M is for More Armymen!

A few loose-ends from recent activity here at Central Processing, all from the lower-end of the spectrum as far as Toy Soldiers go!

These came in a year ago with the gun set we looked at last RTM, but they aren't worth a detailed look, being very generic despite the branding to Aldon, unremarkable copies of Airfix German Infantry with vehicles that might help sort loose stuff one day, but the artwork is similar to several other sets of similar age (early-mid 1980's?) and contents, Hing Fat's 'Action Heroes' for instance, so probably not.

I bought these at the snowed-under Sandown Park toy fair back in March, where Joanne Christensen (who normally stalls-out between halls 1 & 2 with far superior old toys) was up in hall 3 with a table full of toy and model figures.

Gareth and I had several trips to her stall, and these were in a five-for-a-pound basket. I've since found a few more so assume they are pretty contemporary, but have yet to ID the set or branding.

The green ones are a mix of Airfix Russian Infantry sculpts and Timpo 1^st version swoppet poses, both of which have been around for donkey's-yonks, while the silver figures are more takes on New Ray's sculpts.

Some irony there - as it's amusing one of the first decent set of original rack-toy figures to come out of the Far East in recent years is already as heavily pirated as Airfix, Britains or Elastolin ever where!

Bases don't match, but they are protagonists in the same set.

Shot these a couple of weeks ago (Smyths? Asda?), furher variations of the HTI sets we've seen here a few time now, this time with a larger M2/3 'Bradley' MICV. The vehicle has been kicking around since at least the 1990's; originally coming with the larger (35mm) copies of Galoob's sci-fi troops 'X-panders', themselves recently reprised in larger, cleaned-up sculpts by Lanard.

The shtick with the APC is, by the time you've opened all the doors, ramps and hatches you find there's no engine, no transmission, no turret basket, no ammunition, no seats, no nothing! It's a tracked carry case . . . or armyman plastic carrier!