L is for Land of the Rising Sun

There will be a slightly thematic style to a lot of the posting in the foreseeable future as I have to grab whatever is to hand when I visit the storage unit, find somewhere quiet to photograph it and throw it up here. Case in point is this post, I thought I had some Britains Detail Japanese for some posts to appear above in the next day or two, but I don't, however with my fledgling large scale collection being still small it is stored thematically (with exceptions - Speedwell for instance) rather than the alphabetical by make of the small scale, it was not until I'd dug the Jap box out and brought it here that I realised I didn't have any Britains.

Anyway; as the 54/70mm stuff seem to be closest to the storage unit doors, there'll be more like this to come, and as a starter here's the Japanese - I have picked-up in three years of sporadic purchases - as enemy for the post above, when it appears!

Better start with the British production, as stated; the Detail are yet to be collected (despite a false memory that I'd found some!!) and the exception that proves the rule is my one Speedwell Jap, who is not it the Japanese WWII box but rather the Kentoys/Speedwell/Trojan box!

At top - in this shot is an incomplete set of Minimodels works-painted Japs, the missing bayonets are mostly painted over the 'join' suggesting miss-molding in the factory, but one or two have broken-off. The set was later sold unpainted by Almark on the sprue in the same green plastic.

Bottom is one each of the Airfix 1:32 set, which needs to go on the Airfix blog/page, but I'll re-take photo's for that job when I get round to doing that set there. Above are four Hong Kong/China copies of which the right hand two are piracies of the standing firing Airfix pose.

The one on the left I'm really pleased to have found, a friend picked one up a few years ago and I liked it then although I wasn't collecting the large scales then, so was happy to later find him myself - he reminds me of the Atlantic 'Sendai' sniper! The one in the middle is a 'CHINA' marked copy of the Chinese Hing Fat's take on Japanese troops, they are also not here being in with the Blue-box/Rado/Ri-Toys 45/50mm ones which I will have to make a mental note to try and cover another day.

These all seem to be the Spanish firm of Jecsan, I thought some (the UN helmeted troops) might be Comansi and had titled the image to that effect but a frantic search of the Spanish blogs in the early hours reveals that they are all Jecsan.

The two with chunky bases are early production Japanese Infantry, the officer is from the River Kwai set I think (plastic colour?) The others are late production repainted as UN forces to take advantage of the interest in the conflict in the Congo in the late 1960's-early 1970's, and I think the waving guy may actually have been a US soldier originally.

The Americans, having such a great role in the defeat of Japan, made quite a few, and some of the best, top in this collage of vintage makes are Marx, a mix of old figures and re-issues in various colours, with the very similar MPC set below them. The MPC figures are slightly gangly, but still quite animated.

Below them are three Lido figure with what is best described as 'Toy Soldier Charm', I like these and the similar German set because of their crudeness rather than in spite of it!

The US has been responsible for more Japs in recent years and here are samples of two of them; BMC above and CTS below, sadly not very compatible with each other (one lot being closer to 60 mil and quite chunky, the other 54mm and of more oriental slightness), but in a rug-war joining with all the above; they just add to the display as they should...they're toys!

While writing this I've reminded myself that Atlantic are also absent, I might have one or two in a mixed large-size Atlantic tub somewhere, but already having the small ones, Atlantic are a low collecting priority for me in the larger sizes.