Ah-soh! is for Grasshopper!

I always try to sneak some of  the former-Soviet Union's equivalent of Rack Toys into RTM, however, this time it's a current set, but one of the more affordable sets from Biplant, as opposed to some of the incredibly expensive (for no real reason) sets emanating from the former Bloc.

Unlike the combat sets we saw, which come in a standard header-carded 'bottle bag', these historical sets come in wonderful display 'cabinets', which here gives us a lovely Imperial Chinese style building/roof reflecting the original Shaolin Monastery in Dengfeng,Henan Province, China.

Six of the floatiest flying Ninja David Carradines' you'll ever see! The plastic colour makes photography hard, but they are nicely done figures, all clean shaven heads and lethal weaponry! You can see also how they seem to pair-up if you were to be minded to paint and base them as mini-vignettes or a single larger diorama.

While this guy has the air of a master about him, maybe a trainer/instructor or older monk, with a heavier sword (for whacking students with the flat-side of?), bulky shield and substantial cloak. He also lacks the dynamism of the other six, but is still a nice figure. He'd also paint-up nicely as any 'biblical' era man-at-arms, albeit a bald one!

Packaging scans; the others sets get variations of a castle/fortress look which is not quite as ornate as this one, so this one might be the one to go for first! They're currently available from several dealers on evilBay (which is getting very evil these days!).

R is for Russki Rack-toys of Red Russians from Russ!

Arriving just before I lost Internet, but in time for Rack Toy Month, are these fine examples of the oeuvre from Russia's Biplant, a newish company who have taken Hong Kong's baton of piracy and run with it!

With all the hideously expensive figures coming out of that part of the world, these ship anywhere in the world - with postage - for less than 20-quid (they were £7-something, all-in to me I think, as $6 plus post) and were here about two weeks earlier than the estimate!

You get eight figures and two scenic accessories, the later being two sprigs of synthetic fish-tank pond weed with separate bases, while the former consist of five figures clearly copied from Airfix's Afrika Korps!

Stripping off the personal equipment, adding jackboots and converting the helmet to one of more Russian lines hasn't worked terribly well, as the Mauser rifles haven't been touched and the split-tailed jackets aren't terribly Soviet-looking!

With five of the figures being poorish copies, one had to assume these too would be from someone else, possibly King & Country or Del Prado, but in fact they are direct copies of otherwise expensive figures from Pervublivus (or whatever they're called these days!), and plastic versions of metal (or overpriced plastic) figures are a boon to our collections, not that one should encourage piracy . . . but once it's happened . . . !

Winter troops (against the 'summer' kit of the other five) we have a chap in a quilted jacket, and officer (who is a bit Starlux-like?) and another soldier in the loose snow-suit. Other sets have the figures in reversed plastic colours from this set.

All together; I like these! They are proper rack-toys, proper 'toy' soldiers! They tick all the boxes - cheap, copies, two colours, naff accessories, header-carded bottle-bag . . . I hope we see more from Biplant in a similar vein - I know of knights and a set of more modern Speznaz / internal security types from the same maker, also eight figures but all one colour with three bits of pond weed!