My name is Marcelo, I am a 44 years old Brazilian writer and probably the only Viking/Barbarian toy soldier collector in the world! I mean, many collectors have Vikings and other toy soldiers for this period on their collections, but how many have decided to collect only that? That's my case. It all started when I was three years old and my mother had to remain at the hospital for a while after having my youger brother.

I stayed at home with my aunt/godmother and since she had no kids, and didn't know how to make me behave properly, she had this idea. She bought me! She gave a Viking ship with crew for every day I was under her care. Obviously I was hooked on plastic toy soldiers after that... Who wouldn't be?

Many years passed and I started collecting and painting toy soldiers. First I bought from every maker or history period, but recently I decided cowboys, indians, pirates, romans, egyptians, and all the rest were not for me. What I always liked best, that's what I must collect. The rest simply didn't interest me that much. I know many will disagree, but this decision finally made collecting funny (what it was suposed to be from the start, I guess).

 Before I changed my collection I had this feeling I was wasting my time, money and effort into something I did not really care about. Not anymore. Collecting Vikings and Barbarians has not only made collecting funny, but also profitable (or at least self sustainable), as I sell the thousands of toy soldiers from other periods I had in my collection and these sells actually pay for my brand new Vikings and Barbarians.

Hail, Odin!