This was a post that got lost back in May 2016. Now I have found most of the photographs again!
The ‘V and A’ (Victoria and Albert Museum) also run the Bethnal Green Musuem Of Childhood. They put together touring exhibitions from their extensive collections of toys, such as the now finished War Games exhibition I saw in 2016.
Sadly it seems photography was not allowed in the main exhibition, but I have photographed some of the things I picked up free around the exhibition and in the shop including the obligatory bag of plastic toy soldiers. These now have WG marked on their bases, short for War Games (the exhibition). They can be seen at this May 2016 blog post https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/17/spa-treatments-for-toy-soldiers/
War Games brochure 2016This post got lost in the earliest days of my blogging. The Victoria and Albert Musuem / Museum Of Childhood travelling exhibition War Games has now finished travelling. It was hosted as part of the 1941 Plymouth Blitz Anniversary and the Plymouth City Museum (which survived the Plymouth Blitz) is closed for rebuilding until the Mayflower Anniversary 2020 https://plymhearts.org/
https://plymhearts.org/2019/10/16/figureheads-restoration/
Presumably the collection is back in store at the V and A Childhood Museum at Bethnal Green https://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections
UK blogger PB EyeCandy visited the exhibition and a related talk in London in 2013 and did take some photographs https://pbeyecandy.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/war-games-talk-and-review/
I have a few photographs of the advertising banners outside the museum but nothing inside the museum.
Sadly three years later I cannot remember too much detail about the different sections appealing to different demographics.
There were some well-presented old toy soldiers on parade or in boxes. There was a section on classic board games (Risk etc) and a whole section on video games. I don’t recall a wargames section and any classic wargames title. The section on vintage kids dressing up uniforms such as “cowboys and Indians” and toy guns was pure nostalgia!
There was the obligatory dressing up costumes (for kids only) for a photo opportunity. From what I recall, you weren’t allowed to photograph the rest of the exhibits and in 2016 not everyone carried an IPhone camera.
The final room featured a big room sized table top diorama using toys of all scales called “Earthling Armies vs. fantasy Forces” which was quite good fun to see and identify figures.
Another random blog post draft finally sees the light of day as part of the Man of TIN Advent Calendar Day 6.
Man of Tin blog 
How can anyone mistake highlanders for lancers? Even someone with no interest and little knowledge of military stuff would surely know that or if not have the common sense t look it up.
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Disappointing that misidentification. Sounds an interesting exhibition but perhaps one that was hard for the curators to engage fully. The Swedish Army Museum in Stockholm had a similar exhibition relatively recently.
https://dalauppror.blogspot.com/2017/02/war-games-exhibition-at-swedish-army.html
Follow the above link for a look at it and a wee bit about the game he put on at it.
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I think the Wargames exhibition in Sweden was much more extensive and focussed. The V&A Plymouth one felt more guarded and aware of criticism, even in a navy city.
The lancers / highlanders ID typo is unfortunate. I wonder if they switched the ad image at the last minute or something ?
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Puzzling indeed for somebody in a national museum collection to get this wrong. If only they had misspent their youth with Airfix figures …
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Ha! That typo is the sort of thing that would get me all unnessarily sceptical about the rest of the exhibition. I would have loved to have seen it all the same. I’m glad you resurrected this lost post.
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Hopefully I think this was just a local graphic designer typo in a local events and exhibition listings magazine, rather than a reflection on the V and A’s accuracy.
Thankfully the PB Eye Candy blog has good photos of the highlights of the exhibition.
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