For many years boys, in particular, have enjoyed the hobby of collecting, painting and playing with die cast metal figurines. These represent a wide range of themes, topics, films or books, or even today, computer games. This brings history, nooks or games to a different playing field, and the hobby requires great patience, since the figures are fairly expensive and it takes time to collect a good number, and also these figures usually arrive plain metal, and so it is necessary for the collector to carefully paint and decorate their figurines themselves. This forms a large part of the purpose and satisfaction gained from these figures, and a lot of pride is taken with making sure the markings, armour, outfits and equipment is painted accurately and carefully.



Once the figures are painted, then the next stage is usually to use them to re-enact, or act out a battle scene with other players and their teams. This is more like a game of chess, with large numbers of figures spread across a board, with players taking turns to make tactical moves to defend, attack and conquer tie opposing teams using a wide variety of methods. This type of game is usually called role playing, since each player takes on the role of the characters that the figurines represent.

Today, the most popular collectible die cast figurine set for children to collect and play with is the Warhammer series, although there are others, such as Lord of the Rings. The Warhammer series comprises several races, each with their own skills, abilities, magical powers and equipment. Due to the expensive and time consuming nature of the collecting and painting, making a decision about which race to collect is important, as the only way to have a decent army is to stick to the same race and build up a troop. Some of the main races are known as 'The Beasts of Chaos', which are a bit like wild men, 'Bretonnia', which are the knights on horseback - and look quite striking if painted well and in good number, 'Dark Elves', 'Dwarfs', 'Orcs' and 'Goblins' - although in total there are fifteen different races, some considered 'good' and others considered to be the dark and evil races. For a battle it is necessary to have teams representing both sides of course.

When gamers meet to carry out a battle, they usually play on a large board which is modelled as a landscape. This is done using a variety of tools and methods, often simply painted papier mache, with vegetation and even buildings and other obstacles scattered across the landscape Many of these become very complex and detailed, and when the figurines are placed within this landscape the whole game becomes an attractive scene, and almost a work or art itself. There are then books of rules which govern how battles play out, and what decides success, strategic moves and defeated troops. These battles can last many hours.

If your child expresses an interest in this game, it is important to bear in mind that this will be a long term commitment, and with the expense of the figurines, the paints and the books, models, landscapes and so on, the cost will be high. Having said that, birthdays and Christmas present ideas become easy, and the activity of painting and playing will take a good deal of time, and will absorb your child for long periods of time, and be a very worthwhile activity. Spending hours carefully painting metal figurines to play with against their friends may be considered more worthwhile than sitting alone for hours playing a solitary computer game.