This Blogpost could just have been another shelfie, but I saw these Army Men for sale in a Norwegian Online Store, Teknik Magasinet, and it was a little too difficult to get an impression of them just by looking at the few photos posted in the webshop. Besides they they looked like some I've reviewed before and later painted to represent 2 different armies, which was so good looking Matchbox Knock-Offs that I decided to buy another box or bag to have a look and perhaps expand my existing armies. Besides they only costed kr 86,- or approx £ 6,43 or $ 8,52 or € 7,46 for 48 pieces. Those I bought back in 2019 was only 32 pieces.
The box it self looked almost identically like those I bought back in 2019 at the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, with the same name, text and photos. -Therefore I expected the content to be identical as well.
So, were these identical except for the number of soldiers and the price?
The first thing I noticed when I opened my new box of Army Troopers was that they have the same poses as their Matchbox American WW2 Infantry originals.
.jpg "A Bag of Army Troopers. Cheap Army Men by Tobar")
The second thin I noticed was that these knock-offs looked notably smaller than the originals and the knock-offs I reviewed in 2019. These are closer to 45mm in height and somewhat between O scale (1:43,5) and 1/35 scale :
Second I noticed was that the quality of these new Army Troopers was very poor in comparison with the larger ones from 2019, which was really good looking knock-offs with crisp moldings. The new ones was semi flat and had really poor reproductions of the weapons, and the details were more indistinct and had softer edges:
So these figures are not great or very accurate miniature reproductions of the the originals and they are not true to their Matchbox origins. Are they suitable as toys for kids? -Probably not as their bases are very small and wobbly and will tipping them over very easily. I'm not sure what to use these figures for as using them for expansion of my armies of similar soldiers are out of the question as they're both smaller and has poorer quality than the Army Men I usually use for wargaming. I do have some other 40mm-ish Army Men from earlier, and I might use these as an opposing force for the 40mm Germans perhaps (?).
These Army Men are distributed by Tobar, and should be available in a lot of different countries, but be aware when seeing these at first sight similar looking boxes as the content in them are very different regarding quality and sizes. If you're into 54mm miniatures you should look for the boxes with 32 pieces, as the 48 pieces labeled box contains about the same amount of plastic just not shaped so well.
The included bag was identical thought...
I know the 80th Anniversary of the original Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry was last year, but the most iconic character of them all in this franchise, Thomas the Tank Engine, are actually having his 80th Anniversary today! The Railway Series was first published May 12th 1945 and was entitled The Three Railway Engines and was about Edward, Henry and Gordon.
Thomas the Tank Engine didn't actually appear before the second The Railway Series book, 'Thomas the Tank Engine', which was published September 14th 1946. Actually Thomas is older than that, as he was created by Rev. W. Awdry as a wooden toy for his son for Christmas 1942. He initially planned to make a wooden toy of either Henry or Gordon, but due to wartime shortages he was only able to make a (new) smaller engine, which would be 'Thomas'. His 'No. 1' is not because he was first in this franchise, on the contrary, but because it was simpler to write. After 'The Three Railway Engines' was published in 1945 it was decided that the next book was to be about 'Thomas'. In the foreword to the book Rev. W. Awdry wrote:
Dear Christopher
Here is your friend Thomas the Tank Engine. He wanted to come out of his station yard and see the world. These stories tell you how he did it. I hope you will like them, because you helped me to make them.
Your Loving Daddy
The Second book in The Railway Series, which was about Thomas the Tank Engine, was published September the 14th 1946, so I'll think this would be the right date for Thomas the Tank Engine's 80th Anniversary.
The wooden toy of the original 'Thomas the Tank Engine' by Rev. W. Awdry was initially made as a Class J50 engine, but the illustrator for the second Railway Series book, Reginald Payne, was living in the south illustrated the 0-6-0 'Thomas the Tank Engine' as a Class E2 0-6-0 engine, and gave him his iconic appearance.
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| The very original model of 'Thomas' made by Rev. W. Awdry |
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| One of the first illustrations of Thomas from the book were he first appears in 1946 |
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| Thomas for wood trains |
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| OO gauge Thomas by Hornby |
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| G-scale Thomas by Bachman and N scale Thomas by Tomix |
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| Thomas at the Norwegian Constitution Day at 17th of May on my small Garden Railway |
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| There is a prototype for every thing. This photo was taken during a 'Day out with Thomas' arrangement at the Danish Railway museum in Odense back in 2018 when I visited it with my youngest son. |
Thomas the Tank Engine has spread joy and inspiration for generations the last 80 years, and I hope he continues to do so for the next 80 too!
Happy Birthday Thomas!!
This is not a Garden Wargame report, but one of the members in our Model Railway Club coincidentally invited to a Club-day out in his fully sceniced Garden Railway, Reichenbach, on the 1st of September. Since I was going to bring my Heeresfeldbahn train I was inspired to make the head photo looking like it was supporting the logistics under Operation Fall Weiss on the Polish narrow gauge network September 1st 1939 (with a little help from ChatGPT).
My military trains have been running on these lines before, but since then Gylmer has expanded it with a longer mainline and brancheline and easier gradients. On these links you can see more photos and videos from previous visits to Reicenbach:
