankings are debatable.  I have looked for solid information without any success. I even summoned Cthulhu last Christmas and offered up my brother's soul but he did not have any useful insights.  


20.  Toyco Demons & Dragonriders.











19.  Arco Dragons n' Monsters.

















18. Durham Fantasy Figures.








17.  Unknown 1980s Soft Rubber Weirdness.









16.  Skinner The Lurkers.



















15. Supreme Dragon's Lair Castle Playset Figures.










14. Simba The Legend of Zortan.









13.  Percy Jackson Movie Figures.











12.  HEI Vampires.













11.  Larime Blacktar.



 


10.  Galaxy Warriors.












9.  Unknown Ant Warriors.








8. Games Work Shop Fighting Fantasy. 





















7. Oritet Elves, Dwarves, Goblins & Fairy Tail Characters.
















6.  Unknown Vending/Party Favor Rubber Orcs.









5.  Polotoy Battle of the Ancients (and other titles).














4. TSR Dungeons & Dragons Character Figures.



3. Helm Toy Playset Figures.



2. Yolanda?  Horrors n' Heroes.









1.  LarGo Toys Stingers & Wings.

LOD just released this set of four foot and two mounted 60mm amazons as historical rather than fantasy figures.  These are intended to be more realistic female warriors than the sexy figures made in Russia.  Some have armor and most show a little less skin than the Tehnolog or Oritet amazons.  I like both styles.   
They are made from a soft plastic.  The quality is very good but the aqua color is a bit difficult to photograph.  A nice set but a little expensive at around $30 a bag for 10 figures (two of each foot pose).






































Scale Shot

10/2/2019 Finally completed my set of these guys and just in time because of the prices they are fetching these days.

These came in surprise bags released some time in the 90s or early 2000s.  There are 16 figures based on Greek mythology.  They are about 50mm, and are made of soft plastic.  Only released in Europe as far as I know.  Very rare.  Most people think they were made by Yolanda of Spain, but I do not know for certain.













8 Horrors







8 Heroes






















I found this picture on the net (MXD I think).
This picture is also from MXD I think
This picture is also from some place on the net.
Found this picture on the net a few years ago, I don't remember where.

These figures are amazing.   I cannot describe how cool they are.  Just look at the pictures.  60mmish.

I just found these three guys in an ebay lot from England.  I suspect that they are either bootlegs or a new run for the bags Toy Major sells them in with the pirates.  They seem to be just a little bit smaller than the original figures and the guy with two axes has his head in a slightly different position.  Now that I know they exist I will be obsessing about them until I find more.

EMCE has released four more boxed sets for the video game Fallout 76.  The figures include more people, mutants, aliens, robots and zombies.   The quality is excellent.  I wish the other Nano Force offerings like the Aliens v. Marines set were done this well.  There are so many figures in this set now that I am giving it its own post.   You can see the original video game figures post here Video Games.

Here are some more Russian made orcs and ogres.  I don't have any information about who made them.  They seem to be hand crafted in very small runs.  Includes three female orcs.









































































Scale Shots

UPDATE 10/12/19: New Anti Paladin and sets of 5 Goatmen and Dwarves.


UPDATE 4/7/19:  Even morehansa from Warhansa!  They just released 60mm Conan and Zena figures.   Copyrights?  What Copyrights?  There is also a cool new evil priest and sacrifice. 


UPDATE 2/25/18:  Morehansa from Warhansa!  They have relased new 5 figure sets of 54mm Asterix the Gaul and post apocalyptic weirdos along with a 4 figure set of 60mm ninjas.  There is also a new bad ass 65mm orc gladiator, and  a 28mm scale troll that works as a goblin in toy soldier scale. 

Original Post:


Warhansa is a small company that makes truly outstanding figures. They recently made their first 1/32 scale (60mm) fantasy figures, and I hope they make more.  These guys are a barbarian warrior and some kind of non-human assassin.  The detail is excellent. The smaller blue guy is called the Night King and is intended as a very large figure in 28mm scale. He is about 54mm. The figures are made in small batches, so they are kind of expensive, but the quality makes them worth the price.
I asked them to describe their company and this is what they wrote back:  
We are an international team united by passion to toy soldiers. We have been dreaming of making our own minis since childhood. We started our project 3 years ago. Production is based in Russia. We make miniatures according to our taste in relatively small quantities and gladly share them with fellow hobbyists.  
You can check them out here Warhansa.

Just about every Asian fantasy movie I have seen and story I have read revolves around one or more martial arts masters who's skills rise to the level of super powers. Asians love to mix fantasy with martial arts, and who can blame them.  Martial arts and fantasy are a natural fit.  Part 1 of this post is about ninjas. Part 2 will be about other martial arts figures.
Japan's supernaturally sneaky ninjas exploded into the world's culture in the 1980s and were quickly paid tribute in the form of cheap plastic ninja toy soldiers. The first ones to show up in the USA were made in Hong Kong and China.   Some very nice ninja figures have also come out of Russia more recently.  I see no reason not to include ninjas in any fantasy world.  Having trouble with pesky orcs?  Sick the ninjas on 'em.

UPDATE 4/1/19  


I found a bag of ninjas from 1997 made by Boley that I had never seen before.  They must be fairly rare.  Ego aside, if I miss something like this for 20 plus years, it has to be hard to find.  I also found a few of the unknown 54mm ninja that come with separate weapons that are very similar to the Marty Toy Galaxy Warriors figures.





Hong Kong/China Ninjas




Boley 1997 50mm

These guys are about 54mm if you consider that they are all bent at the knees.  They actually stand at about 50mm.  Four poses.

























Hing Fat 45mm.
The first ninja toy soliders I found were made by Hing Fat, but were distributed by lots of different companies.   These figures are about 45mm.







Photo from an ebay auction.
Photo from an ebay auction.






























Photo from an ebay auction.
























The red guys are copies made by Sopla of Greese.




Photo form an ebay auction.


Photo from an ebay auction.




































































Unknown 54mm.
These 54mm Ninjas are just about as common as the Hing Fat figures, but I don't have any idea who made them.

































Photo from an ebay auction.











































Separate Weapons Variation




























Redbox Return of the Ninja Playset.
This is the only Ninja playset I know of.   The figures are only about 35-40mm and are a little cartoonish, but the playset is very cool.
























GI Joe Copy Modern Ninjas.
These are 54-60mm copies of 3.75 inch GI Joe figures.  I have no idea who actually made them.  



































Other Ninjas.
These are 40mm from Blip, LLC's Ninjas v. Robots set.
These were vending and prize figures.  About 45mm.
These come apart the the waste.  About 45mm.
























Unknown
Don''t know a thing about these guys other than I want some.  Photo from an ebay auction.






























Photo from an ebay auction.







































Russian Made Ninjas

Russia is a little late jumping on the ninja bandwagon but they have made some exceptional figures.
Oritet.






















Tehnolog.













Unknown (because I can't read Russian).   90mm.






























Warhansa 54mm






















Mattel Guts Akido Force - Close Enough.


Mattel called these guys the Akido Force, but they look enough like ninjas to me.

Greek copies.

I recently found out that the bootleg barbarians in my Arco Sword & Sorcerer post were made in Mexico back in the 1980s or maybe very early 1990s.   The figures come with built in weapons and the riders don't the have peg holes in their butts to fit onto the original horses. They were sold in header card bags.  The bootleg sets include all of the figures and one of the two dragons, but no horses.  The figures are almost the same size but with much thicker bases.  The header card is all in English and very close to an exact copy of the original card backs.  
I got these figures in a trade with a collector and artist in Mexico.  I am very grateful to be able to get figures like these that I probably would never have found without help.  My benefactor is Nando Murio.  You can check out his art on pinerest here.  He also sent me an amazing bag of bootleg ninja turtles that includes some bootleg battle beasts.  I will post some pictures in my TMNT post.

































































Side by Side with Originals.










No peg holes in the riders.  They won't fit on the original horses.  

Video games are joining movies and television as a source of inspiration for toys and other swag, including a few new sets of toy soldiers.  McFarlane was the first (and in my opinion still the best) with the amazing Halo Heroic line but others have recently made nice efforts as well.  Over the last few years I have seen bags of toy soldiers associated with Starcraft, Killzone 3 and now Fallout 76.  
These sets tend to have a very limited number of poses and are expensive to buy in the after market.   I don't know if they came with the video games or had to be bought separately.   I have seen copies of the Starcraft Zerglings for sale on Ali Baba.  Chinese companies are already offing to sell copies of Blizzard Entertainment's intellectual property.  The Chinese have no honor when it come to bootlegging, and I love them for that.  I will be ready to take shameless advantage as soon as I get the chance to buy cheap copies of these figures.  I anticipate seeing bootlegs of some or all these figures sooner or later.    
These are all sci fi and post-apocalypse themed sets, but aliens and mutants can work as fantasy monsters.  They may not strictly fit into the fantasy theme of this blog, but I want to post about them anyway.  I can do whatever I want with my blog, so nah.   

STARCRAFT (2016)























KILLZONE 3 (2018)


























FALLOUT 76 (2018)

UPDATE 11/10/2018:
I have come across a new mystery line that includes some knockoff DFC knights.  This is the second mystery line to include bootleg DFC knights. They are marked "China" but that does not say much to narrow down who made them or how they were packaged.  They are just like the older knockoffs.  They are same smaller size and have the same modifications but some of them come in new colors like red, orange and salmon along with the more common blue. As with he old set of bootlegs, here is no copy of the DFC bowman.

The ones I have found came in ebay lots from the UK.  I have almost always found them mixed in with a set of what look like Robin Hood type figures which I first posted in my 45mm Army. They were probably some short lived cheap bag or carded set.  I don't know if I have a complete set of the Robin Hood figures or not.  I suspect there might be one more figure for eight total.  I want to get all the knights in the red, orange and salmon colors pictured and any other colors I haven't found yet.  Please comment if you know anything about these guys.

ORIGINAL POST:

There are surprisingly few DFC bootlegs.  The most common are slightly modified versions of the knights.  These knights are just a little bit smaller than standard DFC knights, and four have slightly modified weapons.  I have found only one example of these figures in original packaging and it is a strange mash up of DFC, Chinasaurs and The Sword & The Sorcerer.  The bootleg knights  also seem to be associated with the little gray figures pictured below, but I don't know were they come from.
I eventually found a header bag of knockoff gray knights from Straco, and a carded set from Gordy with both blue and gray knights.



New colors found over the last five years or so.






The new Robin Hood Guys.



Here are some side by side pictures with the older mystery set which also has Robin Rood type figures but are not as well made or detailed. 






Well matched with the knights. 


Oddly, the salmon DFC bootleg is one of the few figures that came from a USA ebay lot.  The color match is dead on.  



The older figures have similar stands to the DFC bootlegs.  The new guys have flat stands with no ridge.














































Older Bootlegs



*
*
I have found these figures with the bootlegs more than once.  So, I think they are related.
*










































This undated set by Famus Toys has the blue bootleg knights, a Chinasaur giant bird, and the red boarder around the card is the same as on the cards for Arco/Fleetwood's The Sword & The Sorcerer figures. Very strange but very cool.









































Here is a interesting set from Gordy with both blue and gray bootleg knights.  King Arthur and the knights of Justice.   It even includes some authentic medieval razor wire. Dated 1992.





Stracos' set of the knockoff knights in gray.






































Joseph Svec III sold me this odd bag of MPC knights with DFC knights and dragonriders.
I don't know if these are a factory mistake, a bootleg mix, or some kind of strange joint venture, but I have never seen DFC mixed with MPC before.

Miner industries owned MPC.








































































Scale Shot.

They make these Devil figures in Mexico for holidays and because they are cool.  They range in size from 60mm up to 10 inches.  Some are anatomically correct. 























Picture from an ebay auction. 
Picture from an ebay auction. 
Picture from an ebay auction.

Dollar General has a new 10 figure set of mummy soldiers available for Halloween 2018.   There are 10 new mummy figures and 10 skeletons (in 8 poses) which have been around for years.  The mummies are 54mm and the skeletons are about 45mm.  These guys are a little cartoonish, but I like the concept of mummy soldiers.  They are only $1 per pack of 10.  Excellent price.

I posted pictures of the Skeletons a couple of years ago.



























2019 Versions.

I have been looking for this guy for more than a decade. He showed up on ebay in an otherwise average lot last week.  I was all set for an evil bidding war but I was the only bidder.  Lucky day!

Based on the other figures in the lot, I would guess that he is original Hong Kong production (as opposed to the PRC marked figures made in mainland China.)   Like the brown knights, he would be one of just a very few rare color variations to come from Hong Kong.

I can post pictures of this very rare catalog Dragonriders of the Styx playset thanks to David Pietila.  David says it is the Sears version and he should know.    This set seems to be missing the dragon, but that does not mean it wasn't included originally.   This was David's childhood set.  Here is what he has to say about its background:

Greetings,I have found a box of Dragonriders of Styx that has been in storage at my Mother's for years.  Apologies for the pics, but the item is 19 hours away from me. I had someone else send my photos. The box has instructions, I believe there is an order form on the other side. My mom had written on the box "If you boys open this again I will return it to the store." The box is a plain mailer, at one time it had a label that was plain as well. 

This set of 10 soft plastic mythology figures was released as give away prizes in Mexican snack cakes in 2017.  The cakes are called Gansitos/ Gansi Premio.  The company that makes them is called Marinela. The figures are about 35-40mm tall.  They came individually wrapped with a collector card.  They are on the small side for toy soldiers.  Nice quality.  

I've had these for years and tried off and on to find out who made them and what they are called, but no luck at all.  I think they were made in the 1980s, but maybe the 1990s or both.  They are made of rubber and have holes in their butts for pencils.  The little dragon is fairly ordinary looking, but the mutant centaur birdman is one of the weirdest figures of all time.  So, does anybody know anything solid about these guys?









While we are at it, what are these guys?

Publius is a Russian company that makes very high quality, and costly, figures on par with anything else available.  These five dwarves are the first fantasy figures from this company (at least that I know of).  The big (Dwarf King?) warrior is standing on some rocks which make him 58mm.  That is kind of tall for a dwarf.  

The other guys look like thieves to me, or am I just profiling? Who else walks around with a lantern and a hand axe?   I'm not saying that all dwarfs are criminals.  I'm not saying that I would pick up any of these guys hitchhiking at night either.  Some of those Lord of the Rings guys were cool.  These suckers on the other hand are the old school Norse legends kind of dwarves .  .  .  violent, devious bastards. 

Yet another new set from SCS Direct: Humans v. Aliens.  There are 8 figures each of aliens and human civilians.  All but one of the aliens can be used as fantasy monsters.  The humans are just the type of civilians I have been searching for to use in zombie set ups.  The housefrau ready to do battle with her rolling pin is outstanding.













Rosie?

Love this figure!