Plastic toy soldiers, army men, greenmen, småsoldater, "krigere", "myrersoldater" or whatever you prefer to call them isn't that usual to find in regular toystores or in reatail in generel anymore. Unfortenatly (!). At least not in Norway they aren't anymore.
It was therefore a great surprise when I've found these cheaply priced boxes containing of 32 troopers in the museumstore at the 'Norwegian Armed Forces Museum', for only kr 50,- or approx.
£ 4.4 or $ 5.6. The box contains 32 GI's in 12 different poses and an aditional carrybag.
The soldier themselves seems to be (chinese?) copies of Matchbox' old 1/32 or 54mm scale American Combat Troops (from WWII). These soldiers are distributed by Tobar Toys. The Matchbox originals were only containing 15 figures in the box, compared to these of 32 figures. All the original 1/32 Matchbox-poses seems to be there as well, except for the officer with pistol and the great coat. -Instead this set contains a figure from the Matchbox 1/76th scale American Infantry set (WWII); an rifleman leaning forward.
The plastic is a little harder than the soft plastic from the originals, and should perhaps hold paint better. It's still soft enough to bend any bent rifles etc. thou. The figures seems a little smaller/shorter than their Matchbox equivalentes, and they are maybe closer to1/35th scale than to the originals 1/32nd scale. The moldings on the figures are good, but not as crisps as the original ones. The rifle is not that clear to be a M1 Garand as with the Matchbox figures, and seems to be a more generic type.
Here are some photos for comparsion; Original Matchbox to the left and Tobar Army Troopers to the right:
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| Submachine guy. Maybe he's the sectionleader? |
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| The flamethrower guy. |
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| The Heavy Machine Gun (50. cal) guy. The loader is not incuded in any of the sets. |
Now I'll need to paint them.
