1977; [Cold War] Modern British Infantry, 51472-9 / 51572-8 / 9 51572 / 51572 / A02718 - 1:32 Scale (54mm)

Announced in the autumn of 1975 (1976 catalogue) I think, they wouldn't actually see the light of day until 1977, the modern Brit's, along with the Modern Germans and the Medieval Soldiers were among our favourite sets, even if they arrived toward the end of our 'playing' days.

Obviously with a too-long wait for the modern Russians and US troops, the scenario tended to involve the NATO Germans 'going bad' and having to be sorted out by the British set, a bit jingoistic maybe, but; kids huh?!

Limited to only seven poses, they were otherwise  a quite good representation of the British squaddie of the day, and only a few years later (1984) I would myself be garbed in a similar fashion! Consequently I know the weaknesses in the set only too well, and they aren't vast.

We'll look at the webbing/PLCE further down, but suffice to say the gunner is holding the bi-pod legs which he wouldn't because they just come-unclipped and spring-open, if you're going to hold them you hold them more firmly as a 'handle' away from the barrel, also they haven't been sculpted substantially enough, but it's a minor quibble.

More serious is the anti-tank gunner, who should be holding something several times the size! The Karl Gustav 84mm was a huge beast with idiot-legs on a big spring while it's replacement - the MAW80 (Medium Antitank Weapon) was A) equally huge and B) still years away when these were issued, so, like Cherilea's swoppets, the weapon depicted here is a fantasy 'Euroweapon' of the artists imagination, based on a conglomeration of any number of other weapons.

Puttee's would be phased-out quite soon after the issue of this set also; instantly dating it!

The real problem with the set is the belt-order, there are three basic types of belt-order, which - in order of lightness - are;

•  Range-day
• CEFO (Combat Equipment, Fighting Order) 
• CEMO (Combat Equipment, Movement (or 'moving' or 'marching') Order)

Range order would be the two front pouches, a water bottle and - depending upon the whim of the officer or NCO-commanding - the respirator case. Dropping the respirator case was rare (as we had to be ready for WWIII to break out in six minutes - even on a quiet day!), but did occasionally happen.

'Cefo' consisted of all pouches, but no packs or digging tools, while 'Cemo' was the whole bloody enchilada, the full donkey-load, large pack or 'Burgan' and digging tool with probably 50-rounds for the GPMG, maybe a couple of mortar bombs or a grenade or two and (if your luck was in) a spare battery for the radio!

These guys, without exception, have no water bottle pouch (always present) and no respirator case; almost always present? Now I think I'm repeating myself here, as the same criticism is true of the Deetail/Super Deetail figures from Britains, who we've seen on the home-Blog several times . . . and the explanation may have been the same there; the limitations of sculpting?

To wit; that there is no room in the relatively inflexible world of moulded (set) polymers for the respirator case at least, the water bottle should be there, and there is room?

Having just mentioned them; the first of what will be few comparisons, I'm not going to run them next to all that 1950's 'Khaki Infantry' output, they are two far removed from what the Airfix set represents, but maybe we'll look at the late HK additions to Herald's set?

Here you can see the Deetail figures suffer from the same lack of both water bottle pouch and respirator case, but do have the kidney-pouches closer together which is more accurate than the gap seen on Airfix's figures. He's a slightly better pose to, leaning into the recoil.

With all four common or 'production' poses; as mentioned already both ATW firers have some weird thing referencing most of the weapons of the time (1980's), but both are far too small to be the Karl Gustav 84mm of British army use at the time (and the SAS wouldn't have bothered faffing about with such an unwieldy lump of heavy shite), yet are equally too large to be the 'sixty-six' (mm) licence-built US 'Bunker Buster' or 'door-knocker', which doesn't have a venturi either - the cone-shaped bit at the rear.

You can see the Britains figures are heading toward 60mm, and while some of that is explained by the deep, die-cast alloy bases, not all of it is and they are actually quite big lads!

The gunner; as one myself, it's obviously my favourite pose of the seven, but the belt of link round the shoulders is a bit Audey Murphy, good in movies and likely to be seen in the ranks of the late 'Mad' Mike Hoare's mercenaries or their Katangese opponents, but frowned upon in the British Army.

A short belt (15-20 rounds) would be carried in the gun, ready for immediate action / return of fire, the rest of at least 200 rounds would be in the front pouches, with the No.2 having another minimum of 200 on his person (along with his four magazines of 20 for the SLR), the rest of the section being loaded with a minimum of 50-round (quarter) belts each.

The reasons for not carrying belts around like this are myriad, but the obvious ones are;

• Rounds get dirty/damaged and jam the mechanism when used
• Links get semi-parted/stuck/damaged and jam the mechanism when used
• Links break fully and rounds are lost
• Belt gets hooked up on equipment and can't be used quickly
• Belt gets hooked up on equipment which then can't be used quickly
• Percussion cap is accidentally detonated leading to injury or death of gunner or comrade/s
• Can be seen by snipers from miles away
• Are bloody uncomfortable after the first twenty yards
• The rounds and the carrying-strap (missing on the above sculpt but utterly necessary when carrying 26lb's of steel around) can't - practically - occupy the same space

Looks great on a Mexican bandit, but it's a no-no in real life, doesn't stop people draping the stuff all over themselves, whenever they get the chance though, usually around camp/bivouac when 'bombing-up'!

I think these are relatively current Chinese production rather than the Turkish Pilsen (who did pirate some of those later sets - thanks for reminding me Chris Smith), and their quality is too poor for the neighbouring Greece's Solpa, so China looks likely, but I stand to be corrected.

The swansong of Briatins Deetail was really more of a tragic tailing-off, as an attempt to stave-off the advance upon the play-rooms' of the world by ravening hordes of 4, 5 and 6" action figures was met with a stab at popularising 2" action figures, a situation not helped by Britains choosing to anchor their feet and paint them as if they were attending 'Military-Man Monday Mayhem' at the Blue Oyster Club! Indeed, I think the grenade thrower is already halfway through the YMCA dance!

1983; [Cold War/Modern] S.A.S. (Special Air Service), 51578 / 9 51578 / A02720 - 1:32 Scale (54mm)

One of the last figure issues to come out of Airfix, following the old pattern of seven figure sculpts and issued only in 14-figure boxes, you got two-each of most, and you have to wonder why you didn't just get pairs of all seven, but actually the officer is 50% rarer and the kneeling firer is 33.3^r% more common than the other five!

And they are unnumbered so we don't know if you were getting most of two tool-shots, or a single runner-worth's of fourteen products? I suspect the latter; it makes sense.

Presumably they were aimed at a market or perceived market resulting from the May 1980 Iranian Embassy siege-break in London, coupled with a bit of Falklands/South Georgia mythology.

The small scale ones would be advertised the next year but never be issued - see section at end of post -  below.

I shot these back in 2008 to shove on evilBay at a 99p-start and I think most went for a couple of quid-each, with the 'officer' maybe going to four-pounds-something? But it meant I had a set in Piacasa with a less than common - for the Blog - background (I know some of my backgrounds are a bit tired now!), it's all a bit sandbaggy!

They are not as rare as the used to appear to be, and often turn-up in mixed lots, while a re-issue in the last few years saw them in an awful troll-shit, purple-blue polymer which made them look like some demented Middle-Eastern SWAT team . . . which may well have been the corporate-thinking behind the choice of that colour!

The figures are wearing what appear to be the (and would still have been in trials) Boot, Combat, High [ankle] or BCH, which weren't fully adopted until August 1984, carrying a passable Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine-gun (non-standard outside Hereford at the time, the anti-terrorist police still relied on Stirling SMG's or the odd M16), and they all have a rappelling/tying-people-to-chairs rope looped round their body.

A stun-grenade (big bang, few fragments) and a pistol (my father carried a Berretta . . . well, actually he left it under his pillow for my brother and I to find!) in its holster complete the weaponry, and they are wearing black-fatigues with a tight hood (pull-cord) over a respirator with side-mounted (left) filter which may be the standard for the time or the replacement S10 which as part of the Combat-80 upgrade also (like BCH, SA80, Kevlar Helmets . . . et al!) filtered into service from the mid-1980's. It may be a non-standard piece, of course, certainly the nose-protrusion is too long for either of the referred service items.

They have thin leather gloves, and a four-magazine pouch for the HK's and a larger pack which seems to be the respirator case - in the infantry worn on the left hip, where it constantly got in the way, especially when vehicles were involved, these guys have their ammo-pouch there and have moved the respirator case round to the small of the back where it's out of the way.

I suspect the jacket (or a 'waistcoat' portion of it) had some padding/protection from fragments, but it would have required flexibility not then available with the full 'flack-jackets' which remained bulky and solid into the late 80's.

The irony is that the embassy siege was probably the only time a unit of the SAS were deployed dressed as that, or these chaps, while the guys operating in Northern Ireland would have worn a mix of standard and aftermarket combats or smocks all made from the four-colour, regulation DPM (disruptive-pattern-material) of the time.

 

Late Britains swivel figures, not very nice, and it's only the non-general service issue respirators which make them 'special forces' for the purpose of this comparison. They came with either the milk-chocolate helmets and pale 'aqua' uniforms, or lightly more realistically outfitted with UN helmets, and at one point the same scheme or one very similar was used with late mouldings of the Deetail WWII US Infantry.

In point of fact the webbing is also non-standard, but since these were issued off the back of the Falkland's Conflict and 'The Embassy Siege', most armies have adopted forms of pick-and-mix webbing or PLC (Personal Load-Carrying equipment), and they are almost more contemporary now (2020's), then when they were issued!

The earlier Britains Deetail, however, were somewhat more accurate, but nobody would wear a beret in combat! Also, they are much larger figures, and I've addressed some more points about this line, on the Modern infantry post.

The recent (2020's) reissues were in a rather insipid shade of sandy-fawn plastic, presumably to try and tie them into our pretty disastrous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the uniform worn, being a dated, internal security getup, not used for decades, nor in either theatre.

●○●●○●    ●○●●○●     ●○●●○●     ●○●●○●     ●○●●○●

1984; [Cold War/Modern]

S.A.S. (Special Air Service)

9 01761 - 1:72 Scale (25mm)

 

Because it didn't exist except as a marketing idea in a catalogue issued the autumn before the period to which it pertains, there is no point in a separate entry for the HO/OO (or by then '1:72' SAS set, so it might as well go here for those who persist in looking for such stuff!

Advertised in the 1984 catalogue, it never happened.

Had it; it would have been like the Cold War US or Russian sets and the WWII Italians, i.e.; a rather boring selection of multiples of six of the seven 1:32nd scale figures in sixes, sevens or eights, scaled down, with - probably - two officers, and while Airfix had by then adopted (or were about to) the 1:72 scale for packaging, they would almost certainly have been issued in a size closer to 1:76th scale.

But it never happened and that's that.

1975; [WWII] U.S. Paratroopers, 51464 / 51464-8 / 51564-7 / 951564 - 1:32 Scale (54mm)

One of the late sets which received all the poses of the smaller 1:76th scale or 'HO/OO' set, a set which - itself - had a high number of poses, also a set which quite quickly appeared in a second colour, and it seems to be also that like the HO/OO set, the first; Airfix 'neutral' light grey, is more common than the second; Airfix 'army' green colour, suggesting that a top-up (or end-of-run?) of both scales was produced in the green, to use up some green or because the Ghurkhas or someone else green were also going through the production plant?

Much looked-forwards to when I was a kid, it was strangely disappointing when it finally arrived, having far too many figures doing nothing, standing around doing nothing or prone doing not much. But that was an illusion caused by the number of poses and in fact six of them are fighting/firing, which is more than some of the seven-pose sets.

The bottom right-hand trio are Hong Kong copies we will return to down the page.

29 figures in total, all pretty clearly numbered, in a mint set a drum-like ‘sprulette’ should be present on the following prone/lying figures.

·         9 – on the heel of the right foot

·         10 – on the heel of the right foot

·         11 – on right foot

·         12 – on right foot

The set was pirated at least thrice, with interim second-generation copies also resulting, the near same-size copies were issued with a HONG KONG mark on the base undersides, these were further copied, smaller, and issued as generics.

In the UK the larger figures were carried by Henbrandt of North London/East Anglia, and while the card is similar to the generic there are enough differences, not lest that these are passed-off as Germans on a little label-box!

The generic version were probably earlier (but probably only by a few months or a year at the most) due to the fuller/co-ordinated artwork and at least the nationality matches the uniforms this time! Other than the artwork differences, however, these are the same figures as carried by Henbrandt.

Meanwhile, around 1986 (a bit later than the above sets?) the Artform Industrial Co., of the New Territories, also pirated them (probably separately to the other source) with heavier but neater bases and of a smaller size, matching one of my other copy-samples; which is probably a sub-piracy of the Artform set.

Here's a close-up of the three types with those probable Artform sub-piracies in the middle, the larger generic/Henbrandt to the left and Artform's on the right.

Fourteen poses would have allowed the duplicates to be blanked-off the tool when Airfix switched to the 14-figure boxes, ensuring that each box got all the poses.

The 1985 catalogue carried part of the artwork from the rear of the 29-figure boxes, showing a painting of one of the figure poses from both sides and some like-wise rendered militaria.

♪♫♪♪♫ Let's dance . . . pick up your best grenade and dance the blues

Let's dance; to the song they're playin' on the Werffer of Nebels
Let's sway, while color lights up the foxhole
Let's sway, sway through the line to a safe-throwing space!♪♫♫♫♪h

Further digging (in 2020) revealed Hing Fat to be the producer of another set of Airfix copies, almost certainly issued by several other brand-marks and/or as generics - both bags above are anonymised and . . .

. . . here we see a set branded to Billy V, the now defunct (and short-lived in any event) import-arm of the equally defunct Imex. When I say 'import-arm', most of Imex's inventory was import or joint-venture of one sort or another, Billy V were specifically their 'Rack Toy' arm.

Other revalations in late 2019/2020 have resulted in a 4th identified variation, so just when I thought I could put it all to bed, we're still looking for one's ID! Also a new colour, associated with the un-ID'd set has been sent to the Blog!

Courtesy of Chris Smith came these sandy-coloured figures, probably issued as one of two-sides in a larger rack toy, they are similar to the Hing Fat attributed lot, but (with both these and the larger green sample) there are base differences which point to a 4th source.

Base marks as I believe them to be attributable, but nothing is set in stone with this Hong Kong stuff! The figures from '2' & '3' are almost the same but the bases are very different, and it may be that one pirate supplied duplicate tools to two different makers, one of whom was Hing Fat.

Links

http://biblicrafts.blogspot.com/2020/02/airfix-ww2-132-us-paratroopers.html
http://biblicrafts.blogspot.com/2020/03/airfix-ww2-132-us-paratroopers-part-2.html

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 with a look at each pose, begining 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 the believed 'BraveStarr' Galaxy Rangers robot 'Cowboys & Sheriffs' (link to the home-blog 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.

A couple of the Airfix figures giving size to two Marx which I think are US issue/Reissue on the left and Swansea production in metallic blue? Also one of the really rather daft figures from Cherilea!

The Remco diver is from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie tie-ins, the same figure was employed in the Lost in Space board game, without the package locating-spike, which is how a diver gets here! The pink colossus is a Gort figure from Argentina, main character from the old Black White movie - The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Two Bonux premiums from France tower over the Airfix figures, available in black or silver, there are some smaller other-coloured copies somewhere-else in Europe, I think . . . I can't remember!

Cereal premium on the left, Klutz spaceman on the right, the NASA type was issued with Weetabix 'Weetos' in 1994 while the Klutz figure added playability to an interactive card construction book/toy more recently.