"NEVER go back" may be good advice for relationships and dimly remembered holidays, but toy-soldier collectors soon realise lightning can easily strike twice in the same place.
So it was with great anticipation that I made a return visit to Olomouc in the Czech Republic, where I bought a fun knights-playset that featured in issue 83 of Toy Solider Collector.
This time, in quite a large toy store in a shopping mall, I found a magnificent Wild West Playset - Cowboys & Indians.
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| Action-packed, colourful and "more than 40pcs." |
The set is made in China and imported into Europe by Johntoy, a Dutch company that boasts it offers "exclusively designed toys with a distinctive style."
You certainly get a varied and colourful selection for your money - 199 Czech crowns, to be precise, which works out at about £7.50 at the time of writing.
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| Contents laid out on my hotel-room desk |
Highlights include a one-piece covered wagon that is completed by clicking a horse into place.
Having a one-horse team looks a little strange, and the driver has no reins, but the wagon seems sturdy, thanks not least to the axles being made of metal.
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| Wagon roll - the wheels rotate perfectly |
There are two mounted cowboys - one firing a rifle and the other twirling a lasso. Both have a six-shooter as a sidearm, and are easily detachable from their mounts, which stand firmly despite having no bases.
Four cowboys on foot are armed with a variety of rifles and pistols, and the cowboy part of the set also includes six pieces of fencing and two identical signposts pointing the way to the somewhat unimaginatively named "Farmerville" and "Pitchfork Way."
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| Actively posed cowboys |
But the cutest part of the set by far for me is a four-piece campfire that can be put together much easier than you might think. You can almost feel the heat being given off by the burning logs!
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| Clever painting gives a realistic-looking blazing campfire |
The Indians, like the cowboys, come with two mounted and four foot figures, one of the latter clearly being a chief. No one could call them Redskins, and that is not just out of political correctness, but because their skin has been painted paler than that of most Palefaces.
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| Indians are armed with bows or spears |
There are two tepees, an impressive totem pole and a nicely crafted canoe with paddle - but no paddler.
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| You have to paddle your own canoe |
Finally, there is a plastic map, two fir trees, two cacti and two straw-coloured objects that I have not been able to identify - maybe miniature hayricks?
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| The map looks quite good in this photo but it does not really go with the figures |
All in all, a great set worth looking out for from a company that distributes across most of Europe.
