Cowboys and Indians
Bags of cheap figures
From time to time I've seen these small plastic bags with cowboy and indian figures in different dime stores or in the toy-section in food stores, but they haven't actually caught my attention. Well not before now, as I found them
'dead-cheap'; only £ 0.80, $ 1.04 or Euro 0.95 for each bag of approximately 24
figures. For a fistful of dollars, I was able to buy some few bags....
There were slightly more Indians than cowboys in each of the 3 bags I got.
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| The contens of 3 bags. Not any specific numbers of poses, numbers of Indian/cowboys or cheerful colors in any of them |
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| The 6 different cowboy-poses. Looks familiar?? |
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| The 6 different Indian-poses. Looks familiar too...... |
The clones and their originals
The figures them selves seems to be clones of the Airfix 1/32 scale cowboys and Indians, somewhat
'smaller'. Maybe actually closer to 1:43 or 40mm scale?
Unfortunately there are only 6 of the original 12 poses from both the original Airfix cowboys and Indians available in the bags. Their bases seems smaller and makes them more wobbly. The copies are not as crisp and sharp in the mold as their originals. I don't have any Airfix Indians to compare them with, but I do have some old, half-painted, well-used cowboys from my childhood to compare them with.
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| Airfix to the left, and clone to the right. |
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| Again the original to the left, and his smaller cousin to the right |
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| Popular pose. Britains Deetail to the right, Airfix in the center, and the clone to the right. |
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| This is one of my absolute favorites. Britains to the left, Airfix in the middle, and the copy to the right. |
Conclusion
Not as nice as their Airfix originals, but for this price they'll make great gaming pieces. They seems to be pretty common, so wherever you live, you should be able find something similar I think.
With these nice cheap figures, I now only need to find some nice, free, simple and fun rules for (wild west) gaming.....
I have many f the cheapo copies that vary from almost the same size and quality as the originals to varying degrees smaller and sometimes dreadful detail.
ReplyDeleteSome of the smaller Indians I converted into goblins for my fantasy games. Using putty I made the nose bigger and pointed. Some Indian details, like loin cloths and feathers were removed or not. they were painted with light green skin and dark coloured clothes with a lot of black and some splashes of bright colour.
Otherwise I have used the Indians as Africans - specifically Congo crisis 1960s, red Martians and ancients or Vikings (with appropriate conversion work).
The cowboys I have converted into Turkish cavalry circa 1870s - trim hat brims off and add turbans for irregulars and fur hat for regulars and the Turkish cavalry were armed with Winchesters. I have also used them as Eureka Stockade defenders with the figure with Winchester at hip change to holding a wire pike for the Irish unit so armed. I have also converted them into white mercenaries in the Congo, Confederates and US cavalry ACW and Indian Wars. I also converted some for the US troops in the Spanish American War.
Many good ideas!
DeleteI might convert some of the Indians, as I got 'a lot' of them in these sets. Regarding the cowboys, I think I'll keep them as cowboys and make some rules up, trying to catch the cinematic-feeling of westerns with good guys and bad guys....