This month, we have the first of several figures from Armoury's International solder collection that I hope to showcase this year. This fellow represents a Federal German mountain soldier (gebirgsjäger) and has been released from the box he's been trapped in since the early 2000s. While I'll conduct a brief review in a moment, first a rant.
Considering the popularity of WW2 era German subjects in the 1/6 scale action figure hobby, the lack of post-War German soldiers is rather shocking. In fact, there have basically been NO German soldiers of either east or west from the Cold War era and only a small handful of post-reunification troops. Most of those figures have represented the para-military GSG-9 and KSK. As far as regular grunt Bundeswehr troops go, this guy and a similar Fallshirmjäger (paratrooper), along with some carded desert uniform and equipment sets, all from Armoury, seem to be it. I'm not forgetting the more recent carded uniform from Soldier Story, the two Magic Cube KSK guys or the Soldier Story KSK operator.
IIIIIIII'm the man in the box!
Lots 'o pics. I was experimenting with different camera settings but I'm not really sure I'm happy with the result. I've given him the uncreative name "Hans" because, well, I ain't feeling creative!
The usual 4-view shots that you always see here. For some reason, I couldn't really get him to hold his rifle closer to his body. Over all, I like the detailing on this guy although some of old school materials like the extensive use of elastic straps shows its age. I ended up leaving some things out like his radio and pistol because I lacked good research information. I took a wild guess on the bayonet because I couldn't see it in any photos I had.
Close up shot of his face. Again, not what collectors would accept today but I like him as he is.
The Heckler and Koch G36 rifle. Like most weapons, some troops love it and some hate it. If I were starting my own army though, it would definitely be a contender.
A final shot of Hans that I posted on Instagram. I wouldn't mind having a few more sets of this basic uniform. I've had this idea of doing figures from a semi-fictional "Euro-Force" or possibly a German supplied fictional country but both this Flecktarn and the similar Japanese Jeitai camo have been a bit hard to find lately. Even though this guy is a mountain soldier, it would be fun to have a few like him paired with a 1/6 scale Leopard 1A5 and/or Marder 1A3 as an older generation Panzer Grenadier squad. That isn't going to happen but it would be cool.
See 'ya next time!
Hans... because sometimes you just can't do creative, I love it... lol... I think it's interesting too, that once WWII was over, so was the interest in German soldier toys. There are a whole lot of questions I have here... but I don't want to sound like a major a-hole for asking them (I'm thinking "Captain America" mindset... if these are American produced toys, did they just move on to a new "villian"? (I'm unfamiliar with these toys, so I really don't know if they were producing them as an US vs. THEM kind of thing, or if they were portrayed as generally neutral to either side?)
ReplyDeleteHey Heather, please ask all the questions you want.
DeleteArmoury is or was based in Hong Kong, like a lot of these companies that produce 1/6 figures (Hot Toys and Dragon being some of the other, better known names in that business). They have also done business with Aoshima, one of the older Japanese model/toy manufacturers, and have operated as Twisting Toyz in cooperation with some designers/researchers in Italy!
At the time these figures came out, the modern soldier market was saturated with US troops and a *few* British figures as well. I think the goal was to create some figures of well-known but over looked forces who would generally be allies of the US and UK. The did two each of German, Israeli, French and Japanese, and one post-Soviet Russian, They also did a number of carded accessory sets including modern UK temperate and desert uniforms and modern German desert uniforms as well as some Russian RPG sets. One of the Japanese soldiers was a female recon trooper which was a collaborative effort with Aoshima. They also produced several characters from Paolo Parente's "Dust" game series.
There weren't any particular adversary forces although they did release some very controversial figures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. I guess you have your leaders and have to supply your own minions!
Did that answer your question or did I just make it more confusing?
Hi GT,
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid this post is more up hubby's alley than mine, he's the historian and retired Navy gunnery man! It's all to techo for this tiny mind to cope with this early in the day, but I still enjoyed looking at your photos.
Hugs,
X
As long as you enjoy the photos, that's all that really matters! I tend to put in a bit of history and"geardo" stuff for my benefit as well as to offer some explaination about what you're seeing. I hope that people enjoy what they see and the technical background is of secondary importance.
DeleteHaving said that, maybe it's time to mix it up a bit around here. I have a couple Pure Neemo girls on pre-order that I hope to feature whenever they finally get here. So if all goes according to plan, I'll add some cuteness to the photoblog later this year.