I remember having these as a child of perhaps six or seven in the early 1970's. A vivid childhood memory is taking four of them on holiday or a day out and sitting at the edge of a bowling green and playing with them. I placed the figure shooting upwards in the ditch so he was shooting up out of it. All our yesterdays!
Always wondered why out of all the figures Airfix made they would have one shooting upwards towards the sky and it was a paratrooper who was supposed to have floated down from the sky. Great video.
I never knew they did the old para's in 1/32? I'd also forgotten that 1/72 figures came on a spru! The old design were fun when you were a kid, despite the poor detail. The 70's Ron Cameron sculpts were out of this world!
Great channel I had most of the sets when a kid in the 70s, last set I got as a kid was the SAS. Don't know where they all ended up but I had way over 500 figures mostly airfix, some Britain's. Having had a brain haemorrhage 5 years ago I bought about 400 airfix figures and started painting them (deffo therapy) then my nephew spotted them and took them all. I am now rebuilding my collection slowly
THOSE RIFLES ARE THE REISING MODEL 50 SUB MACHINES.HAD THESE IN OOHO SCALE IN THE 60S.THEY LOOK LIKE THEY WERE BASED ON THE MOVIE THE RED BERET,A 1953 BRITISH WAR MOVIE.ALSO CALLED PARATROOPER. TAKE CARE
Finally managed to get an original box and set of soldiers. The embrittlement is profound with these guys. You can glue them using super glue and baking soda. Right now several of the poses are worth $8-14 apiece. All subsequent sets are better looking but these guys from 1969 are special to me.
That´s realt ggod. I kissed a mint box with mint figures here in Sweden about 6 months ago. Never seen a set that good in over 20 years. It went for about £350 which is a great price for that set but I just didn´t have the money for it at the time@@Uncle_Neil
I was gonna talk about that a bit in this video but it got to long so I edit it out. As far as I can find there´s talk about this one being resized from 1/72 and then all the rest of the sets after was resized from 1/32 to 1/72. But I´m not convinced. I think could also have been done from 1/32 to 1/72 from large original figures. But who knows.
@@olivier3847 but to answer your first question. They used a Pantograph to resize. Exactly how I´m that sure of though. I have searched the intenet but can´t find much info.
The 1/72nd set came out in 1965 so they have used similar moulds to produce the 1/32nd set in 1968. Not sure how they did it but very few sets have been the same other than the second issue 8th army or the US para's.
They are real gems, treasure them. But beware, they became very brittle over the years. This is due to a plastic softener that was used in those days which disappears over the years what makes the plastic hard and very brittle, so parts easly snap off (as you saw for yourself). These were in fact the figures from the H/00 set panthographed (upscaled) to 1/32 which explains the lacking detail (later sets were new made and with the best detail I must say). Later Airfix even panthographed the newer sets (like for ex. WII Germans or 8th Army) towards H/00 (1/76) scale to update those ranges. Small tip for the newer sets : did you know each soldier is numbered? You can easily line them up from 1 to 29 for every box if you wanted too ;-)
Yes I have seen the numbers and always have to remember to remove them when painting. I know it´s said that these where upsized from 1/72 but never seen anyone realy "prove" it. Making 1/72 even with the level of detail that the paras from 1965 has is very difficult. If you compare them to the early Nibblet figures I´m not convinced. I usualy suggest that one can try and sculpt 1/72 size figures out of clay and see how much detail you can actually get. I also think that these have about the same level of details as the NATO set from 1983. So it´s totaly possible to do a rubish job even in 1/32. But I don´t know and it´s not all that important for enjoying them :)
@@toysoldiernostalgia I heard that when they do a prototype figure, it is always 1/12 scale. Regardless of the figures actual size. So a 1/32 or 1/76 could have that level of detail.
I went to Newcastle last moth and got my self some Africa Crops. I also got 2 WWI fighter planes too! I love my army men. I often go to charity shops and junk shops to see what they have. My friend Vicky bought me some WWII soldiers 2 weeks ago, she is on the look out for some more. Their one of the few things from my childhood my dad hasn't chucked away. If these are antiques I would keep hold of them for a while. I have some aluminium soldiers that I imported from France. I took off the old paint with some white spirit and wire wool and painted them a metallic silver. Seeing as I'm not going to sell them I don't mind doing that. I even have some pink soldiers too, I got them from BMC toys in the states!
Yes, the early Airfix sets can become brittle. It happened to my German Infantry soldiers. They fell apart like sugar figures. The first sets had chalk in them. When their plastic dry out after many years, these figures can break very easily.
They have a strange mixture of equipment from everywhere. British smocks and helmets, Soviet style flying helmets underneath, American jump boots and valises and US Marine bazookas and Reising SMGs! The designs are likely licensed (or plagiarized) from Britains Herald or somewhere. Airfix did this with their first HO/OO infantry set.
1:32 paratroopers were scaled up versions of 1:72 paratroopers. All other first issue 1:32 figures were issued were not related to their 1:72 figures. However later the 1:32 figures were scaled down to 1:72 ie german infantry
I know that it has been claimed that but I have never seen any artist in factory production sculpt directly in 1/72. The usual process is to make a master in a larger scale then size it down. There´s a figure in the Airfix slot car line that is the same pose as one of the ones in the Para set. That makes me to believe that there´s a large master. Also scaling up the 1/72 scale would render very few and poor details. Much worse then what´s in the set now. Using a Pantopgraph to upsale from 1/72 to 1/32 I would say is almost impossible. I think this misconception has come about because the 1/72 set was released before the 1/32 and the following sets were first released in 1/32 and then 1/72.
The problem with the early toys soldiers of the 1960s is that they become brittle and can literally fall to pieces. The reason seems to be because they mixed chalk with the plastic so that paint would adhere to them but unless stored in perfect condition...crumble!
This set is the most enigmatic Airfix ever done. At the beginning they were just called "Paratroopers", no nationality. Eventually they wanted to make a generic set depicting them in the art box with no camos uniform, or the sculptor was really ignorant about uniforms and weapons who knows... It wasn't their usual sculptor for sure, they are very different in style from the other contemporary sets and actually a little bit bigger. As it's the only set made by this sculptor for Airfix, probably they weren't happy with the first batch and they fired him😂
Most likely Noblett sculpted these as he most likely did the original Paratroops in ho-oo scale which these are based on. For the rest of the WW2 from Airfix they should have been sculpted by Ron Cameron.
I have never seen the "brown box" set of British Para's before. I owned the second issue set in the early '70's which were far better figures although I did own the 8th Army and German infantry in the brown box issue about the same time. A great addition to my Britains Deetail figures. The brown box sets in good condition are very rare now so looks like you got a bargain there! The same figures in 1/72nd scale were the first set of figures that Airfix ever produced although are classed as one of the worst. No doubt some of the poses were a bit weird. There would have been even heavier losses at Arnhem fighting in those positions!
ToySoldierNostalgia forgot about those. The book I read should have read "WW2" figures. Have you read the book "Airfix Little Soldiers" . A great reference on the subject by Histoire Collections and written by a French author. Rare and expensive, bought a copy back in 2009 for about £7.20, last used copy I saw for sale was over £300! Also covers other manufacturers, certainly worth a read.
Those early British Paras your showing I only had in 1/72 scale or ho.o scale. As for the broken figures reminds me when once I bought a box of the Airfix German Paratroopers and when I opened the pack some pieces fell out. I discovered they were very brittle and practically fell apart. A factory process mistake I guess.👍🇭🇲🦘🐨✌️
Plastic does deteriate!!.... I have the same experience with Timpo knights and other plastic items of the 60's. They were made to play for a couple of years. Now we, elderly? want to get back some toys of our youth... The inventer of these toys had no idea that these would be collectebles. Sad but it is reality. So think over about buying these toys.... what will be the highest price you want to pay... A plastic ship, also over 50 years old. I did let it fall, it broke into small pieces like glass.... Luckely it did cost me 1.50 Euro....
I like the fact that the Airfix figures from the late 60s through the 70s was only condsidered toys by the manufacturer and still they made figures so great they are collectables today.
Probably the worst looking officer airfix ever produced. Your video took me back 54 years, I was eventually 12 at the time. I vividly remember the excitement of opening the 1/72 box and looking into that officer and thinking holy crap 😐 Thanks for the memory lane 👍🏻
@@toysoldiernostalgia Yes i had and still have them stored. My favorite was the US paratroopers WWII. Actually going through these videos is making me wish to go and check them out 😃👍🏻
I always thought the officer was injured and surrendering, helmet undone, one hand up, one close to his chest as if in a sling. Plenty of real photos of injured paras surrendering to the Germans at Arnhem 👍
We kinda debate this back and forth. It´s just the looking at the watch thing that makes me agree with someone who said it looked more like the jump master. Great thing with toy soldiers is that it´s kinda up to interpetation.
Those SMG's the figures have, look, to me, like a very rare weapon designed solely for Commandoes, but never widely used: the De Lisle Commando Carbine - it was a suppressed weapon: so good in fact, that when fired, anyone at a slight distance, would only hear the hammer click. A remarkable gun, made from bits and bobs from other weapons. But definitely not an SMG.
From experience I would say that the sculptors for most toy soldiers were not that knowledgeable about weapons and gear. For who ever sculpted these to have that kinda information is pretty unlikely. But you never know :)
@@toysoldiernostalgia - some of the best sculpts of weapons I've ever seen, are those made for LEGO minifigs. They are out of scale with the LEGO, but perfectly in scale with 3.75" figures. I have an example of the De Lisle, beautifully made in ABS, and labelled on site as 'Commando Rifle'. It's such a rare weapon in real life, I was astonished to see it there.
As a small child 5 or 6 years of age I had these british Paratroopers in 1:72. Even as a child I did not understand when these soldiers were paratroopers why for gods sake one pose was shooting straight in the air? Does he want to shoot his troop-comrades? Even as an adult I do not understand the sense of this pose. For playing purposes this figure was non-usable ;-)
First time I see these figures, very crude, also for those times' standards, the new ones were very superior, at least for the moulds, also if the poses were too stiff.
From George. I had the SAS the modern US and Russians.still missing the modern British I think Paratroopers or infantry and as I mentioned in previous comments the modern German army Bundeswher. By Airfix also.👍🇭🇲🦘🐨✌️
I remember having these as a child of perhaps six or seven in the early 1970's. A vivid childhood memory is taking four of them on holiday or a day out and sitting at the edge of a bowling green and playing with them. I placed the figure shooting upwards in the ditch so he was shooting up out of it. All our yesterdays!
I had them in the smaller scale. Awesome
Always wondered why out of all the figures Airfix made they would have one shooting upwards towards the sky and it was a paratrooper who was supposed to have floated down from the sky. Great video.
I think he's shooting at enemy aircraft.
He’s shooting at German snipers, often holed up in church steeples/ top floors of houses!!
Perfect way to end the week-a new video from ToySoldier and Chin figures arriving this morning !
Glas I could help with the ending of the week :)
I never knew they did the old para's in 1/32? I'd also forgotten that 1/72 figures came on a spru! The old design were fun when you were a kid, despite the poor detail. The 70's Ron Cameron sculpts were out of this world!
The chap with the watch, revolver holster, and hand in the air, I always painted him as wounded, and blood under his hand...😀
The figure is retrieving the parachute after landing……pulling the strings of the parachute behind 😊😊
@@borisma4640 He's timing an attack and, when his hand drops, it will begin.
Great channel I had most of the sets when a kid in the 70s, last set I got as a kid was the SAS. Don't know where they all ended up but I had way over 500 figures mostly airfix, some Britain's. Having had a brain haemorrhage 5 years ago I bought about 400 airfix figures and started painting them (deffo therapy) then my nephew spotted them and took them all. I am now rebuilding my collection slowly
Thanks. Great that you found your way back into the hobby and got the next generation interested.
It's moved on somewhat, airbrushes (just bought one) but for me the best solid plastic figures are the 1970s-1980 airfix pieces
THOSE RIFLES ARE THE REISING MODEL 50 SUB MACHINES.HAD THESE IN OOHO SCALE IN THE 60S.THEY LOOK LIKE THEY WERE BASED ON THE MOVIE THE RED BERET,A 1953 BRITISH WAR MOVIE.ALSO CALLED PARATROOPER. TAKE CARE
Finally managed to get an original box and set of soldiers. The embrittlement is profound with these guys. You can glue them using super glue and baking soda. Right now several of the poses are worth $8-14 apiece. All subsequent sets are better looking but these guys from 1969 are special to me.
Great that you managed to get a hold of a set. Any broken figures in that set or all ok?
@@toysoldiernostalgia 4 out of 29, broken during shipment. They all were repaired rather quickly. Finding an original box was difficult as well.
That´s realt ggod. I kissed a mint box with mint figures here in Sweden about 6 months ago. Never seen a set that good in over 20 years. It went for about £350 which is a great price for that set but I just didn´t have the money for it at the time@@Uncle_Neil
Beautiful set
i always wondered how they transposed the same poses from 1/72 to 1/32
or the other way around
I was gonna talk about that a bit in this video but it got to long so I edit it out.
As far as I can find there´s talk about this one being resized from 1/72 and then all the rest of the sets after was resized from 1/32 to 1/72. But I´m not convinced. I think could also have been done from 1/32 to 1/72 from large original figures.
But who knows.
@@toysoldiernostalgia yes, makes more sense from large to small
@@olivier3847 but to answer your first question. They used a Pantograph to resize. Exactly how I´m that sure of though. I have searched the intenet but can´t find much info.
The 1/72nd set came out in 1965 so they have used similar moulds to produce the 1/32nd set in 1968. Not sure how they did it but very few sets have been the same other than the second issue 8th army or the US para's.
They are real gems, treasure them. But beware, they became very brittle over the years. This is due to a plastic softener that was used in those days which disappears over the years what makes the plastic hard and very brittle, so parts easly snap off (as you saw for yourself). These were in fact the figures from the H/00 set panthographed (upscaled) to 1/32 which explains the lacking detail (later sets were new made and with the best detail I must say). Later Airfix even panthographed the newer sets (like for ex. WII Germans or 8th Army) towards H/00 (1/76) scale to update those ranges. Small tip for the newer sets : did you know each soldier is numbered? You can easily line them up from 1 to 29 for every box if you wanted too ;-)
Yes I have seen the numbers and always have to remember to remove them when painting.
I know it´s said that these where upsized from 1/72 but never seen anyone realy "prove" it.
Making 1/72 even with the level of detail that the paras from 1965 has is very difficult. If you compare them to the early Nibblet figures I´m not convinced. I usualy suggest that one can try and sculpt 1/72 size figures out of clay and see how much detail you can actually get.
I also think that these have about the same level of details as the NATO set from 1983. So it´s totaly possible to do a rubish job even in 1/32.
But I don´t know and it´s not all that important for enjoying them :)
@@toysoldiernostalgia I heard that when they do a prototype figure, it is always 1/12 scale. Regardless of the figures actual size. So a 1/32 or 1/76 could have that level of detail.
@@MrPolicekarim a lager scale for sculpting figures makes sence. Never hear of an actual scale being mentioned though.
Wow. I had those when I was 4. I still have three figures from my original set from 1969.
Not bad being able to keep hold of a few for that long.
I went to Newcastle last moth and got my self some Africa Crops. I also got 2 WWI fighter planes too! I love my army men. I often go to charity shops and junk shops to see what they have. My friend Vicky bought me some WWII soldiers 2 weeks ago, she is on the look out for some more. Their one of the few things from my childhood my dad hasn't chucked away. If these are antiques I would keep hold of them for a while. I have some aluminium soldiers that I imported from France. I took off the old paint with some white spirit and wire wool and painted them a metallic silver. Seeing as I'm not going to sell them I don't mind doing that. I even have some pink soldiers too, I got them from BMC toys in the states!
Yes, the early Airfix sets can become brittle. It happened to my German Infantry soldiers. They fell apart like sugar figures. The first sets had chalk in them. When their plastic dry out after many years, these figures can break very easily.
They have a strange mixture of equipment from everywhere. British smocks and helmets, Soviet style flying helmets underneath, American jump boots and valises and US Marine bazookas and Reising SMGs!
The designs are likely licensed (or plagiarized) from Britains Herald or somewhere. Airfix did this with their first HO/OO infantry set.
1:32 paratroopers were scaled up versions of 1:72 paratroopers.
All other first issue 1:32 figures were issued were not related to their 1:72 figures. However later the 1:32 figures were scaled down to 1:72 ie german infantry
I know that it has been claimed that but I have never seen any artist in factory production sculpt directly in 1/72. The usual process is to make a master in a larger scale then size it down. There´s a figure in the Airfix slot car line that is the same pose as one of the ones in the Para set. That makes me to believe that there´s a large master.
Also scaling up the 1/72 scale would render very few and poor details. Much worse then what´s in the set now.
Using a Pantopgraph to upsale from 1/72 to 1/32 I would say is almost impossible.
I think this misconception has come about because the 1/72 set was released before the 1/32 and the following sets were first released in 1/32 and then 1/72.
The music at the end and thinking about the broken ones...
I´ll have to check that out.
The problem with the early toys soldiers of the 1960s is that they become brittle and can literally fall to pieces. The reason seems to be because they mixed chalk with the plastic so that paint would adhere to them but unless stored in perfect condition...crumble!
Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.
I did not know about the chalk. Thank you.
Another great video!
This set is the most enigmatic Airfix ever done. At the beginning they were just called "Paratroopers", no nationality. Eventually they wanted to make a generic set depicting them in the art box with no camos uniform, or the sculptor was really ignorant about uniforms and weapons who knows... It wasn't their usual sculptor for sure, they are very different in style from the other contemporary sets and actually a little bit bigger. As it's the only set made by this sculptor for Airfix, probably they weren't happy with the first batch and they fired him😂
Most likely Noblett sculpted these as he most likely did the original Paratroops in ho-oo scale which these are based on.
For the rest of the WW2 from Airfix they should have been sculpted by Ron Cameron.
Great job 👏
Thanks 😀
I have the 8th Army Airfix and Africa Corps boxes from 1969. Still intact in decent condition. How much are they worth? I may sell?
The prices vary quit a bit. Check Ebay for sold listings and you get a pretty good idea.
I have never seen the "brown box" set of British Para's before. I owned the second issue set in the early '70's which were far better figures although I did own the 8th Army and German infantry in the brown box issue about the same time. A great addition to my Britains Deetail figures. The brown box sets in good condition are very rare now so looks like you got a bargain there! The same figures in 1/72nd scale were the first set of figures that Airfix ever produced although are classed as one of the worst. No doubt some of the poses were a bit weird. There would have been even heavier losses at Arnhem fighting in those positions!
Airfix did a lot of figures before these paras that was released in 1965 in 1/72. The first was the Guards Band in 1959.
ToySoldierNostalgia forgot about those. The book I read should have read "WW2" figures. Have you read the book "Airfix Little Soldiers" . A great reference on the subject by Histoire Collections and written by a French author. Rare and expensive, bought a copy back in 2009 for about £7.20, last used copy I saw for sale was over £300! Also covers other manufacturers, certainly worth a read.
@@topcat4759 yes I have that book. It`s great. I have all the books that have been written on Airfix :)
im looking for a box in okay condition with al the figures in it machtbox hase the same problem figures just breaking and even disolving
not al though
They show up on Ebay from time to time.
These "machinepistols" almost look like a mix between a Thompson and a M1 carbine
Those were the M1 carbine and the trench shotgun. It’s commonly mistaken if I remember right
Those early British Paras your showing I only had in 1/72 scale or ho.o scale. As for the broken figures reminds me when once I bought a box of the Airfix German Paratroopers and when I opened the pack some pieces fell out. I discovered they were very brittle and practically fell apart. A factory process mistake I guess.👍🇭🇲🦘🐨✌️
Course there was also the BAR
4:31 He has heartburn
😂😂
The British paratroopers wouldn’t of had a bazooka. They would’ve had a piat gun
so those are like a modern (for the time) set? Doesn't look world war 2.
They are ww2 but maybe not all that accurate.
Plastic does deteriate!!.... I have the same experience with Timpo knights and other plastic items of the 60's. They were made to play for a couple of years. Now we, elderly? want to get back some toys of our youth... The inventer of these toys had no idea that these would be collectebles. Sad but it is reality. So think over about buying these toys.... what will be the highest price you want to pay...
A plastic ship, also over 50 years old. I did let it fall, it broke into small pieces like glass.... Luckely it did cost me 1.50 Euro....
I like the fact that the Airfix figures from the late 60s through the 70s was only condsidered toys by the manufacturer and still they made figures so great they are collectables today.
Probably the worst looking officer airfix ever produced. Your video took me back 54 years, I was eventually 12 at the time. I vividly remember the excitement of opening the 1/72 box and looking into that officer and thinking holy crap 😐 Thanks for the memory lane 👍🏻
Did you any of the later (good) sets?
@@toysoldiernostalgia Yes i had and still have them stored. My favorite was the US paratroopers WWII. Actually going through these videos is making me wish to go and check them out 😃👍🏻
I always thought the officer was injured and surrendering, helmet undone, one hand up, one close to his chest as if in a sling. Plenty of real photos of injured paras surrendering to the Germans at Arnhem 👍
We kinda debate this back and forth. It´s just the looking at the watch thing that makes me agree with someone who said it looked more like the jump master. Great thing with toy soldiers is that it´s kinda up to interpetation.
@@toysoldiernostalgia jump master with helmet undone and no parachute 🤔? But yes a rather odd figure.
Those SMG's the figures have, look, to me, like a very rare weapon designed solely for Commandoes, but never widely used: the De Lisle Commando Carbine - it was a suppressed weapon: so good in fact, that when fired, anyone at a slight distance, would only hear the hammer click. A remarkable gun, made from bits and bobs from other weapons. But definitely not an SMG.
From experience I would say that the sculptors for most toy soldiers were not that knowledgeable about weapons and gear. For who ever sculpted these to have that kinda information is pretty unlikely. But you never know :)
@@toysoldiernostalgia - some of the best sculpts of weapons I've ever seen, are those made for LEGO minifigs. They are out of scale with the LEGO, but perfectly in scale with 3.75" figures. I have an example of the De Lisle, beautifully made in ABS, and labelled on site as 'Commando Rifle'. It's such a rare weapon in real life, I was astonished to see it there.
The officer has indigestion
Lol!
As a small child 5 or 6 years of age I had these british Paratroopers in 1:72. Even as a child I did not understand when these soldiers were paratroopers why for gods sake one pose was shooting straight in the air? Does he want to shoot his troop-comrades? Even as an adult I do not understand the sense of this pose. For playing purposes this figure was non-usable ;-)
I know it’s such a weird one.
The worst set that Airfix made?
Pretty much.
First time I see these figures, very crude, also for those times' standards, the new ones were very superior, at least for the moulds, also if the poses were too stiff.
The worst poses ever from Airfix, and that includes 1/76 Japanese..IMO mindless poses…
To stop them breaking you need to dip them in wood stain. Watch Rob Gegnes channel for this. 👍
Cool I´ll check that out.
From George. I had the SAS the modern US and Russians.still missing the modern British I think Paratroopers or infantry and as I mentioned in previous comments the modern German army Bundeswher. By Airfix also.👍🇭🇲🦘🐨✌️