Attractively retro packaged Roy Toys cabin building set
A well built log cabin lasts several generations …
Safari Toob Jamestown Settler pioneer figures (plastic 54mm) make suitable cabin builders.
Safari Toob Wild West figures including Annie Oakley
You can get your Little House on The Prairie geek on with this log cabin building set!
Like those grainy old black and white western log cabin photos.
Roy Toys?
I had heard of Lincoln Logs building Toys as I have some of their metal toy soldiers and civilians. Roy Toys however were a new company to me, thanks to a surprise kind family gift for Christmas.
I like the retro packaging, I like the simple product and the story behind its creation and remarkable family revival.
The history of the product, maker and company are given here
Another useful Safari Toob set of figures are The Jamestown Settlers set in 1:32 or 54mm scale, which contains some interesting and useful ‘character’ figures for modelling or gaming.
Educational descriptions of each figure. 12 Jamestown pieces includes 3 farm animals, log fire and a wonky ship, so each figure is between £1 and 2 pounds or dollars effectively.
These Safari Toob figures are produced in cooperation with the Jamestown Settlement Museum in Williamsburg Virginia.
For American customers the Toob set is around $12 dollars, but can also buy ‘bulk bags’ of some of these Safari Toob figures too.
Amazon UK retails these Toob sets for £12 to £15.
Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame. Pocahontas features in the Powhatan Toob set. 54mm Jamestown Settler workman with ax(e) by Safari Toob. Twig log collected by Man of TIN.54mm Jamestown blacksmith (without an anvil) but useful Fire. A 54mm anvil could be made from Fimo / Sculpy or suitable white metal one found.
Safari Toob figures are ‘educational’ and come with short caption texts. We will feature more about the Powhatan Indian set (left) in another blog review post.
The Safari Toob website reliably informs that:
Arguably one of America’s most important landmarks, Jamestown was founded in 1607 by English settlers. While Jamestown is now celebrated as an important location for the development of the early American colonies, it wasn’t without its trials.
From 1609 to 1610, James struggled through a crippling lack of food known as the “Starving Time” which diminished the population by nearly 60%. However, the settlers were resilient, and over time Jamestown developed into one of the premier bastions of English civilization in America.
Useful 54mm accessories (cannon) matches with the pirate set barrels and cannonballs.Wonky musket aside, this is a useful 54mm musketeer figure from the Safari Toob Jamestown settler set.54mm Navigator with cross staff figure from the Safari Toob Jamestown Settler set. Pirate chest from a pound store plastic set.
Especially useful in both the Powhatan Indian figures (to be featured in next blogpost) and the Jamestown Settlers sets are the tradesmen and the civilian women.
54mm Jamestown settler woman cooking that can be used for many periods and nationalities.Jamestown cook54mm Jamestown Settler woman gardening.
There are equally good figures (shown) from the later Wild West settlers Toob set.
54mm Safari Toob Wild West settler and child with Jamestown settler with hoe. Toob sets often match together well.
Musketeer with wonky musketMusketeer with wonky musketWonky and tiny thin 2D out of scale ship suitable for setting the background.
Expensive but interesting character figures, full of conversion possibilities.
Several other companies produce plastic 17th Century figures, but you can always mass produce your own with Doug Shand’s brilliant idea of dollar store conversions of Airfix Australians:
Handy barrel, rope and cannonball scenery feature as well as duelling figures in the Safari Toob pirate set.
Some really useful Treasure Island type figures here, some that no doubt early gaming writer Robert Louis Stevenson would have enjoyed.
A tiny Pirate ship in the background, this Skeleton Compass leads these two Toob pirate figures onwards in their map hunt for buried treasure. Palm tree is a Tiger stores cocktail stick. (Photo: Man of TIN)
Safari’s Pirate Toob set has some interesting and useful 54mm or 1:32 plastic prepainted figures for gaming in the 18th and 19th Century.
The duelling figures with swords out would work really well with Donald Featherstone’s simple sword fight rules in one of my favourite Featherstone chapters “Wargaming in Bed” in his book Solo Wargaming.
Nice touches like the monkey on the shoulder.This Toob pirate reminds me of a pirate book illustration by American painter Howard Pyle. Shame about the wonky musket.
“The Buccaneer was a Picturesque Fellow” by Howard Pyle is the oil painting, which the illustration was of, was sold in 1905 under the title The Buccaneer, and is currently part of the Delaware Art Museum’s collection.
Howard Pyle’s The Buccaneer. (Source image: Wikipedia)Again, nice detail seen from the back like the pirate parrot or macaw. Useful atmospheric barrels, cannon balls and rope cluster.Excellent injured pirate or veteranGood back details on this peg leg pirate.Hmmm. Something vaguely 1980s pop star or biker about this pirate. One for a paint conversion … nice cannon though!
Female pirate based on Ann Bonny, less scantily clad than the engraving.Ann BonnyContemporary image or engraving of Ann Bonny (Source image: Wikipedia)
Safari Toob figure sets or Toobs are not cheap so probably do not qualify for inclusion on my Pound Store Plastic Warriors website:
They are about $12 dollars from Safari Ltd.com or from Amazon UK about £12 (to £15 RRP).
This gets you 6 figures, 7 if you count the skeleton, along with the cannon, barrels and the tiny ship.
I will post further Safari Toob figure set reviews over the next few weeks, the Jamestown settlers and Powhatan Indians and Native American Indian / Wild West set.
American customers have access to a range of Civil War and Revolutionary War figure Safari Toobs.
Posted by Mark, Mr MIN Man of TIN blog, December 2016.
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