You pay five dollars at the door, and on the other side is a room full of tiny armies. That is the Columbus Toy Soldier Show, which collector Jerry Combs toured with his camera in October.

“We’re at the Columbus Toy Soldier Show and this gentleman right here is the guy that fleeces you for five bucks on the way in,” he says with a laugh, greeting an old friend at the entrance.

A Midwest Show With Friends From Years Back

The show runs in the middle of October from 10 to 3 at Otterbein. Organizer Todd Nace took over from a longtime host, who now calls himself “just a civilian” and still sets up.

Todd says the group, Midwest Toy Soldier Collectors, also runs shows in Lafayette, in Wadsworth, Ohio, and twice in Gettysburg. Collectors can find the dates on the group’s website.

Jerry bumps into people he used to travel with to Chicago shows. He explains he is filming for YouTube and that the video will be posted in about a month.

Bargain Tubs For $5 To $20

The best news for newcomers is on the bargain tables. Sellers have boxes and tubs of figures at $5, $10, $15 and $20, which lets a beginner start a collection in one stop.

“These are bargain boxes where you can start collecting all at once,” Jerry says. “It’d be an awful good show for a beginning collector.”

One table has a whole fort full of $1 figures. Another seller offers a whole box of farm stuff cheap, and a vendor tells Jerry that any fort on the table is 20% off.

Spaceports, Playsets And A $25 Fort

Not every table is cheap. At one booth Jerry spots a Superior Spaceport, which he says seems to be hard to find, and he has not seen one before.

He also notes Captain Gallant in the miscellaneous boxes and a good range of playsets. A Superior fort is marked at $25 asking, then lowered by the day’s 20% discount.

The show is not all soldiers, he adds. There are toy guns, games and cards for anyone who wanders off the main path.

Nursery Rhyme Figures, Dime Store Soldiers And Clowns

Jerry stops at a group of nursery rhyme figures selling for about $3 to $5 apiece. Elsewhere a seller wants $500 for a complete set of the same style.

The figures on the dime store table are the kind his generation remembers. “You don’t see too many of those anymore,” he says, adding that dime stores are getting fewer and so are collectors.

He points out Auburn vehicles, Miller plaster Alamo figures, composition pieces and crazy clowns. One large composition figure, he says, is quite rare.

Another oddity, he explains, was sold only at airports, and he does not believe it ever reached the United States.

“I’ve Got About 4,000 Figures And I Can’t Keep Track”

The moment that gives the video its punch happens at one booth. A seller says he owns about two-thirds of the nursery rhyme set and cannot tell what else he has.

“I got about 4,000 figures and I can’t keep them track anymore,” he says. When Jerry repeats the number, the seller adds that six storage units hold figures, plus more at his house and at his sister-in-law’s.

The numbers pile up fast. Six storage units, a house and a relative’s home all hold pieces, and the seller was at the show with figures of his own on the table.

Filming Everything, With Permission

Jerry makes a point to tell sellers what he is doing. Some joke that he is taking inventory, and one told him that if he ever forgets what he sold, he can check YouTube and see what is missing.

One vendor asks him not to film his table, and Jerry respects that and moves on. The rest welcome the attention, because the camera might bring in new collectors.

The friendly chatter shows how small this hobby is. Old friends trade news about who runs which show, who has retired and who just landed a figure they hunted for years.

One collector says he bought ten or fifteen figures just to get the one he wanted. “I finally got him,” he says.

That attitude matters for anyone shopping a show. Ask before you shoot photos of a dealer’s stock, and you will hear more of the stories behind the figures.

Start A Toy Soldier Collection On A Budget

The Columbus show is a good model for how to begin. Collectors say a little patience goes a long way, and a few habits help you avoid overspending.

• Begin with bargain boxes of $5 to $20, where a tub gives you variety.
• Walk the whole room first, then circle back, as Jerry does.
• Ask about discounts, since one booth took 20% off everything.
• Learn the makers’ names, such as Superior, Miller and Auburn, so you can recognize better pieces.
• Count what you own, or the next show you may end up like the seller with 4,000 figures.

The seller’s honest admission got the last laugh in the room. A collection that grows too big to track is the best sign a hobby has worked, even if it takes six storage units to hold it.

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