Wednesday, December 9, 2009

United States Army Band of Washington DC

This is a COOL set.  I am a huge fan of this limited edition set issued by Britains in the late 1980's.  Limited to 5000 sets, I feel rather priveledged to have two of them.  One is at my parents house in my Toy Soldier den (I'll have one of my own once we buy a new house), and the other is in my office.  I have augmented the set in my office with a few pieces from an earlier all plastic set ( I know, I know... but hey, it is my set and it is in my office... so I dont have to follow any convention here).

The really interesting thing about this set is the color-scheme on the uniforms.  This band uniform came about in the early 1950s because of the discovery of a surplus of material called "Cavalry Yellow."  This material was put into the uniforms that would end up being nick-named the "Lion Tamers" uniforms.  Because of the sheer age of the material ( early 1900's ) The uniforms began to quickly dissenegrate and therefore were only in service for a short time.  This set depicts the band during a period that spans about two years from 1952 -1954.  Now I wish Britains would go ahead and issue sets in the current uniforms as I think they are equally striking.  Oh well- a collector can always wish...

Britains "The United States Army Band of Washington DC"
Origin: England
Year: 1986


On Display at my Parent's House



In my office- with addl members...