Toy Soldier Collector Magazine

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In the beginning

Collector Dennis Diamond creates a diorama to depict what could well be the first war ever

Love or hate the late Stanley Kubrick’s movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ (1968) it did give us some thought provoking moments not least of which is the early section, in what sometimes feels if I am completely honest like a bum numbing never ending film, ‘The dawn of man’. If you have seen the movie you can never forget that moment when our ancestors, the ape like creatures, which inhabit planet Earth circa 4 million years B.C. way back in unrecorded history, first discover the art of hands on warfare. For me personally that brief phase of the movie is brilliant cinematography, a visual delight to the senses, I seem to remember even ‘The Simpson’s’ paid homage to it once, and that has to be a high recommendation!

If any toy soldier manufacturers of note have ever made any ‘toy soldier’ Stone Age men, cavemen, call them what you will, then I can’t say I’ve come across them. However, and there is always a however, by chance, in a job lot bought at a car boot sale a couple of years ago I found some primitive figures, and I mean that in both senses of the word. Six, very pink, very poorly made little plastic men were initially of little interest to me amongst a mix of Britain’s Deetail toy soldiers of varying quality and condition. Only recently did I have one of those light bulb idea moments! At another car boot sale I had purchased very cheaply a disused wine box with sliding Perspex cover. What did I want the box for? At the time I was uncertain, just an impulse buy. So I had the box and these six pink men...............What if I paint the men to try and make them look more realistic? Fur and hair jobs later I had six not quite so bad looking Stone Age men and an empty wine box with the all important Perspex cover. ............What if I make a scene inside the box to place the men in! Why didn’t I think of that, well I did, eventually!

First off the Stone Age men were intended to be of the same tribe/clan so they all had identically coloured fur modesty protectors and I was going to have them hunting and killing some unfortunate animal of the period, but lack of space ruled that out as the box only measures 32cm long, 9cm deep and 9cm high. Then I thought of that movie and that moment of realisation, the beginning of war between hominids on our planet. So three of the more hostile looking figures were designated to have a repaint. Black was always the preferred choice of the baddies when I was growing up so black it was for the insurgent Stone Age men.

What about the environment for the rival factions to inhabit? You just have to have a cave if its early man we are talking about. Limited space means just the suggestion of a cave. Good old spare packing polystyrene foam was fairly easy to cut into shape, a few blobs of glue and flocking material of various grades and colour tones, mainly green a bit of black and burnt earth paint for shading, and a cave is born.

The landscaping relies, as any fine painting, on a good backdrop. I could have painted the scenic sky but chose instead to print a photograph of a sunset taken near my home. Using plain instead of glossy paper and then cutting the print to fit the box I stood back impressed by my endeavours so far and felt certain the Stone Age men would approve, providing they ignored the hint of telegraph poles and wires! These unwanted elements were hidden by other scenic materials, grasses and bushes etc. Sand and a few small ‘rocks’ were set in place; everything needed to be glued, even the men as when the box is moved the whole lot would get disturbed, myself included!

I posed/choreographed the men into their best and most meaningful positions. The guy at the back armed with both club and spear looks particularly menacing, while his cohort ready to drop a large rock on the head of a mystified peaceable hunter returning with something for supper is equally to be feared, as if that were not bad enough another one of the black tribe is charging hell bent to crash an early weapon down onto the cranium of the huntsman.

From within the cave (which has a battery operated set of grain of wheat lights suggesting torchlight and fire) emerge two bewildered tribesmen; one has a club the other a burning torch. The club suggests this guy might fight back, if he does then we have a war on our hands, the first war on the planet, sadly the first of many. My grandfather used to say that ‘If there were only two men on this Earth they would find something to fight about.’ We never seem to learn do we?

There we have it, Stone Age man first discovering war, and a small snapshot of a time long ago. Thanks partly to a classic movie moment, chance finds at car boot sales and a bit of imagination. I still have no idea who made the pink men, nor how old they are but at least they now have the right habitat to spend the rest of their plastic lives in, it might not be a quiet neighbourhood but at least its home. One question remains, should I put a big black monolith in the box with them or have they already discovered that elsewhere?

Date Published Sat, 07/23/2011 - 09:00
Author: Dennis Diamond

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