College football is back. For a lot of fans, the band is half of what makes a Saturday feel like a Saturday: the drum major high-stepping onto the field, the brass hitting the fight song, a stadium full of people who know every word. You can take the game home on television. The band is harder to take home.

That is what makes the college marching band sets at Breagans one of the most unusual things I carry. They are made in England, cast in white metal and painted by hand in full gloss, in the old toy soldier tradition, by people who have never been to a college football game. Restocks can take a year or two. And with one exception, you will not find them for sale anywhere else.

Here is how they came to Breagans, and a look at five of the bands collectors ask me about most.

How the Little Band Man Came to Breagans

The sets are designed by The Little Band Man Company, run by a man named Jady, who has been creating college marching bands in miniature for more than twenty years. When I was starting Breagans, I came across his Little Band Man Instagram page and loved it right away. I contacted him immediately and told him I wanted to sell his bands.

At the time, the bands were not finding their audience. Jady had stepped back and even taken his website down. Once the sets went up at Breagans, that changed quickly, and it has been hard to keep them in stock ever since. My theory is simple. People come to Breagans looking for toy soldiers, and then they stumble onto their alma mater's marching band and cannot believe it exists. They tell friends and family who went to the same school, and word gets around.

Made in England, Painted by Hand

Every figure is a standard 54mm (1:32 scale, about two and a quarter inches tall), cast in white metal, assembled and hand painted in England in a high gloss finish. The workshop that paints them also produces sets for Tradition of London, and Tradition of London gets priority. That is a big part of why restocks take so long. When a band sells out at Breagans, it is often a year or more before I see it again.

There is a cultural gap, too. In Britain, a military band means the Guards outside Buckingham Palace. A 400-member student band in cowboy hats or Trojan helmets marching at halftime in front of 100,000 people simply does not exist in the European imagination. The painters are working from photographs of uniforms they have never seen in person, for a tradition that is almost entirely American, and the results are remarkable.

University of Texas Longhorn Band

The Longhorn Band was founded in 1900. Its first director recruited 16 students and bought $150 worth of instruments at a pawn shop in downtown Austin. Today it has nearly 350 members, is the largest student organization on the UT campus, and is known as the Showband of the Southwest.

The University of Texas Longhorn Band set (6001) has 13 pieces: a drum major, piccolo, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, mellophone, trombone, marching baritone, sousaphone, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals and a six-headed tenor drum, all in burnt orange with white western hats.

The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band

The Aggie Band started with 13 members in 1894. Today it has more than 400 musicians and is the largest military marching band in the country. Its signature is precision military marching, led by the Bugle Rank, the 12 senior cadets who march across the front row.

The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band set (1001) has 15 pieces, including a drum major, three Bugle Rank cadets, woodwinds, brass and a bass drum carrying the A&M logo. As I write this, I have one set left.

Band of the Fighting Irish

Notre Dame's band formed in 1845 and is the oldest university band in continuous existence. It has played every home football game since 1887, was among the first bands to use pageantry, precision drill and picture formations, and has been named a Landmark of American Music.

The Band of the Fighting Irish set (4001) is the largest of the five at 17 pieces. Along with the band itself, it includes the Leprechaun mascot and three of the kilted Irish Guard in their tall bearskins. I have one set in stock, and I do not expect to see this band again for a year or two.

The Spirit of Troy (USC)

The Trojan Marching Band began in the fall of 1880 and today has about 275 student musicians and auxiliaries. Its "drive-it" marching style and "rock-chart" sound have been copied by college programs across the country. Thanks to its Southern California home, its film credits and years of performing with major recording artists, it is sometimes called "Hollywood's Band."

The Spirit of Troy set (5001) has 12 pieces, led by a drum major in full Trojan helmet and cape, with brass, woodwinds, cymbals and a five-headed quad drum set.

The Ohio State University Marching Band

Ohio State's band began as a 12-piece, all-male ROTC band. Today it has 225 marching members and is unusual among college bands for being all brass and percussion, patterned after British military brass bands. Its "Script Ohio," where a sousaphone player dots the "i," is one of the best-known traditions in college football. To Buckeye fans, it is simply "The Best Damn Band in the Land."

The Ohio State Marching Band set (3001) has 13 pieces: a drum major, three cornets, a flugelhorn, F horn, trombone, baritone, sousaphone, snare drum, four-headed quad toms and cymbals.

Building a Game-Day Display

The easiest display idea is the one every fan already understands: the rivalry. Texas and Texas A&M are back on the schedule now that both schools are in the SEC, and the Longhorn Band and the Aggie Band facing each other across a shelf makes a fine Lone Star Showdown. Notre Dame and USC have played for the Jeweled Shillelagh since 1926. And Ohio State fans will know exactly what to do with the University of Michigan Marching Band.

Gloss figures are easy to live with. Keep them out of direct sunlight, dust them with a soft brush, and handle them by the base rather than the instruments. Each set comes in a foam-lined presentation box, which is the best place to store figures that are not on display.

Find Your Band

These five are only part of the lineup. Michigan, LSU, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Harvard and others are in the full Collegiate Marching Bands collection.

Two questions I get often, so I will answer them here. First, the bands are sold only as complete sets. Individual figures are never sold separately. Second, Jady does not take commissions for new schools. Designing a band means researching and sculpting every uniform and instrument, then waiting for a slot in an English workshop that is already busy with Tradition of London. It takes years and costs a great deal before a single set is painted, so the lineup is limited to the major programs collectors ask for most.

If the band you want is sold out, it will come back, though it may take a year or two. When it does, it tends to go quickly.

Whoever you are cheering for this fall, I hope your band plays well and your team wins, unless it is playing mine.

— Daniel