ROCHESTER, NY (November 18, 2016) – Robert Postal, who passed away in September 2015, was not only a successful businessman and licensing industry pioneer but also a lifelong collector of miniature toy soldiers.
Earlier this year, 8500 select pieces from Postal’s extensive toy soldier collection were donated to The Strong, widely known as the nation’s museum of play, located in Rochester, NY. The pieces were donated to The Strong in loving memory of Robert by his wife, licensing executive Carole Postal.
Highlights from the Robert C. Postal Toy Soldier Collection are currently on display at The Strong as “Toy Soldiers on Parade,” giving visitors the opportunity to enjoy the pageantry, pomp, and color of military figures from across time and around the world. The display includes Zulu warriors from Africa, French troops under Napoleon, a samurai army from Japan, and processions of colorfully garbed Indian battalions complete with elephants. “Toy Soldiers on Parade” will be on view at The Strong through February 2017 (see museumofplay.com for details).
Robert Postal’s interest in the military, military music, and military history were instilled in him as a young boy and led him to begin collecting toy soldiers in the early 1970s. Over the subsequent decades, Postal amassed a large, informed and eclectic collection numbering more than ten thousand individual pieces representing campaigns and units from around the world and across historical eras.
The Strong was selected by Carole Postal to receive the Robert C. Postal Toy Soldier Collection because of its reputation for blending the best features of both history museums (extensive collections) and children’s museums (high interactivity) to explore the ways in which play encourages learning, creativity, and discovery and illuminates cultural history. The Strong is the only collections-based museum in the world devoted solely to play. It is home to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the National Toy Hall of Fame, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, the Woodbury School, and the American Journal of Play and houses the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of historical materials related to play.