(Twelve Days) #1 March of the Wooden Soldiers: The Wargame

I've previously done a post about gaming the movie Wizard of Oz with minis. With this being the first holiday post, I'd like to cover the movie that initiates the holiday season, March of the Wooden Soldiers.

For a few generations within the greater NYC tri-state area and beyond, the tradition was the Thanksgiving Day Parade followed by March of the Wooden Soldiers (originally Babes in Toyland for you moviephile purists). The Laurel and Hardy classic does stand the test of time, as I showed it to my 3 1/2 year old daughter Maja this past month. Even after all these years of the physical comedy, I caught some more high brow grown up humor in the first half hour. Not "adult" humor per se, but something most kids these days won't get.


Let's take a moment and assume that Silas Barnaby has regrouped from his ignominious defeat and has better organized the Bogeymen for a long term war.

Stan, Ollie, and Tom-Tom:  Our heroes should come from a decent Robin Hood line.  Stan should be holding a staff cut down to look more like his pee-wee stick:

www.blackhat.co.uk

Ollie is a Little John figure and Tom-Tom is any of the merry men.

Bo-Peep:  A shepherdess is surprisingly difficult to find, I'll resort to a tougher, wiser version with Tinley from  Reaper Minis:

A little putty and that's a fancy Shepherd's Crook

Villagers and the village:  Regular townsfolk are easily replicated by any bulk peasant set.  Building wise, since most of the structures are single story, there are dozens of providers.  I'd suggest Miniatures Building Authority for larger/classier buildings.  For the giant shoe, I suggest some imagination at your local thrift store.

The Three Little Pigs:  The pigs do have a heroic effort in fighting, but the closest thing I can find are some grotesque looking anthromorphic hogs.  If we have to go that route, lets turn the little piggies a bit more brutish and use some classic pig snout orcs from Architects of War.

When Pork Goes Bad

Cat and Mouse:  Some of the heroes of the first battle, a human sized 25mm house cat just ain't in most catalogs.  Reaper has a number of catgirls, but the closest one is Cheetah Girl.

The Mouse can be one of the Eureka Warrior Mice.  The ears are perfect in a Disney mouse sort of way. The toy zeppelin used for the bombing run may need to be scratch built, but it should be in 1/285th.

The toughest part of assembling a game looks to be the bad guys.

Silas Barnaby:  An old dude in a pilgrim hat with a cane.  Unfortunately the Warhammer Witch Hunters are  younger, caneless, and packing more heat than my favorite part in Split Second.   I found one lonely pic of a good choice online and am wondering if anyone knows where this is from?

The Bogeymen:  I really thought these would be easier to discover. They're beastmen, submen, or wildmen, but nothing even remotely similar are available. Even if there are a figure here or there, these need to be done en masse, so this might be a good time to break out those goblin, hobgoblin, or even bugbear armies.

And as I typed the previous sentence, a quick search for bugbears nets this result from somewhere on www.warseer.com

Not perfect, but they will do.

Again anyone who can id these will win my appreciation.

Finally, the Wooden Soldiers are the easiest of the bunch.  The Eureka Miniatures Toy Town line up not only covers them, but multiple headgear and cavalry.

Edit:  (5/7/2015)  Acheson Creations has just released a Shoe House that's 6 inches high and 6 inches long and should be a great fixture on a Toyland Battlefield.

$25.00