Chicago Toy Soldier Show


OTSN's 2008 Chicago Toy Soldier Show

   OTSN's 28th Chicago Toy Soldier Show is on the horizon. Sunday September 28, 2008 is rapidly approaching. Welcome or welcome back, as the case may be, to all coming to this year's show.

As you read this, the Show's Golf Road Hyatt Hotel is already filling up. The hotel is under new management; rooms have been completely renovated and are truly beautiful. If you are planning on attending the show, book your room soon. During show week, people begin arriving on Tuesday and Wednesday; Thursday is the heaviest check-in day. By Friday the hotel will be full, but we also have a block of rooms across the parking lot at the Hyatt Place Suites for the overflow.

In light of the Hyatt's renovation we have adjusted some of the pre-show activities. Vendors who are open on Wednesday evening will hang a sign on their room's doorknob indicating their room is open. From Thursday on, however, vendors who choose to do so will prop room doors completely open. We would also like to note that most of our local collectors don't set up until the Sunday full show.

Since we don't control in any way the times particular rooms open, the only day on which we guarantee that you can see all the vendors and collectors is public show day, Sunday, September 28th. Sunday admission is still $7.00 for adults; children 12 and under are free with an adult. The show opens to the public at 10:00 am and runs until 3:30 pm, but come early to have time to see all 350 tables full of toy soldiers, farm-zoo-circus figures and related items. Early admission at 7:00 am is available for $30. If you have bought more than you can carry home, a UPS station, accepting credit cards, will be set up at the show entrance at 3:30 pm. If you can't stay until then but need to ship things, the hotel concierge can help you. With manufacturers, vendors and collectors from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, as well as Canada, Mexico and the USA, the Show again should be the toy soldier event of the year!

When attending the Show on Sunday, be sure to visit "Manufacturers Row" which is open early in the admissions foyer. You will see many of the major brands of new toy soldiers exhibiting their releases for the coming year. You can talk with the people behind the products and see what they are planning for the future. Included in this area will be Blackhawk, Del Prado, Britains, Conte, Figarti, King and Country, and King and Country UK. Located in the show are Beau Geste, Collector's Showcase, Toy Soldier's of San Diego and Frontline. Many of your favorite retail outlets will have tables at the Show so you can meet the people you've only talked to on the phone or emailed. Of course, it is the thousand plus collectors who reunion each year in September who are the heart of OTSN's Chicago Toy Soldier Show! Come back and be part of it again or come for the first time. (See the "Dealer List" on this web site for a complete roster of the vendors who are scheduled to be set up at the show.)



OTSN's 2007 Chicago Toy Soldier Show

   Our 27th annual OTSN Chicago Toy Soldier Show was another great success in 2007. For dealers and collectors, it's always a week-long convention, especially for those coming from both coasts, Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Typically collectors from twenty countries meet in Chicago on the fourth Sunday in September for our public show. Soldier and civilian figures, in metal, plastic and composition, old and new in every price range and rarity, cover over 350 tables; the Sunday show fills two ballrooms and all the hallways and conference spaces in between.

This year a mammoth Ron Barszo Robin Hood's castle display, including hundred of plastic figures, greeted guests all week in the hotel lobby. I'm told that it converted several Hyatt guests into soldier collectors on the spot! On Sunday morning our entrance hallway Manufacturer's Row showed off some of the newest offerings from several of the most prominent new toy figure makers. Among the most elaborate were WWII dioramas by Gordon C. Neilson of King & Country. My favorite was a battle-damaged chateau-like Hotel Hartenstein resplendent right down to the wrecked tennis court. Another Neilson project showed a fire-fight around a downed German airplane. Equally impressive was Figarti's German "E" boat in full 1/32 scale. FM is also making a scale B-17 Flying Fortress, V-1 and V-2 rockets with their crews; WWII will never end for collectors. New figures ranged from ancient warriors to Indian Army to contemporary citizen soldiers. One of the most nostalgic offerings was Figarti's release of Jack Updyke's western Stagecoach modeled after its namesake in the classic John Ford-John Wayne movie. Britains continues to release new additions to their many lines including the well received Red Coats and Blue Coats. Old Northwest Trading Company and Blackhawk Miniatures' new items were on exhibit as well. The plastics collectors were delighted by the new figures from Toy Soldiers of San Diego, Steve Weston, Conte Collectibles and of course Ron Barszo with his afore mentioned castle and figures.

Thousands, yes thousands, of old figures, civilian and military, are the mainstay of the show: Britains to Elastolin, Heyde to Manoil, Mignot and Marx. Farm, zoo, circus, garden, as well; OTSN has them all!

If you want more information than the show photos and brief comment here, check out the major magazines in our hobby; Old Toy Soldier, Playset, and Toy Soldier &apm; Model Figure. All give descriptions and photo coverage of particular interest to readers in their hobby niche. Old Toy Soldier pictured dozens of collectors with great show "finds" like a 1950's big boxed Crescent School Set and a 1920's boxed Heyde medical display. A special magazine feature chronicled OTS publisher Ray Haradin's 17-minute auction-rummage -bargain room sale of old soldiers; collectors crammed in, filled bags, and minutes later the beds were bare. Playset Magazine, as expected, concentrated on the plastics stories at the show. They saw old boxed sets like Ben-Hur, Battleground, and the Giant Viking Ship find new homes. TSMF concentrated their always extensive report on new offerings from the dozens of current manufacturers showing at OTSN; these included new models from century old Mignot and Britains.

In all candor, collectors say if you are not coming to OTSN's Chicago Toy Soldier Show you are missing the central show experience in our hobby. Come back or come for the first time; it's easy to remember this year: September 28, 2008. Our 28th show!

For their show reports see these issues and find information online:

Old Toy Soldier, vol.31, #3, Fall 2007
Playset Magazine, #36 Nov/Dec 2007
Toy Soldier & Model Figure Magazine, #116 Jan 2008