Collector’s Story by Paul Simadas

The annual visit to Australia by King & Country co-founder Andy Neilson to visit Peter Nathan Toy Soldiers and meet with collectors of K&C figures is always something to look forward to. The annual dinner that occurs with Andy is a very welcome opportunity to meet in the good company of fellow collectors and hear the latest news from K&C. Organised by the Peter Nathan Toy Soldiers shop, Sven and his team ensure a good time is had by all of their customers who attend.

My collection of King & Country sets includes many that have been long retired. Here is a look at some early King & Country gloss-finished sets in my personal collection. These are all from the 1990s, and are presented here to coincide with Andy Neilson’s 2025 visit to Australia. 

First-up is an early issue King & Country set “Cheshire Regiment Drum and Fife CRDF9”, with 11 x 54mm gloss-painted toy soldiers in the original box complete with card of authenticity. This is Set 9 in a collectors edition of 1,000, circa 1990. The set is amongst the earliest sets to be manufactured by or for “King & Country”. The eleven figures represent the Cheshire Regiment Fifes and Drums, one of the British army’s famous County regiments of the line.

The set contains a drum major, six fifers, three side-drummers and one bass drummer. The moulds are solid metal in 54mm-scale and finished in gloss paint.

King & Country gloss-painted 54mm "A Day at the Races" Horse and Jockey  set JC3.

At least six ‘horse and jockey’ sets were made between 1994 and 1998 in the “Streets of Old Hong Kong” range, in association with the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, in notional racing silks.

Three New South Wales Lancers by King & Country are pictured here together with two smaller scale NSW Lancers by DB Figurines in their ”Soldiers of the Queen” range of the same period, the 1990’s. The first and second figures, from the left, are a K&C officer and then a Lancer. On the far right is the bugler. These figures, purchased in boxes like that shown, were “chunky” in style and were a portent of the “future growth” into 60mm scale.