1978 [WWII] British Commandos (2nd/3rd Types), 1732 / 01732-3 / 9 01732 - HO/OO

The last of the re-designed sets, and the rarest. Heller (and General Mills) managed to totally screw-up not necessarily one, but possibly two (?) sets of moulds/mould-tools. I will deal with all that another day when I some relevant pictures, but [now done, below] suffice to say; A) the only way you can tell which tool your set comes from is to measure the distance between the two locating-holes or spigots in the hull/deck of the canoe and B) Airfix have reverted to the earlier set of dancing loons for this set which remains in their catalogue and as a favourite for adding to play sets.-

In 1980 they were still referencing the earlier set anyway! Little picture on the back of the 'white boxes' made large and used for the 'long boxes'...arguably one of the best poses from the 1st Sqn. Lionel's Own Right Royal Dancing Loons .

Given their rarity, it's annoying to find you actually have a couple in your bag of loose Australians, even more annoying when it's the 'only 1 per set' pose...so if you have a bag of loose Australians, go and double-check it, I found two, just the other day! Commando's on the left, Digger on the right.

Full runner with sprue-remains (the blob in the middle), can't remember which set this is, but from the availability a few years ago have to assume it's the French issue. Confirmed a few years later - note the gap between the locating studs.

The old, superimposed on the new...er...even older! Those chocolate brown disco clowns are the current production people . . . could make a lesser man cry! You got two boats, which helped build a raiding party more quickly, the Matchbox lot getting a silly little jolly boat!

Otherwise the pose-count wasn't great with this set - it has to be said. There were the 7 ex-54mm poses, some ladder carriers and climbers who - along with the rowers - mirror the 1st/4th type, the bazooka operator (who is a nice figure), the grapple thrower (similar to the Matchbox chap), and the radio-operator/signaller we've looked at above.

As with the German Infantry and US Marines, the all new poses are thinner and easy to identify.

Paddling away! Given the risible rubber-boats issued with the US Marines (both types) and the Matchbox Commandos, this is quite a nice stab at the boats used for several famous raids during the Second World War such as this one: Operation Frankton.

The only OBE's I have of these - pretty standard for late 1970's/early 1980's school-boy painting really! Follow the links below for some better painted ones.

Floating . . . it floated a bit better than the boat from the other set, but still low and it did fill with water in the end!

It is stated by some that there were - uncommonly - two tools for the 2nd version Commandos, they have 'both' disappeared but as firstly; neither 'Tailgunner' (Hornby/Margate's preferred propagandist) nor 'JC' (Heller's publicist) have managed to obtain the full story - despite crawling all over the paperwork and secondly; urban myth from well-meaning (?) collectors has been slathered over the debate for over twenty-years, it's a moot point.

Either: the first tool was damaged in the move to France and a duplicate tool produced (to go missing a few years ago), or; the [one] tool was repaired and lost at some point later? The only way to tell the difference between the two tools is in the canoe, where the white/long boxes marked 'Made in England' have a canoe with different-spaced locating studs/holes (between deck & hull pieces) in comparison to the canoe placed in both the boxes marked 'Made in France' and those 'England' boxes with a 'France' sticker over-placed.

My original notes to myself, apologies for spelling, typo's and general scrawl, but it has the necessary measurements for those needing to differentiate between the latter two designs, the earlier/current one is easy, it has the ledges.

 

 

Suggesting that as well as a problem with the moulds being damaged in the moves (1980-83'ish), a number of unused boxes were included in the stock moved to Heller.

I suspect there was only ever the one tool, that the canoe cavity was damaged in the move, that the tool was repaired in the canoe area, and that a few years later the tool (still having a 'damaged' mark/s in chalk, marker or wax crayon - which should have been removed after the repair) was sold as scrap/sent to recycling by someone who didn't know it was OK again, during a clear-out? Human error/lack of communication!

 

The long boxes, a fetching organge for the commandos, where the ones where the 2nd/3rd version were commonly found, also seen in the earlieir 'wgite box' and later 'blue box', which might have had the 54mm+ sculpts for their earliest iteration, but by the time I bought mine (1989) had reverted to the old sculpts, which are 1st/4th in this Blog's blurb.

 

Artwork was an odd mix of 1st/4th version (grapple and bazooka opperator) and 2nd/3rd (officer) poses, with the canoe being similar for either set!

Links

Airfix Tribute Forum
Earlier/Later Set on this Blog
Plastic Soldier Review
1:72 Scale Blog

1978 [WWII] German Mountain Troops, 01752-7 / 9 01752 / 01752 - HO/OO

Much anticipated when announced and pounced-on once issued, these proved to be a bit of a disappointment to young chaps in the mid-late 1970's, i am speaking from experience here - of course - and you memories may differ.

The problem was that while there was some useful stuff in the set, even 'playful', the whole was less than the sum of its parts...it's parts being - in number - many, but in useful figures - few. Still very useful as cannon fodder for other armies, and still pretty popular with war gamers today as the loose smock jackets, short or gaitered boots and field-cap make them ideal for transfer the the DAK or late-war, mixed-arms, battle-groups.

1980's 'telescope image' artwork taken from the long boxes gives a reasonable painting guide of the figure most useful for artillery and AFV-crew conversion, the rope and grapple being easy to remove with a shape blade, leaving a nicely animated chap in a reasonably neutral pose.

'Repurposed' - as the current terminology would have it - into Norwegians, by Montaplex; who are they going to fight? Airfix German Mountain Troops! Bright yellow plastic and the artwork has them all in Adrian helmets, still in this colour, if you're a 'no-paint' gamer, they can go straight to North Africa!

Colour variation is quite wide with this relatively late set, probably because of the early eager uptake, and like most of the later German sets a pale-grey batch seems to have hit the store in the late 1970's I think the vary dark issue is the Palitoy/Heller era but will need to check with the boxes when I get them out of storage.

The horses being bigger seem to have more colour variation...or more colour variation observable by the eyes of a guy who hasn't collected on his prescription for reading glasses yet!

The numbers game, I forgot to include the bi-pods which will be rectified at a later date, a rather daft thing to include at this scale, especially as the same legs in the 1:32nd scale set are the first thing to go missing. With the similar rests in the German Paratroops: they was simply omitted from  the HO/OO sets.

One (or one pair) of everything, arranged in a little vignette to give the camera something to do! The supply horses have no real handler, but the chap carrying his skis can be made to lead them. Then you have the fighting troops and pointing chap who are very useful...in other units elsewhere on the table! A casual cyclist who might have been better - like his RAF counterpart - being placed in the Luftwaffe set, four guys dealing with an actual mountain and the skier make-up the rest of the set.

Rescued from eBay and collaged some fine OBE's which were sold in little lots for some time I gather. Some people paint the flags one colour, some split them with two colours vertically or horizontally, others diagonally split the colors like British formation signs, while - as here - others use two colours one for each flag; I don't know which is the correct choise, and maybe it was down to unit standing orders? They need to be seen at distance againt a background of rock or snow...

Links

Airfix Tribute Forum (ATF)
Paul's Bods
Plastic Soldier Review (PSR)
Small Scale AFV