Welcome back to the monthly K&C Dispatch — a walk through King & Country's May 2026 releases and retirements with my own editorial layer. What I picked up for the catalog, what I passed on, and the reasoning behind each call.

The reminder I made last month bears repeating: I plan to carry every King & Country item eventually. I'm an authorized retailer for the brand and I think their work is consistently the best in the business. But money does not grow on trees, and a one-person shop has to make calls about what to stock when. If you see a dispatch item below that I haven't picked up yet and you want one, email me — I'll order it. The post just tracks what's already on Breagans's shelves.

May has more variety than usual — Ceremonials, Hong Kong Police, samurai, and a few retired Royals. Let's walk through them.

New Releases This Month

Scots Guards Pipes & Drums

This is the release I'm most excited about. K&C added three new figures to their Ceremonials line — the Foot Guards in their iconic scarlet tunics and bearskin caps, sized at the standard 1/30 (60mm) matte-painted scale that pairs with everything else in the K&C catalog:

• CE120 Scots Guards Drummer — the side drummer in full ceremonial dress, drumsticks in motion.
  
•  CE122 Scots Guards Drum Major — the band leader with the mace and red sash.
  
•  CE123 Scots Guards Bass Drummer — the bass drummer with the regimental drum and white apron.

Until this dispatch I didn't carry any of K&C's Ceremonials, and I had it on my shortlist to expand into them — so this release is the perfect kick-off. They pair naturally with the Edinburgh Castle Gateway, which has been in the Breagans catalog for a while and now has a band to march through it.

On Parade With The Royal Hong Kong Police

K&C is based in Hong Kong, so it's not surprising that some releases are aimed at their local customers more than the international collector market. The new On Parade With The Royal Hong Kong Police set falls into that category — well-sculpted ceremonial figures of the historic RHKP in dress uniform, beautifully executed as K&C's work always is.

I'm holding off on stocking these for Breagans. My American customer base hasn't shown much interest in RHKP figures in the past, and pieces like these tend to sell more naturally out of the K&C Hong Kong store than from a Texas-based shop. Email me directly if you want one and I'll order it. (Side note: I'd love to visit the K&C Hong Kong store one day. I'm sure it's incredible.)

Sekigahara 1600

The next release covers seven new figures from Sekigahara, the 1600 battle that ended Japan's Sengoku period and started the Tokugawa shogunate. K&C's first wave focuses on the Western Army — Ishida Mitsunari's losing side, whose ashigaru foot soldiers carried more visual variety than Tokugawa's standardized core army. The figures are gorgeous. I wasn't sure how much demand there is for samurai pieces in my American customer base, but I couldn't pass on these — they're just too good.

It's worth telling the story behind why I trust Andy Neilson and K&C on Asian releases specifically. A few years before I became a Breagans dealer, I met Andy at a trade show in Round Top, Texas. He was running the K&C booth there. I had the Champions' Dragon Boat — a Chinese piece K&C had released earlier — sitting on my consignment page at the time, and I mentioned it to him. He couldn't believe I hadn't sold it yet; in his view, it was a perfect collection piece. I also brought along an old K&C Marching with Rifle set my father bought in Hong Kong in the early 90s — a vintage set in perfect condition. Andy was pleased to see it. Both pieces are still in the Breagans catalog: the Champions' Dragon Boat and Marching with Rifle. They're worth a look if you want a sense of K&C's range across Asian historical periods.

Back to Sekigahara. The seven new pieces are split between archers, arquebusiers (matchlock gunners — firearms came to Japan via Portuguese traders in the mid-16th century and reshaped Japanese warfare within a generation), and a Taiko drum set. Each is in K&C's standard 1/30 (60mm) matte-painted scale and pairs cleanly with the broader Samurai range.

• SW001 Western Army Ashigaru Archer Reaching for An Arrow
• SW003 Kneeling Ashigaru Archer
  
• SW004 Ashigaru Archer About To Launch An Arrow
  
• SW006 Sitting Ashigaru Arquebusier
  
• SW008 Kneeling Priming Ashigaru Arquebusier
• SW010 Standing Firing Arquebusier
  
• SW014 Ashigaru Taiko Drum Set — two drummers and a Taiko war drum, used for battlefield signal commands

Being Retired in May

K&C retired two Royals this month, both from their long-running TR series. As I mentioned at the top, I don't currently carry any Royals at Breagans, but it's a collection I've been planning to build out this year. Starting with the retired pieces is a deliberate choice — retired items often become harder to find within months of the announcement, and by the time I'm ready to expand the Royals catalog properly, these two would already be off the market.

TR001 Victoria and Albert

K&C's depiction of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at their February 10, 1840 wedding — Albert in his red military jacket with epaulettes and gold sash, Victoria in a white gown with veil. The kind of formal portrait setting K&C does particularly well. Picked up to anchor the start of the Royals section of the Breagans catalog. Available at Breagans: Queen Victoria & Prince Albert 1840.

TR004 Grand Duchess Olga & Grand Duchess Tatiana

K&C's two-figure set of Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana — Tsar Nicholas II's eldest daughters — in honorary regimental colonel uniforms. Russian royal women often held ceremonial military roles tied to specific regiments, which is what's depicted here. Striking figures, and a piece of late-Romanov-era formality with real historical weight. Available at Breagans: Grand Duchess Olga & Tatiana.

That's the May 2026 dispatch from Breagans's perspective. The June dispatch lands at the start of June, and I'll have a similar post out within a few days of receiving it — same format, same curator framing, same accounting of what I bought and what I didn't.

If you want any of the items I haven't picked up yet (the Royal Hong Kong Police set, or anything from a future dispatch I sit out), email me directly and I'll order it from K&C. The catch-up between dispatches is typically a couple of weeks once the order is placed.

— Daniel