Thread 11606356

Welcome to the Army Men General!

Previously: >>11578867

>Plastic soldiers, knights and pirates, cowboys and indians, fantasy and sci-fi, cops and zombies, all are welcome here! (civilians are fine too)

>Archived threads:
https://archive.palanq.win/toy/search/subject/Army%20Men%20General/

>Army men wargame rules:
https://combatstorm.com/
https://onepagerules.com/portfolio/one-off-games/
https://www.plasticcommand.com/
https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Search?query=army+men

>Places to get army men:
https://bmctoys.com/ and https://victorybuy.com/
https://www.armiesinplastic.com/
https://www.toysoldierco.com/
https://www.classictoysoldiers.com/
https://www.toysoldiersdepot.com/
https://www.hobbybunker.com/
https://www.michtoy.com/
https://www.toysoldierhq.com/
https://micshaunscloset.com/
http://www.expeditionaryforce.com.sg/

Last thread I expressed some disappointment at missing a few poses from these new army men sets, at the time it wasn't a big deal but when I went to form them into official units within my plastic armed forces the absent poses irked so I ordered a couple more sets to hopefully redress the issue.

>>11606385
Alongside another of the small sets I got one of the mid-size range which has four variants as shown on the back; I elected to get the bottom right corner set in the hopes of getting the rest of the rocket truck variants.

>>11606387
Small set first, was again the variant with the tanks and while the tan tank is the same, the green tank is that odd little Panzer IV that came in white last time.

>>11606394
Between the two previous sets I'd missed out on six poses altogether: 1 in green, 2 in blue and 3 in tan. This set cut that in half by including 2 of the tan and 1 of the blue, leaving one of each colour still absent.

>>11606400
Couldn't wait to see how I fared with the other set so I barely took the time to get a pic of the contents, on top of the battle map previously seen with the larger set. I did get one of the two rocket truck variants I was lacking; don't think I'll be chasing the last one like I was the soldiers heh.

>>11606406
As luck would have it all three remaining poses were among the troop complement; as George the Dubya once famously said, Mission Accomplished. Reflecting on this little saga it's interesting that blind boxes can come in all shapes and sizes, hadn't really thought of these as such but they really do fall into that category with the variations on content.

I'm expecting another delivery today, we'll see.

Are there any army men in the “hands-up, I surrender”, pose?

>>11607722
There are a few in more specialized sets, haven't got any of those so far but there's a pose in a common set of Japanese soldiers where one guy has his rifle over his head in a standing pose, could make a case for it being a surrender pose, or crossing a deep body of water heh.

After a long drought I found some actually good army men in a local store, a hobby shop that's half models/trains/RC and the rest is a mix of Lego and other stuff. At 11 maplebucks for a box of 32 soldiers they're cheaper than Timmee's troops (which average 30 for 48 soldiers on amazon canada at this time).

>>11608424
Had a feeling I should get at least two boxes and it was a wise precaution - contents are quite random from box to box. They're reproductions of the classic Matchbox US WW2 soldiers, with every pose present (if you're lucky anyway, this box lacked binoculars guy). Pic is leftmost box...

>>11608427
...and right-side box, this one rather more balanced but could still be better with its mix. The plastic is good quality, sturdy and feels a lot like the ones I got way back in the 90s. Details are pretty good too, much better reproductions than the average.

>>11608429
Each box has a little fabric bag with drawstrings that holds all 32 men snugly.

>>11608431
Would love to see these guys produced in more colours, though it's unlikely.

>>11608394
And that guy who is beating the crap out of someone on the ground.

>>11608429
Without actually reading this I was also just going to say these guys looked pretty "clean"

>>11608544
Funny thing about the guy with the rifle over his head, there's a more recent set out there that was heavily inspired by those and other previous sets and it largely recreated him, this time with a more assertive facial expression.

>>11608545
Yes, I was much impressed by the quality as compared to so many other clones, copies and reproductions I've come across over the years. When I have some time I'll do a side-by-side with my OG soldiers.

>>11608550
ya, he's not fording a river OR surrendering.

Got my US 1st Division out, all Matchbox copies, clones and approximations but no originals (that I can tell anyway).

>>11609449
Took a pic of each pose with the second from right in every shot coming from the new set here >>11608433 and right-most being a set off Amazon that was clearly modelled on them but distinct in its own right. The others are some of the variants from the 1st Division ranks.

The standing aiming rifleman was an early favourite for me as a kid; I'd got a small set of them that didn't have every pose but the soldiers were generally a bit larger than all the other troops I had at the time, making them stand out all the more. I remember treating this guy like his weapon was shotgun-like in power.

>>11609452
The kneeling aiming rifleman pose was not among those of my first set, can't remember when I first got some normal-sized ones but I do recollect my first ever encounter was in a set of Matchbox clones that had been shrunk down in size some; this set also included the officer in long coat aiming a pistol that was dropped from the original Matchbox lineup when other companies started copying/cloning the heck out of 'em.

>>11609455
The grease-gunner was also absent from that first set, though also included among the smaller-sized guys.

>>11609456
The M2 machinegunner was definitely in that first set though, was always the bane of whoever had the misfortune of facing the US army; there's an upsized version in the back who is not from the 1st Division but rather my Veterans Brigade, aka an army made up of all the soldiers who have no army otherwise.

>>11609458
The original Matchbox pose included a short bayonet on the end of this guy's rifle, a detail dropped from all subsequent versions. In more recent times this pose always reminds me of its clever use in a scene from Plastic Apocalypse to show a soldier reloading his rifle.

>>11609460
This pose was not included in the original 1/35 Matchbox set, originating instead with their 1/76 set that included several other poses that also didn't get scaled up down the road. It's probably my least-liked pose in the whole set (even over the binoculars guy) with the angle of his gaze and positioning of his feet making for somewhat baffling circumstances. I appreciate that the "inspired by" version adjusted the tilt of his head to look more like a guy advancing into combat instead of holding some off-screen ground critter at gunpoint.

>>11609462
Took seeing a few war movies to appreciate the seemingly odd layout of this pose, but he'll still end up representing KIAs more than anything.

>>11609464
Was a while before this pose made it into my armies, outside of the shorter ones. Typically he'll be paired with a binoculars guy, as iconic a duo as the medical droid and gonk droid in the original Battlefront 2.

>>11609467
Which of course brings us to said binoculars guy, a pose that somehow was always over-represented in your army relative to more useful, action-y poses. There's a giant version in back, too big for the shot but essentially the same as his shorter cousins.

>>11609469
The flamethrower was yet another latecomer to my standard-sized plastic armed forces. Would say one of my rarest army men is a figure of this pose in yellow, with a couple others almost as rare in that colour.

>>11609471
This photo includes one of my very first Matchbox soldiers, specifically the figure front and centre with the flashing all around his base. As I recollect I tried to chew it off at various times and eventually gave up, accepting him as is. This pose in general seems to suffer from fatigue as compared to the original where the bazooka was aiming at a more horizontal degree (the upsized version at back has managed to keep this angle).

>>11609473
Lastly and not leastly the grenadier pose. Still remember being fascinated with the detail of him having several grenades on his person, like a character straight out of the cheap war comics I'd get from the saturday market toy stall. I do believe the centre figure with the slight flashing on his base is another of my originals, a hardbitten veteran of countless battles. One of this figure was the primary pose for Sgt. Moss in Plastic Apocalypse as well.

>>11609475
For reference here's those shrunk-down Matchbox copies, lacking the standing aiming rifleman, guy aiming at ground, crawling guy and bazookaman but including the officer with long coat and pistol. Their unit name derives from the fact that my childhood armies tended to have significantly larger numbers of good guy soldiers (Americans, Brits/Commonwealth) as opposed to enemies (Germans, Japanese, "Iraqis") so I designated them as a "Rebel" army that would fight on the latter's side. Between their smaller stature and (originally) considerable numbers they frequently served as cannon fodder but were certainly not to be underestimated.

>>11609480
I think there are a lot neat weird things here in all of these. The recasts as well as the changes to those recasts. Some of the weapons change in their detailing a huge amount.
A lot of the original "baggyness of uniforms trimmed away in some later versions.
>>11609458
like right here and the full-ish belt on the guy on the far right.
He's like fresh in the trench and feelin fine.
The guy on the far left is slumped. It's been two days of sporadic attacks and those pills they handed out.. well , he's pretty damned sure even German Forests don't have spiders like that.
Ammo is low. Steve the guy who'd been changing Betsy's barrels had wrapped his blistered hands both inside and on top of his blood seeping gloves. He wasn't even sure if his next shot would blow the last barrel - as pitted as it was and he could swear the damned thing had warped from the heat.

>>11609519
The drudgery and tragedy of war, even in toy form. Think my most visibly war-weary soldier is this guy, was part of a set of what I called the "cheap bucket-o-soldiers" unit when I first got them. Back then my first experience with the classic Timmee Vietnam War soldiers was a Toy Story Bucket-o-Soldiers" from K-Mart; these other guys seemed cheaply made and some of the poses were crude by comparison. There was an extra pose however of a marching soldier with slung rifle that just tugs at the heartstrings. His whole demeanour is that of a crushed soul, head downcast as he trudges along mile after mile, his inner pain all too visible on his downward gaze.

>>11610547
These guys also frequently served in the enemy ranks, their allegiance justified by how crude and just plain darker green they were from their counterparts.

>>11610547

ALL of these guys seem a little frayed around the edges.

>>11610557

Maybe it's the winter gear.
I should invest in some Russians or Western Front Germans.

>>11610557
>>11610558
They're Korean War dudes right? Anyone having to fight Chinese hordes in any conditions, let alone winter is going to be a mess.

>>11610561
They always seem to be outnumbered and nerves are strained on the other side.

>>11610594
The giant rock creatures don't help either.

>>11610595
>Gorignak! Gorignak! Gorignak! Gorignak!

That other delivery I alluded to earlier in the week finally arrived yesterday, was "out for delivery" for almost week by that point heh. Seems this set was destined to be disappointing even before it arrived, as there was a small but significant difference in its contents from those shown in the listing. But they did include a complimentary fabric bag to hold everything so there's that, I guess.

>>11611062
It's pretty much an armour army-builder pack, all tanks all day, big and small. Going bag by bag, with the first one holding my secondary wants from the set, namely the beastly rocket tanks and a rendition of that Panzer IV I've brought up with those boxed sets (the little tank is from one of those to show the common turret ancestry). Sadly, the Panzer IV at back arrived a bit warped, might give the hot water trick a go but might also keep it as is.

>>11611064
This bag had a pleasant surprise in the form of a previously-seen tank, but enlarged from the ones I've had before to a more conventional army men size. The other three were in another large set I shared last thread and are rather less useful, though I'll find something for them to do.

>>11611069
The main reason I ordered this lot was for a pair of a nice IFVs which I've gotten in a couple other sets before and was hoping to increase my mechanized infantry capabilities with; regrettably they were nowhere to be found. After consulting the original listing image I believe this bag was meant to contain them; instead they substituted two more of the upsized tank of last bag which isn't a terrible replacement at least. The pair of twin-barrelled tanks are unusual in that they're slightly enlarged versions of one I've gotten before, but instead of having a movable turret they're molded in halves that divide the tank down the middle and keep its guns fixed forward. We'll see a few more tanks of this production technique in a bit.

>>11611072
And by in a bit I mean now, heh. The larger twin-barrelled tank is no more new to me than the smaller boys but is at least a proper army men size and an interestingly odd design.

>>11611074
Sidebar, that tank and the rocket tank use the same hull, which has detachable tread pieces as an additional oddity.

>>11611075
This Leopard 2-derived tank has been a staple of many cheap army men sets for a while, usually a little smaller. The baby tanks opposite are new to me I believe; think I have a similar design of comparable size but distinctly different from these.

>>11611077
The last tanks bag is just more of these two, certainly a cheap and easy way to build up a basic wargaming tank army I suppose.

>>11611079
And a bag of soldiers almost as an afterthought, same smaller-sized cheap dudes as seen so often in such sets.

>>11611080
For reference, the vehicle in foreground is the IFV I was hoping for but was denied. I accepted that reality and have ordered a couple more of the set where pic came from, which as a bonus will mean a couple more of that funny Chinese wheeled IFV.

These started randomly appearing in my AliExpress suggestions, price was decent so I figured why not. Already had a few randoms from this set through a thrift store buy and have been branching out more into the less conventional army men stuff.

>>11612171
I've never played any of the Fallout games; I quite enjoyed Internet Historian's Fallout 4 Expleened and The Fall of 76 so I have some context for these but they could also fit into just about any sci-fi setting.

>>11612175
If there's one little hangup, it's scale. They're pretty nicely scaled with each other, but on the smaller side compared to standard army men sizes; really noticeable with the vault dwellers. Well, sci-fi folk have children too and when the chips are down everyone's gotta pick up a ray gun to fend off the vile alien menace.

>>11611082
Is there a way to buy the tanks without the cheapo soldiers?

>>11613738
At least one AliExpress store sells a bunch of the various vehicles individually; caveat is they're pretty expensive going that route. Not sure if it's the same store I went with to get these, but I almost guarantee if you order expecting the blue one in the listing you'll get pic related.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009475050458.html

>>11613750
Will add that VIIKONDO also has vehicle packs, good prices but you'll have to pay as much again in shipping on top.

https://viikondotoy.aliexpress.com/store/911419546/pages/all-items.html?productGroupId=40000008195107