The typical generic soldier was made in Hong Kong, and they were typically clones of Airfix figures. Among the most common were copies of the 8th Army set.
The variations in these figures is very interesting, and I imagine that you have figures that were modeled after or pantographed from Airfix figures, recast Airfix figures, and recasts of various recasts, all thrown into the mix.
Nowadays, I think copies of Airfix US Marines and British Paratroopers are what you will typically find.
Many of these are modified to be even more generic as WWII troop types have faded from public consciousness, and new poses have been added to the sets.
I bought this bag of Combat Force soldiers because they are 1/72 figures that I have never seen before. You can typically find them on eBay or Amazon if you use the search term "360 plastic soldiers".
Each bag contains about 360 plastic soldiers (I counted 361 in my bag). The figures come in green and tan, but the colors are not equally divided.
There are 12 poses that are distributed randomly, and I've listed out the numbers of each in the following images. If anyone has two of the kneeling riflemen in tan that they want to trade for something, please let me know!
The figures are crudely sculpted and rather flat, not to mention having a few awkward poses, so they will probably not be of interest to most people.
I did find that the plastic they're made of is capable of being bent into new poses that hold their position pretty well. I imagine they might be useful for other types of conversions as well.
The next group of figures are from the Mini Carry Case Playsets.
These sets seem to have been sold in Dollar Tree stores, but I have never seen them here in SoCal.
The Army set includes a random assortment of soldiers (9) in green and tan, along with some small plastic trees and barbed wire fences.
The Dinosaur set includes a few cavemen (4) in tan along with small trees and various smaller pastel colored dinosaurs.
I think there is at least one more pose similar to the first caveman, except with a raised club that I am missing.
The Dragon set includes knights (6) in black and silver along with various pastel colored mythical creatures.
There are at least two additional poses similar to the first knight, except armed with axe, and mace, respectively.
The figures are rudimentary, but a lot better than the Combat Force figures, though the knights are pretty flat.
If anyone has any of the cavemen that they want to trade for something (especially any poses that I am missing), please contact me.
8 comments:
One more good entry in your encyclopaedia! I have never seen these figures, the cavemen are great, they would be perfect for a pulp game!
Hi Phil,
Unfortunately the caveman set is very rare, and we definitely need more of them in 1/72 scale. I think that Linear A has a set containing various early humans in the works, but it's probably still a long way before the set is released.
Phersu miniatures had a range of cavemen
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/review.aspx?id=1667
Sadly, Leonardo passed away two years ago. Massimo inherited his complete collection and now has tons of cavemen lying around. Just in case you need some.
Talking about this terrible figures - give them another head and the rest is a simple paintjob. I guess they are useful for many units:-)
Thanks for the comment Uwe. I was aware of Phersu, and always wanted to get some of the cavemen, but I hadn't heard about Leonardo's passing. It is sad news, but his creations will live on.
Hi EY, sort of missed this post, then found it, then lost it again, heads not screwed-on properly at the moment! There are only the three poses of caveman, the sets were shipped/jobbed by Toy Master and the combat infantry can also be found (in larger quantities) in the Hornby 'Battle Zone' train set, there is barbed-wire with them too (standard 'flat' stuff) and all three sets get mini palm-trees, I'm blogging them in the morning - if I pull my finger out!
H
I'll quickly take that back! There is a fourth one, I just don't have a lose one!
H
Hi Hugh,
Look forward to your post about those figures. It would be nice to find more sources for where to get them, since they seem to have been fairly rare in California despite being released through a national chain store.
As discussed elsewhere, they were a while ago, which I think explains their rarity as 'mint' stock' now, but I must look out your second lot, we have a similar set at the moment in various forms, Poundland have them in large bags or tubs from time to time, but the set you've sourced has a bunch more poses, and I might have seen them on evilBy or Amazon . . . I'll have a look! And if I get two loose clubbers (I may have them somewhere), one of them is yours!
H
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