R is for Real 'Toy' Soldiers

Lido! I thought they were Tim Mee! I went through them in my head and thought "They can't be Tim Mee, they did the common [and much pirated] 'Vietnam' ones [we've seen here] and the larger ones with extra poses and different sizes in the European issues, so they can't be" . . . but I looked in the folder anyway, and they weren't there, still; after a bit of a search - they turned-up on Kent's site (2/3rds of the way down, but worth a slow scoll) as Lido! Which I should have guessed, as I have  a few if the equally err . . . odd (?) Japanese!

Kent has them as being issued in various shades of grey only, so my sample seems to be mostly not Lido, but having looked at the Hong Kong copies of mini-vehicle next to the Lido originals and seeing them in Lido bags, it seems Lido went over to the dark-side and facilitated (or bought - at least) copies of their own stuff, so some of these non-Lido's may still be Lido . . . in a round-about sort of way!

Eight poses, very fanciful and not terribly accurate, if they didn't have a Balkan-cross on the helmets you'd be forgiven for thinking they are supposed to be US GI's!

I like the MG-gunner, despite the unrealistic pose, but he looks more like one of the PZG Warsaw Uprising Polish-resistance figures! The officer looks as if he's creeping-up behind a squirrel or something, but he has a nice attempt at a Nazi presentation dagger. However - both the bazooka and flame-thrower are more US than German?

The dancing loons or Mah' Mammee-poses, but, and as with the dagger; the K98 rifle of the upper figure is quite well sculpted and gets across the lines of the buttstock and thumb-hollow very well, even on the sub-piracies! The guy on the ground is so distorted by heat shrinkage he won't stand up, but may prove really useful de-bussing from a truck or half-track!

The stick-grenade is right, but once he throws it, he's unarmed, a strangely common trait with toy soldiers (witness this morning's Lone Star post), while the other pose is probably where I got the Tim Mee thing from?

Despite their relative awfulness and lack of Lido provenance, I like these; they are proper toy soldiers and don't need to be accurate, they just need to be there in the tin, or tub or toy-box!

Stop Press Image!

During the sorting and putting away after the recent WWII photo-sesh', I found this quartet which must be down to Chris, Jim and/or Adrian? Recent acquisitions anyway and they push my 'grey originals' total to six of eight, with a new colour variation of one. So thanks to whomsoever these came from.

Lido's lovely loons - box ticked!