NZNAM is for New Zealand National Army Museum Figures - On Guard . . .

. . . the magazine of the New Zealand Model Soldier Society Inc. Now sadly defunct it seems, I have tried to contact the named individuals through the NZ Military Historical Society, to no avail, however there may be hope, a call's going out to them in a forthcoming newsletter, courtesy of Jeff Atkinson at NZMHS? It's only to clear the use of the image, if anyone knows where they are?

Let's remind ourselves of the figures first, alongside the tan ones we looked at yesterday were sold these, in tropical OG's! The plastic is probably a dense polyethylene, but it's so dense it has the properties of a polypropylene.

Although in the late 1970's 'polyprop' wasn't being used in the toy industry like it is now, it was starting to creep-in through action figure components and Japanese space-toys, or larger infant-toys which needed a rigidity/robustness but without the sharpness or frangibility of polystyrene, so, with New Zealand positioned on the Pacific Rim and trading across it, either polymer could be the one used here.

Anyway I'm using both tags to cover my proverbial!

As you may have gathered in yesterdays post; from one of the prizes, these figures were made by Lincoln Industries Games (commonly; 'Lincoln International'), and having missed-out on (or passed-up the opportunity really) a boxed clip-together/readymade Thunderbird 2 by Lincoln a few years ago, I can say it's the same slippery-smooth plastic as that.

The set was covered in the NZMSS's magazine not long after the main launch of the promotion if yesterday's dates are any judge, and it's a fair appraisal from someone I'm guessing was more toward the BMSS's hollow-cast, flat or solid-lead collecting flock, than our polymer-loving branch of the hobby? 'Kit Review' text reads;

Dave Morris

"OPERATION HERITAGE"

     By now most of us would have seen the soldiers put out

to raise money for the Army Museum. The museum is to be

built at Waiouru; and in fact the foundation stone has al-

ready been laid.

     The retail outlet is the Woolworths chain of stores, &

Lincon Industries manufactured the models.

     They are sold conjointly with a competition, the entry

form being inside the plastic bag pack. The price of $2

a pack (6 soldiers) is not very good value for money. How-

ever nobody is filling his pockets as the proceeds are go-

ing to the museum.

THE MODELS

     There are six Soldiers in each pack, on one sprue ['runner' - ed.], each

depicting an era of military history.

1.     The Militia.

2.     Boer War.

3.     W.W.1

4.     W.W.2 (Desert)

5.     Post W.W. 2 Malaysia

6.     Today— Ceremonial. (SD's with Lemon Squeezer)

The soldiers come in two colours; Drab green and khaki

     As model solders the effort is very disappointing.

There are several errors which should not have happened.

1.     The height of soldiers are only 50mm.

2.     The soldier in Service Dress has breast pock-

        ets somewhere down around his lower ribcage.

3.     The bayonet on the WW2 soldier is depicted as

        a No 1.  Although not completely incorrect

        He should be better displayed with a No 4 bay-

        onet. Right alongside on the WW1 soldier is

        a No 1 bayonet.

 4.    The numbering on the accompanying leaflet of

        soldier identification has two numbers back to

        front; No 5 and 6. [On the artwork - ed.]

     However to look on the bright side, the soldiers have

A "now" vogue look of the original toy soldiers:     Thin,

lean, faceless and flat without dimension.     The packs on

their backs are merely a raised line.

     And flash; Surprisingly there was none.     There was also

no flaws in the manufacturing.

I take slight issue with the Malaysia reference as the SLR didn't enter service until after the Malayan Emergency was coming to an end (1960), and I think it's really Vietnam that's being referenced - if it's a campaign? Although the weapon could be an M16, or the reference could be for Borneo ('66). And - as we saw yesterday - the accompanying-flyer gave that particular figure a much wider spread than Malaysia, geographically, and 30-years to cover in one sculpt!

The fluidity with the weapons' ID (it's more SLR than M16) is mirrored in the bayonets, which are both modelled as mere sticks, but I know what he's getting at, one should be longer - if they WERE hollow-casts . . . it would matter - you can't do it with paint if it's not there! Neither has any connection with the musket at the bottom of the page which is just editorial decoration I think.

As with the Tan ones, Glenn kindly sent us both a loose set and a set still on the runner, you can see it's the same order and layout as the previously seen one, which you might think is obvious, but tomorrow we'll find it isn't!

Let's do the grizzled-old colonial settler with a very Victorian beard to death shall we (actually - it looks like a bee-beard!); on the left a close-up of the militiaman from the Maori wars, front and back and in all three colours; on the right a comparison with the garrison troop from Sanitarium's premium-regiment!

And a reminder Glenn can supply limited numbers of sets still on the runner and most figures in most colours loose - email me (maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com), for the passing of your details.