The discussion over on Jon's blog about the wargame survey results and size of figure collection made me realise that I didn't actually know how many figures I had by size. Or indeed, how many figures I have at all. On the survey I've always ticked the "Greater than 2,500" box, as I felt comfortable that I probably did have at least that many, but actual total size? Probably about 5,000 I guessed.
Well, what with lockdown coming to an end, and the weather improving, what better time to embark on an exercise to count and catalogue my toy soldier collection.
I have various bits of spreadsheet with unit names and figure breakdowns for orders, but I thought I might as well take the plunge and get more value out of my Microsoft 365 licence and set up an Access database.
Now it has been a while since I've built one of these. At least 15 years. I had one for entrants to the Brixcon competition, and I recall building one at work when I was on a project (or was that just learning to build db queries in SQL? I can't recall now).
Okay, so I've been at it for a few days. I trot in and out of Shedquarters with a pile of boxes once or twice a day, and so far I've done these collections:
"Sum of Mo" is the total of non-figure models, like tanks, guns, limbers & chariots. "Count of figure collection" is the number of records per category, so is a proxy for the number of units involved. I couldn't make this query total each column. Still, early days yet.
When a set of boxes is done I put a little sticker on them to ensure they don't get double counted.
Here's the breakdown by size:
I haven't started on my 25/8mm yet, as you can see, so none of them in the count yet. This query doesn't have a total of models in it, and when I went back and added that in I lost the column totals. The reason there's nothing in 1/144 is that I only have WW1 aircraft, so they're models, and anyway there's only 4 of them.
So with a couple of shelves done out of about a dozen I'm over 7,000 so my 5,000 was way off beam. I'm a bit nervous to find out what the actual total will be. The Great War total is high as I have a 6mm 1914 and a 15mm 1916+ collection.
This may take me some time, but once it's done, keeping it up to date will be a doddle.
Won't it?
Excellent work, Graham! Yes, once you are caught up with all of your legacy archival tallies, keeping it up to date is a snap. I look forward to a myriad of graphs and analysis pouring forth.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we all tend to underestimate the size of our collections? At present you have only missed your initial guess by about 50%. How much larger with this margin of error increase when you tackle your other, uncounted masses? Probably a lot!
I shudder to think. Mrs E confidently said "it's loads more" when I made my first guess. As for graphs etc, I'm currently having a bit of an issue with the report and query writing, but that'll no doubt come with time.
DeleteYes, necessity is the Mother of Invention (and Development). Reporting and querying will come with time. It must be great fun to work through your archaeological dig and rediscover your "Wonderful Things."
DeleteI may have to sit through a Windows tutorial or two. So far I haven't found anything I'd forgotten in the boxes I've loaded.
DeleteCrikey. Only 2 out of 12 shelves done and already you’re up to 7500. I’m gone to do a screenshot of this for the inevitable question next time I receive an order.
ReplyDeleteI went and checked the boxes, which are different sizes. I've done 35 and I have 86 to do, more or less, excluding naval forces and some I've just remembered. Like the gladiators. And the figures for show versions of board games.
DeleteIt would be fun to see all of these 100+ boxes stacked up and on display. That will help nundanket defend his case.
DeleteIt's only 2 sets of shelves. Admittedly they're floor to ceiling. But it is a low ceiling in places.
DeleteThis is just awesome! How much work and patience ... And in time, how much did it take to collect all this treasure?
DeleteThe oldest figures in the collection that are still used today are probably my War of Spanish Succession Airfix conversions. They are probably 42 years old. I have some Greek Galleys that are a couple of years older than that.
DeleteFor a long time, my main scale was 28 mm. This is under a thousand figures for the Thirty Years War and a playable army of 350 figures for the Decline of Chivalry - 15th century ... Then he switched to 1/72 scale. This is about 2,500 soldiers for the Great Northern War and the current VIN project - already more than 1,000 figures.
DeleteYes, it is also worth mentioning the diorama of the Battle of Borodino, which is located in the city museum - 5500 figures of 72nd scale.
1/72nd is the way forward for big armies. It's affordable, and lightweight, so the boxes and shelves can cope without bending.
DeleteInteresting... I did count my collection a few months ago and came up with just over 5,000 though I've probably added a 150 or so since that point. This is everything from one 18mm collection (Martian Empires VSF), 2 x 20mm (ACW and WW2), 3 x 54mm (NWF, 19th Century and Napoleonic) with the rest being 25/28mm.
ReplyDeleteThe largest collection is 750 FPW figures and the smallest probably my Bloodbowl teams...
Still adding with 20mm Sudan, 25mm Russian Crimea (to fight FPW French) and a large 40mm AWI collection under way... I expect those to add around 2,000 figures betwee them...
I sold all my 15mm figures a couple of years ago as I decided I wasn't go to add to them and I wanted to concentrate on larger size figures - that was probably around 700 figures in total.
I have some collections that are going nowhere (my GW "Battle of the Five Armies" for example), but I'm keeping hold of them for now. My attempts to sell figures to date have not been that successful, so its easier to keep them on the shelf.
DeleteI made a decision to clear out collections that weren't being used a few years ago and have since sold 25mm VSF, a large 25mm Darkest Africa setup, the 15mm ECW, ancients, Wss and Napoleonic without any problem. I don't own any figures bought before 1998 now. I only had my 15mm ecw (first bought when I was 16) and 15mm napoleonics (started in 1995when I restarted wargaming) anyway.
DeleteMost of what I sold was stuff I only had one side for, or a couple of bits to fit in with old club projects (6 sailing ships, etc).
I haven't regretted selling anything so far....
Most of my collections include both sides, partly because I do obscure stuff, and the chances of finding someone with the other side are quite slim. My standout oddity is Belisarian Byzantines, which I did with the idea I might take part in some Armati competitions. But that movement sort of died off and went directions I didn't like. Plus it is a really hard army to use unless you really know what you are doing.
DeleteWell done Graham. I tried putting together a spreadsheet some years ago to keep track of stuff, but never got beyond counting boxfiles!
ReplyDeleteSpreadsheets aren't the answer. Access is a better solution. Besides, don't you work in IT?
DeleteIf someone did a cloud hosted, agent based, asset discovery and cataloguing system for toy soldiers, I'd be there like a shot. Gap in the market there. But building an asset database from scratch and maintaining it sounds a bit too much like work to me.
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DeleteMine is simple so far, but I had in mind what data I wanted to capture. Once I'd worked out the lookup tables and how to amend them it wasn't too hard. Access comes with some samples, one of which is for cataloguing library books, which will probably be adapted for my next project, cataloguing the book collection. My main issue is not with building the database and populating it, but building the queries and reports. That will come with time.
DeleteWhen I finally retire I might do my collection but it will be spreadsheet based. I did about 30 boxes a few years ago but they are all ancients/medieval and as I use the same figures for diffferent armies they end up getting swapped around a bit. They were only painted ones as well. The real eye opener would be doing the lead pile
ReplyDeleteIf you have the full on Microsoft licence you are paying for Access, so don't dismiss it out of hand. It is surprisingly easy to build, as adding menus to select things like size from a list is a doddle. You'll find it less liable to accidental damage as well.
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