Down a Memory Lane of Picture Books.

Dated: July 31, 1999.

To those of you who had these picture books as kids oh-so-long-ago, how many of you can deny the influence that they've had on your interests and as a collector of toy soldiers today?

These were "Instant Picture Books" from Patterson Blick Publications. They were sold in the late 60's and 70's in England and in the British Commonwealth.

These picture books were targeted at children with "rub on" transfers of pictures of soldiers that could be affixed on scenes in the book so you could create your own dioramas. Some of the books were of military subjects and history but some were as mundane as "Playing with numbers" or "Pond life". The historical or military subjects were those that would be of interest to English children, as can be seen below (i.e. no Franco-Prussian War, Battle of San Juan Hill, 30 Years War etc.). One wonders if and how these books shaped the 1/72 scale toy soldier industry today?

Click on the pictures below and be prepared to be transported 30 years or more back!

Charge of the Light Brigade! A folly of a war and a folly of a charge! The Light Brigade charged into oblivion but also into fame and history.


Desert Battle.


Zulu Wars.


Waterloo. The book that started it all?


Back cover. Check out the books you missed.


Until a few weeks ago these books were just a distant but fond memory. Internet book searches revealed nothing and even used book dealers were unable to supply anything other than their own memories. A lack of results led to a post to the HäT website. Apparently this struck a chord amongst like minded visitors and led to a jackpot of the above scans. Thanks must go to Tim Vizier of Ohio (???) for the Light Brigade scans and Neil Alexander of Australia for the other scans.

Interestingly, we also received some scans from Spain. In the same vein but not the Patterson Blick books. Again, please click on the pictures to see a bigger one.

A scene and the transfers. Wild West.


D-Day, Spanish style.
Thanks to Rafa González of Spain for these pictures.

We even got these from Germany. Not transfer books, but Napoleonic comics!

Thanks to Jens Najewitz of Germany for these scans.

This is an amazing demonstration of the following cliches: "The reach of the Net is truly amazing", "The more things change the more they stay the same", "It's a small World after all", etc., etc. The fact is that my own Patterson Blick books have long been termite (silverfish?) fodder, the Net is truly amazing, and I am grateful to all those who spent their precious time to dig up, scan and e-mail us their picture books. I hope it brings back happy memories for others also. Webmaster at Hat.com

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