Welcome to the Army Men General!Previously: >>11675520>Plastic soldiers, knights and pirates, cowboys and indians, fantasy and sci-fi, cops and zombies, all are welcome here! (civilians are fine too)>Archived threads:https://archive.palanq.win/toy/search/subject/Army%20Men%20General/>Army men wargame rules:https://combatstorm.com/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://micshaunscloset.com/http://www.expeditionaryforce.com.sg/
Post-script from last thread, was comparing those newer versions of these soldiers with the ones I got years ago at TRU and found it interesting that the latter had all their sprue-marks in their left legs, an unusual location in general when extremities like the top of the head are typical. The newer ones went with the bottoms of their bases and required a little trimming on a few of the poses due to remnants preventing them from standing up straight. Overall they're pretty decent copies as copies go; the original pose set itself really needed at least one more rifleman combat pose besides the prone guy though.
>>11702867A kneeling-and-aiming pose would've been great but they already had the SAW and noob-tube guys in that pose; a standing-and-aiming would've made this a just about perfect modern infantry set.
>>11702871Notwithstanding this one guy and his hilariously anachronistic stick grenade, unless someone has a better take on what he's got there...
>>11702877 looks like a potato masher to me.. but maybe it's some sort of sensor package that's a signaling device for drone strikes. (I tried.)
>>11703881>>11703884>>11703888Nice, missed seeing these guys. Also them digits.>>11703880It's almost like every army men set needs to have at least one anachronism by law. The 8th Route Army boys certainly like their potato mashers, a third of the poses have 'em but they're period appropriate at least. The dudes with M16s however...
>>11703902 Honestly, my Mom passed and it's older stuff. I did take some mediocre shots in -15 weather (silly me) but I'll get back to it.
>>11705383
>>11705383>>11705385My condolences anon, that's rough.
>>11705532 It's something that I've been worrying about since she turned 90 (!!) earlier last year. She took a sudden downturn then. I was kind of always waiting for a phone call. for the last 8 months or so. I did get to spend some time with her in November and at Christmas.
>>1170809590 years, well done to make it that far. None of my grandparents got there, doubtful my parents will and I certainly won't.. may you find peace and healing with the fond memories and through more army men adventures.
That naval-themed set came in, also with some splendid box art.
>>11709645It may be a small thing but I've always appreciated the fun artwork done for army men sets.
>>11709647Inventory of set contents, with helpful (and accurate as it turned out) ship types. Less helpful for types like me it doesn't specify which real-world ships are represented, but we'll get to that.
>>11709650The ships themselves, great detail for the size and medium, with nice paint apps on the flattops. As for their real-world inspirations, full disclosure I consulted with AI to figure out the ones I couldn't ID directly. Was interesting in that the AI was unable to ID two of the warships correctly but provided enough info on similar ships to its wrong guesses that led me to the right ones in the end.Going from back row to front row, left to right:>Arleigh Burke destroyer; Wasp amphibious assault ship (both USA)>Type 055 destroyer (China); Enterprise-type aircraft carrier (USA, CVN-65 one-off)>Type 054A frigate (China); Admiral Kuznetsov-type aircraft carrier (Russia, one-off)
>>11709660Couple subs and a quintet of jets round things out, with all but one being proper carrier aircraft.Front sub:>Seawolf-class SSNBack sub:>Virginia-class SSN, with some minor incorrect detailsJets (front to back, left to right):>AV-8B Harrier>F-16 Fighting Falcon; F-35 Lightning 2>Dassault Rafale; F/A-18 Hornet
>>11709666666, that's weird. Anyway it's the same set of soldiers, again with fixed pose count, again asymmetrical with this time four of each rifleman to two each of the other poses.
Trawling for new army men stuff on AliExpress and sets with these vehicles popped up, with the option to order with 100 green, tan or a mix of both soldiers. Opted for tan as my green armies outnumber all the rest combined but the main focus was to check out the vehicles, only shown as renders in the listing.Must say I was pleasantly surprised by them, they're good-sized and well-made, rolling smoothly and each featuring movable turrets. The APC's gun is fixed at a slight droop but not a dealbreaker; it and the MBT's turrets are ratcheted as well. On the merits of these alone I was all set to order more but the listing has completely vanished... not sure if they're just shut down for Chinese New Year or it's a more permanent removal but thankfully I got my order at least.
>>11714693The soldiers included are becoming more familiar offerings; I call them modern US urban operations infantry as their poses and loadouts suggest optimization for sweeping streets and buildings. Two of the poses are anachronistic (one of the standing aiming riflemen and the standing rifleman holding up his rifle and looking to his right), appearing to be more suitable to WW2.Unlike other recent iterations of this set, these guys are made of a more conventional rigid plastic and don't have the bazooka or minigunner poses borrowed from The Corps Elite. The pose count is random, though my set isn't terribly uneven in its assortment; one pose out of the ten has 6 at the lowest end, two with 7, one with 8 and the rest with 10 or more apiece.
>>11714707Here compared with an example of the softer plastic versions that have come out in recent times, the latter also being a bit smaller in scale by comparison while the former are just about at the army men standard of 1/35 as represented by the Timmee man.
>>11714713As part of the same order I also found a store selling individual or multiples of various army men vehicles and aircraft, including pairs of this IFV of which I've been trying to get more, compared here with that new Humvee.
>>11714715Also ordered a quartet of A-10s to improve my plastic armed forces' ground attack assets; will have to try the hot water trick on the top right bird with its sagging wings.
>>11714716Lastly I selected another quartet of aircraft, this time helicopters inspired by the Chinook though differing in that they have two-bladed rotors and full-length landing skids. Would like to get another set of the Humvee-MBT-APC trio so we'll see if that listing goes back up again.
>>11714716>>11714719 I like how you can / could set up independent shots of bases / airfields. >>11709660These are pretty cool as well.
>>11715732It's one of my goals for future Colour Wars content to have some large military installation scenes which will be more readily accomplished with smaller scale vehicles, aircraft and soldiers. Not sure about how to do more naval operations, might have to lean into a little AI assistance or something.Unrelated but this AliExpress listing image kills me.
>>11717343 that sounds good. - also nothing better than child soldiers.
Hey guys! I've been looking for WW1 American toy soldiers for about a year now, specifically the Armies in Plastic WW1 US Marines. I've only been able to find a few listings of the Doughboys set, and it's pretty pricey. I've been thinking about turning to 3d printing some of my American soldiers just to complete my WW1 collection. Any tips or advice?
>>11717881All of my 3D printing experience is with PLA cuz it's what we have at work, pretty good for making vehicles but I haven't tried figures yet. Would probably work but need a lot of supports and will be more fragile than typical molded army men. I've heard resin tends to be better for figurines and the like.
We were talking about who the creepiest posters were on /toy/ and it turns out, it's not /fashiondoll/ or /coomertoys/, but it is in fact /army men/! I guess one of you is somebody's neighbor. Bye have a beautiful day.
Regular viewers of the channel may recall a 120-piece Civil War set previously featured; there's now a 100-piece edition on the market for 20ish bucks less.
>>11719664Like its bigger brother there's the compulsory genuflecting to certain excessively vocal minorities with a statement concerning the lack of a Confederate flag in its contents (more on that later). The reviews of this and the other set aren't lacking for commentary on this policy; the one dissatisfied customer declaring that the South will rise again earned a sensible chuckle.
>>11719666666 again, that's weird. Anyway the contents promise to be the same as the other set, in diminished quantity.
>>11719667Probably my favorite elements of these sets are the wooden fences and stands of pine trees, the former fairly rare in army men sets and the latter entirely OC to these sets. The 100-piece only includes one stand (120-piece had 6) while retaining the 12-count of wooden fences.
>>11719671The most significant change is the quantity of artillery (all anachronistic) included, with four field guns in two colours and two siege/naval guns for a total of 6 pieces; the bigger set had an absurd fifteen and four of the two types respectively.
>>11719674Amusingly the set retains the random canoe, halving the wagon count to 1 and reducing the horses from 14 to 8. This would prove to be one horse too few to pair with both the wagon and all cavalry figures included but we'll get to that.
>>11719677As for the troops, 33 blue Unionists in a variety of interesting but rather lacklustre poses. Only three men are actually aiming their weapons in a firing pose; a baker's dozen are tied up in officer, bugler and drummer roles; one of the poses shown on the box doesn't appear at all. I learned with the bigger set that they are quite careless with pose assortment and was expecting as much this time around, though if this was a first-time buy I would be quite disappointed.
>>11719681On the other half of the soldier count the 34 grey Confederates get a much better treatment with a great assortment of action poses. The icing on the cake is the flagbearer pose with detailed Confederate flag - guess all that high-minded politically correct snobbery on the box was pragmatic lip service in the end. One does wonder why the rebels have a better army compared to their counterparts...
>>11719684Having grown up with most army men sets following the randomized pose assortment approach I just accept that often there will be too many of a less useful pose and too few of the better ones; however this Union set comes with too many of those less useful poses and has very few of the latter.On top of that they don't ensure that at least one of every pose in the set is present - it took two of the larger set before I was satisfied that I had a full pose count for both sides (including the only aiming rifleman pose for the Union). I really can't recommend these sets as anything other than for kids who won't care as much or for those with other Civil War army men who are looking for some more pose variety and some useful accessories like the fences, wagon and trees.
>>11719690 it seems like there is no overall way to do it if the distribution is so varied. I was sort of interest - but buying two sets to get a full "real" attack force kind of sucks.
>>11722010Yeah, you're better off with other options. It wasn't as much of a bug for me as I already had a decent amount of other Civil War soldiers and this gives them additional variety but I wouldn't start out with this set unless that was all there was on the market. I appreciate the less common poses like bugler and drummer but they really needed to address the lack of action poses and the haphazard pose counts to make this a really good set.
move slow, think fast, any one of these dead blades of grass could be a tan
putting your head this far up above ground will get you picked off by a sniper in no time, but then some folks miss home so bad they'll go back in a body bag willingly
our only hope now is to crawl across twenty feet of grasslands and hope that the stupid ones on two feet provide enough of a distraction
>>11722948Clausewitz's theory of friction put to the test, I see.
