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...
Cheap Army men figures seem to be getting poorer and poorer quality!
ReplyDeleteSame wrapping but 'new' Sh**
DeleteThank you for reading and commenting Maudlin Jack.
I agree with MJT, a local and very useful shop that sells mainly kitchen gadgets, bathroom and cleaning supplies, stationary, and also holiday toys has a bag of toy soldiers for a couple of quid. But they are shockingly bad 35mm. Absolute rubbish, and sure to discourage an interest in collecting toy soldiers. In England it is wiser to keep an eye on Ebay these days.
ReplyDeleteMichael
Thank you for reading and commenting Michael. Usually the toy soldiers you find for sale in Norway is either rubbish or (very) expensive. -Or both. It's easier to find toy soldiers second hand on web market places, but usually the sellers are charging too much for them. Good finds are seldom these days.
DeleteIt's amazing that toy manufacturers are still pirating the Matchbox sculpts - 50 years on from the originals!
ReplyDeleteYou'd think, with software design tools and 3d printing for prototypes it'd be so easy for them to do better?
Sure, but keep in mind that the 'other similar' set I bought had pretty decent knock-offs of the Matchbox originals.
Deletehttps://modelrailsandwargames.blogspot.com/2019/10/clone-wars.html
These new ones had same 'wrapping' but the quality was very poor in comparison.
Thank you for reading and commenting
We really need something of better quality available to try to interest the young people with.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
I totally agree Alan.
DeleteThere are not much for sale in Norway. Perhaps these are not "political correct" toys anymore?
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Interesting to watch as the same amount of plastic is distributed over more and more smaller and more poorly defined figures.
ReplyDeleteIt's very confusing when the 'wrapping' is so similar, but the content are so different.
DeleteThank you for reading and commenting Mark.
I noticed those Germans had somewhat distorted helmets but they are good for imagi-nations. The WW2 Americans lend themselves to converting to 19th century European troops. In that case, the definition loss on weapons and equipment is actually an advantage.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I am less interested when the figures are much under 54mm however, i do find the differences from the originals interesting.
The best cheapo cotemporary production are some modern American style, by "Small World' or 'Little World', I forget which but probably the latter. They are fully rounded and well proportioned and sculpted.
The Hing Fat figures are reasonably good for their price, although many of the weapons are oversized. Yet even that can be an advantage if they are converted to non-WW2 figures such as 19th century and SF or Steam Punk.
At the same time, there are copies of copies, into infinity that are horrible and flat. Yet, even these I have seen painted convincingly.
Having the same 'wrapping' as the Matchbox knock-offs I bought back in 2019, I actually expected these to be closer to 54mm and better sculpted. Unfortunately they were not. I painted the 'Americans' from 2019 as 'post-war' troops with WW2 'surplus equipment':
Deletehttps://modelrailsandwargames.blogspot.com/2019/11/building-army-or-two.html
Those contemporary US Troops you mentioned, are those the same as these?
https://modelrailsandwargames.blogspot.com/2024/04/recruiting-new-super-cheap-troops-to.html
Right after buying these cheapos copies of copies, the Online store where I bought them shamelessly raised the price on them by another kr 13,- or approx £ 1,03 or $ 1,39 or € 1,21 (!)
Thank you for reading and commenting James.