W. Britain doesn't run on a calendar the way King & Country does. K&C drops a new dispatch the first week of every month; W. Britain releases when they're ready — sometimes one figure, sometimes a wave. May 2026 brought a wave worth pausing for: three new Louisiana Tigers, four new U.S. Marines from Belleau Wood, Emperor Charlemagne for the Museum Collection, and one of my best sellers back after more than a year out. Here's what landed.

Civil War: Louisiana Tigers, 1861-62

The Zouave style began with French colonial light infantry in 1830s Algeria — baggy red trousers, short open jackets, fez-style caps — and proved so visually striking that American volunteer units on both sides adopted versions of it in 1861. Both Union and Confederate Zouave regiments took the field that summer.

Wheat's Tigers — formally the 1st Special Battalion, Louisiana Volunteers — were the most notorious of the Confederate Zouave units. Major Chatham Roberdeau Wheat recruited them from New Orleans dockworkers, Irish immigrants, and wharf rats, and they earned their nickname for sheer ferocity at First Manassas in July 1861, charging with bayonets and the bowie knives they famously carried. The name stuck to Louisiana brigades for the rest of the war.

W. Britain has given us three new poses in the 1861-62 uniform — open jacket, baggy trousers, turbaned caps:

• Louisiana Tigers, Advancing, 1861-62
• Louisiana Tigers, Advancing, No.2, 1861-62
• Louisiana Tigers, Advancing Firing, 1861-62

Union remains my best-selling Civil War category by a wide margin, but a balanced display needs both sides represented. These Tigers will pair especially well in a Zouave-on-Zouave matchup against the Union 5th New York or 114th Pennsylvania, both of which W. Britain has produced.

The Great War: U.S. Marines at Belleau Wood, 1918

By June 1918 the Germans had pushed to within fifty miles of Paris, and the U.S. 2nd Division — including the 4th Marine Brigade — was thrown into a stand of woods called Bois de Belleau to stop them. The fighting lasted from June 1 to June 26 and cost the Marines more casualties than they had suffered in their entire 143-year history up to that point. When a French officer suggested falling back, Captain Lloyd Williams of the 5th Marines gave the response that defined American Marine identity for the rest of the century: "Retreat, hell! We just got here!"

The Germans gave them another name during those three weeks — Teufelhunden, Devil Dogs. The Marine Corps adopted it on the spot, and it stuck.

W. Britain has released four new Belleau Wood Marines this spring:

• U.S. Marine Standing Firing Trench Shot Gun, Belleau Wood, 1918
• U.S. Marine Standing Firing Rifle, Belleau Wood
• U.S. Marine Advancing With Chauchat, Belleau
• U.S. Marine Advancing w/Rifle, Belleau Wood

The figure in our hero photo is carrying a Winchester Model 1897 — the M1897 trench gun. Twelve-gauge pump action, six-shell magazine, bayonet lug. American troops used it in close-quarters trench fighting with such devastating effect that the German government filed a formal protest in September 1918, claiming the weapon violated the Hague Convention's prohibition on arms causing "unnecessary suffering." The U.S. State Department rejected the protest. German high command then issued an order that any American captured carrying a shotgun would be executed on the spot — a threat that, as far as the record shows, was never actually carried out, but which tells you everything about how feared the weapon had become.

The Chauchat figure carries the French CSRG M1915 light machine gun — eight-millimeter Lebel, twenty-round half-moon magazine, and a reputation for jamming at every inconvenient moment. American troops were issued Chauchats because U.S. production of the Browning Automatic Rifle couldn't keep up with demand. Marines made it work anyway.

A personal note: my grandfather, Donald Connelly, was drafted to fight in this war. He went through boot camp and shipped out to Europe — and arrived just as the armistice was being signed. He never had to fire a shot. Every time I handle one of these Belleau Wood figures I think about that: the thin line of timing that meant my grandfather came home, that my mother was eventually born, that I'm here a century later painting and selling these same soldiers. The figures aren't just paint on metal. They're a record of what other men's grandfathers did, and didn't, survive.

Band of Brothers: Shifty Powers Joins the Ranks

This one is genuinely exciting. As far as I know, W. Britain is the only toy soldier company that has ever produced Band of Brothers figures — Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. They started with Captain Dick Winters and Captain Ronald Speirs. Now they've added SSgt. Darrell "Shifty" Powers.

Shifty was Easy Company's designated marksman and, by general consensus, the best rifle shot in the company. He grew up squirrel-hunting in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and could put a round through a German helmet at distances the rest of the platoon couldn't even reach. He won the points lottery to go home early in 1945 — and was very nearly killed on the trip back when his truck crashed. He survived, came home, worked at a machine shop in Clinchco, Virginia for the rest of his working life, and died in 2009 at the age of 86. The HBO miniseries gave him a national audience he never sought; everyone who met him said he was the same quiet, exacting, decent man on screen and off.

The three figures stand beautifully together on a shelf:

• SSgt. Darrell "Shifty" Powers, U.S. 101st Airborne, 506th PIR, E Company, 1944-45
• Capt. Dick Winters
• Capt. Ronald Speirs Running with Thompson

If you've watched the miniseries, these figures need no introduction. If you haven't, start with episode two ("Day of Days") and episode seven ("The Breaking Point") — the second is where Speirs makes his famous run through Foy.

Museum Collection: Emperor Charlemagne

The W. Britain Museum Collection is the company's premium line — larger scale, more elaborate sculpting, the kind of figure that anchors a display by itself rather than slotting into a regiment. The newest addition is Charlemagne.

Charles the Great — King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day in the year 800. He united most of Western Europe for the first time since the fall of Rome more than three centuries earlier. That coronation in Rome invented the political fiction that would shape European history for the next thousand years: that there was a legitimate successor to the Roman emperors, and that the Catholic Church could appoint him. Charlemagne himself reportedly didn't expect the crown that morning and grumbled about it afterward — but the precedent held. He's sometimes called Pater Europae, Father of Europe.

Emperor Charlemagne — W. Britain Museum Collection

Back in Stock: Abraham Lincoln

One more piece of news worth flagging. Abraham Lincoln is one of my best-selling Civil War figures, and he's been out of stock for more than a year. He's back.

Fourteen customers had set notification alerts on the product page during that long stretch — auto-emails went out the moment Lincoln returned to inventory, and several of those orders were placed within the hour. Worth knowing about: any out-of-stock product page on Breagans has a Notify me when back in stock button. Hit it, leave your email, and Shopify will send you a message the second the item returns. No manual queue on my end, no follow-up needed.

Lincoln pairs naturally with Union General Grant Mounted — the president and the general who finally won him the war. Together they anchor a Union command display in a way no other two figures in the catalog quite manage.

That's everything new and notable from W. Britain this round. Their release calendar is irregular by design, so I'll post another one of these whenever a wave like this lands — could be next month, could be three months out. In the meantime, the monthly K&C Dispatch keeps running, and as always, holler if there's a figure you're hunting for that I haven't covered.

— Daniel