Toy soldiers are as much a community as a hobby. Our shared passion binds us, even if our individual interests within the field are different. The following are links to some favorite sites, whether manufacturers’, fellow creators’, collectors’ or wargamers’. If any of these links don’t work, please email us and we’ll update. Note that we bear no affiliation to any of these sites except the first. If you have links to add, contact us.
Be sure to scroll down for links on uniforms and battles.
https://www.games.groups.yahoo.com/group/toysoldierwargame/
The Toysoldierwargame group on Yahoo. It’s dedicated to our old Armchair Generals rules and to toy soldiers in general. Join in the fun and chat or post images of your own work.
https://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/littlewars/?yguid=2095359
Littlewars, Ross Macfarlane’s Yahoo group. Perhaps the biggest on toy soldiers around.
https://www.games.groups.yahoo.com/group/FenianRaids/?yguid=2095359
Darryl Smith’s Yahoo group Fenian Raids, which is dedicated to everything from the War of 1812 to the Battle of Ridgeway (1866). Though not strictly a toy soldier group, this one has lots of information on the periods shown in the gallery.
https://www.michtoy.com/
Michigan Toy Soldiers. A great shop with good service.
https://www.sierratoysoldier.com/
A shop for you West Coasters.
https://www.thortrains.net/wargame/
A wargame link site with info and links to rules and other resources. Emphasis is on free resources for miniatures wargamers and military miniature collectors.
https://www.thortrains.net./armymen/
The Army Men Homepage. Everything about plastic soldiers of all scales. Fun, nostalgia, collecting info, wargames rules and loads more.
https://www.toysoldier.freeuk.com
Collecting toy soldiers. Collecting, modeling and wargaming with mostly 54mm plastic figures. Also book reviews and lots of links to other useful sites.
https://www.acalltoarms.co.uk/
A Call to Arms. UK 1/32 and 1/72 plastic figures.
https://www.armiesinplastic.com/
Armies in Plastic. USA 1/32 plastic soldiers manufacturer.
https://www.barzso.com/
Barzso Playsets. High-quality, original plastic figures and playsets.
https://www.toysoldiers.com/
Maitland Toy Soldier Shoppe. One of the few in Canada.
https://www.classictoysoldiers.com/
Classic Toy Soldiers. Sells original and other plastic toy soldiers.
https://www.conteco.com/
Conte Collectibles. 54mm plastic and metal figures.
https://www.elinfante-toysoldier.com
El Infante. A Spanish plastic soldiers retailer and manufacturer of their own excellent figures.
https://www.hat.com/
HAT. 1/32 and 1/72 plastic figures maker.
https://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/
Irregular Miniatures. From 2mm to 54mm lead miniatures. UK manufacturer.
https://www.mmtoysoldiers.com
Minutemen Toy Soldiers. Large selection of vintage- and new-production plastic toy soldiers.
https://www.upnaway.com/~obees/soldiers
Online gallery of 54mm toy soldiers.
https://www.replastic.com/
Replicants. UK 1/32 plastic figures maker.
https://www.soldadosgalileo.com.ar/
Soldados Galileo. 54mm white metal toy soldiers manufacturer. Special orders from collectors.
https://www.toysoldierco.com/index.html
The Toy Soldier Company. Very comprehensive. Excellent reference.
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/
Toy Soldier HQ. Large selection, excellent prices.
https://www.sdsoldiers.com/
Toy Soldiers of San Diego. Very comprehensive. Many unique items.
https://www.redskorpio.com.ar
A great toy soldier dealer in South America who carries new castings from the old Britain's Detail molds, and all-new creations.
www.toysoldiers.com.ar
A new toy soldier dealer from Argentinia, South America.
www.toyepics.com
A great educational (and business) website from Reg Groff, all about kids, history and toy soldiers.
War of 1812 Links
The following links are all dedicated to the War of 1812, whether the history of the war, battles, troops, pictures or uniforms. Some are webpages while some links are dedicated to ideal book references.
https://www.visit1812.com
An excellent primer to the war and upcoming bicentennial events.
https://www.history.army.mil/html/artphoto/pripos/pripos.html
Lots of cool prints from the US Army.
https://www.history-uniforms.over-blog.com/#fromadmin
This website is in French, but has outstanding uniform information on almost all units in the War of 1812, British, Canadian and American.
https://www.tinyurl.com/lymrvo
Pick and choose carefully among all these Google images, but you'll find plenty of good ones from the War of 1812.
https://www.warof1812.ca/
A great all-round site from Canada on the war.
https://www.1812usriflemen.org/index.html
A site dedicated to the US Rifles. These folks wear the interrim hunting shirt uniform, but the short jacket is appropriate too.
https://www.mywarof1812.com/index.htm
A geneology site that offers good coverage of each year of the war, and its battles.
https://www.ensigngroup.ca/Books.htm
The focus of this link is Canadian historian Donald E. Graves, who has written a number of excellent books on the period (among others). By all means, do a google search of his name for any other titles.
https://www.pierreberton.com/author.htm#border
Likewise, this link is dedicated to Canadian author and historian Pierre Burton. He wrote two thrilling books on 1812, "Flames Across the Border" and "The Invasion of Canada." Though the historical detail of his work may be subject to discussion, you can't beat the sweep of his narrative and the imagery he conjures. These books alone will fascinate you with the period.
https://www.discover1812.com/
Keep an eye on this site. It promises to be chock full of 1812 history -- and license plates!
Reference Material
The following pages offer plenty of useful information on painting uniforms, and on periods of history or battles that are appropos to ATKM.
Aide-de-Camp Books
The new, used, and rare military history book vendor you may have seen at wargame shows, now online. Always good for a check-in to see what they may have found among collectors and other dealers.
https://www.1789-1815.com/voir_planches.htm
An excellent collection of late-Napoleonic French uniforms. It's all en francais, but a picture says a thousand words, even in another language.
https://www.srcalifornia.com/flags/otherflags.htm
Holy smokes, a great place to find AWI flag images.
https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Encyclopedia-Uniforms-American-Independence/dp/075481761X
A fantastic new book on AWI uniforms. I read some harsh reviews on it by real historical sticklers, but immediately dismissed them once I got my own copy. (And no, I'm not affiliated with amazon.com.)
https://www.military-historians.org
An older, but wondeful source on uniforms from North American wars. Try to lay your hands on the very rare books on which this site is based.
https://www.darnault-mil.com/Galerie/index_galerie.htm
A new twist on a venerable set of books. This site showcases some books from uniformologists Lilian and Fred Funcken. Their collections are classics of the hobby, printed in French and English. This site covers two such books and will hopefully offer more. The text is all French, but the pictures speak a 1000 words in any language.
https://www.srcalifornia.com/uniforms/uindex.htm
Perhaps one of the most helpful sites I've found for getting started on the AWI.
https://www.history.army.mil/html/artphoto/pripos/amsoldier3.html
Another helpful starting place for AWI uniforms and reference.
https://www.krigsspil.dk/download/download_1.html
A great site for AWI flags.
https://www.warflag.com
And perhaps the grand-daddy site of wargame flags.
https://www.flagspot.net/flags/us%5Erv.html
A fantastic AWI flag resource.
https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us%5Erv.html
And another one!
https://www.quindiastudios.blogspot.com/p/awi-flags.html
And yet another! We're on a roll!
https://www.loeser.us/flags/revolution_units.html
And yet another great flag site!
https://www.vondonop.org/hkuniforms.html
Like the preceding site, but Hessian- and German-specific for the AWI.
https://www.33rdfoot.org/links.html
Wow! This site is just crawling with links and info on the AWI.
https://www.theamericanrevolution.org/battles.asp
A fantastic resource for many battles of the AWI. Be sure to click on the battle names on the lefthand side of the site
https://www.americanrevolution.org/blk.html
A very informative article about black soldiers fighting on both sides in the American Revolution.
https://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Armies
Perhaps the most comprehensive uniform and history site I've seen, in this case for the Seven Years War.
https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~dbertuca/g/FenianRaid.html
Ah, the Fenian Raids. This is one of the few sites you'll find that shows re-enactment images, along with helpful historical info. A "must see" for this fun period.
Products on this website are for adult collectors. Products are cast in white metal and are not for children under the age of 14. Items also pose a choking hazard.