Welcome to the Army Men General!Previously: >>11000260>Plastic soldiers, knights and pirates, cowboys and indians, fantasy and sci-fi, cops and zombies, all are welcome here!>Archived threads:https://archive.palanq.win/toy/search/subject/Army%20Men%20General/>Army men wargame rules:https://combatstorm.com/https://onepagerules.com/portfolio/one-off-games/https://www.plasticcommand.com/https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Search?query=army+men>Places to get army men:https://bmctoys.com/ and https://victorybuy.com/https://www.armiesinplastic.com/https://www.toysoldierco.com/https://www.classictoysoldiers.com/https://www.toysoldiersdepot.com/https://www.hobbybunker.com/https://www.michtoy.com/https://www.toysoldierhq.com/https://micshaunscloset.com/http://www.expeditionaryforce.com.sg/
Very quiet...
wishing these were more popular with the current gen
>>11028256It's not easy to find them in stores, army men have always been a good impulse buy but if you don't see any on the shelf you forget about 'em. The death of mom and pop dollar stores and the consolidation of that market into the Dollarama/Dollar Tree duopoly here means you'll rarely find what was once a dollar store staple - currently neither of those chains have army men, at least in my area. TRU hasn't had any for a while, Walmart has a few pic related but they're easy to miss.
>>11028327Outside of German Amazon and eBay, good luck finding a good Wild West set...
>>11028974There was an excellent dollar store on the other side of town here years ago that had a huge toy section, including quite a few army men options (got a pile of tanks there). One time they had pegs full of Wild West packages, each one with a conestoga wagon and horses, some cowboys and indians and, oddly, a couple of British WW2 soldiers mixed in. My brother and I bought the hell out of 'em, I mostly wanted the Brits and he was into the rest but he ended up giving me all his stuff years later. I really miss that place, think it got taken over by Dollar Tree and was never the same after.Had to downsize some a few years ago and ended up selling most of the wagons and a good chunk of the cowboys and indians, kinda regret it but that's life.
The conclusion of the Grey arc is still pending; meantime more of the ninjas.
>>11029901Rediscovered them while kicking off my major overhaul, they and their grey and black brethren will be seeing more action for sure.
>>11029903Have two different sets of ninjas - good quality high detail ninjas that have poses in white, grey and black (from ToySoldiersDepot) and cheaper, plainer ninjas in black and white (dollar store find from a bygone age).
>>11029905They paired up really well with WW2 Japanese troops, how fitting.
>>11029907Note the archer picking off the tree sniper, they know all those tricks cuz they invented 'em eh
>>11029909When a patrol investigating loss of contact with the artillery battery discovered the massacre, not a trace of their assailants was found. No footprints, scraps of torn clothing, weapons, not even the arrows or shuriken that clearly felled some of the unfortunate soldiers. Almost as if they had been slaughtered by phantoms...
>>11029070Nice haul for the time being. I heard someone on here say that you could combine the cowboys and the wagons with khaki-coated British from AiP for a Boer War scenario, or the MPC African natives from the old Tarzan sets for the Battle of Blood River between the Boers and the Zulus. Loads of mix-and-match fun to be had with different types of plastic miniatures.
>>11030551Yeah sounds like a good setup. That pic was what was sold off, roughly half the wagons; located and resettled the other half earlier today in the midst of the general overhaul. If the anon with amazon giftcard from last thread is around, I hope you found something worthwhile. Ordered a couple tan versions of this tank, they arrived today.
>>11029901>>11029903>>11029905>>11029907>>11029909>>11029910>>11031285Very nice pictures. Glad to see that people are still taking their toys outside and having fun. Sadly /toy/ has become mostly /consoom/ >>11032538The only thread I've enjoyed are /amg/ and spooky skeleton where people have fun and take pics of their toys. However, with the new sage rules they unfortunately don't last very long
>>11032748Thanks anon. The autosage bs is annoying but the army men general will soldier on.
Been organizing my plastic armed forces storage better and catching up on long overdue administrative stuff, namely addressing piles of unaffiliated soldiers. Between integrating them into existing units or forming all new ones it's taken a lot more time than expected; still have to work on the vehicles, equipment and other accessories at some point. My brother left me all his troops and I finally got around to sorting and integrating them - this battalion nearly tripled in size to division strength, all hardened veterans of countless plastic conflicts in the past.
The Sarge drew his K-bar left handed and just stood there waiting. "You ladies get the hell out of here - this is my dance."
>>11037540 I'm not sure I would like to live in the world of my imagination.
>>11037542
>>11037540>>11037542Does Wilbur Smith write your imagination?
Alright pop quiz. If you could sell the idea of 1 set. (2 opposing armies of maybe x2 x3 times 4-5 poses ) with some "decorations" ( a tank or two and a couple of "boulders") What would you design? (you can also sacrifice one of the "basic" sets of 4-5 with 1 set of 4 "hero figures" different than the other 2 sets. )
I'm pretty new to /amg/, any medieval knights and horses themed set?
>>11041346Been plenty over the years, this one is widely available online, got a set on the way:https://www.amazon.com/Building-Medieval-Military-Plastic-Simulated/dp/B07DWVKZRH/Pic related was a TRU bucket set years ago.
>>11041419This is fantastic, thanks so much. Loved the castle as well.
>>11041437Sure thing anon. Got a set of just the knights previously, great poses and color-wise they fit very well with the knights of that TRU bucket (have a pile more of them from dollar store sets years ago)l. I did find that I already have a little castle in my collection, a chance garage sale find that's been forgotten until very recently. Thinking it'll make for a fun outdoor setup sometime; still need to wrap up the Green vs Greys arc too....
bumping before the sinking starts
Plastic brothers from another mother.
>>11041437>>11041588Following up, the castle, extra set of knights and impulse buy set of army men arrived today. Was surprised the castle comes in a box, hardly ever have anything get shipped in original packaging. Think part of the reason is the castle doesn't come with any assembly instructions - the box serves as your guide.
>>11045614The box art depicts painted figs but the actual figs are unpainted - the back of the box seems to imply there's two versions of the set and the "B" version has painted figs, who knows. Great little castle set, easy enough to assemble, had a few minor struggles with a couple of the towers due to the cheap plastic but holds together quite well.There's six poses and one of each in both colors are included (green and tan army men for scale). The siege weapons and equipment are decent, haven't tried the catapult but the ballista is more show than go. Great value overall and can be easily disassembled for storage.
>>11045623Added this extra set for the horsemen and it did not disappoint. As well as including another set of the six foot poses in both colors there are four mounted poses on two different colors of horse, made even more awesome in that all four horses themselves are different.
>>11045629Between a good sale discount and the intriguing rocket truck and large stationary guns this army men set was an easy add-on. I did not have high expectations and can safely say they were met, more or less. The vehicles are definitely the best part of the set, with the fore-mentioned rocket truck and large guns being the only items sporting some paint apps. The guns are basically oversized M2 .50 machine guns but I can certainly see them as credible fortification guns. The two smaller trucks and four little frankengun things are single and two-halves pieces respectively with no moving parts. The two sidecar motorcycles by comparison are multi-piece assemblies with moving wheels and are fairly well-made. There are also two large rockets randomly thrown in as well (they appear frequently in these kinds of sets) and a little battle map with eclectic place names and some classic Engrish. I am almost certain the tank illustration at lower right is of Warhammer 40k vintage...
>>11045644The soldiers included are smaller than the average but larger than the next major scale down (1/72), being somewhere more in the middle. Had seen them before online but these are the first I've had directly - each soldier is posed with a piece of terrain. While this is a neat enough idea I feel like it's also very restricting and at the mid-size scale they're using the lower quality doesn't make up for it with good detail.
>>11045650The colors actually match well with some soldiers I got some years ago at Walmart; size-wise though the latter are more typical of the 1/35 standard.
>>11045655The Walmart soldiers, was able to get a few boxes on clearance, seems they mostly flew under the radar thanks to their unremarkable packaging. Decent contents, especially like the stationary minigun and TOW missile launcher and the different barbed wire fencing.
>>11045623Forgot to mention the castle pieces are designed so you could theoretically get multiples and combine into a larger fortress. Must admit the temptation is strong, could be fun to upsize it with a couple more sets and I still have another small castle that could serve as an inner keep. Possibilities... Also still have three old Siege sets for such purposes.
>>11045689Shopping around online I'm seeing a number of variants of the castle set, often it's the number and types of figures and siege weapons included that varies but there's some interesting takes on the castle itself. Some sets just give you the wall piece with the gates, others throw in a couple of the towers and there's at least one that adds in turrets for the tops of the towers. That last one also comes with a couple dragons, just might order one to check it out.These are the red and black painted soldiers manning that Siege castle in last pic, brother and I bought a ton of them from dollar stores back in the day, they came in sets that included a catapult or bombard. First time I'd found a crossbow-equipped archer and the set of poses in general is great in that they're more rank and file infantry, with the two mounted figures more like their noble superiors. These guys haven't seen battle since that conflict over a decade ago, we'll see that can be amended in the near future.
>>11045614>>11045623Mine is arriving next Wednesday. Now I need to find some Dragon and other medieval fantasy figures...
>>11033683I think it’s cool that you do that. I just dump everything into two bags.
>>11045644 Someone needs to create a little mini RISK game using Army Men iocns for armys.
>>11045741Ordered two more castles, one of them with the turrets and dragons, should be interesting. Timmee has a fantasy figures set on Amazon, not much else that I've seen but didn't look hard. Don't know if pic related is available anywhere, was a TRU set years ago.
>>11048168Closeup of the poses, man I love those candles.>>11045903Thanks anon, can't remember how I got it in my head to get into unit organization but it's been fun, if at times tedious and time-consuming (in a good way). Over the years I've adjusted acceptable unit types and sizes, still needs a little fine-tuning and a formal reference sheet but I'll get there eventually.
>>11048171To expand on it a bit, every unit has designated officer figures, either based on distinct leader poses, arbitrarily designated figs or a combination of both if there are too few leader poses. The Afrika Korps set is a good example of a set that requires a combination of both - there are two distinct officer poses with the flat cap and a third leader pose (guy with raised arm) but there may not be enough to satisfy minimum officer requirements; the difference can be made up of other poses, usually for the lowest ranks.Unit officer requirements are based on unit type and size: the Afrika Korps is division-strength at over 400 men so has a requirement of a major general, at least one lieutenant general and two or three brigadier generals minimum, with lower ranks in greater numbers accordingly. It is also a special case in having a field marshal (the Desert Fox himself of course). Below the division there's brigade with a lieutenant or major general commanding; battalion with brigadier general or colonel; company with colonel, major or captain commanding; platoon with captain or lieutenant commanding; squad led by a lieutenant or sergeant. There used to be the regiment (a couple units retain this designation, for now anyway) but I found it to be redundant and have largely phased it out.Ideal unit strengths tend to have significant wiggle room, usually justified by assumed background reasons such as attrition or wartime necessities - a company may have as few as 30 men or as many as 75, with the "official" requirement somewhere in the middle. Ideally there are 2 squads to the platoon, 2 platoons to the company, 2-3 companies to the battalion, 2-3 battalions to the brigade, 2-3 brigades to the division, with every unit theoretically able to be internally structured as such.
>>11048189Some armies are easier than others to structure; pic related is the accumulation of several sets of soldiers where an identical number of each of the 8 poses was provided, leading to the standard 8-man squad comprising the bulk of the brigade. To facilitate overall leadership of the unit a portion of the squads were reorganized into a command platoon using appropriate poses (the group front and centre), with the remainder organized into two fire support platoons and two recon demi-squads.Ironically this unit and its smaller grey counterpart haven't been fully integrated into the order of battle (aka having their sheets typed up and pose photos taken), keep forgetting heh.
>>11048199On a related note, elements of this unit had their baptism of fire in the bloody assault on the Greys not too long ago. Post-action assessment deemed their performance to be "satisfactory" at best, something of a harsh critique. However there were multiple mitigating factors that ultimately served to give them a positive reputation undeserving of such conclusions:>an elite formation, they were nonetheless relegated to 3rd wave reserves status instead of leading the assault, something they were well suited forThe desperate short-notice nature of the offensive and doubts about these untested soldiers contributed to this decision, one of those great what-if moments armchair generals will debate vigorously for years to come>they were directly responsible for shooting down at least one enemy helicopter gunship and knocking out a tank>only one reinforced company's worth of the unit was available for the offensive yet their combat performance was comparable to/greater than the much larger units also engaged>despite heavy losses and the tide of battle turning against them they were the only Green unit to hold their ground in the face of the oncoming GreysWhile the right flank was collapsing with the Green units there routing, these troops were doing their best to stand firm on the left and parts of the centre. Ironically, had there not been the sudden dramatic shift in fortunes that ultimately decided the battle and the unit been forced to fight to the last man, they likely would've gone down as legendary warriors.One thing is certain - they will get another chance at battlefield glory someday.
>>11048235>>One thing is certain - they will get another chance at battlefield glory someday. SPOILERS :) Good to know though.
>>11048898>SPOILERSHeh not necessarily, as mentioned only part of the unit was engaged, the bulk of the brigade was unavailable to be deployed in time.
If there's decent weather tomorrow or over the weekend we'll see about concluding the Greys arc...
So there's good news, bad news and more good news. The good news is the conclusion has been shot. The bad news is it won't be up until the next thread...The other good news is more stuff arrived today! From AliExpress I received one half of an order, consisting of a set of yellow and blue pirates and pirate skeletons (skeleton pirates?) and an army men set:>Warfare The Millinium Edition
>>11050946Mostly ordered this set for the vehicles, particularly the interesting naval vessels. Along with an aircraft carrier there's a pair of guided missile cruisers (heavily based on the Soviet Slava-class), a pair of attack submarines (apparently inspired by the Akula class) and a couple speedboats. Been steadily growing my plastic navy, have lost count of my flattops but I'm always looking for other warships.
>>11050953Also included are a pair of flags (Canadian and what seems to be that of Imperial Germany), a chunky twin-barrelled tank often found in such Chinese sets, a helicopter that can't seem to make up its mind which real-world copter was its primary inspiration, a truck and a handful of green soldiers. These last two are the same as in this set here >>11045644 >>11045650 >>11045655 ; the other half of the order is a second of this set but with tan/yellow soldiers and another set with the pirates and skellies that also comes with a pile of terrain pieces and accessories. I'll probably hold off on posting those figs until that set arrives.