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
Let's sway, while color lights up the foxhole
Let's sway, sway through the line to a safe-throwing space!♪♫♫♫♪h
. . . 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.htmlLinks
http://biblicrafts.blogspot.com/2020/03/airfix-ww2-132-us-paratroopers-part-2.html
