When I was little, I used to play with the 1/32 scale figures in our garden. I used to dig trenches and place the soldiers in and around them. I would then throw lumps of dirt at them to knock them over. Over the years, my mum would find them while doing the gardening. A few years ago, she found one and posted it to me - A British commando with Thompson mg and throwing a grenade. It had been in the ground for over 45-years! :D
That’s so cool. You can buy all the complete mint toy soldier sets you want but they will hold a higher personal value then that one commando. ❤️ We used to do the same in the sandbox and throw rocks.
I did a similar thing but I would be at one end of the living room and my mate would be at the other and built Lego walls and battlements for our men to hide behind… and then take it in turns to throw a made up missile to knock them over.. I even made pillbox’s out of the hard plastic ice cream tubs turned upside down and cut slots in them with a heated up penknife… god we played that a lot… my favourite was the Africa corps but I can’t remember why that was… probably because I’m 62 now 😂
I'm old enough to remember the Paratroopers being "new". My favourites were the mountain troops and Ghurkas. I also found them in my mum's garden decades later.
Wonderful stuff. Thank you. Airfix were my preferred figures throughout the 1970s. One major issue was flashing. This could ruin the appearance and make painting pointless. Lipstick on a pig, really. I tried all kinds of remedies to remove flashing and seam lines. A Razor blade. A candle. A Soldering Iron. A Rasp. Putty... After hours of focussed work, the results varied. And always the face. No matter how careful, the faces could be ruined easily. Finally, satisfied that the job was done; bendy rifles. Trying to straighten weapons was frustrating. Boiling in Water. Hair Dryer. Nothing could resolve a distorted piece. A box of 29 pieces yielded 5 or 6 worthy of primer. In the end, I didn't bother painting them. We just played with them.
I agree 100%. I´m not gonna bother anymore painting the old figures. If you did all you mention and then got a good paintjob it took only one careless handling and the rifle would bend and the paint flake off. They are the best toy soldiers ever made but not the best modelling soldiers ever made. Thanks for watching and chatting.
Absolutely amazing I had boxes and boxes as a kid they just got thrown out a lot of them were shot with my air rifle or burnt with WD-40 for realistic effects. I wish I had kept them. They just got thrown away but isn’t hindsight wonderful thanks for the video. Super interesting
A typical example of "shrinkflation", pay the same price (compared with 45 years ago) for a box containing 14 instead of 29 figures. And which may not even contain all the available figures.
Collected all these figures in the '70's, the "brown box" sets as well as the bamboo house and the checkpoint etc. Recently bought some new versions of the original figures but the biggest disappointment is the gloss plastic finish. Box artwork is good but getting paint to stick to the new plastic is not easy. Good to see they have reissued the German mountain troops and the British infantry support group. The older versions were not so much a problem but then again my dad used to paint them for me back in those days!
I'm glad to hear you pronouncing Africa Corps correctly (remember Obama calling a navy corp man a corpse man?) so many don't say it like core but corpse. When trying to straighten the old softer plastic get 2 bowls of water one very hot and one with ice in it. Warm the figure in the hot straighten the piece out then plunge it in the ice water holding the piece at the angle you want it after 10 seconds remove this should help you a lot. When trying to focus your camera to a figure to show details you can put your hand right behind it or better yet have a square of colored paper to hold behind the figure. The camera is "seeing" too much and doesn't know what to focus on this will fix that for you. Nice video you did a nice job describing the differences between the old and new figures.
I purchased the recently re-issued US Paratroops. Nice padded box and inside were the figures in baggies...almost every weapon was broken and two had legs snapped -I was told that the last time Airfix re-issued the plastic was brittle but this was ridiculous. Luckily bought a 1975 box where all 29 figures were perfect and the set cost me less than the two new sets!
The Target Box 8th Army illustration has the infantry advancing past a burning German tank. This has been removed from the Red Box version, and replaced with a column of smoke. Good video.
I still have all mine in a big box form the 70s. Could never bear to give them away unlike all my other toys. My brother and me used to like playing the marble game across a hall and see who knocked them all down first.
The hard plastic is K-resin, a type of styrene. If you flick the base and it goes 'tink' it's K-resin. the 60/70's figures were polyethylene, and paint really does not want to stick to them. K-resin behave like model kit plastic, you scrape off mould lines, sand and file them, polyethylene can only be cleaned up with a new blade, scrape it and it burrs up. K-Resin will take glue, so you can easily modify them, or cross kit them, eg to modify Airfix multipose and it is much better to paint, just use a primer. Some of the Airfix figures are really well sculpted, and cna look really good if painted carefully, so have ones that take paint properly is a boon. And if you want polyethylene, it's not like there are not loads easily available. I found that Mr.Surfacer works well on the polyethylene figures as a primer, it will flake off if you bend it, but everything does. PVA can work as a primer as well, but Mr Surfacer is pale grey and takes paint well. You can use Mr Surfacer as on the K-resin too. Interestingly the test shots for the original figures were done in styrene, I didn't know this, but I read about this on a now gone Airfix toy soldier page, by chance I have a few Australian infantry figures in white styrene I got at my model club, same material that the original 1/32nd Multipose and 54mm figures were moulded in, an easy to carve white styrene.
Since filming this I have painted a few of the later figures. They clean up realy well and are a joy to paint. I think the way I will go in the future is to only paint the newer casts and leave all my old originals unpainted as collectables only. Thanks for all the info.
Very interesting about the K-Resin. I still paint the old production 1/76 scale figs, which I’m pretty sure are also polyethylene. Need to give ‘em a good deflash and scrub first, followed by a coat of PVA, which takes paint well. I’d be worried about Mr Surfacer taking away too much detail, as it tends to fill holes and grooves, while PVA dries to give a thin even coat.
The older Airfix Germans appear a little shorter and chubbier than the new Airfix Germans. That's not cool getting shorted on the officer from the Fallschirmjager new set. You gotta have an officer to lead the troops. I appreciate you doing this video and displaying the differences between the new and old releases of the 1/32 Airfix WWII versioned sets. Great topic and video. Cheers!
I make up toy soldier sets to give away in both 1:32 (4-8 year olds) and 1:72 (7 and up). I tried the Airfix 1:32 a couple of decades ago and they were fine but more recent purchases, new and second hand, have all been very brittle. The hard plastic tends to break rather than bend and most of the second hand ones have most of the weapons broken and they are not cheap. There were some omissions in the ranges, for example they did a British support weapons set but not a German set. These days I have found some decent Chinese sets, in softer plastic but they take paint well. The kids seem to play in exactly the same way we did 60+years ago
Agree with everything you say. Kids today enjoy playing with toy soldiers as much as we did but there`s no shops to buy them in and I don`t think most parents would buy them. My son and his friends had hours and hours of fun playing with all the loose Airfix figures I have.
@@toysoldiernostalgia Slight rant follows - I think that for those of the Mammonite Faith anything that cannot be monetised is sacrilege, with no in-game purchases, opportunities for advertising revenue and barely any brand loyalty giving a kid a set of toys to play with amounts to a heresy. This is compounded by other factors, Hornby reps are prone to stating that they 'don't make toys' (there is some truth in that, perhaps brick-a-brack would be a more appropriate label), as though toys were of no importance. That demonstrates their appalling ignorance regarding the function of 'play' (in both children and adults) as has been established by numerous peer-reviewed, published and replicated studies. Making toys, good toys, is something to be proud of (as Frank Hornby was). Toys are not expensive, the investment in them is time, but that means the profit margin is small. For a dyed in the wool Mammonite 'Merchandising' is much 'better' as you can charge a high mark up and, as they serve no real function, the design requires minimal thought and does not require complexities such as consistency of scale that in turn require boxes of different sizes. All of this flies in the face of the available research but Mammonite extremists seldom have a grasp of 'sciency stuff'. Corporates do not compete on quality, that would lead to 'ruinous competition', they prefer to leverage advertising as it requires a smaller number of skilled people working for a shorter time. This is further compounded by the ongoing drive toward corporate socialism, eliminating the smaller family owned businesses with their emphasis on 'commerce' and their resulting pesky independence (again this is a somewhat contrarian policy, or failure of policy, given the demonstrable benefits of commerce, social as well as financial). Wargamers must take some of the flak for the present state of toy soldiers as the only things of interest to them are those specified in the 'rules', so things like stretcher bearers that used to be a consistent feature of both toy soldiers and actual battlefields have been dispensed with. Thankfully the Ukrainians in particular seem to be keen on addressing that, I just bought another set of 'LRDG at Rest' (troops not doing warlike stuff and drinking tea instead) to use in my 'desert war' sets. I always include a contingent of supporting elements, medical staff and casualties, transport and logistics staff, HQ personnel, military police to handle traffic control and what have you. Wargamers and the youngsters do not see why they are there but after a few months it starts to dawn on the kids and a lot of the follow up requests I have received (from parents) are for more of that kind of thing. Wargamers seem to remain baffled. That is why I buy so many 1:32 scale Chinese knock-offs (just got an excellent set of Afrika Korps and 8th Army based on the old Matchbox range for a couple of quid) and 1:76-72 scale sets from the more 'with it' modern manufacturers. I give my sets away to less well off folks and the criteria are cost, consistency of scale and range of poses, I can add all the scenery and what have you. Some of the sets I have given away are still in use some ten years later, some it has to be said with wargamers. End of rant. This is however important (see for example the research by the likes of Brian Sutton-Smith et seq.) so I will continue to provide toys and take pride in that as did Mr Hornby.
@@toysoldiernostalgia l'm all for nostalgia, but a lot of these sets need to get some new poses . Why can't they make ,say "British paratroopers set B " with some different weapons ,such as a captured mp-40 ? Even new subjects ĺike partisans or Volkstrumm would be welcome .
@@deweylipschitz1516 I think we have to look to companies like TSSD for that. I realy doubt that Airfix will ever make new sets. But with 3d modelling and printing I think it would be way easier these days.
@@deweylipschitz1516- It used to cost something like £15k to make a single sprue of steel moulds. That’s beside your artist/sculpting costs. And that was back in 2019. Not sure there’s the mass market any more to make that pay. Just look at what Games Workshop have to charge for their models!
I remember having the DAK and the British 8th Army figures around about 1970. At that time I didn't even realise they were enemies, so often in my games they would fight together, haha!
My son (15 years old now) got to use my old toy soldiers when he was younger. Him and his friends would play with them outside. They figured that if they were the same colot they were on the same team.
I always knew they were enemies. Because they were both yellow (like the Japanese infantry) I often let them play together against the green, blue or grey armies....
Nice! I have myself my oldman’s old airfix soldiers. Or rather, what was left of them (majority). According to him, plastic was cheap before the oli crisis later on 70s. Plastic sets were in fact so cheap that he bought a model kit, built it, and then played with pelletgun (even got a .22 to act as the ”mighty 88”) at it (as I have seen from some damages on some of them [not all of them]). Especially Soviet were all broken by both accidental step on and pellets/caps. The ”collection” consists of German infantry, DAK, 8th Army, Japanese Army, US Marines, British wool cap commandos, and the few of the soviets.
I have most of the original boxed Airfix figures of the 1970's, and so I was surprised to see the damage on the new re-casts. They must have used inferior plastic compared to the originals. I have had no breakages with the original Airfix 1/32 figures. Also the originals paint up well, I always give them a good scrubbing in soapy warm water with a soft shaving brush. Then I rinse them all thoroughly and leave them to dry. I dont bother with a primer, I use enamel paint on them rather than Acrylics. Although lately I have started to use Acrylics via the Army Painters sets. I dont have any problems with flaking paint.
I noticed that they appear to be a little bigger than the older figures. If you are going to paint these they are not that bad. I wish they would just use a softer plastic and a better color selection. Plus the actual figures included would help too.
I like this materiual, because you can glue and paint it. Had to replace some barrels with metal wire though. Definitely brittle stuff. I was always unhappy paint would fall off the 70's figures, so I'm happy.
Whenever I see German paratroops a struggle with their uniform pattern. I think the legs were strapped up. Remember Mainwaring's uniform recognition lecture. "Captain Mainwaring why has he got such titchy legs?"
When Airfix re-issued the 1/32 scale figures a ouple years back -same problems. An odd figure missing bent rifle barrels and I had two fifgures snapped off bases, five barrels broken and the hard plastic was so brittle. I bought an old 1970s set of Airfix US paratroopers from Ebay in the box and it was cheaper than the two boxes of new figures. Airfix offered to replace the broken new figures but I just said "No!". Old figures over the newer ones every time!
I was born in the early 2000's, and I loved playing with these as a kid. But it was pretty uncommon in my generation. I only had one other friend who had some Airfix stuff.
11:00 If there are 14 figures from 14 poses, it's vastly more likely that you'll get two of one (and hence none of another) than getting exactly one of each. Remember these were originally sold in packs of around 30.
I played with these as a kid, when the boxes were brown, and stopped after a few of the white boxes were released. I think I was starting to drop them just before the German Paratroopers came out. So, early to mid-seventies? I do not remember ever getting short-changed on the poses, we all knew what to expect, and I'm pretty sure you got a lot more than 14 figures. The only thing that puzzled and annoyed me about them was the lack of British Infantry. There were commandos, paratroopers, Eighth Army and a support group but no actual Tommies. Who was going to hold the tide of Jerries if not Tommy?
I've had literally hundreds of these figures over the years, and not one has gone brittle. I have had figures by Britains, 'Swoppits' and 'Deetail', which were made of a PVC type plastic - now those DID get brittle.
I definitely think the 'flashing ' is way worse on the newer sets. Kind of a shame that the QC has deteriorated over the years. I wish I had saved all mine from the 60's.
I have a hard time understanding why they would even sell them like this. I can`t imagine that there`s a huge market and profit. Instead it gives them bad publicity. Better to just not make them.
@@mainstay. yes play that involves fantasy and imagination is very important for development. Unfortunately computer games don´t do this the same way. I´m lucky I got my son to play with both toy soldiers and toy cars a lot. He´s of the computer generation but like all kids they enjoy analog toys when presented to them.
@@toysoldiernostalgia Airfix makes a profit by having the job done by low-paid workers in a Third World Country and without reconditioning the moulds which would cost a lot. You only have to check Ebay and similar sites to see the high prices which are asked for the original kits to know there is still a market for a new release for those people who can't or won't pay those "collectors" prices.
@@toysoldiernostalgia The discrepancy between the contents of the box and the composition of the figures indicated on the box is a serious problem. Thank you for the warning.
I still have 16 original boxes of Airfix 1/32 toy soldiers (on average 29 pieces per box). 14 are WW2 era (51450-51471), 2 are ''modern'' British and German 1980 era (51472 and 51473). The first 10 boxes were produced in 1973. The last six were made in 1975 & 1976 and are in two languages, English and French. Two of the latter six do not have the standard black crescent on the right side; their crescents are green and orange. Overall, quality - or should I say QUANTITY control - was never very good. Over the years I lost several soldiers and even 2 officers. That is almost inevitable when you are playing war games with your friends. However what I never liked is that sometimes the boxes held less and in one case more than the appropriate number of soldiers. What I never understood is that the old series didn't have WW2 Britsh Infantry. For some weird reason, there was the ''Brititsh Infantry Support Group'' - although Airfix had no British Infantry box available that should get supported... Not until I subscribed to this channel did I decide to finally acquire the recent Airfix WW2 British Infantry set (14 pieces), Hornby Vintage Classics A02718V. In fact I bought two sets so that the number of toy soldiers resembled that of the old 29 pieces sets. I was a bit worried the much harder plastic figures (compared to the softer plastic of the 1973 series) would show breakages even before I opened the boxes. That was not the case, but I already have my eye on several soldiers with weapons that have weirdly bent barrels...
Agree about the mystery of the Airfix British Infantry. Used to like their 8th.Army and infantry support sets along with the British paras. Recently discovered they have reissued the infantry support group 50 years too late, British infantry. If you still own your original '70's figures and hopefully in their mint boxes they are worth a fortune. Just wish I kept all of mine.
Still have mine: not even looked at them for about 35 years. Much preferred the smaller scale 1/76 figures, which were far more handy for proper wargaming.
I've got a few sets of the British 8th Army from the late 70s and I prefer the softer plastic. I actually still have some of my British paratroopers figures that I painted some 40+ years ago and the paint is still good on them, despite the fact that I never primed them. The figures of today are terrible, plastic is too hard and instead of a bit of bending, they will just snap and break.
Can you make a video about Airfix clones specially the better quality ones made in Hong Kong in the 70’s and 80’s? Before I knew anything about Airfix I only played with clones. Of course I didn’t know they were clones. To me they were wonderful plastic soldiers that came with tanks, jeeps, cannons, flags and many more great accessories. The artwork from Ri-Toys was great too.
I have very little knowledge and experience with clones. So only if I run into something on Ebay I find interesting and can afford. Then I would have to do research on them. So most likely I will not but who knows.
A fair number of clones were made in Eastern Europe before (and even slightly after) 1990. I think the figures made in HK and mainland China were not clones as such, but just low quality ‘interpretations’, designed to be as cheap as possible to produce.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 not all of them. The ones made by Ri-Toys in Hong Kong were of very good quality. The problem was that some Chinese manufactures started making second, third or even fourth generation clones losing more detail and size with each generation.
Airfix is made in India and then packed in the UK so will have many quality issues still. But it’s good that they send spare parts to you, so i’d gather there well aware of the issue from making them in India with low skilled workers.
Yes had parts replaced free of charge for having parts of the same side. From the looks of the new airfix figures they llook ok like there been Moulded in HDPE from experience a slightly dull look would be a PP .
I just got my order after waiting for a couple months. I will say I’m very disappointed with the figures. In every box there were at least two to three barrels broken off. I’m thinking I waisted my money. I didn’t even get the bipod with the German paratrooper set . I’ll paint up a couple of the figures just to add to my shelf. I give this a 3 out of 10.
i always wondered how those were sculpted. many generations of kids have played with these toy soldiers, but does anyone know who designed the molds? they're works of art.
They had people like Ron Cameron and Niblett who did master figures that they then made moulds out of. For the smaller ones they rescaled them with a pantograph.
I just picked up the 1/72 version of the German infantry off of eBay and my officer's Luger is in the same shape as yours. Luckily with the small size I was able to super-glue a piece of floral wire to the barrel and straighten it out. With some paint it won't be noticed. The ToySoldierReview channel has the same issue with his 1/72 figure. I guess Airfix doesn't care enough to look at what they are producing or, even worse, know that they are putting out bad product but don't care.
Historically all British formations had bigger mold lines than their German counterparts until late 1943. By then the shortage of mold line remover had ended as it was shipped in vast quantities from the United States 😂😂😂😂😂
There were a lot of bootleg copies of these figures made in Hong Kong. The German infantry usually came in Silver and the 8th Army a bright orange and sometimes yellow. The U.S. troops were always a dark blue. We didn't get the Afrika Korps and British Para bootleg until 1985. The Aussie troops not until '87 or '88 and by then i was on my way to junior high so i was already loosing interest.And how can i forget my birthday cake on my 7th birthday in 1983 my cake was decorated by the bootleg copy of the German infantry together with several tanks and a jet. 40+ years later i still have them tucked away in storage but they are becoming more brittle each year.
The problem was because they were manufactured in india which unfortunately is known for terrible quality control and very brittle plastics often due to using recycled plastics.
I don`t think the Indian factory just had free choice on what plastic to use. Airfix/Hornby has full control of it`s products. But I think these are very low priority as I have heard that some of their newer scale models are great.
Wasn't the whole point of these sets that they could withstand robust outdoor play by children?, the older softer plastic was just so, if you wanted more 'serious modellers' diorama type kits built by maybe slightly older kids they bought Tamiya!
Lol your mom had one serious vaccum cleaner if she could vaccum 1/32 soldiers. Don´t know how many vaccum cleaner bags I have took apart to find lego bricks.
There are 4 (FOUR) German sets: standard infantry, paratroopers, Afrika Korps and mountain troops. The Afrika Korps is yellow brown (or brown yellow?) the rest are dark blue. Notice my sets are the OLD 1973 and 1976 sets. The newer sets seem to have these horrible too blue-ish and very shiny colours. Not sure why the three blue sets weren't grey. Grey was the standard German uniform colour. The Russian infantry set is grey, but the Russians mostly wore brown uniforms during WW2. The paratroopers might be blue because standard Luftwaffe uniform colour was blue. You can see on the box art their smocks are camouflaged, but beneath it their uniforms are blue.
THIS is one of my big pet peeves; HARD plastic! When are these disconnected businessmen who control the molds going to get it through their heads that we want SOFT plastic, not hard. This is the TOY soldier hobby, not the model soldier hobby. They made the same mistake when they reissued the Marx German vehicles from the 1960's playsets; brittle hard plastic. Take a tip from Timmee, which is a highly successful and long-running company. Make your toy soldiers out of nice buttery-soft plastic, and customers will keep coming back over and over again!
They are not pretty good at all, total crap, Airfix need to look at the company who are making these for them because they are not doing their name any good at all. I wont buy any new ones again.
When I was little, I used to play with the 1/32 scale figures in our garden. I used to dig trenches and place the soldiers in and around them. I would then throw lumps of dirt at them to knock them over. Over the years, my mum would find them while doing the gardening. A few years ago, she found one and posted it to me - A British commando with Thompson mg and throwing a grenade. It had been in the ground for over 45-years! :D
That’s so cool. You can buy all the complete mint toy soldier sets you want but they will hold a higher personal value then that one commando. ❤️
We used to do the same in the sandbox and throw rocks.
I did a similar thing but I would be at one end of the living room and my mate would be at the other and built Lego walls and battlements for our men to hide behind… and then take it in turns to throw a made up missile to knock them over.. I even made pillbox’s out of the hard plastic ice cream tubs turned upside down and cut slots in them with a heated up penknife… god we played that a lot… my favourite was the Africa corps but I can’t remember why that was… probably because I’m 62 now 😂
Hey man, you're telling my story! 😉So many memories! Thanks😍
Same here✔️
Right alloydog, found 1 or two, years later outside. Digging outside old house found 2 decomposed lead figures in the dirt/how cool✔️
The best colour for the 1/32 scale German infantry from airfix for me was the dark grey..
I'm old enough to remember the Paratroopers being "new". My favourites were the mountain troops and Ghurkas. I also found them in my mum's garden decades later.
Wonderful stuff. Thank you. Airfix were my preferred figures throughout the 1970s. One major issue was flashing. This could ruin the appearance and make painting pointless. Lipstick on a pig, really. I tried all kinds of remedies to remove flashing and seam lines. A Razor blade. A candle. A Soldering Iron. A Rasp. Putty... After hours of focussed work, the results varied. And always the face. No matter how careful, the faces could be ruined easily. Finally, satisfied that the job was done; bendy rifles. Trying to straighten weapons was frustrating. Boiling in Water. Hair Dryer. Nothing could resolve a distorted piece. A box of 29 pieces yielded 5 or 6 worthy of primer.
In the end, I didn't bother painting them. We just played with them.
I agree 100%. I´m not gonna bother anymore painting the old figures. If you did all you mention and then got a good paintjob it took only one careless handling and the rifle would bend and the paint flake off.
They are the best toy soldiers ever made but not the best modelling soldiers ever made.
Thanks for watching and chatting.
@@robin7623 Thank you for this. Much appreciated,.
Absolutely amazing I had boxes and boxes as a kid they just got thrown out a lot of them were shot with my air rifle or burnt with WD-40 for realistic effects. I wish I had kept them. They just got thrown away but isn’t hindsight wonderful thanks for the video. Super interesting
A typical example of "shrinkflation", pay the same price (compared with 45 years ago) for a box containing 14 instead of 29 figures. And which may not even contain all the available figures.
They did have the smaller boxes back then too. But not very popular.
@@pathwaystomodernity7716 I have known the smaller boxes only being used for their last 1/32 figures in the 1980s : SAS, ...
My childhood airfix soldiers in the UK 🇬🇧
Collected all these figures in the '70's, the "brown box" sets as well as the bamboo house and the checkpoint etc. Recently bought some new versions of the original figures but the biggest disappointment is the gloss plastic finish. Box artwork is good but getting paint to stick to the new plastic is not easy. Good to see they have reissued the German mountain troops and the British infantry support group. The older versions were not so much a problem but then again my dad used to paint them for me back in those days!
Try washing them in dish soap/fairy liquid then undercoating with undiluted PVA glue. Usually does the trick.
I'm glad to hear you pronouncing Africa Corps correctly (remember Obama calling a navy corp man a corpse man?) so many don't say it like core but corpse. When trying to straighten the old softer plastic get 2 bowls of water one very hot and one with ice in it. Warm the figure in the hot straighten the piece out then plunge it in the ice water holding the piece at the angle you want it after 10 seconds remove this should help you a lot. When trying to focus your camera to a figure to show details you can put your hand right behind it or better yet have a square of colored paper to hold behind the figure. The camera is "seeing" too much and doesn't know what to focus on this will fix that for you. Nice video you did a nice job describing the differences between the old and new figures.
I purchased the recently re-issued US Paratroops. Nice padded box and inside were the figures in baggies...almost every weapon was broken and two had legs snapped -I was told that the last time Airfix re-issued the plastic was brittle but this was ridiculous. Luckily bought a 1975 box where all 29 figures were perfect and the set cost me less than the two new sets!
Was it you that put up som pics on one of the Facebook groups?
The Target Box 8th Army illustration has the infantry advancing past a burning German tank. This has been removed from the Red Box version, and replaced with a column of smoke. Good video.
I still have all mine in a big box form the 70s. Could never bear to give them away unlike all my other toys. My brother and me used to like playing the marble game across a hall and see who knocked them all down first.
The hard plastic is K-resin, a type of styrene. If you flick the base and it goes 'tink' it's K-resin. the 60/70's figures were polyethylene, and paint really does not want to stick to them. K-resin behave like model kit plastic, you scrape off mould lines, sand and file them, polyethylene can only be cleaned up with a new blade, scrape it and it burrs up. K-Resin will take glue, so you can easily modify them, or cross kit them, eg to modify Airfix multipose and it is much better to paint, just use a primer. Some of the Airfix figures are really well sculpted, and cna look really good if painted carefully, so have ones that take paint properly is a boon. And if you want polyethylene, it's not like there are not loads easily available.
I found that Mr.Surfacer works well on the polyethylene figures as a primer, it will flake off if you bend it, but everything does. PVA can work as a primer as well, but Mr Surfacer is pale grey and takes paint well. You can use Mr Surfacer as on the K-resin too. Interestingly the test shots for the original figures were done in styrene, I didn't know this, but I read about this on a now gone Airfix toy soldier page, by chance I have a few Australian infantry figures in white styrene I got at my model club, same material that the original 1/32nd Multipose and 54mm figures were moulded in, an easy to carve white styrene.
Since filming this I have painted a few of the later figures. They clean up realy well and are a joy to paint. I think the way I will go in the future is to only paint the newer casts and leave all my old originals unpainted as collectables only.
Thanks for all the info.
Very interesting about the K-Resin. I still paint the old production 1/76 scale figs, which I’m pretty sure are also polyethylene. Need to give ‘em a good deflash and scrub first, followed by a coat of PVA, which takes paint well. I’d be worried about Mr Surfacer taking away too much detail, as it tends to fill holes and grooves, while PVA dries to give a thin even coat.
The older Airfix Germans appear a little shorter and chubbier than the new Airfix Germans. That's not cool getting shorted on the officer from the Fallschirmjager new set. You gotta have an officer to lead the troops. I appreciate you doing this video and displaying the differences between the new and old releases of the 1/32 Airfix WWII versioned sets. Great topic and video. Cheers!
Thanks. I just got a few of the later (I belive 2021) white boxes. Gonna be interesting to see how they look.
I wish Airfix would make some new 1/32 sets.The Italian mould has been damaged apparently so that would be a good start.
I make up toy soldier sets to give away in both 1:32 (4-8 year olds) and 1:72 (7 and up). I tried the Airfix 1:32 a couple of decades ago and they were fine but more recent purchases, new and second hand, have all been very brittle. The hard plastic tends to break rather than bend and most of the second hand ones have most of the weapons broken and they are not cheap.
There were some omissions in the ranges, for example they did a British support weapons set but not a German set. These days I have found some decent Chinese sets, in softer plastic but they take paint well. The kids seem to play in exactly the same way we did 60+years ago
Agree with everything you say. Kids today enjoy playing with toy soldiers as much as we did but there`s no shops to buy them in and I don`t think most parents would buy them. My son and his friends had hours and hours of fun playing with all the loose Airfix figures I have.
@@toysoldiernostalgia Slight rant follows - I think that for those of the Mammonite Faith anything that cannot be monetised is sacrilege, with no in-game purchases, opportunities for advertising revenue and barely any brand loyalty giving a kid a set of toys to play with amounts to a heresy. This is compounded by other factors, Hornby reps are prone to stating that they 'don't make toys' (there is some truth in that, perhaps brick-a-brack would be a more appropriate label), as though toys were of no importance. That demonstrates their appalling ignorance regarding the function of 'play' (in both children and adults) as has been established by numerous peer-reviewed, published and replicated studies. Making toys, good toys, is something to be proud of (as Frank Hornby was).
Toys are not expensive, the investment in them is time, but that means the profit margin is small. For a dyed in the wool Mammonite 'Merchandising' is much 'better' as you can charge a high mark up and, as they serve no real function, the design requires minimal thought and does not require complexities such as consistency of scale that in turn require boxes of different sizes. All of this flies in the face of the available research but Mammonite extremists seldom have a grasp of 'sciency stuff'. Corporates do not compete on quality, that would lead to 'ruinous competition', they prefer to leverage advertising as it requires a smaller number of skilled people working for a shorter time. This is further compounded by the ongoing drive toward corporate socialism, eliminating the smaller family owned businesses with their emphasis on 'commerce' and their resulting pesky independence (again this is a somewhat contrarian policy, or failure of policy, given the demonstrable benefits of commerce, social as well as financial). Wargamers must take some of the flak for the present state of toy soldiers as the only things of interest to them are those specified in the 'rules', so things like stretcher bearers that used to be a consistent feature of both toy soldiers and actual battlefields have been dispensed with. Thankfully the Ukrainians in particular seem to be keen on addressing that, I just bought another set of 'LRDG at Rest' (troops not doing warlike stuff and drinking tea instead) to use in my 'desert war' sets. I always include a contingent of supporting elements, medical staff and casualties, transport and logistics staff, HQ personnel, military police to handle traffic control and what have you. Wargamers and the youngsters do not see why they are there but after a few months it starts to dawn on the kids and a lot of the follow up requests I have received (from parents) are for more of that kind of thing. Wargamers seem to remain baffled.
That is why I buy so many 1:32 scale Chinese knock-offs (just got an excellent set of Afrika Korps and 8th Army based on the old Matchbox range for a couple of quid) and 1:76-72 scale sets from the more 'with it' modern manufacturers. I give my sets away to less well off folks and the criteria are cost, consistency of scale and range of poses, I can add all the scenery and what have you. Some of the sets I have given away are still in use some ten years later, some it has to be said with wargamers. End of rant. This is however important (see for example the research by the likes of Brian Sutton-Smith et seq.) so I will continue to provide toys and take pride in that as did Mr Hornby.
@@mikesmith2905 slight rants always appreciated.
When I was a kid the airfix soldiers came on a sprue. There were no issues with damage and pose variation. They have really slipped.
The prominent mold lines are ,IMHO, are being caused by the sheer age of the molds . They've been using them for over 45 years by now.
Yeah you´re probably right. It´s going to be interesting to get some of the new white boxes and see if there´s a difference.
@@toysoldiernostalgia l'm all for nostalgia, but a lot of these sets need to get some new poses . Why can't they make ,say "British paratroopers set B " with some different weapons ,such as a captured mp-40 ? Even new subjects ĺike partisans or Volkstrumm would be welcome .
@@deweylipschitz1516 I think we have to look to companies like TSSD for that. I realy doubt that Airfix will ever make new sets. But with 3d modelling and printing I think it would be way easier these days.
@@deweylipschitz1516- It used to cost something like £15k to make a single sprue of steel moulds. That’s beside your artist/sculpting costs. And that was back in 2019. Not sure there’s the mass market any more to make that pay. Just look at what Games Workshop have to charge for their models!
I remember some of these sets from of old, would love to see these painted up. Never painted mine.
My brother and I had a bunch of these Airfix figures back in the 60's but they were much smaller HO scale I think.
Wow memories I played with those allot in the 70’s ☺️👍🏼
I remember having the DAK and the British 8th Army figures around about 1970. At that time I didn't even realise they were enemies, so often in my games they would fight together, haha!
My son (15 years old now) got to use my old toy soldiers when he was younger. Him and his friends would play with them outside. They figured that if they were the same colot they were on the same team.
I always knew they were enemies. Because they were both yellow (like the Japanese infantry) I often let them play together against the green, blue or grey armies....
Nice! I have myself my oldman’s old airfix soldiers. Or rather, what was left of them (majority). According to him, plastic was cheap before the oli crisis later on 70s. Plastic sets were in fact so cheap that he bought a model kit, built it, and then played with pelletgun (even got a .22 to act as the ”mighty 88”) at it (as I have seen from some damages on some of them [not all of them]). Especially Soviet were all broken by both accidental step on and pellets/caps.
The ”collection” consists of German infantry, DAK, 8th Army, Japanese Army, US Marines, British wool cap commandos, and the few of the soviets.
I have most of the original boxed Airfix figures of the 1970's, and so I was surprised to see the damage on the new re-casts. They must have used inferior plastic compared to the originals. I have had no breakages with the original Airfix 1/32 figures. Also the originals paint up well, I always give them a good scrubbing in soapy warm water with a soft shaving brush. Then I rinse them all thoroughly and leave them to dry. I dont bother with a primer, I use enamel paint on them rather than Acrylics. Although lately I have started to use Acrylics via the Army Painters sets. I dont have any problems with flaking paint.
I noticed that they appear to be a little bigger than the older figures. If you are going to paint these they are not that bad. I wish they would just use a softer plastic and a better color selection. Plus the actual figures included would help too.
Wow, Beautiful Upload friend. keep it up. Thank you for sharing this to us. Greetings from Korea
Hey thanks. I´m so curious about Korea and the culture. I´m an avid SC2 fan and so intrigued about the gameing culture in Korea.
I was bitterly disappointed with mine. I dropped a rifleman and his gun snapped in two. It was a sign from God stay with the old school.
Keep the old Polythene ones long enough and they will turn as brittle as hard toffee too.
I like this materiual, because you can glue and paint it.
Had to replace some barrels with metal wire though.
Definitely brittle stuff.
I was always unhappy paint would fall off the 70's figures, so I'm happy.
Whenever I see German paratroops a struggle with their uniform pattern. I think the legs were strapped up. Remember Mainwaring's uniform recognition lecture. "Captain Mainwaring why has he got such titchy legs?"
When Airfix re-issued the 1/32 scale figures a ouple years back -same problems. An odd figure missing bent rifle barrels and I had two fifgures snapped off bases, five barrels broken and the hard plastic was so brittle. I bought an old 1970s set of Airfix US paratroopers from Ebay in the box and it was cheaper than the two boxes of new figures. Airfix offered to replace the broken new figures but I just said "No!". Old figures over the newer ones every time!
I was born in the early 2000's, and I loved playing with these as a kid. But it was pretty uncommon in my generation. I only had one other friend who had some Airfix stuff.
Were did you get them from?
11:00 If there are 14 figures from 14 poses, it's vastly more likely that you'll get two of one (and hence none of another) than getting exactly one of each. Remember these were originally sold in packs of around 30.
I played with these as a kid, when the boxes were brown, and stopped after a few of the white boxes were released. I think I was starting to drop them just before the German Paratroopers came out. So, early to mid-seventies? I do not remember ever getting short-changed on the poses, we all knew what to expect, and I'm pretty sure you got a lot more than 14 figures. The only thing that puzzled and annoyed me about them was the lack of British Infantry. There were commandos, paratroopers, Eighth Army and a support group but no actual Tommies. Who was going to hold the tide of Jerries if not Tommy?
It was very strange that they did not make a set of british infantry until a few years later.
My grandfather was actually a tank commander in the Afrika Korps and had collected all those boxes as well.
1/72 scale was my favourite
I've had literally hundreds of these figures over the years, and not one has gone brittle. I have had figures by Britains, 'Swoppits' and 'Deetail', which were made of a PVC type plastic - now those DID get brittle.
None of my old Airfix has gone brittle either. Think it´s all about how they are stored.
GOOD VIDEO,I LIKE OLD BETTER THEN NEW BUT I BEEN COLLECTING FOR 60YRS. CLASSIC TOY SOLDIERS CO. HAS SOME OLD SETS FOR SALE. GOD BLESS
unfortunately it gets to expensive to order from the US.
I had these in the 70s, the Germans were not as shocking blue as that and were more bluey grey
Yup that is the color we all think of when we think of german toy soldiers. A grayish blue kinda.
The 2011 hard plastic were nasty but good for painting.
It's like buying Pokémon cards lol...sad but true...great video
Lol you’re right.
I definitely think the 'flashing ' is way worse on the newer sets. Kind of a shame that the QC has deteriorated over the years. I wish I had saved all mine from the 60's.
I have a hard time understanding why they would even sell them like this. I can`t imagine that there`s a huge market and profit. Instead it gives them bad publicity. Better to just not make them.
@@toysoldiernostalgia Agreed. You made me think when you said " well kids don't really play with these any more" sad times indeed
@@mainstay. yes play that involves fantasy and imagination is very important for development. Unfortunately computer games don´t do this the same way.
I´m lucky I got my son to play with both toy soldiers and toy cars a lot. He´s of the computer generation but like all kids they enjoy analog toys when presented to them.
@@toysoldiernostalgia Airfix makes a profit by having the job done by low-paid workers in a Third World Country and without reconditioning the moulds which would cost a lot.
You only have to check Ebay and similar sites to see the high prices which are asked for the original kits to know there is still a market for a new release for those people who can't or won't pay those "collectors" prices.
Iv got some that came in plastic bag packaging with a jeep an field gun wen i was a kid an thay were expectedly the same
Excellent. Very important video!
Didn´t expect what I found. Gonna have to buy some more paratroopers and see what I get next time.
@@toysoldiernostalgia The discrepancy between the contents of the box and the composition of the figures indicated on the box is a serious problem. Thank you for the warning.
@@toysoldiernostalgia I'll be waiting for the unpacking of the white box. This will also be very interesting.
@@КостиныСолдатики yes I`m very curious about them. Will order this week.
@@toysoldiernostalgia Ок
The new figures are a bit softer in detail and also slightly larger.
I still have 16 original boxes of Airfix 1/32 toy soldiers (on average 29 pieces per box). 14 are WW2 era (51450-51471), 2 are ''modern'' British and German 1980 era (51472 and 51473). The first 10 boxes were produced in 1973. The last six were made in 1975 & 1976 and are in two languages, English and French. Two of the latter six do not have the standard black crescent on the right side; their crescents are green and orange.
Overall, quality - or should I say QUANTITY control - was never very good. Over the years I lost several soldiers and even 2 officers. That is almost inevitable when you are playing war games with your friends. However what I never liked is that sometimes the boxes held less and in one case more than the appropriate number of soldiers.
What I never understood is that the old series didn't have WW2 Britsh Infantry. For some weird reason, there was the ''Brititsh Infantry Support Group'' - although Airfix had no British Infantry box available that should get supported...
Not until I subscribed to this channel did I decide to finally acquire the recent Airfix WW2 British Infantry set (14 pieces), Hornby Vintage Classics A02718V. In fact I bought two sets so that the number of toy soldiers resembled that of the old 29 pieces sets. I was a bit worried the much harder plastic figures (compared to the softer plastic of the 1973 series) would show breakages even before I opened the boxes. That was not the case, but I already have my eye on several soldiers with weapons that have weirdly bent barrels...
Yes the British infantry is a weird one. Cool that you have so many of your childhood boxes left.
Agree about the mystery of the Airfix British Infantry. Used to like their 8th.Army and infantry support sets along with the British paras. Recently discovered they have reissued the infantry support group 50 years too late, British infantry. If you still own your original '70's figures and hopefully in their mint boxes they are worth a fortune. Just wish I kept all of mine.
Still have mine: not even looked at them for about 35 years. Much preferred the smaller scale 1/76 figures, which were far more handy for proper wargaming.
I like the old school better
I've got a few sets of the British 8th Army from the late 70s and I prefer the softer plastic. I actually still have some of my British paratroopers figures that I painted some 40+ years ago and the paint is still good on them, despite the fact that I never primed them. The figures of today are terrible, plastic is too hard and instead of a bit of bending, they will just snap and break.
Can you make a video about Airfix clones specially the better quality ones made in Hong Kong in the 70’s and 80’s? Before I knew anything about Airfix I only played with clones. Of course I didn’t know they were clones. To me they were wonderful plastic soldiers that came with tanks, jeeps, cannons, flags and many more great accessories. The artwork from Ri-Toys was great too.
I have very little knowledge and experience with clones. So only if I run into something on Ebay I find interesting and can afford. Then I would have to do research on them. So most likely I will not but who knows.
A fair number of clones were made in Eastern Europe before (and even slightly after) 1990. I think the figures made in HK and mainland China were not clones as such, but just low quality ‘interpretations’, designed to be as cheap as possible to produce.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 not all of them. The ones made by Ri-Toys in Hong Kong were of very good quality. The problem was that some Chinese manufactures started making second, third or even fourth generation clones losing more detail and size with each generation.
@@mjgg07 - OK, didn’t know that. I wonder how many of them were exported to the West.
Airfix is made in India and then packed in the UK so will have many quality issues still.
But it’s good that they send spare parts to you, so i’d gather there well aware of the issue from making them in India with low skilled workers.
So you can get new figures from Airfix if they are broken? That`s good.
Yes had parts replaced free of charge for having parts of the same side. From the looks of the new airfix figures they llook ok like there been Moulded in HDPE from experience a slightly dull look would be a PP .
I just got my order after waiting for a couple months. I will say I’m very disappointed with the figures. In every box there were at least two to three barrels broken off. I’m thinking I waisted my money. I didn’t even get the bipod with the German paratrooper set . I’ll paint up a couple of the figures just to add to my shelf. I give this a 3 out of 10.
Yes all in all if was kind of a let down.
The bipod for the FG43 has been omitted from the new set.
i always wondered how those were sculpted. many generations of kids have played with these toy soldiers, but does anyone know who designed the molds? they're works of art.
They had people like Ron Cameron and Niblett who did master figures that they then made moulds out of. For the smaller ones they rescaled them with a pantograph.
do you ever paint them i did back in the 60s 70s
I did paint some of them back in the 70s but these days I realy don´t have the time.
I just picked up the 1/72 version of the German infantry off of eBay and my officer's Luger is in the same shape as yours. Luckily with the small size I was able to super-glue a piece of floral wire to the barrel and straighten it out. With some paint it won't be noticed. The ToySoldierReview channel has the same issue with his 1/72 figure. I guess Airfix doesn't care enough to look at what they are producing or, even worse, know that they are putting out bad product but don't care.
It's a Walther P-38, not a Luger. 🙂
@@HO-bndkThanks. I've learned more about WW2 weaponry since the pandemic than I knew in my first 65+ years!
Historically all British formations had bigger mold lines than their German counterparts until late 1943. By then the shortage of mold line remover had ended as it was shipped in vast quantities from the United States 😂😂😂😂😂
This is baseless and unsprue.
Che nostalgia!!
My mom got me plastc soldiers in bags as a kid from the local 5& 10 cent stores. They were much better quality than what i see coming in from china.
Well we haven't spoken. Miss you and wanted to say goodnight. Don't always think bad x
Why have you got an Airfix Bamboo House box with a picture of a Cromwell tank on it?
They put pictures of other sets available at the time on the boxes to promote them.
There were a lot of bootleg copies of these figures made in Hong Kong. The German infantry usually came in Silver and the 8th Army a bright orange and sometimes yellow.
The U.S. troops were always a dark blue. We didn't get the Afrika Korps and British Para bootleg until 1985. The Aussie troops not until '87 or '88 and by then i was on my way to junior high so i was already loosing interest.And how can i forget my birthday cake on my 7th birthday in 1983 my cake was decorated by the bootleg copy of the German infantry together with several tanks and a jet.
40+ years later i still have them tucked away in storage but they are becoming more brittle each year.
That`s some birthday cake.
😂Sandstorm in the desert vs thunderstorm but nice reviews😂
The problem was because they were manufactured in india which unfortunately is known for terrible quality control and very brittle plastics often due to using recycled plastics.
I don`t think the Indian factory just had free choice on what plastic to use. Airfix/Hornby has full control of it`s products. But I think these are very low priority as I have heard that some of their newer scale models are great.
Wasn't the whole point of these sets that they could withstand robust outdoor play by children?, the older softer plastic was just so, if you wanted more 'serious modellers' diorama type kits built by maybe slightly older kids they bought Tamiya!
They are evidently marketed at "adults" for painting.
Sorry you are not using the correct terms. They are not 1/32 Scale Vintage Plastic Toy Soldiers. They are, as defined by my mother, Vac Rattlers 😊
Lol your mom had one serious vaccum cleaner if she could vaccum 1/32 soldiers.
Don´t know how many vaccum cleaner bags I have took apart to find lego bricks.
@@toysoldiernostalgia Yes, you’re right. I got my scale wrong 😂
Put the bent part in HOT water and it will soften them.
Absolutely. That's what I used to do, er.... four and a half decades ago. Crikey 😁
I really dont like how shiny the newer soldiers are. the plastic just doesnt seem as good.
Yes the new plastic is very fragile. Not for playing with. Just for painting and modelling these days.
Stick to the old sets there’s plenty of them about at toy fairs,eBay and car boots.
After trying out both the red and white boxes I could not agree more.
Where can I find these to buy some.
You mean the new or old figures?
Airfix 1/ 32. Figures
Old. VS. New. 1973. VS. 2009. Airfix vintage.plastic toy. Figure
Ahaha I know those guys as well
Broad literally copied my green plastic army men that i have that it has the same pose as that one it's 10 pieces
Why do the germans blue, it's stupid they should be grey.
I agree.
The germans are blue!!!!!!!!°°
Very blue lol.
Well the war wasn't going that good and they were feeling a little (wait for it)..................
BLUE!!!
There are 4 (FOUR) German sets: standard infantry, paratroopers, Afrika Korps and mountain troops. The Afrika Korps is yellow brown (or brown yellow?) the rest are dark blue. Notice my sets are the OLD 1973 and 1976 sets. The newer sets seem to have these horrible too blue-ish and very shiny colours.
Not sure why the three blue sets weren't grey. Grey was the standard German uniform colour. The Russian infantry set is grey, but the Russians mostly wore brown uniforms during WW2.
The paratroopers might be blue because standard Luftwaffe uniform colour was blue. You can see on the box art their smocks are camouflaged, but beneath it their uniforms are blue.
THIS is one of my big pet peeves; HARD plastic! When are these disconnected businessmen who control the molds going to get it through their heads that we want SOFT plastic, not hard. This is the TOY soldier hobby, not the model soldier hobby. They made the same mistake when they reissued the Marx German vehicles from the 1960's playsets; brittle hard plastic. Take a tip from Timmee, which is a highly successful and long-running company. Make your toy soldiers out of nice buttery-soft plastic, and customers will keep coming back over and over again!
Lol buttery soft plastic. Let´s start that company. The Buttery Soft Toy Soldier Company.
@@toysoldiernostalgia I'd buy it!
Ar they 2 inches big
Just about. 54mm I think is the official hight of these.
Who the hell decided to put broken arm German as a toy .
Those neon colors are just wrong!!
I want target box 8th british army ¡¡ 😩😩
There`s plenty of them on Ebay.
@@toysoldiernostalgia thanks
Shiny hard plastic and burrs everywhere. Soft plastic was way better.
One bipod 😂😂😂
The new ones are absolutely dreadful, Brittle, come with bits missing, crap colour, lots of flash, just rubbish.
4:35 first impressions , they are terrible
They grew on me.
They are not pretty good at all, total crap, Airfix need to look at the company who are making these for them because they are not doing their name any good at all. I wont buy any new ones again.
Plastic airfix 👎👎👎👎