Despatches from Syldavia

I'm back again from a another extended trip, this time it was for a couple of weeks in a remote part of northern Canada.  Lots of rock, bears, bugs, mountains and tricky seas.  Luckily for me, the latter were calm on the day this photo was taken. On the way back home I visited my grandparent's old home in Nova Scotia, where I used to spend my summers as a boy.  I remembered to look into a particular closet which used to be an Aladdin's cave of vintage toys.  There, I found packed away in a box some familiar treasures, some of my uncle's old tin soldiers.  They were all well-used and well-loved by him, my brothers and I!  They were probably the first toy soldiers I ever saw or played with.  Some were a bit damaged (sad to say now but somehow it is hard to regret) from all that enthusiastic use but I took some pictures of those veterans which are still in good shape.  No doubt some of you will recognize them... The soldiers were fairly large, about 3 1/2 inches o