Welcome to the Army Men General!Previously: >>11701613>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/
New thread and some new(ish) stuff from China. I've bought a couple sets like these before and not much is new to me but they felt like worthwhile accessories packs.
>>11732767Two of the sets are nearly the name, differing mainly in being Army and Navy variants respectively. One of the little action illustrations on the Army set seemed familiar and after going through my old wallpapers folders I was proved correct in that it's an Ace Combat 5 wallpaper.
>>11732773The Navy one has a fun war painting of a Stuka presumably bombing a Channel convoy; I imagine there's a third, Air Force-themed set to round things out.
>>11732774Both include this cardboard backing/world map, helpfully colour-coding different parts of the world in a reasonably logical manner.
>>11732777The reverse is a fun hodge-podge of low effort photoshop land-air-sea action; I like to think of it as a distant, heavily inbred and probably adopted descendant of the classic comic book mail-ordered army men advertisement.
>>11732779Starting with the Army set, it has the main draws for my ordering them, namely the self-propelled howitzer and tanker truck; the general purpose truck is nice too.
>>11732782Despite the Army theme it also boasts a trio of aircraft, with the CH-46 a bit of an oddball in its yellow-green scheme.
>>11732784I rather like sets that make an effort to be a complete package by providing vehicles, soldiers and base-building stuff, in this case a Quonset hut and (some assembly required) watch tower.
>>11732788There's even some terrain pieces, a couple trees, barbed wire and a surprisingly well-textured large sandbag wall piece, with a smaller one that's unusually asymmetrical.
>>11732790The set's soldier component is pretty weak, so much so that the seller apparently improvised an addendum to try and make up for it (next post). Oddly the half-dozen men included are fixed to additional stands, though they can be easily removed.
>>11732794Each of the sets came with a separate package of these smaller, multi-coloured troops to make them more rounded in their contents I guess. Unfortunately they're not much of a consolation, being smaller than regular soldiers and even the ones that come with the set; a quite haphazard assortment of colours and poses; mediocre quality overall. For the cost of each set I couldn't recommend them on their own merits, only as add-ons for established armies looking for uncommon elements like the SPG and tanker truck.
>>11732798The Navy set has most of the same things as the Army set, including the two trucks and SPG; the latter for some reason has a tan barrel, machine gun and lower piece of the turret.
>>11732801The naval elements are rather modest; a destroyer and submarine. The helicopter is a CH-47 this time, though in the same scheme as the other set's CH-46.
>>11732802The rest of the set mainly differs in having a tent instead of the Quonset hut; the ubiquitous three-walls-and-sandbags set instead of watchtower; different flag (plus bonus "NATO" flag); the smaller sandbags wall is slightly less warped but in tan-yellow this time.
>>11732806Same story as the other set with the six soldiers and their supplemental stands.
>>11732807This third set from the other is reminiscent of a few that Dollarama had a few years ago, typically consisting of a jeep or truck, towed artillery piece and trailer of some kind in between the two. This set dispenses with the middle component and replaces the gun with a Hawk SAM triple launcher mounted on a trailer. The launcher is a frequent flyer in many sets but this is the first time I've seen it added to a trailer. The soldier count dropped to four and they're of the same kind as the "bonus" men (this set has a smaller number of such extras compared to the other two sets). Must say I rather like the Hummer-esque combat SUV, doesn't feel oversized like the jeeps from the Dollarama sets.
>>11732814Lastly I wanted to highlight the cardboard insert from the set, showcasing the different variants available. The top one's artillery piece is often also included in sets that have the Hawk launcher, must say it looks pretty good on a trailer.
>>11732816Almost forgot, the Army and Navy sets also had a plastic battle map included as external addendums like the bags of soldiers. To me it feels somewhat like the minimap of an RTS game; the B-52s at crazy low altitude is probably the most baffling element but base "structures" and tunnel entrances are even more out of place really. Another low effort offering from largely low effort sets, which don't seem to be available to buy anymore anyway.
