Ken Osen is a man who takes his toys — and his history — seriously.
Good qualities to have when you’re leading a 123-year-old brand that helped popularize military miniatures and eventually became one of the world’s best-known makers of toy soldiers.
The William Britain brand got its start in England but has been based in the United States since 1997. Earlier this year, a group of investors led by Mr. Osen purchased the brand and moved its headquarters to northwest Ohio.
“It’s not a household name, but as far as toy soldiers, it is. Most people identify with them,” said Matt Murphy, owner of the Hobby Bunker, a Boston-area store that specializes in toy soldiers.
Commonly known as W. Britain, the company offers more than 500 figurines, covering some 1,300 years of world history. Most are executed in pewter, highly detailed, hand painted, and painstakingly researched. The figures retail for between $30 and $40, though some larger sets cost far more. A nine-piece ambulance wagon set, for example, depicting the Anglo-Zulu War retails for $420.
Mr. Osen, whose background is in museum exhibitions, has been involved with W. Britain off and on since the mid 1990s. He most recently worked as creative director and general manager for the brand when it was owned by First Gear Inc. of Peosta, Iowa. Mr. Osen and his wife Ericka started a new firm, the Good Soldier LLC, to serve as a holding company for both W. Britain and Hudson and Allen Studios. Hudson and Allen is the Osens’ brand of museum-quality miniature props.
Work is still under way to outfit a showroom and offices in a 10,000-square-foot building the Osens have leased in Spencer Township, but Mr. Osen has settled into his new studio. Though mass production of the toy soldiers is done in China’s Guangdong province, all research, master sculpting, master painting, and master molding is done by Mr. Osen or one of a handful of contract employees in the United States and Europe.
W. Britain doesn’t disclose annual revenues, but Mr. Osen said the brand is profitable and is a multi-million-dollar business. No specific industry groups track the sector, though a 2013 report from the Hobby Manufacturers Association on the size of the model industry estimated plastic and die-cast models had a total retail value of $380 million. That category is far more broad than just military miniatures, however.
Demand isn’t perhaps what it once was, but retailers say dedicated collectors are out there.
“For the collector, the re-enactor, especially those who were involved in the military, there’s a market there. But I would say it’s a fairly small market,” said Noel Bays, owner of HobbyForce in Mansfield, Ohio, and board president of the National Retail Hobby Stores Association.
While toy soldiers are available at many retailers, Mr. Bays estimated only a couple dozen dedicated toy soldier shops are in the United States.
W. Britain got its start in 1893 after a London toymaker figured out how to cast hollow lead soldiers. Less metal meant less cost, and Britain significantly undercut the competition and set the pace for the market. The firm quickly became one of the premier makers of military miniatures, a position it held for decades.
Though W. Britain struggled in the not-so-distant past under corporate owners who didn’t quite get the market, Boston store owner Mr. Murphy said, it remains one of the top four in the industry and is back at the top of its game.
“Right now it’s the best,” he said. “The painting and sculpting is the best they’ve ever done. They have a core group of guys who took it over who can continue that.”
Mr. Osen likely would agree with that assessment. The company remained in the hands of the founding family for nearly 100 years, though it’s had a number of owners since.
“It got rolled into other brands for distribution and then didn’t have any soul,” he said. “It’s got soul now, and my collectors, the people that support our brand, they’re excited about what’s coming.”
In the early days, toy soldiers were just that — toys.
Winston Churchill famously collected and waged battles with them as a youth, and many U.S. Baby Boomers likely remember playing Cowboys and Indians.
Today, the primary market is collectors who care deeply about historical accuracy.
That accuracy detail of each soldier is equally important to the Osens. Both Mr. and Mrs. Osen have a passion for history. They quote battles, unit numbers, and dates with such ease and speed it’s difficult to keep up. That devotion to accuracy comes through in their work. Sometimes for a new piece they’ll pose and photograph models in period or correct reproduction clothing to make sure the get the small details correct.
Take the Clash of Empires collection, for example. The series illustrates battles between colonial settlers and Native Americans, who are represented as true to life as possible.
“These are the natural colors they had available, these are the trade goods they had from the Europeans, this is what their native culture dictated, this is what their hairstyles were,” Mr. Osen said. “That’s what we’re depicting, not Hollywood.”
In his shop one day recently, Mr. Osen was sculpting a Napoleonic-era soldier representative of a German volunteer unit. Wearing a denim artist’s apron over a plaid shirt, he leaned over his workbench to roll out a small bit of material that will be made into a canteen strap.
“This material, as it’s setting up, will have different characteristics,” he explained. “Right now, it’s tacky, and it’s almost like regular pottery clay, but in about 45 minutes it will start to get really stiff.”
The way Mr. Osen sculpts his models is essentially by layering one item of clothing over the next. Shoes and socks come first, then trousers and the shirt. The coat goes on next. Everything is detailed, helping to make the way the clothing twists and bulges more realistic. He works primarily with dental tools, dipping the tool in rubbing alcohol to keep the clay from sticking.
The market for the toy soldiers is worldwide. Half of W. Britain’s orders come from the continental Europe or the United Kingdom. Those areas are sold through a European distributor. The company also does especially well in Australia, though they also sell throughout South America and the Pacific Rim.
Experts say its difficult to overstate the importance of the company.
“Britain’s was and still is the greatest manufacturer of toy soldiers the world has ever seen,” wrote James Opie, the resident expert on toy soldiers at C&T Auctioneers outside of London and the author of a number of books on the subject.
Mr. Opie, who is in the process of finishing another handbook on the brand and its history, shared an extract with The Blade that said W. Britain’s shift toward historically accurate, meticulously made figures has been very successful.
“These are the cutting edge of marketing to collectors today, startlingly beautiful figurines at prices only made possible by the latest die-casting technology and high quality but low cost Chinese handpainting,” he writes in his upcoming book.
For now, collectors are overwhelmingly men, though the Osens believe that could change. As more female figures are introduced, they think they can attract women collectors. They also note that women are more connected to military life and culture than they’ve ever been before.
“A good third of our fighting force is female,” Mrs. Osen said. “What a soldier is is going to be very different to children today. It’s just as likely mom’s off in Army boots as dad.”
The Osens said buyers tend to be in the Baby Boomer generation. The main demographics are typically well-read amateur historians. Many used to do model-making and may collect books or other miniatures. Some are veterans themselves, or have a connection to the military.
Still, they said, they sell to a range of ages that includes 10-year-olds to guys in their upper 80s. They are particularly encouraged by the interest youths are showing in history.
“A lot of people say history’s dead. Watch television,” Mrs. Osen said. “A lot of kids are being taught history in a passive way. I think that means this business will be viable for a long time.”
Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at tlinkhorn@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.
First Published April 17, 2016, 4:00 a.m.