B is for Boxed Bersaglieri!

I mentioned - back in Rack Toy Month - that Brian Berke had been to Italy and sent us a bunch of stuff, and now the show reports are out of the way, I'll be getting it up here, alongside my 60th Birthday Present from Adrian, back in the spring, the rest of the London visit stuff, and, and, and . . . it's never ending, and ever-growing, but Thanks to Brian for these, he sent me so much imagery, that it's pretty self-explanatory, leaving me not much to add, and I've broken them down into sections.

These were covered somewhere else, not that long ago, and I can't remember where? I have checked the blogs I thought they might be on, but couldn't find them, and they may have been on a Faceplant group/page, so apologies if it's you, do please put a link in the comments as I think you showed different figures?

 

Current-stroke-new production, from Giochi Preziosi, these figurines are larger than average, and depict the modern Italian armed forces, with three Bersagleri (light infantry), three Alpini, two Para's and an airmobile infantryman, a Special Forces 'insurgent' or infiltrator, and a 'Lagunare' which Google is translating as lagoon, so Marine or Dragoon (light cavalry), or possibly 'Peacekeeper', as lagoons are calm, and he's wearing a blue beret?

Packaging

Brain selected the Bersaglieri officer and trumpeter, and you can see they are attractively packaged in single figure window-boxes, which should keep even larger figures within the budget of a pocket-money collector, and also, obviously, makes them usefully touristy, in size - those luggage limits are getting serious!

 

Officer

 

A lovely figure and an unusual subject for those more used to WWII Allies and Germans, he's posed in the distinctive jogging run employed by the corps, unlike our own light infantry who do a short-stride, faster march, and wears the feathered Vaira headdress. He's a very serious-looking chap!

 

Bugler

 

The Bersaglieri are famous both for their brass bands and for their specific bugle bands, which hark back to the days when many commands were passed by bugle, most have now been disbanded, but one is retained and appears regularly on ceremonial occasions.

 

All the bugle calls can be found at the bottom of the Wikipedia page!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersaglieri

You can see the figures are around 90-100mm, and seem to be manufactured in a modern PVC-replacement polymer, probably of the semi-rigid Papo/Schliech type?

 

Combined Shots

 

Again, you can see for yourselves how each figurine comes with an integral landscaped base, and a separate matching display plinth, probably in a harder polystyrene or 'propylene. Esercito simply means 'Army'.

 

So, many thanks to Brian as always, and more to come!