Just before I signed-off for the day I
fired-off a quick reply to the effect that they might have been Cofalux; late replacements for their
swivel-head 60-mil's, but that I wasn't sure and would check that night and get
back to him the next day.
An
Army of swivel-heads!
Well, I got home and quickly divested
myself of the Cofalux 'idea', only
problem was - when I tried the other obvious candidates they drew a blank as
well! So I started to run through the dongles one at a time searching swivel
and swoppet
until on the second to last dongle I got a folder marked PRB in the results, "Ooh?" thinks I; "what's this
one?" . . . Bingo! Plastic
Rastignano Bologna; an importer/jobber from Italy.
13
ex-Domplastic poses
Sent off an eMail to John the next day; 'Not Cofalu; PRB, blah, blah, blah . . . ',
and the next day found all these images in my inbox, so many thanks to John for
helping give these a wider audience!
The figures are scaled-up copies of the
smaller (54mm'ish) German Domplastic
solids, which PRB imported into
Italy, whether they had permission to turn them into 70mm swivel-heads or not
is anyone's guess! They are generic post-war/NATO types, but PRB's addition of swivel heads allowed
for WWII Germans and other types to be 'imagined' by the young owner.
There are 13 poses, one prone without a
base, 12 upright on integral-bases; which are trying to be or look a bit like late-version
Cherilea swoppet bases!
- Advancing with
Assault Rifle, Optical-sight Fitted
-
Crawling/Waving Forward Following Troops (no base)
- Firing Bazzoka
- Firing SMG
- Kneeling
Firing M1 Carbine
- Kneeling
Flamethrower Operator
- Kneeling Radio
Operator
- Marching
Infantry, Assault Rifle
- Marching
Paratrooper (both chutes, assault rifle, arms resting on reserve-chute)
- Marching
Paratrooper (parachute harness, unarmed, large-pack, arms swinging)
- Officer
Holding Binoculars (and testing the wind with a damp finger!)
- Throwing
Grenade, Holding SMG
- Waving,
Holding SMG
Seven
headdress types
All the headdresses are available in all
the main-body colours, with the berets having additional colours allowing for
(depending on where you are in the world) Armoured/Infantry (black), Marines/Paratroopers
(red and green), the UN/Russian Paratroopers (sky-blue), or other Special
Forces &etc.
- Beret (very
floppy or broad; Italian-looking or French Resistance!)
- Cap (like
Afrika Korps, Alpinejeger or UK 'Crow-cap/Crap-hat'*)
- Cap (like
1950's RCP's or REP's in Indochina or Algeria)
- German WWII Stalhelm/Fire Service Helmet
- Officer's Peaked
Cap (very 'totalitarian regime' in style, not UK/US flatter shape)
- US M1 Type
Helmet (good for half the world post-way!)
- UK Mk1/2 'Piss-pot/Soup-bowl'
or US 'Brodie' Helmet
There may be a kepi, but I suspect it's
just the way light plays on the very pale grey versions of the DAK-like cap on
auction sites?
* "I'mmmmm
a Jockey, I'mmmmm a Jockey!" (an in-joke for anyone who did basic
training in the 1980's!)
Coats
of many colours!
I told John I wouldn't collage the images
he sent as they were so good, but these two are taken with and without flash
and illustrate the colour differences much better if placed side-by-side.
There are both darker and paler sand's than
seen here, then the mid-sand on the upper row; dark, mid, light, pale and
very-pale grey - middle row; with various greens, khakis, olives and olive
drabs.
That very-pale grey is verging-on and looks
white, especially if used with darker colours, thus; putting a very-pale grey
beret on a dark olive figure will make it look white.
Inclusive
'World' Troops
Heads also come in various colours (not
knowing what John had, I told him there were 'two'), and the sample John sent
back has from the right - tanned/Asian/mixed-race, Afro-Caribbean, new-born
Caucasian and a 'not very well'/sick-parade colour on the far left! Although
it's fair to say (from the samples I've seen, including John's) the pink 'Caucasian'
seems to be numerically superior to the other ethnicities.
When I replied to John I did some
back-of-a-cigarette-packet maths and going-on the 13 poses x 6 hats/helmets x 7
colours x 2 flesh-tones in my notes, and assuming headdress would match figure
colour (no other beret colours taken into account), arrived at a possible 1,092
variations, if anyone with greater maths skills would like to have a go, using
John's samples and including the beret colours, I'd be interested in the
result, I recon it's over 4,000?
Which is an amusing exercise, but the point
is, you can - with enough figures - create distinctive armies by limiting headdress-type,
figure colour or even grouping poses; they're really nice figures, with tons of
play-value!
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