In the 19th century and well into the 20th, workshops for making small armies of lead soldiers proliferated all over Europe, representing different bodies and battalions of the European and colonial armies, and which became one of the most coveted toys for children of the time.

The Museum preserves a good number of these specimens, and exhibits a good part of the Barcelona soldiers, highlighting those of Ortelli and Lleonart; others from some workshops in Madrid, and examples from renowned European houses, such as the English Britians or the German Heinrichsen. 

Lead solders received a lethal blow with the appearance of plastic from the 1950s. The success of the new material truncated the story of lead soldiers, and toy collectors and hobbyists military they began to show interest in these small objects