Posted by steve_pickstock on 15 Jan 2022, 19:13
I am currently sorting through some of the figures that I boxed up when I was tidying up the attic. There are figures still in their boxes, some on sprues and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of figures that are loose, based and un-based, painted and unpainted, chopped, broken, bent or just pristine. I think there's about 200L in total.
I'm aiming to sort them out into individual boxes - labelled Ancients; Medieval/Renaissance/17thC; 18th/19thC; 20thC/Modern and Fantasy, and then bag up everything in those boxes.
So, while I have been doing this I keep turning up classic figures - Airfix Napoleonic Hussars with their heads turned unnaturally to the right, dead cuirassier horses, Revell 30YW Swedish musketeers loading and some from one of my favourite sets - the Zvezda Imperial Roman Infantry with that magnificent centurion - one of the most imposing figures I have ever seen.
Some of them are less than impressive - the Revell WW2 British infantry man with his PIAT balanced nonchalantly on his shoulder, as he ambles off to battle, as if the device didn't actually weigh a ton. There is even a set of the newer Airfix WW2 British Infantry set - the one that was replaced by the ESCI figures - which for their age are surprisingly brittle.
So, in no particular order which sets do people feel nostalgic about?
For me it probably has to be the Airfix US 7th Cavalry. Those guys came in for so much hammer - though Airfix magazine must take the blame for that - Huns, Khitan Liao, lesser known Napoleonic ally states - with a bit of plasticene and some banana oil (pre-Miliput days), they became anything we needed. I think some of them might even get an outing in the Star Wars universe soon.
After that it would be the Matchbox WW2 British Infantry - for the one officer in particular, the guy in the sheepskin jacket. Those and the Matchbox Modern Paras, such a beautiful set.
Anybody else?