October's King & Country dispatch opens with something K&C has never done before: bringing back some of its own retired figures.

Heritage Classics: Old Sculpts, a Whole New Look

K&C co-founder Andy Neilson explains the thinking in this month's dispatch. Over the last twenty years, more and more toy soldier collectors have come from Asia, especially China. They are younger, very enthusiastic, and many have already collected nearly everything K&C has released in the last ten to fifteen years. Now they are hunting for retired pieces, often paying high prices on eBay for figures that were modestly priced when they first came out.

Many asked K&C to simply re-release the old figures exactly as they were. K&C decided to do something better: take the original sculpts and repaint them with its current, more realistic painting and weathering. The result is a new series K&C calls Heritage Classics.

The first ten figures, in five two-man sets, come from the Battle of the Bulge range, with some first released as far back as 2005 and 2006. K&C has moved them from the Ardennes to the frozen Eastern Front, which is why they now wear red identification bands on their upper left arms. They were chosen to go with the 'Flakvierling' Sd. Kfz. 7/1 half-track from last month's dispatch, and I have all five in stock:

• BBG134 Heritage Classics On Patrol #1: an MP40 gunner and a rifleman with a Gewehr 43 picking their way across the snow
• BBG135 Walking MG 42 Gun Team: the MG42 gunner with an MP40-armed loader, both carrying ammunition boxes
• BBG136 Snowshoe Radio Team: a radio operator with a backpack radio, headphones and throat mike, and his teammate, both on snowshoes
• BBG137 On Patrol #2: one man in helmet and pack with a K98, the other bareheaded with his MP40 over his shoulder
• BBG142 On Patrol #3: two men with packs and K98s, the leader enjoying his pipe while his partner watches the tree line

Pair them with the Ostfront Skywatcher and Ostfront Vehicle Guards, and the Flakvierling has a full winter crew around it.

Churchill & The Roaring Lion

On December 30, 1941, Winston Churchill addressed the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa. Afterward, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King arranged a short photo session with a young Armenian-Canadian photographer named Yousuf Karsh, who was told he had two minutes.

Churchill walked in, lit a cigar, and refused to put it down. So just before taking the picture, Karsh stepped forward, said "Forgive me, Sir," and plucked the cigar from Churchill's mouth. "By the time I got back to my camera," Karsh remembered, "he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me." That scowl became one of the most famous portraits of the twentieth century, and it launched Karsh's career. Churchill's verdict: "You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed."

"The Roaring Lion." Yousuf Karsh, Ottawa, 30 December 1941. Library and Archives Canada.

K&C's Churchill & The Roaring Lion (DD407) captures the moment after the cigar was taken: Churchill glaring, one hand on a chair, and Karsh calmly at his camera and tripod. The set comes with a three-sided room modelled on the actual room in Ottawa. The idea came from a young British collector of Armenian descent, Aren Berberian, whom Andy met at last December's London Show.

If you enjoyed our posts on famous WWII photographs that became K&C sets and the photographers behind K&C's Vietnam series, this one belongs in that series. This time the photographer is in the set too.

The Praetorian Guard Goes to War

Augustus founded the Praetorian Guard in 27 BC to protect the emperor and his family. It grew to about 5,000 men, roughly the size of a legion, with better armour, better pay and better living conditions than the regular army. They were allowed to wear the emperor's own colour, purple. Besides guarding the emperor, they acted as secret police, handled the crowds at the games, and even served as Rome's emergency firefighters.

K&C's first batch of fighting Praetorians is four archers, each in a different stage of shooting:

• ROM098 Praetorian Archer Preparing To Fire
• ROM099 Praetorian Archer Letting Loose
• ROM100 Praetorian Archer Reaching For An Arrow
• ROM101 Praetorian Archer Aiming High

K&C says this is the first of several Praetorian batches. Set them in front of the Roman Triumphal Arch for an instant imperial scene.

The Castle Façade Backdrop, Newly Amended

The three-part Castle Façade Backdrop (SP134) has been a favourite with collectors short on shelf space since it came out in 2025. The new version adds more battle damage to the ramparts and the heavy wooden door. Use it on its own or to extend the original.

Santa Comes But Once a Year

For 26 years, K&C has released a new Santa set every holiday season. This year's Santa & His Reindeers shows Santa visiting two of his reindeer a few days before Christmas Eve, with a basket of fresh mushrooms for them (a reindeer favourite, it turns out). I am carrying it as The Christmas Combo, paired with one of K&C's Santa's Cottage buildings, the perfect start to a Christmas collection.

Tradition of London: The Composers

New releases from Tradition of London are rare, so a new set is always worth a mention. The Composers (T108) gathers Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner in four gloss-painted figures. They could never have stood in the same room: Bach died six years before Mozart was born, and Beethoven died when Wagner was thirteen. What joined them was the music, handed from one to the next as a score. They look wonderful on a mantel above Tradition's Bar at the Officer's Mess and Snooker Table at the Officer's Mess.

Passing on This Month

Two parts of this month's release I am not stocking: K&C's five new figures of Sam Browne's Cavalry, the famous Indian Army regiment raised on the North West Frontier in 1849 and shown here in pre-1914 parade dress, and The Letter Writer Set from the Streets of Old Hong Kong series. Both are lovely pieces. If either interests you, I can order them on request.

Being Retired

K&C is retiring a long list this month. I do not stock these, but if you collect any of these series, now is the time to find them:

• The Robin Hood series: Robin Hood, Will Scarlett, Friar Tuck, Little John, Maid Marian and The High Sheriff of Nottingham
• The Real West: Crazy Horse, Rain-In-The-Face, Running Buffalo, Spotted Tail, Little Wolf, Kicking Bear, Yellow Knife, White Eagle, Bloody Lance, Breech Cloth, Die Longknife! and American Flag
• Royalty: The Young Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Elizabeth II in State Attire
• Tutankhamun's Monument, K&C's Palm Trees and The Vietnam Walls Set

That is October. My pick of the month is Churchill and Karsh, a toy soldier set about the making of a photograph, which is about as unusual as K&C gets.

— Daniel