RTA139 S.A.I. ‘Drummer Advancing’

Wearing the ‘reverse colours’ of this Mexican regiment the drummer keeps up a stead beat as he leads his regiment forward.

IT’S TIME TO REMEMBER THE ALAMO… AGAIN!

      Long before King & Country took over, the Kings X store in San Antonio’s Menger Hotel K&C had a fond connection with the ‘Alamo City’ as many Texans and other Americans call San Antonio.
      Mr. Albert ‘Boo’ Hausser, who founded ‘Kings X’ was one of King & Country’s first authorized dealers in the U.S. and invited me to visit San Antonio and see for myself the city and, of course, the world-famous Alamo.  As a proud, born and bred Texan himself ‘Boo’ knew all the history of this historic site and the epic battle that took place over 13 days in February & March 1836.
       With ‘Kings X’ location being right next door to the Alam it was natural and obvious that we should design and produce our first small series of figures depicting the final battle and some of the most famous people and personalities involved in this mighty struggle for Texan independence.  That was back in the early 1990s.
        Now jump forward two decades to 2009 when K&C purchased ‘Kings X’ after ‘Boo’ retired and we took over and decided to reconfigure the store and create a centerpiece diorama designed and built to replicate the world-famous final battle of the Alamo when Crockett, Bowie and Travis and a small band of less than 200 volunteers fought against the might of the Mexican Army led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
My late brother Gordon C. Neilson then designed and built a magnificent 1:30 scale replica of the Alamo mission measuring 6’ x 4’ that occupied the centre of the store.

       Since that time more than a few changes have been made…
        In 2021 the San Antonio City Council decided to completely renovate and restyle ‘Alamo Plaza’ right in the heart of the city and outside of where the historic chapel and Long Barracks is located.
       To achieve this major construction works completely turned the Plaza outside into a massive building site which greatly affected the ‘Kings X’ operation.
        And although it was a wrench we made the bold decision to relocate the entire store to a brand-new location in nearby Alamo Heights.  We also changed the name from Kings X to… King & Country Texas.
        We still however, wanted our unique ‘Alamo’ diorama to be one of the central focal points of the store and that meant designing and producing a whole new, dynamic range of figures and accessories that would continue to tell the Alamo’s amazing story in 1:30 scale, hand-painted, all-metal detail.
        While Gordon was busy constructing that myself and the K&C team in Hong Kong were hard at work producing several dozen Alamo attackers and defenders to populate the diorama.
        Over the next few years we were to add more figures to the ‘Remember The Alamo’ series providing plenty of action and colour to the display and the delight of Alamo collectors not only in Texas but all over the world.
         In this business and hobby however all kinds of obstacles and diversions can sometimes delay what we want to do and substitute what we have to do instead.
        About 6 months ago, we finally got down to business and began sketching out the first of what will be a great new range of ‘Remember The Alamo’ figures in dramatic new ‘fighting’ poses.
      This initial batch of releases features 12 all-new Mexican Infantry soldiers from ‘Santa Anna’s Army’.
      As existing ‘Alamo’ collectors will see these latest ‘soldados’ are moving forward towards the walls of the old mission and the beleaguered defenders manning them.
      Look closely at each figure and you will see much more detail and better animation than before as well as welcome additions to the existing collection.
Already planned for release later this year are many more infantry in action as well as mounted Mexican Lancers and Artillery and some of the Alamo’s own legendary defenders.  Now read on…