About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Friday, August 5, 2022

M is for Maisto's Military Mystery - Cubeville Cary Cases

Fun one this, but a bit mysterious, I picked it up from a dealer in the market area at the Hop Farm, Beltring's big week-long combat-wombat shindig 'Trucks & Tracks' back in 2008, he only had these, but he had a mountain of them, like half a van-load, still in the outer, manila cartons.

AFV's; All Stars; Die Cast Military Vehicles; Die Cast Toys; Diecast Toy Vehicles; Dino Adventure; G.I. Joe; Kid Connection; Maisto; Maisto All Stars; Maisto Die Casts; Maisto G.I. Joe; Maisto Kid Connection; Maisto Military Force; Military Cubeville; Military Force; Military Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
The box shows three sets, but two of them come with the same truck, either tilted or tiltless! And I wouldn't exactly describe any of them as particularly inspiring? The feeling being that 'Military Cubeville' was a live market-test which sank with little trace!

AFV's; All Stars; Die Cast Military Vehicles; Die Cast Toys; Diecast Toy Vehicles; Dino Adventure; G.I. Joe; Kid Connection; Maisto; Maisto All Stars; Maisto Die Casts; Maisto G.I. Joe; Maisto Kid Connection; Maisto Military Force; Military Cubeville; Military Force; Military Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
The one I bought; Cubeville Outpost, there are elements of the much older (1970's) Monogram Pocet Force & Battle Link sets about this, but where they had a PVC or latex scenic base which squidges-up and folds away into a smaller case, the Maisto sets are larger due to the rigidity of the scenic diorama/vignette contained within.

AFV's; All Stars; Die Cast Military Vehicles; Die Cast Toys; Diecast Toy Vehicles; Dino Adventure; G.I. Joe; Kid Connection; Maisto; Maisto All Stars; Maisto Die Casts; Maisto G.I. Joe; Maisto Kid Connection; Maisto Military Force; Military Cubeville; Military Force; Military Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
Which - the scenic item - is a reasonable ruined dwelling with watch-tower, sandbag piles and a rather formal stack of bright-silver 'jerry' cans! I think the access ramp also has a secondary role of joining multiple units together but I might be wrong on that one?

AFV's; All Stars; Die Cast Military Vehicles; Die Cast Toys; Diecast Toy Vehicles; Dino Adventure; G.I. Joe; Kid Connection; Maisto; Maisto All Stars; Maisto Die Casts; Maisto G.I. Joe; Maisto Kid Connection; Maisto Military Force; Military Cubeville; Military Force; Military Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
This was placed above the carry case with a top/side right-angled window in the other side of the box (I didn't shoot it; I'll scan it sometime) and you get two quite nice figures in the 25/28mm bracket and a M2/M3 (I still don't know which is which; I think the difference is mostly on the inside?) Bradley IFV, and it's the early, pre-Gulf Wars upgrades version.

AFV's; All Stars; Die Cast Military Vehicles; Die Cast Toys; Diecast Toy Vehicles; Dino Adventure; G.I. Joe; Kid Connection; Maisto; Maisto All Stars; Maisto Die Casts; Maisto G.I. Joe; Maisto Kid Connection; Maisto Military Force; Military Cubeville; Military Force; Military Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
Close-up's of the two figures (it's a figure Blog!), the box isn't clear, but there seem to be six to collect, possibly seven, but it may only be four or five? ATGM looks like it might be an M41A7 Saber (improved BGM-71 TOW system), while the squad-commander with radio is pretty stanndard, post-Cold War fodder.

AFV's; All Stars; Die Cast Military Vehicles; Die Cast Toys; Diecast Toy Vehicles; Dino Adventure; G.I. Joe; Kid Connection; Maisto; Maisto All Stars; Maisto Die Casts; Maisto G.I. Joe; Maisto Kid Connection; Maisto Military Force; Military Cubeville; Military Force; Military Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
The mystery is they are hard to find on the Internet and there are none currently on evilBay, although other Maisto military are easier to locate, all small ranges (G.I. Joe, Military Force (upper shot), All Stars and Kid Connection), along with odd  military finished vehicles in the normal 'Matchbox' style range, most of the bottom row above.

Some, like the 'Electronic Warfare' truck above (or was it a fire appliance first!?) reappear in the other brand-marked ranges, in the truck's case as a fully camouflaged version in the G.I.Joe series . . .

AFV's; All Stars; Die Cast Military Vehicles; Die Cast Toys; Diecast Toy Vehicles; Dino Adventure; G.I. Joe; Kid Connection; Maisto; Maisto All Stars; Maisto Die Casts; Maisto G.I. Joe; Maisto Kid Connection; Maisto Military Force; Military Cubeville; Military Force; Military Miniatures; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
. . . or even as Jurrasic Park knock-offs in the Dino Adventure line! Maisto also do military vehicles in other scales, including 1:35th and 1:16th, I think I saw a 1:48th one as well. But as to Cubeville, pulled quickly from the market I fear?

4 comments:

EY said...

Interesting finds! I have some older Maisto military vehicles that came with the recast 1/72ish Airfix figures, but I have never seen these sets before.

Hugh Walter said...

No, well I only saw them the once EY . . . funny I have Majorette with Airfix knock-off figures . . . everyone used Airfix piracies!

H

Gog said...

At first I thought these were in the micro machines scale, but if the figures are around 25 mm tall, the vehicles should be in the Matchbox / 3 inches size. They are nice, but maybe a big too bulky for a pocket-toy.

Hugh Walter said...

Three of them would pretty-much fit a Matchbox 1-75 box, but the front-bucket tractor and M2/3 are a bit too big Gog!

H