He was three years old when he became the next king, and seventy-three when he became the king. Charles was born on 14 November 1948 and became heir apparent on 6 February 1952, the day his mother acceded, and he held that position for roughly seventy years — longer than any heir apparent in British history. When he succeeded on 8 September 2022 he was the oldest person ever to come to the British throne, passing William IV, who had managed it at sixty-four. What is unusual about a ceremonial uniform on a man with that biography is that most of them record a career and this one records an interval. There was a career inside it, and it is the part that earns him a place in a collection like this one. He took his RAF wings in August 1971 and then went to sea: HMS Norfolk in 1971–72, HMS Minerva in 1972–73, HMS Jupiter in 1974, qualifying as a helicopter pilot the same year. On 9 February 1976 he was given command of the minesweeper HMS Bronington, and he left the navy later that year as a commander. Five years of service, and then another forty-six of waiting.

The figure has him in full ceremonial dress — scarlet tunic heavy with gold braid and aiguillettes, peaked cap, blue riband and breast stars, sword at his side, white gloves. Three men in this collection stand behind him. Louis Mountbatten, his father's uncle, was the naval officer whose career his own most resembled. King George VI was his grandfather, and had gone to sea as a boy and been at Jutland. And there is the matter of the name: the two previous kings called Charles were Charles I, who was tried and beheaded in 1649, and his son, who spent nine years in exile before the throne came back to him. He took the name anyway.

Model: 10214 / W. Britain / 1/30 scale / matte finish / 1 piece set