Plastic Figure News September 2017 we have various pieces of information to share with you on the hobby. First we have some information from Steve Weston and Hobby Bunker on what they will have at Chicago. From Russia the company that did the Bauyex Tapestery flats had done Sparatcus and Roman flats. On Facebook yesterday I spotted a company making vacuum form tents. Finally first of the new BMC Toys product has shown up.
Plastic Figure News September 2017 Weston
Steve Weston has posted the following on what he will be bringing to Chicago.
This year, we will be bringing over the latest set that was issued by Engineer Basevich a couple of months back, along with the very LAST TWO sets of the Russian women/Special Forces set – if they don’t sell before we ship! These are the very last of his production, there won’t be more.
He has also sold out of set numbers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 so if you want to get any or the set numbers above or below this, i suggest you don’t delay and pick them up from whomever.
We’ll have the Replicants Commanches, but sadly, the mounted versions are not quite ready, so won’t make the trip
I will have limited quantities of the ‘No Name’ Greeks and Vikings, plus the additional mounted Roman and Knight that were not available last year, along with a few more sets of the Romans, Russian knights and English knights that were so popular and which sold out on day one or two of last years room trading.
There will also be a few sets of the Action Castings ACW and ‘nam figures on offer.
Lastly, if they arrive before we ship, we will have the Chintoys brand new ACW Union and Confederate Staff sets.
We should be in room 5405 again, as usual.
Look forward to seeing anyone that’s making the trip there.
If you wish to pre-order anything, mail me at steve@plasticsoldiers.co.uk
Plastic Figure News September 2017 Hobby Bunker
Hyobby Bunker has given a hint of what he will be carrying at Chicago that should be of interest to collectors.
I have a Mint Warlord Tower And Zulu storehouse Playset by Conte heading to the show. Both are from the original batch. I may also have a dozen Barzso Playsets if I can pick up this week.
I have also went and sourced some Russian Plastics. Including Engineer Basevich and Chin Toy. Who knows what will show up. I sourced the Plastic Platoon Vietnam figures (very pricey).
Beyond that we will hav ethe usual Marx and MPC recasts, odds and ends, foam, etc. My helper Joe will be bringing some of his collection of vintage Auburn Rubber and other items to sell.
We will be in the Ivory Rooms on the lobby level all week.
From these two reports we can see that collectorss may be able to get some of the new Russian items. Also that Replicants next item is mounted Commanchees which will go well with their foot figures.
Plastic Figure News September 2017 Spartacus
Erwin has received photos a new series of flats from Russia. This is the same company who did the flat figures of the Bayeux Tapestry. this time they are doing Romans and the Spartacus Rebellion.
Here is a closeup of two of the figures. The reports so far say there is 10 figures in the series.
No word on when they will be release or price.
Plastic Figure News September 2017 Amera Plastic Mouldings
Aidan Prior on Facebook posted link to a company doing vacuum form tents and accessories. the company is Amera Plastic Mouldings These are listed in 1/35 scale. Check them out
Plastic Figure News September 2017 BMC Toys
Greg Liska spotted this new listing for the BMC Toys Yorktown figures from Victory Buy
I’m sure most will greet the recasting of the BMC AWI guys with a yawn. They had sort of grown on me and I like them….after I do a little work on them. The recasts look good, but the price is too high and the postage seems excessive to me. I don’t know if they are doing all the poses, either. I see no mounted Washington, which made a great generic mounted guy once you carve off the epaulettes, and there are no Hessians. The Hessians seem to have, sort of, the Light Infantry leather helmet. These guys cast in red and blue could be useful. I’d picked up a lot of the color swap guys giving me Brit regulars (colonial In. cast in red), a Jeager bn. (colonials cast in black) and cavalry for all! (Washington cast in blue, red, white and black). Best of luck to Victory Buy, but I don’t think these guys are priced to move.
I was just in a Hobby Lobby and a Hobby Town USA. Somewhat to my surprise, the Americana bags of Revolutionary War and Civil War figures comparable in size to the Victory Buy bag linked above were all around $13. The Hobby Town USA also had a small tub with about the same number of figures for $17. So it looks as if the Victory Buy set is around the going price (leaving aside Hobby Lobby 40% off coupons!). I don’t know where Jeff Imel will be marketing these figures outside his online stores, but there must be some sort of market for the old BMC figures because besides the above retailers, I see them popping up a lot in museum gift shops and similar venues. Since I have a large enough pile of the Revolutionary War figures and have no love for the D-Day figures, I am eagerly waiting to see what the prices are for the Iwo Jima figures and playsets.
Now would be a great time to recast those Iwo Jima figures in colors other than ‘welcoming mint’ and ‘dead salmon’. If they get cast in decent colors, I could see me buying a few bags even at those prices.
The BMC website says that there will be 32 piece Iwo Jima bags in olive and tan as well as the old colors. This is one reason why I am looking forward to pricing news.
After reading your post, I checked the site. They had them available in the new colors, so I ordered a bag. I’ll let you know how they look.
Wow.Those Amera prices looks great compare with the insane caccum foam made prices around.Very intersting and nice done.
No, no. Romans and gladiators from another company, not same as Bayeux Tapestry.
Ok.Andrey I was told so by Alex.
So who made them. ?
I have several Amera products and I would not recommend them.
The plastic is paper thin and you have to cut pieces out without ruining the whole piece.
I bought a couple of small huts and ended up throwing them away.
FYI, some “new” BMC playsets by Victory are now up on EBay, I noticed Iwo Jima and Utah Beach.
Mike K
I wouldn’t mind some of the D-Day poses if I can figure out some cheap figures to do headswaps with. Back in the day there were some 54mm Hong Kong knockoffs that weren’t so expensive that you minded hacking their heads off to make a halfway decent figure. Some of the BMC poses have a great concept behind them but get screwed up in the execution – particularly the heads with the D-Day guys. I see Airfix and Matchbox knockoffs in the stores around here but they’re all 51mm or smaller; and I suspect that’s true of the overpriced figures I see on ebay, too. It’s not a big priority with me – just one of those ongoing projects; I guess it keeps me from being bored?
The ACW guys aren’t too bad, there is just something missing – the “Wow!” factor. Of course there are those poses who look like their shoulders are dislocated. And I was just looking at their ARW figures again – is it just me or does it look like someone really wedgied those guys?
But I’m blathering. I think a BIG market for the BMC figures (particularly through outlets like Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and such) are school history projects. I remember when I taught World and US History kids would bring in history dioramas allegedly depicting World War 2 using knockoff Timmee figures with M-16s fighting some of those recent “command0 – Rambo” figures as the Japanese or others. Knowing the available toy soldier market in the area I didn’t have the heart to dock points for accuracy – though I did make comments concerning weaponry, etc. At least the BMC figures give the kids figures resembling the historical figures – now if the idiot administrators don’t call the FBI because the toy soldiers are carrying guns in school – and there HAVE been cases of kids getting in trouble for that very same thing. One kid had to carve the guns off his diorama because it “violated” the school’s zero gun policy.
Is not FBI .In NY school no toy soldiers or armed figures could be use in any display .
Is a school mandatory state law.
Neither children suppose to bring toy soldiers to play w then in break or at lunch either.
This how hilarious insane we had become.
Best.
The BMC D-Day figures are largely a wash. There’s more than issues with the heads, although that would take care of about half of them. The arms are almost like short tentacles on both US and German grenade throwers. The Brits are OK, but only just OK. The Rommel figure is quite good and the German dropping the mortar round in a keeper. I hadn’t deemed the rest worth the effort to convert and the plastic is so dense it would be a bit difficult to do. The ACW guys are OK- to Decent, in my opinion. The AWI guys are tolerable except the Brit Grenadiers. I changed their heads out and they look pretty good now. It’s sort of like Wayne said, it keeps me from getting bored.
The BMC germans are the worst by them out mos ulgly figures ever made. They get better in last sets and of course in the copies of metal from KC .
I kept few Dday poses.Rest I giveaway
It is intersting how so poor crude sets are still been bough and many make a complain about otheres new produced.
I personally have no room x that brand but few and their accessories that are better.
BMC found that more bad artist out entirely in China when making figures yet when sets come out collectors went crazy buying it.
My opinion.
Best.
The BMC figures were a mixed bag, with the Alamo big-headed Texans and the D-Day Americans and Germans being the bottom of the barrel. The accessories were always great, and I really liked the last sets – San Juan Hill and Iwo Jima. I hope Victory Buy does really well with the reissue. It’s too bad that Victory Buy is stuck with those bad D-Day poses – sadly I’m sure it is probably financially and logistically impossible to swap them out for, say, the Revell Matchbox reissues. Even the Lido and DK GI molds they own would be better, though I don’t know what they could do for Germans.
True enough! The accessories were almost always outstanding. Such a strange dichotomy in the same sets. The AWI cannons, the WWII mortars, pill boxes and 37mm Flak cannon, the M-4 and Tiger II, the Hacienda, the Iwo Jima terrain piece, the ACW limbers and even the cannons look OK once you paint them. So much stuff that I have in number that is BMC. Affordable and available, it is some great stuff if you want toys.
PS – Since I’m singing BMC praises – I kept loads of the injuns in a convenient Marx caramel color and the injun camp stuff is great.
They screw w Sherman hull and turret plus not been in scale w K tiger.
The amtrack was well copied.
I don’t know why as they suppose to copy K&C Sherman.
But come close x a toy.I only kept one as well w Eldon Sherman
I have many cheap NRAY and Airfix that are still easy and abundant.
Nardi and Jecsan Sherman are nice but in 60/70 mm more like and not easy to get..
My thoughts
Oh yeah, that Amtrac is great! I almost forgot about it. Too long since I messed with my WWII stuff.
As usual the semi round Romans make the same mistake as Conte with his Spartacus set in depicting the Romans in Imperial Claudian armour.
The average Roman soldier of this period dressed like the armour depicted in ranges from Italeri and CTS
I agree .Poor research by today makers that obvious make figures x collectors not toys wasting in figures and set.
Least I can use then separared still but definitely not x what made.
Somebody will have the answer to this. There are some ACW figures out that look a lot like BMC, but a bit smaller and some different poses. The grey for the Rebs looks surprisingly matt, almost old in appearance. I’ve seen some at a few shows, but no bag or bucket. Who’s got the answer here? It’s not the Billy V guys, either.
Some years back I picked up a bunch of BMC-looking Civil War figures that were around 50mm in size – definitely smaller than the original BMC or the Americana figures you can get now at Hobby Lobby. I think that I got them all in bagged sets with a very generic header card at a Rite Aid drug store. I liked them because they made a good size match fore the 50 mm cowboys and Indians (Airfix clones) that were everywhere. They also matched up nicely in size with the Billy V Civil War soldiers that used to be at Hobby Lobby. One thing I still remember about them – in the bags they only had one Union and Confederate color bearer with the flag intact. All the other Federal color bearers had the flag snipped off to make it look like they were clutching a gun, and I assume the same with the Confederates. There were a lot of these 50mm Civil War figures around – I always assumed that someone had pantographed or cloned the originals.
Greg, are these the guys that you were talking about. They look a lot like the figures I got at Rite Aid. A couple years ago I picked maybe a pair of dollar bags of these guys at a Tuesday Morning of all places because they had a cannon with a few men and I wanted the cannons. Again, at one point these 50-52mm guys were in a number of places!
https://www.amazon.com/DELUXE-CIVIL-WAR-SOLDIERS-PLAY/dp/B000RSS05W/ref=sr_1_5?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1505440332&sr=1-5&keywords=civil+war+plastic+soldiers
They are cloned cheap copies made by same chinese firm coping the Gi’s and japanese from Iwo jima set .But these show up in mid 2000 least as far i know and got then.
They first appear in Duane Reade-walgreen stores as far i c recall and distributed to most pharmacy drug chain stores around still today.
some supermarket still have them too
Another maker did a variation pose of actual BMC by swapping body torso parts i have a full set of those .But sold in other stores and less distributed plus i stop seen then around.
Then we got the DGN-HING FAT two set with 14 poses each that are better than BMC in my opinion.These are in big bucket or rectangular large case playset with often not all poses inside one set ,so you need buy least two to get all 28 poses
best..
So there since BMC three new sets.
BMC copies -50 MM(not recall number poses cloned)
BMC copies mix varied poses set -18 poses 52/53 MM
DGN-HING FAT-52/53 mm 28 poses; now distributed since 2012 by (Billy V -a line of IMEX in US with cheap toy figures) that also sell the old HING FAT pirates but in 8 poses only and frogmen Hing Fat poses set as well the cloned Matchbox WW2 soldiers.
hope this clarify something .
best
I honestly can’t tell from that pic. Might be. Thanks for looking. Maybe I need to start looking in Rite Aid.
these are the DGN-HF sold under others as well now.
https://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Army-Action-Figures/dp/B00BT5GE7S/ref=pd_bxgy_21_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VQBHERSW9CKB27B06BVR
OK, definitely not those.
the brand of those cloned is ESCO in packs in most resent distributor …
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Civil-War-Army-Guys-Men-Military-Soldier-Toy-Playset-Accessories-50-Piece-/321325657406?epid=691342830&hash=item4ad0806d3e:g:KeUAAMXQlgtTAp8b
Those might be it. Just hard to tell with pics so far away.
Also notice the cannon has a differtent barrel .Not as the two made by BMC or the one from DHN hing fat.
But just something not that important I guess.
I been informed the Russian No Name knight set will be releasing two more knights pose mounted soon. Again as usual the makers does drop to drop poses sets.
Best.