The Fantastic Airfix ww2 British Commandos In 1/32 Scale.
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- In 1969 Airfix released their brown boxes of 1/32 scale toy soldiers.
They were by far better then anything available at the time.
1969 saw the release of 5 sets.
-German Infantry
-US Infantry
-Russian Infantry
-British Commandos
-British Paratroops (which was the only set released in 1968)
The next few years saw the release of 4 more sets.
-British 8th Army
-German Afrika Korps
-Japanese Infantry
-Australian Infantry
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I an 67 and I grew up playing with toy soldiers and to this day they give me a thrill. I love your presentations please keep them coming.
Thanks and they will keep coming.
I’m 53 and I’m still playing with toy soldiers! I’m a tabletop wargamer. Look up Warlord Games Bolt Action
@@davidwasilewski I have a bunch of Bolt action stuff but got stuck at painting them so haven´t played it yet.
@@toysoldiernostalgia build em, spray them the appropriate colour (Germans in grey/green, Brits in light brown etc) and base them - then just play with them as is. If you really enjoy the games, it may motivate you to start adding colours to them. If not, just play on. It’s your hobby!
I am also 67 years old and grew up playing with toy soldiers and still collect them now. Back in the 60s my father bought me the Battleground set by MARX.
I also collect the tanks which have been my main interest now.
Damn..... Long forgotten memories just came flooding back.
My new favourite channel, it’s like being a child again, all these sets bring back great memories 😅
Thanks buddy. Great that we share the same nostalgic interest.
I'm 68 1/2 yrs old! I remember all the Airfix kits! Better days! A+!
Yes those were some great days.
❤❤😢 I miss those days thanks for the memories
Hello from Northern Ireland (UK).
I'm walking down memory lane here, I remember the 80s box well and played with these commandos for hours. The sculpting of these figures were amazing and far better than anything put out today.
I'm sure that someone has answered already, but it's no.4 Lee Enfield .303 British. The last of the SMLEs were issued at the beginning of the war. I have an original one in my gun safe. The no. 4 was a simplified SMLE, but considered by some to be the best of the Enfield rifles. They were still used well into the 80s by British Snipers; chambered in .7.62 NATO.
One thing of interest, each soldier carried two large pouches. One of these pouches carried extra Bren mags that were shared out among the riflemen, If you notice the only figure missing the pouches is the Bren gunner who would have carried extra Bren magazines in both of his pouches.
As the war went on the Bren team was made up of a Bren gunner, his No 2 who carried extra ammunition and the last member of the Bren team was a lance corporal who commanded the Bren gun. The rifle section would have been made up of 8 men commanded by a senior NCO or corp.
The British Army tended to give more responsibility to its NCOs and still does.
4:18 There's a British equivalent to those comic books called Commando which is still published. I think a lot of the new ones are reprints of old ones from years or decades ago.
Yup I follow their Facebook page.
There are new stories too. One of the writers lives local to us in Southport. 2024.
I got a bunch of commando comic from the local charity shop for a £1
I was ill, 5 yo or something and my Grandpa arrived with two sets of Airfix 1/32 toy soldiers...this one and the generic grey German landsers...my bed with its pillows and blankets immediatly turned into a battlefield!!!! I miss you, gramps...😓
I love all these stories we all have relating to warm childhood memories and toys and toy soldiers.
Kneeling machine gunner ' no stand' but pretty good balance, great sculpt.The officer also, good pose, cool dude standing up taking carful aim.Great set.
IIRC they did this with some other kneeling figures. The Japanese rifleman and the US marine bazooka guy? Always annoying.
I played with these soldiers from about 1972 to 1976. I must have had them all if I'm honest. We didn't have a lot of money but any chores I did, I would ask for money to buy my Airfix soldiers with. I had three model shops in my town where I could buy them, so I was a frequent customer.
I also remember the battle of Waterloo soldiers too, but I must say the WW2 figures were my favourite.
Great video, so good to see those boxes again!
Brings back happy childhood memories in the 70s
I’m loving your channel! I also carried some Airfix soldiers with me when I was in the service, a little box of 1/72 WWI brits I used for making map models. Something about them was just comforting haha
That`so cool. I use Airfix 1/32 scale figures for showing how angle of risk works for small arms when I work as a firearms instructor for the swedish national guard.
These were my all time favourite as a very small boy as I was a huge fan of the little pocket sized "Commando" comic books sold in the UK. I always especially liked the guy lying down with his Sten and knife because I could make him covertly swim into German bases, in my bath. However as an adult knife collector and huge fan of the Fairbairn Sykes commando knife I am glad you identified that the knife really should be a Fairbairn Sykes but as you say, British Commandos would have used Ka-Bar's too. Mainly because it's a far better all round knife than the FS. Excellent video again, I am glad I found your channel.
Never thought of the prone soldier as a swimmer but I think it works great in the mind of a kid.
I´m glad you found my channel as well. It´s always great to chat with like-minded people.
I had the second brown box version of these. Always felt the box art was based on the faces of Spock, Kirk and Scotty from Star Trek, which must have been easy to find reference material for the artist at the time.
Love these as a kid! I think some of those poses are not as dynamic as they could be - but that was always the way :D - I loved the kneeling gunner as I could set him up in different places (cracks in the brick wall outside etc)
Fantastic!!😊
More happy memories.
Just had to buy a set of e bay😅
Seems I've lost my 1/32 from my childhood 😢. Now starting to collect again.
Keep filming. 😊😊
Oh the memories flowing. I remember the set i got as a kid (i was born in 76 so maybe 83-ish actually, i think they were matchbox though) It had a commando with a rope for grappling, also a dingy, and im pretty sure it had some sort of crawling guy with a knife. Loved all my soldiers. Many a happy hour spent playing.
Yes that was the Matchbox set. I have a video on that set as well.
ua-cam.com/video/OH6R_Sm4G8E/v-deo.html
just subscribed…. so many memories… i have to catch up. thank you.
No problems :)
As a kid, I must have had every figure set made in 1/72nd scale by Airfix, from the Romans and Robin Hood right up to WW2. Fond memories. Yes they did change the art work to ‘tone down’ the ‘violence’. Most notably on their aircraft models. Stupid marketing decision. Yes you wanted the figures or model but is was cover image that really attracted you to it.
Thank you very much again dear Doctor Airfix for this happypills in different packages 😅
For me and my son you are sitting in a real dreamworld between all those little treasures. 😳 It is unbelievable ! 😊😊👍
Doctor lol. But kidding aside glad you enjoy them.
These are the Airfix type 2 mould figures released in 1978. My favourite. This was the best type, the earlier type 1 mould was used to that point. Unfortunately this mould - type 2 seems to have been lost by Airfix and they have reverted to the inferior type 1 mould
They are the type 1 and only as far as 1/32 scale goes. But as with a bunch of 1/32 scale sets they were down scaled to 1/72 and ended up being the type 2 1/72 scale :)
These and Japanese Infantry were my favourites❤
I had those figures abot 500 of them l bought them in Woolworth back in 1982
So glad you showed off all the box variations! In between your previous Airfix soldier vid and this one, I purchased sealed 1986 14 piece sets of US paratroops, German infantry, and German paratroops, all in the brown window box (I haven’t yet received them in the mail so no hands-on just yet). I was wondering what year they were, thank you for doing this! I also scored on a nice set of 29 sealed target box US infantry! Very excited to receive them all! Very excited to have the US paratroops in matching olive green with the infantry!
So you got a bunch of the 1986 Humbrol boxes....nice. The US paras shouöd be green then instead of grey. Glad you´re getting into collecting these. It´s so much fun :)
Cheers
@@toysoldiernostalgia Very excited about the green! I’m in the US, so Marx is the more plentiful vintage toy soldier collectible over here; they did really cool paratroopers for some of their deluxe playsets (Iwo Jima, D-Day, etc.) with cool soft-plastic parachutes, but the paratroops weren’t in combat poses. These will be nice additions to the descending/landing Marx airborne units I have!
I had this set and I'm pretty sure the kneeling bren gunners did have bases, though I could be wrong. Now I'm going to have to go up in the attic and dig and find them so I know for sure! Aged 54, no plans to grow up anytime soon...
They never had bases :)
@@toysoldiernostalgia I haven't seen them for nearly 40 years so I expect my memory is playing tricks on me, but i could have sworn...
Gerry, these were groundbreaking figures in the 60's and even when I got them in 70's. The 1/72 scaled down Type 2 version is super rare as molds probably lost in France somewhere. However I see a French Humbrol boxed set on ebay now from a seller called Thougde-0 and thought of your new obsession with 1/72 Airfix.
I have a set of the type two figures but in a later box. I realy want the 1976 type box that says 38 pieces on the box. Like you say, hard to find but one day :)
Great you have a set. If only Airfix shrunk the whole 1/32 range like this, especially the western series like Atlantic did. Searching for special items is half the fun with this hobby, the other half is finding them!!! Good luck with the hunt.
Kneeling Brenn gunner was a real favourite in this set for me. Great video, love the variation and amount of packaging they came in over the years.
That is a fantastic figure for sure.
I remember these Airfix WW2 Soldier sets. I recall i got the Africa Korps and the British 8th Army sets at Christmas 1969. The following summer i got the Japanese Army set. I still have all 3 sets in my loft. I also had a few of the Germans, Americans, Russians and Britain commandos. But just individual soldiers, not the full sets.
Another memorable set and another great video mate. The prone/crawling commando was my favourite too! It brings back fond memories of the toy soldier battles I had with my friends as a kid. The officer figure is hilarious. You can just picture him cool as a cucumber aiming his Webley whilst a blazing skirmish is going on 👍
That is the set I had,always liked the ones on there bellys with the knife.great video of interest,They always beat the German set.🙂
Love that set! I had the small scale one..I think the had a ladder and a tiny rubber boat...late 70's.
Speaking oblf guns of Navarre I loblve the green army set...it goes for 300bucks here
Yes that Marx set is amazing.
The 1973 boxes were the best, strong memories, 1973 I bought my first set Japanese infantry , ending to made the collection of WWII military series, many sets I got them dowble and Trible so I made with the extra ones wonderful dioramas. Before I also had many sets of Crescent military figures.
Aha I had the Brit commandos. I remember their hats now that I see you showing them. I used a scalpel to cut away the seams.
To get those mold lines you realy need something super sharp like that. Always found the face and hands to be the hardest to get ok.
Loving this trip down memory lane - i had so many of these airfix soldiers as a child in the 70s…. Yes you are right these commandos are using Lee Enfield No4s the Australian troops are using the SMLEs…
Hello, what cool channel! I like to paint models. With the game memoir '44 came a load of toy soldiers and tanks. I painted them all. Germans. Germans ss troops, Americans , shermans and panzer IV tanks. Again in different variations. A ton of fun. Actually I played the game not that much. Maybe i try airfix too!
Wow painting all the Memoir 44 stuff is a big task. I play it quit a bit with my son and like that they have different colors so I don´t have to paint them :)
Great game.
I stumbled on your channel, and I'm so glad I did. Your Airfix and Matchbox soldiers brought back so many memories. I played with them for hours and hours. Thank you for uploading.
No problem glad you liked them.
The Grenade throwing figure is in the classic British Cricket bowling stance.
We tend to trow balls differently to Americans who use a Baseball pitching throw.
Also we drink tea 😅
I think you´re right about that. Wonder why it ended up like that?
@@toysoldiernostalgia
I could explain to you my friend but, that would involve me teaching America cricket.
You and may not live that long 🤔
High quality video production here. Your review really showed off how awesome these soldiers are!
Had two sets of these loved em!
I had forgotten the British commandoes ,i ended up with a couple of these figures ,we used to swap with friends ,so That's how i ended up with half a bag of German infantry lol ,great times ,I do remember having Japanese infantry too ,to the envy of my friends
I played with these and read comics like Warlord and the smaller softback comic strip books. Ah, the memories.
Of course they didn’t negatively affect children. Stupid to think that.
YES! Geeking out over Airfix boxes, so cool, just so cool! The commandos are amazing. Great video. Also Russian came out in orange, of all things, go figure.
Orange/brown maybe?
@@toysoldiernostalgia yes orange-brown.
Brit Cdos... A very nice set indeed!
G'day from Australia :) I certainly preferred the 28 soldiers in a box variety rather than the current 14 man sets, as when Airfix reduced the quantities, the number of poses in the boxes also decreased. This definitely happened in Afrika Corps and WW2 German Infantry boxes. Thanks for the videos.
I think the 14 soldier box was great for modelers that didn´t need many of each figure. But for kids using them to build armies it was a let down if you got that.
Wow all of a sudden I feel like 10 again. Thanks!
It´s kinda cool.
I wonder if the choice of putting a knife-bayonet with the charging soldier and a ka-bar with the prone soldier had something to do with how thin the plastic would have been if using the more correct No.4 spike bayonet and a Fairbairn Sykes commando knife?
That´s what I was thinking as well.
They managed to do the spike bayonet on the British Paratroopers set. I reckon it's just the dodgy Airfix research again.
Nice set.
Thanks :)
I started collecting as a young kid on the brown boxes, around 72-73. The Commando box artwork is sensational (along with all the others in the brown box range of the period) and I’m sure very many boxes were sold just on the basis of that. The Commando figures are amazing, they look hard as hell, just as they should! I really like the fact that that you carry a figure with you when you’re on service, a source of inspiration perhaps?
I can´t remember why I started bringing that commando with me. Maybe it was just sitting there and I stuffed it in my pocket on the way out.
So beautiful figures!! I got the Matchbox 1/76 scale miniatures 🙂
We had the HO scale soldiers in the US, the Airfix were the best, i had so many of these sets,whst great memories.
Great figures from Airfix and even better presentation. 10/10
Thanks :)
It looks like a, No 4 Mk1 the barrel seems to extend beyond the sight, where as an SMLE the muzzle is flush with the front sight. If we are getting super nerdy LOL! the Thompson that the figures are holding has the finned barrel and foregrip of the 1928 however to be correct the cocking handle should be on the top of the reciever and it is on the right hand side like a M1, sorry for inflicting that on you but you did ask.😁
Lol I like it when one can be a nerd about these things without being a hard core rivet counter.
It´s a lot of fun if you do it the right way.
Thanks for the info.
Cheers
You could also think of these as post 1942 line infantry on a recce patrol. The No.4 and the Sten gun were not typical commando weapons as the big raids were all over after Operation Chariot in 1942.
I have these guys too, but I'm only a figure collector, not a box collector. 😊
Loved those guys, liked the guy with the knife, had him taking out German sentries all over. I read the comic books too, I read Battle & Warlord, which were WWII comics in the UK.
Me and a friend did a stop motion film on my train layout. We had the prone commando sliding down a roof to take out a guy on a walk way.
I only got the Commandos set once. The 'target box'. It was great when they released the same poses in the HO/OO/1;76 set, but unfortunately the moulds for that set were lost. The commando firing the Thompson looks realistic as the gun had a tendency to rise up when you fire, so holding it down makes sense.
Yeah those 1/72 commandos are hard to find these days. I have a set in the tall box but no set in the white boxes.
between my friends and I back in the late 70's early eighties,,, the 'reading' books that went with our soldier playing were the action man books by Mike Brogan ,,, they were all kina 60-79's war films action b00ks and total airfix country... Skydrop Attack, Snow Ice & Bullets , Hold the Bridge... just off the top of my head... (Your vids are the definitive Airfix and matchbox figure homages,,, XX cool work! cheers!!)
Never heard of those books. Got to get some and have a look.
Cheers.
@@toysoldiernostalgia i got a bunch maybe 5 years ago on ebay and wasn't disappointed. They were my local libraries (alas now closed due to austerity budeget cuts) best lenders back in 1980?? ... ;o)
At first glance it seems to me the Matchbox Commandos superseed the Airfix ones.
Great overview, and very envious of the box variants. My box is the second one you showed. One of my favorite sets as a kid, probably because of the box art and those knit caps looking cool. Head injuries? No worries, mate, we're COMMANDOS! ... but I always thought it looked like the sculptor used the same model for every face. I haven't looked at my figures in decades ... maybe all the sets had the same issue? It just always struck me more with the Commando faces.
The Commandos got real good faces. The One with the tommygun was my favorite as a child, a real Westernoutlaw Type for me 🤠
Very impressive collection.
Thanks :)
One of the sets that I wish to make a comeback. Very good video, sir
Thank you :)
If you guys were avid reader of Battle Action (they keep changing it from Battle Action to just Battle, then revert to being Battle Action ) comics, The Commando They Didnt Want series should be coming to haunt your senses very soon. These figures should fit it nicely in your imaginary battle storyline of Commandor raids on the German defensive installations ..... as a ten year old of course.
South African here. I loved read Battle Action Force!
I had always had 2 of every army.
One normal and one I took my magnifying glass to and would change out normal for wounded as the battle went on.
Yea I was a weird kid and haven't changed much lol.
Another good vid. Love all the details about the box releases.
That´s great. I figure I´ll do like an in depth video in the future on all the boxes. One for the super nerds like me :)
@@toysoldiernostalgia That's a great idea! I'll be watching! Thanks for all the hard work.
I had the Germans and the British commando . I had the Russian soldiers and green American paratroopers and a few Japanese soldiers too.I'm 55 and just sold my tanks and jeeps and artillery half tracks.
I remember in my younger days I had the 8th army or desert rats also the Africa korp
Those are two great sets from Airfix.
My favourite Airfix soldier set
Mine as well.......I think lol.
They were sculpted by Ron Cameron, who also designed most of the Brtains Deetail ranges
Yup.
HAVE THEM IN BOTH SCALES ALONG WITH THE MATCHBOX ONES. SMALLER ONES GREAT FOR WARGAMES BOTH WW2 AND POST-WARS.GOOD VIDEO SIR,TAKE CARE
Cheers my friend.
Last one is my favorite. So cool. BTW: you can use hot water to straighten the weapon tips.
Hot water or steam works but I only do that if I was to paint them. :)
Great job man so cool 😎
Thanks :)
Nice explanation of the figures...Brings back good memories from my youth. (Question: Which country are you from?). Keep up the GOOD work!!😄😎👍
Sweden. You?
@@toysoldiernostalgia I'm from the Netherlands...Question: Do you also videos of 1:72 scale toy soldiers?
Cool
Weren’t toys just amazing in the 70s and 80s kids nowadays all they want to do is PlayStation Xbox we used to build model aeroplanes tanks everything playing outside we used to make home-made bow and arrow catapults. It was more exciting then . DSM. from Uk 🇬🇧
It can be today as well. It´s mainly up to parents to get their kids outside and present them with things to do outside.
My son played a lot with toy cars and toy soldiers with his friends (about 8-10 years ago). They played cowboys and rode their bikes. I think it´s more a parent problem then a kid problem.
Hobbycraft are doing these Airfix Classics sets at £8.25.
I got myself the German Infantry, US Infantry and British Paratroopers......
Yes those are the re-releases from Hornby.
Do you have Matchbox miniatures from that time? I Loved them.
Yes I have videos on all of the Matchbox 1/32 sets and will make videos on all the 1/72 as well.
Great video, lots of information about the 80s production of Airfix that I did not know. What year did you get your first Airfix soldiers?
As a kid I must have gotten my first soldiers when I was about 6. I have a photo of me and my dad painting some and in that photo my sister looks to be about 1 and then I should have been about 6 years old. As a grown up and collector I got my first set of Ebay in about 2000-2001.
If you wanted to be picky the sub machine gun ro rifle ratio is a bit excessive.
This a very tiny detail but the 1986 Commandos box art has changed the barrel length and removed the compensator from the Thompson gun on the front of the box, I wonder why?
Didn´t even notice that. I´ll have to have a look.
I had (and still have) the 1973 box. The green colour was of a slightly different hue than the regular green colour, it was a bit darker or more greyish? No idea why the Bren gunner didn't have a base plate, I tried several DIY plates but they didn't stick. I also have no idea why the commando set had two different kinds of sub machine guns (Thompson and Sten). Several smg barrels have broken off over the years (almost 5 decades now🙂) but besides that my box and its content are in relative good condition.
I would like your opinion on the Italian Infantry set. on design and production history. Thank you
I will do a video on that set after I did the 9 videos on the brown box sets.
you have all the boxes aside from the greek version , here we called them greek commandos off course , produced by solpa
I don´t collect any bootleg or copies.
@@toysoldiernostalgiathey were made by the greek army and were somewhat inferior , here in greece those are the boxes we like to collect
Nice review, but you lack the Commandos red box from the 2009-2014 edition
I think I answered this in one of the Facebook group.
But just to clarify I only collect the "classic" Airfix toy soldiers. I have a bunch of the red box (made a comparison video on them and the older figures) but I buy those to paint not collect.
I think of them more like scale model figures then toy soldiers. And probably most important they give me no sense of nostalgia.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Did/ does your interest stretch as far as, Action Man?
I had a version of Action Man that was called Big Jim. That´s something I for sure want to collect.
Does anyone know why some figures have numbers on their canteens and others don't?
The numbers are in different places. They all had one.
A few questions my friend do you paint the model soldiers which i use to do and what would be the cost of a box set of model soldiers today
I don´t paint much but it happens. A set of British Commandos in a decent target box you can pick up on Ebay for about £20-30.
@@toysoldiernostalgia thank you for responding much appreciated
You didn't read air ace and those others? Also, have you played the Airfix video game, it's lot's of fun for anyone who has built a 109 etc.
Never read those and never played that Airfix game. Maybe I should try and see if I can get it. Fun to play old PC-games.
@@toysoldiernostalgia It's definitely available. It's a flight combat Sim, but set in your house. After you get some damage, you have to fly to different glues available. It's light hearted and fun with most of the old 1/72 Airfix kits to fly.
@@darkstars-torpedoes-of-truth sounds familiar. Maybe I have played it a long time ago.
Hallo Kamerad,sammelst Du auch in 1:72 ? Napoleonik Wars
I do collect some of that stuff as well. I have a couple of the Airfix Waterloo play sets.
Airfix was right...the german men were a bit taller in average than the british or american in 1939-41...i dont know why but hey.... our tanks were bigger too... maybe thats why ;-)
So you´re saying everything was bigger in Germany :)
Are you on Facebook Please? I enjoy your programs :)
I don´t have a Facebook account linked to this channel.
Ok thank you 😊
Its a Mk4 with the wrong bayonet on
As a kid , I played with , and collected Airfix toy soldiers . I loved them . I could never understand why , some of their products were so low quality , while other were so good . Good example of this were the US Marines pack . They were absolute junk . very poor detail , looking like melted wax , while the 8th army , and Africa corps were very good . Also the Russian infantry pack were also crap detail . Why they didnt correct that either , when it was so obvious . Only collected the HO scale , for use with the Roco tanks I was also collecting at the time .
I totaly agree. realy makes no sense. Maybe someone else then Ron Cameron sculpted the German, Russian and US sets.
🍺👍🏻
Russian were reddish brown i believe
Yes kinda hard to describe the colour on those. I have a set so they will be in the video on the Russian Infantry.
The early sets of Russians were gray
Another "really cool" video.
Lol I know I end up saying cool a lot. But that´s what they are :)
@@toysoldiernostalgia Please carry on; I love your enthusiasm (and your videos!!)
'Promosm' 🤘
Toy. Solders. Vintage review
From George. I'd say that the Airfix is about the best up to this day. Everything else is second best alternatives. I'm so happy for you that you have such an excellent collection.👍🇭🇲🐨🦘✌️
Thanks man :)