02 British Paratroops (2nd version) 1:32 scale/54mm

This page will move at some point! But with most still in draft - It don't mean nut'un.

A few colour variations, the 'crisp-bag' grey and a Polish copy of the kneeling firer.

The basic set of 7 poses, one of the best-selling sets in the UK I would have thought, nice poses, accurate personal-kit and easily convertible into more modern infantry/para's which helped make them a favourite as well.

First incarnation of small scale copies of the 54mm set, these are as 'Bod's' Paul states; poor quality, however they were exactly the right size, looked OK with a bit of paint and were all we had for most of the 1970's and early 80's.
Almost certainly coming from Ri-Toys, the packaging has a lot in common with other production from the same firm in that era, but in this case unmarked, probably so individual companies in the West could have overprinted or have sticker-mounted logos added.

Here, the previous set is in the second line from the top. The top line were from roughly the same time, perhaps a little later in the 70's and are a touch bigger, useable with 25mm metal figures but a bit chunky for our old Airfix armies.

The third line is recent (current?) Ri-Toys production, having given them all berets originally, they are now all equipped with a rather generic helmet, probably to help sales in the Far East where the 'Tiger Economies' have led to vast new markets of pocket-money spenders.

Forth line are a re-hash of the original moulds, now showing their age, these can still be found in the odd corner shop. The bottom row are a 30mm scale-up of the helmeted figures and were common in the 1980/90's

Wearing a sticker for Casoa SA of Spain; this is a typical Ri-Toys 'generic' for branding/marking by end-user with a mix of US marines and the advancing Paratrooper, being one of only two poses to migrate to this set/issue, the other being the kneeling firer.

Seen in close-up in the third line in the previous photograph, these have been re-tooled or are 'new' copies and quality is quite good, but the helmets are a let-down.


A pair of size comparison shots with both Airfix sizes (lower picture) and some of the larger copies above. The bottom line is another incarnation of the current helmeted figures (also inset top right), with flat bases they - again - come with a bunch of US Marines, but this time most of the Para's poses are re-produced, not however; the radio-operator.

Larger figures, all helmeted, these are all from post 1980, the 60's and 70's having been well supplied with copies of Britains, Lone*Star, Crescent, Timpo and the like.

Note the advancing pose (bottom, 3rd from right) has now got himself a repeater shotgun! All these figures represent everything that is bad about Hong Kong/China production, there isn't one you could 'paint-up' with any success, nor would they donate anything useful to a scratch-build, hence my poor samples, even I lose interest at a certain point!

Also provided by Kostas, a follower from Greece comes what looks like a complete box of Solpa piracies, these (like quite a bit of Solpa's larger scale output) are really quite good and could be easily mistaken for faded or sun-bleached originals, the only real clue is the topographic sculpting on the bases, like contour-lines on a map!

Two the right of them are a few examples of a more technicolour batch!

More Hong Kong crud, mostly of the later versions with US style M1 helmets, eventually even the officer got one, the ultimate indignity!

Some of the base types from the previous image, I think the two to the left have been ID'd now as Kamley-Kositoy-KS (Kwong Shing), but I haven't done the same level of work on these I did on the US Paratroops yet, I will, one day!

Break-down of a complete 29 figure box, they are not rare, as they were among the first of the mass-produced 1:32nd scale sets, and sold very well, pretty-much every kid I knew had a set!

 

Sample of what the cavity-numbers look like, both the radio operators; numbers 8 (bum!) & 15 (back of the radio set), nobody really gives them mush attention, but if they are not all present in a 'mint set', then it isn't mint, simples!

Contents list by pose and number, this is one of the sets where I don't have the data on the officer from the 14-figure boxes, as they needed to be split into two boxes, second officer cavities were created, famously in the case of the US Infantry, a quite different sculpt, but with most of the others just a duplicate [pantograph?], the Afrika Korps'man having a larger base, for instance, but I haven't ID'd a difference with these yet.