Introduction / Explanation

This will always be a 'work in progress' as photographs are added or upgraded and missing bits are slotted in. Aiming to be no more than a guide to the figural production of Airfix Products.

Wherever possible it will quash urban myths or commonly held beliefs which are incorrect, most of which have grown-up during the 'Internet Years'.

As many search terms as possible will be used in order that anyone visiting whether familiar with Airfix or a new collector/casual browser will be able to find what they want, either singly or in groups of similar size, period or subject matter using the 'Click-on Index' to the right. Likewise the title-blocks will be as comprehensive as possible so they can be discerned in the 'Blog Archive' feature on the left of the page.

As this is designed to be a sort of second page for the Small Scale World blog, there was going to be no 'comments' feature, but I've enabled it, still, anyone with an issue concerning the factual accuracy of any entry can eMail me with supporting evidence and will be fully acknowledged for any resulting change or update.

I will also not use the Pink/Khaki thing here as I have on the general Blog, I want it to be cleaner and more streamlined, so people can find what they're looking for with ease, although I will date additions if I think it's relevant.

Eventually, every post/page will have the figure set complete, a one-of-each-pose numbered line-up for ready reckoning, a set on the runners ('sprues') - if applicable - box types/artwork, inserts, copies/piracies, comparisons with other versions and other makes, moulding variations, conversions, painted figures both my own (when I get round to them!) and tatty old OBE's (Other Bugger's Efforts) from way back when, close-ups of the vignettes and anything else pertaining to each set I (or you - contributions welcome) feel is relevant, interesting, funny or weird!

1981 [Sci-Fi] Space Warriors, 51577-3 / 9 51577 / 5170NB - 1:32nd Scale (54mm)

Coming shortly after the medievals (in my memory) just as childhood gave way to teenage pursuits, we never had these as kids, although we did have two sets of the medievals and made-up some rules for them which we . . . I'll tell this one on their page! It's immaterial anyway as by 1980, my brother had taken command of all large scale and I had the small scale stash!

I did manage to pick-up a set in a car-boot lot in the late-1990's and while later passing-on the rest of the bag, had already painted these up and stuck them in (on) the 'cabinet of curiosities' where we looked at them briefly (and fuzzily) about ten years ago; we'll be looking at them again, in a minute, below.

I should have an undecorated human male, but can't find him so for now it'll have to be Ensign Jeffrey standing in. Seven poses, and they were an odd selection, seeming a bit dated, yet actually referencing various tropes (or troops!) that were in the public or cultural conscience in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

This is the numbered contents of a set, and numbering is pretty clear on all sculpts on the upper side of the bases, so anyone buying a boxed-set described as 'mint' or complete, but lacking the sealed, poly-foil outer wrapping needs to have one each of all the above; numbered as above.

Examples of base numbering on figures 5, 7 and 13, you can see how clear they are and all 14 will be needed to 'make' a set. Equally a set needs to be either grey (early, getting scarcer), and matched-grey at that, or silver (later, commoner), not mixed together!

The pose quantities were also a bit odd, as it's no lie to state the two worst poses are the 3x's (padded cricket/baseball body-armour and 'Frisbee' man) while the two single issues (Romanesque humans) are among the best sculpts, with a fourteen-count, two of each would have been the best way to go, indeed - the obvious way to go!

Playing with a mirror, not as easy as it looks, you have to hold the 'background' (which is actually between you and the camera) in one hand, aim and fire the camera with the other hand and ensure the flash-reflection doesn't show; you can see it slightly in the top left corner of a couple of the shots!

You also have to keep one eye on the camera's screen which is away from you and held at an odd angle, to ensure the 'background sheet' covers the whole of the figure/likely crop-area. Weirdly; the mirror steals some of the light, so the reflections are a bit darker, and not because it's the back-side, the bases are darker too?

We'll start a look at each pose, starting with the 'Disney' characters!

Ensign Jeffrey

He's adequate enough if you're looking for an over-enthusiastic junior officer to blame in a crisis, but you don't want to be relying on him in an emergency; what he carries in geldt he pays for in missing 'grey-matter' if you know what I mean.

He's a bit of a clicktivist, more interested in his comm's gadgets than his guns; his father was Lord Hetherington Fothergill Cholmondeley-Fahqquar-Popinjay (two 'Q's, no e, hyphens added to inherit), the third Earth Emissary to Alpha Centuri, which explains everything!

[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Lando Calrisian (was later?), Blake's Seven?]

Grace

Sexy, spunky, space-babe, what's not to like? And she's a better shot that Jeffrey!!

[Wilma Deering, Princess Leia, Blake's Seven, Logans Run?]

Busso Bad Bot

That's all you need to know, isn't it? He's not called Busso Bad Bot for nothing! He's as mean as his sheen and can use that Mk.4 sonic-katana to carve an ice-swan or a butterfly from a watermelon in 2.6 seconds, but he'd rather carve something out of your head.

He's wanted on seventeen alien worlds, forty-seven Terran-fed worlds, and sixty-two independent or non-aligned human worlds, he's also being hunted by five of the six largest crime syndicates. His rap-sheet has no empty tick-boxes and his last (empty when found) hideaway was located in the outer mantle of a large star.

[Features of any number of bots, Shogun?]

Darth Gaylord Condominit

His suit of the finest pharmaceutical grade Dildastatesman silicon, his hood manufactured from hypo-allergenic synthetic latex with built-in gimp-mask, he's armed with the very latest vaginator upgrade for his Penetrator Parabellum, which is tooled in Venusian jade-crystal, he fights for Luurve against the haters of Hate, the Walrus of War cums to save us from ourselves!

[Darth Vader, Blake's Seven?]

Grod from Krud

Unspeakably awful, but a very useful mercenary, his diet is basically carrion, but he will fall back on other animal's droppings if he gets really hungry and he's not fussy as to species, consequently feeding an army of them is not much of a problem, cost wise, indeed the more fighting's involved, the lower the messing-bill!

Which brings me to their motto; "Kill them all!" you won't be surprised to hear this means they are quite easy to hire, at the lower end of the budgetary-constraint scale, for jobs that are likely to include a lot of killing, but they aren't the brightest buttons in the box, so no complicated missions - they are best employed on slash & burn or full planetary-invasions. However they do need to be barracked a long way from other buildings, preferably - off-world . . . the smell, you see.

['V', Dr Who?]

Clonecorpsman

The galaxy's sonic-cannon fodder, genetically engineered to do what they are told, you can send them as fast as you can grow them until the job's done or you find something more interesting to do elsewhere! Basic sonic-lance, basic body-armour with basic HUD, basic breather-kit . . . very expendable - but they just don't mind!

[Dr Who?]

Chinpol Interplanetary Investigator

Once Trump had taken the US off the world stage, and following the Sino-Russia war of '37, China became first the world's policemen and then the Galaxy's main police force. These interplanetary officers are fully trained (brain-jack immersion-learning) in sixteen martial arts and are to be found throughout Terra's spiral arm, operating in the Galactic core, providing support on most transit routes and the intermediaries or hubs, as well as operating in small teams out on the rim, hunting down the Galaxy's most wanted.

[THX1138, Dr Who?]

Scale comparator with the contemporary Britains-killer; they all match-up, if the Airfix are all given the same idiot-base the Britains figures have. You can also - of course - take the idiot-bases off the Britains figures, but then they are left with very silly shoes! The idea that the range may have contributed to the demise of Britains is no surprise really, when you think about it!

I will get a load more comparisons done in the fullness of time; the beauty of sci-fi/fantasy is that anything can technically go with anything else. While, less wacky or outrageous pairings can be achieved between most other sets and - at least one of - the Airfix sculpts, given the spread of subjects/genres covered by the seven sculpts.

Some old evilBay sales images of mine from the Berkshire days I found and used for playing with the heat-map tool in Picasa - 1970's psychedelia - groovy man!

Single-figure comparison between a late, probably Poplar Plastic Products polyethylene figure (ex-Thomas Toys tooling) and the Airfix reveals a slight smallness on the part of the later figures.

The Terran Federation's Security Service worked closely with other agencies to keep the developed universe as safe as possible (when organised crime could base itself on uncharted planets) and here we see two agents on exchange/secondment going through one-to-one mentored refresher training in urban CQB, at Spectrum's HQ in leafy Surrey!

While a lot of sci-fi styling is 'of its time' and can become quite dated, the Captain Scarlet uniforms still manage a futuristic look - here from Timpo - years after they left the popular stage, to join the nostalgia club! The gull-winged jerkin with side zip and bi-coloured lumber-jack cap being still quite distinctive; not so sure about the Mary Quant booties though!

Lik Be (LB, formally 'LP')'s spacemen/astronauts look a bit out of place next to the Airfix figures, taller, less animated and slightly underfed, they are doing a good impression of gawky kids on the dance-floor where the guys from Haldane Place have popped an E, downed a few shots and let go! Wer-wer-wer-whyyyype'ouut!

Robo-friends and fem-bots; The [possibly/probably] Hing Fat figures of 'BraveStarr' robot 'Cowboys & Sheriffs' (link to my post) are a little small, but being robotic can be any size, a minor stretch of the imagination and they can be quite-compatible!

Definitely Hing Fat on the right, generics on the left and surprisingly not as small as I thought they'd be, nor that incompatible animation-wise (as I was also expecting) when placed side-by-side with the Airfix, so really only styling which keeps them in separate universes!

Torgano's figures are huge, but style-wise fit in quite well, albeit with a slight two-dimensionality. These are I believe - the third version of this Italian maker's figures which began with a polystyrene iteration glued to separate bases, then an integrated base design (which may be someone-else's copies) and finally; these heavier, softer polyethylene sculpts.

Also from Italy and produced around, what; thirty years earlier (?) than the Airfix release; Chromoplast's synthetic PVC-rubber figures are quite similar (ignoring the leery paint-job) fashion/style-wise, but thinner, taller and a bit two-dimensional.

I've posed two pairs with similar features, 'hood, gloves & cloak' on the right, with - on the left - several similarities from the Roman Gladiatorial'esque 'Thracian helmet' and heavy collar, through to the bulgy-weapon with weird disc feature, via the padded-underpants/leotard.

1966; [WWII - Cold War] Attack Force Jeep & Trailer, 1652 - OO/HO (nominal)

This is the first of the 'readymade' vehicle articles, publishing in 2019, it's/they're well-overdue as I started this Blog in 2009! Beginning with the first - listed (by code number) - vehicle, and one which didn't get a second version; possibly because it was out of scale with the latterly stated 'scale' [size] of OO/HO, indeed it could be considered that it was replaced by the Field Gun & Tractor (Quad and 25lbr.) . . .

. . . the Jeep & Trailer.

My collection; not vast but enough to study in this post, with a carded 'minter', a loose pairing and another pair with a play worn jeep, taking this shot mid-way through the photo-shoot, I replaced the carded one without it's windscreen, but you can see how the screen keeps it tight under the card, while the seats prevent it slipping through.

The card; cleverly cut-and-folded from a single sheet, with a retaining flap for the jeep and 'axle-hook' for the trailer, both of which are designed to fold forward as the card is folded back into an L-shaped 'shelf'. A 'rack-toy' hanger-hole is also punched in the card and on both my example and another two seen, the axle-hook was not employed, the jeep sitting tight enough without it.

Component parts; the trailer and jeep being a single shot, but only by dint of not having the connecting 'sprulette' removed in the factory. The wheel/axle assemblies are single mouldings and the windscreen is plug-in with a sort of off-set, bayonet-fitting 'lock' to help prevent loss.

Several of the pieces have what are probably mould-tool cavity-numbers, a hit and miss affaire as we will see with some of the other vehicles, some obvious pieces having no number (Pershing turret, whole APC) others having one (as here), while the common hull carries five different numbers, due to it's being used on four vehicles.

For the jeep though it appears there was the one cavity for each of the three numbered components, 12 for the windscreen, with the jeep and trailer bodies being 28 and 29 respectively. I'll look at this numbering more geekily on a separate page dedicated to these all vehicles!

My first GIF-animation (if it works!), don't expect a plethora of them, and this is hardly the best, the fact that I cropped the two images by eye, means there is a slight variation in 'register' giving it a slightly 3D aspect which actually makes it more tangible.

A few close-ups of the sprulette and the unused axle-hook stamped into the card, the trailer is an odd choice, being a reasonable approximation of the ammunition trailer for 25lbr field guns (and 6-pounders?), usually seem limbered between the gun and a quad-tractor.

It's also equally out of scale with either of Airfix's chosen scale/sizes of 1:32/54mm and the slightly mystic 'OO/HO' or HO/OO!

Various comparisons - for the next bunch of shots; these three are pretty contemporaneous, with - from the left Eldon (USA) with a pintle-mounted .30-cal Browning MG, the Airfix (UK), a Tudor Rose (UK) jeep with two crew and Manurba (Germany)'s offering, the Manurba (Manfred Urban) also being sold in the UK as Tallon.

Rubber jeeps from Auburn (USA) behind; late production PVC, and a similar Skandie-jeep in blue from Tomte Laerdal along with a rather tatty (but quite rare I think?) Frog 'Penguin' Jeep (penguins can't fly; a little joke from the predominantly model aircraft maker!), which is manufactured of an indeterminate material - it could be hardened rubber/PVC, an early styrene, a dodgy-ethylene hybrid or even a composition of some kind?

An eclectic line-up here; the lilac jeep (with spoked wire-wheels!) is by a Sayarat (possibly Israeli, Indian or Turkish?), the white one at the back has a pull-back-and-go motor, is Italian-made and marked 'Gio.' (which could be any one of several makers . . . Giochi Preziosi (GiG), Giocatelli, Giolitto Torino (Kinder), Giovanni Plastics, Il Giocattolo, Techno Giodi (Kinder), et al!) and could be from a Kinder 'Maxxi-egg', or just a more standard pocket-money plaything.

The much distorted (with age and drying-out) MP's vehicle with wheel-arch siren is Thomas Toy's from America and the other 'jeep'/4x4 is a clip-together/slot-together kit of unknown origin, but which could fit in a Kinder egg with very careful packing?

Die-cast line-up; to the left of the Airfix vehicle we have a generic (or currently unknown) HK jeep with ambulance stickers, to the fore are a couple of later Universal Matchbox jeeps with big-wheels, roo-bars and rather lose (but intentional) tilt-covers and - in front of them - two recent Chinajeeps, one (left) probably based on an Indian Mahindra jeep, the other based on the old M38/Wrangler type - did the Chinese army copy them at some point?

Coming back in from the right we have the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless-rifle, from the 1-75 range; it was Battle King compatible and contemporaneous, even to having similar wheels to the Battle King US half-track.

Then there are two Corgi models; the earlier Huskey/Corgi Juniors Jeep in front, with a later, leery-painted one behind. The final model here is a lump of solid die-casting in the style of the old 'dime-store' slush-casts from Midgetoy . . . a brand of the A&E Tool & Gauge Co., USA.

A group of Hong Kong generics (some of which will be attributed over the next few years, there's some good information on HK coming out of the woodwork now) in the same vein as the ones we saw here, with a Payton (?) at the back; I think someone called it MPC the other day, it's unmarked but a quite good quality moulding with the spare-tyre in the cargo foot-well?

Two generations of the same Hong Kong 'mini', the rear one being a cleaner tooling with trailer, the one on front being a slightly tired-looking moulding but seemingly from the same tool, probably toward the end of it (the tool)'s usefulness, which are both better scaled for 1:72nd scale war-gaming. The wheels tie-them into some of the 1-ton Humber mini-trucks, so a maker or brand may be forthcoming on these too, one day.

Getting smaller - front to rear; Marx's Jeep from the Miniature Masterpiece playsets and window-boxes, the Zee/Zyl/Zylmex 'Mash' jeep later handed to Tai Sang and issued by Redbox as Motormax (see also below), the Airfix and two die-cast jeeps; one Marx (tatty green one), the other Hong Kong - the orange one.

Because the Airfix-Airfix comparison further below involves a rubbish sample and the Zee Toys model above was missing it's aerial, I dug-out better samples of both along with the Matchbox plastic model-kit version and a couple of colour-variant Marx mini's and shot them all together. The diminutive Matchbox kit vehicle knocks the others into a cocked-hat, accuracy-wise!

Another smallish HK Jeep is to the left of the main line-up, with a comfortably upholstered back-rest to the rear bench! Next to that is a cartoony novelty Jeep in bright-orange with baby-wheels!

Moving to the right we then have a red HK one, possibly a gum-ball machine capsule prize, I have it in several colours, then a polystyrene one, also probably HK* and possibly a play-set accessory (train wagon or transporter-lorry load?) or another capsule novelty?

The next one is the Roco-Minitanks M38, the silver one is from the Spear's board game Trek (or Safari Trek?) and the teeny blue one is from a Kinder-egg, it was a load on a little recovery-lorry, it also came in green or yellow.

The other blue one at the back is either Montaplex or Mundi Toys I think; the wheels are right! But I'm not sure about the packaging, although it's sealed so I've voted to leave it for now, but I suspect a dealer. Some dealers went through a phase of using those cheap mail-order, freezer-bag heat-sealers to make their stuff look 'more new' a few years ago!

Finally at the front is what I believe is a Hong Kong copy of a US mini die-cast - Tootsie, another Midgetoy, Mattel? It's definitely looking HK, it's missing a windscreen and I also have a green one with pink driver.*

*Both these are unmarked and could equally be Spanish Sobres or similar small 'pocket-money' toys/giveaways from Europe.

Finally (for comparisons, for now); the smallest of the small! I have half a feeling that this is actually either a carrier-deck jeep from a naval model-kit, or one of the cargo vehicles from the similar landing ship kits from Aurora, Monogram or Pyro, back in the day - there were some odd-scaled/box-scaled amphibious-assault vessel kits knocking-around in the 1960's?

Not actually a jeep, and possibly ex-Bachmann (or AHM), it is nevertheless marked Airfix on the base and another open-backed, 'pick-up' configuration, utility vehicle! The very US looking, vehicle from the Airfix Mainline model railway Dr. X play set; is it a Dodge or a Ford?

The Airfix-Airfix comparison which lead to the upgraded shot above, it's not bad, but it's missing the windscreen and has been 'transferred-up' without painting, this was from the Buffalo Amphibian model kit.

I'd taken most of the images in the initial photo-shoot before I remembered or noticed (again!) that one of my three has had its front bumper (fender) removed (or snapped-off - I'm not about to see how brittle it might be by trying to do more damage!), it's a pity they didn’t just remove the rope-coil (probably meant to be/represent a winch) and leave the bar behind, which would be a reasonable conversion, but actually, it's really not that noticeable!