Great book! I was crazy about these little soldiers from the middle of the 70's. Now i own huge collection, except old Atlantic, they're quite difficult to get. But Airfix was the first and forever love.
Lovely just to ponder at the box art, I used to buy Airfx figures in the 70s when they were 19p from Woolworths .My whole childhood summed up just looking at this video , many thanks for the post so nostalgic.
Used to spend my pocket money every week on a box , 60.s and 70s , the amount I had filled carrier bag plus the 1.32 scale and trucks etc , wish had kept them
Been collecting Airfix figures since the early 1970's (I think WW1 RHA were my first set). Always bought the yearly catalogues but I would say this is the best publication I have seen on the subject. Bought my first copy about 10 years ago for about £10 when it was first released and recently saw a second hand copy on Amazon which was about £250. Just glad I bought my copy when I did! Great review of a great book on this subject and hobby.
Growing up in the late 70s & 80s Airfix was my favorite line of unpainted plastic toy soldiers and still are. My favorite line of prepainted plastic toy soldiers is Britains Deetail. I only wish Airfix had 1/32 scale soldiers for all those that they did in 1/72 scale.
In the 1960s had all the WW2 (including the original British Infantry, which were post war with the bullpup rifle). The Wagon Train set was handy for fleshing out Napolionics with camp followers etc (women other, than a couple of Amazon sets and the lone Maid Marion in the Robin Hood set, are rare in toy soldier sets and the wagon could be easily moded to a 2-wheel cart). The Civilians could be iused as refugees, farm hands (to go with the farm animals) etc. These were proper toy soldiers so they included items not mentioned in 'wargame rules', for example although medical personnel were a feature of any WW2 battlefield these days no one does a stretcher bearer set (Esci have the chap supporting a wounded mate and Zvezda do a nice little medics set). These days I make up toy soldier sets to give away and I'm currently painting up some Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood sets to go with a crib of the Airfix castle made from 2mm card and bits. Thus far the sets have gone down well, kids it seems haven't changed.
The prices for some of these boxes of figures is unbelievable . The Civilian figures you mention go for over £40 now and that's not including postage . l remember buying them for a couple of shillings back in the'60's .
Just found your video,my goodness what wonderful memories it brought back. Getting the Airfix pontoon bridge for Xmas,endless hours playing with these soldiers. I stupidly got rid of the boxes and put them all in separate tins for safe keeping.i also have a large collection of the 1/32 Airfix soldiers, Australian, Japanese,Germans etc, again no boxes but all in excellent condition.now I'm much older and my kids are late teenagers hopefully I'll have more time to get back into this hobby, thanks again for the excellent video
I bought this book a few years ago, and it is wonderful. The section on rival companies is very useful, although less detailed than the main section on Airfix. Oddly, the large range of figures by Revell Germany is not mentioned, although companies such as Atlantic and ESCI are covered. MPC was an American company, they were most famous for their 1/25th scale car kits - they also marketed Airfix kits in the US.
Used to play with these when l was a kid in the '60's . Now l use them for 1/72 diorama's . Anyone remember" Mini Tanks" ? they were in a smaller scale than 1/76 and came complete but could be taken apart and reassembled . The detail on them was really good for such tiny models hence the reason l collected them ...Happy days .
Really outstanding walkthrough. I've been trying to find this book for some time, but here in the US, it's going for about $!30. Your review game me a great idea of what's in it. I'll still get it at some point in the future, but now -- thanks to your review sating my curiosity of what's in it - I don't have the obsessive need to get it as soon as possible. Thanks for going over every page.
i was just thinking how much of that stuff mysteriously disappeared over the years. I must have had a thieving mate. It was always the special bits that went missing... that sentry box, the cowboy wagon and others. and plenty of soldiers that went MIA 😀😀😀
A great review. Like others I had many of these troops back in the 70's. Whole armies full of them. The first one I got was the Astronaut set about 1971/72 and then WWI French Infantry a few years later. They would frequently go into battle against my friend's WWII Germans.
Just ordered a Forces of Valor 2009 catalog. 80+pages for $100 US. It will be right at home in my FOV display case. When we were young we did things that became our memories. How that we are old, we sit back and enjoy them.
Airfix was Magic (from aged eight)..... Battlefield accessories always missing (Esci produced some much later on). Model Wargaming moved from plastic 20mm (1/72nd), to metal 25 and then 28mm, which is far better to handle. Wonderful selection of models though. But where was the Black Arrow Rocket and Prospero Satellite set (launched from Woomera 28th October 1971), you missed out there Airfix, though you did make up much later with the fabulous T.S.R. - 2 kit - now where's the ruddy 1/72nd kit - I'll buy five tomorrow... (TSR-1 was in fact the Fairy Swordfish Biplane - as in 'Sink the Bismark' fame - Torpedo Strike Reconnaissance, though as opposed to 'Tactical S.R. - come on R.A.F. where is T.S.R. - 3 ?????). Airfix never produced a Canadian Avro Arrow model either - the 'only other aircraft in the history of aviation to be destroyed because the U.S.A. was afraid of the competition........
Nice book! You turned a page and all of a sudden I realized I once had the German (pointed helmets) and British WWI sets. No idea how old I was when I had them though.
mpc (model products corporation) started making model car kits and reboxed airfix kits since the 1960's. there is another mpc (multiple products corporation) that made army men soldiers and tanks since the 1950's.
Nice little book. I see it's published by Histoire and Collections, that explains both the quality and the price. I'll have to bite the bullet and get a copy one day for my collection. Thanks again for the preview.i
Its interesting where Airfix is going in the future with there toy soldier production.They have reissued some of there 1/72 as of late but no 1/32 sets.
I been trying to find the 1/32 Australian Infantry set at a reasonable price but no luck.The recent red-box set is all but sold out for quite a long time now.I sure hope they do a run of them again soon.
2:16 I just had to go and fish my one out of the closet and it's sitting on my desk right now :-) I think it was supposed to be the Panzerbüchse 41 taper bore. I hunted down and swapped or begged for it off a friend as a kid as the newer German Infantry was already being released. A shame Airfix didn't so a German heavy weapons set for us wargamers back in the days when Featherstone and Grant were writing most of the rule sets. I brought all my wargaming stuff with me when I moved to Asia, but these days everyone is using 1/100th scale.
Was always bewildered by the German cannon as I couldn’t find anything about it in books at the time. Looked far too big for infantrymen to carry by themselves. In the end, for wargaming purposes I classed it as a 2cm anti-tank gun but was never very happy with it. Considering it was released just 20 years after the war, amazing to think how little was known about German military gear.
Ahhhh, the 70's. When all a kid needed was Airfix, Combat with Vic Morrow, a fistful of Commando comics and for their mum to stop playing ABBA all bloody day.
Airfix was great for miniature soldiers...but really best known for the quality of it's plane kits. I purchased many Atlantic boxes in the late 1970s and, in the mid 1980s, ESCI diaporamas which Airfix did not do. ESCI was a major competitor in the 1980s. It's figurines were superior....
they never did a big soldier book ,,,,,, ? - I never owned the stalingrad etc dioramas but from memory there was 2 sides to it - pressed 'thin' plastic diorama / battlefield for laying troops out on , little bit different to the assault sets which were usually more robust hard plastic kits am pretty sure tho growing up in 70s UK that Airfix was vast majority of soldiers in the boys collection - maybe a few had matchbox , but was a bit like it compared to bbc
@@TOYSOLDIERREVIEW My favorite set is the Modern British Infantry. One of the toy soldiers of this set fell into my hands in 1981. I was amazed at the quality.
Thanks for sharing these videos. Really enjoyable. I have all the Airfix battle sets but i collect Zvezda. Question: In the section Airfix Competition did i miss Zvezda ? It should have been listed as top competitor. Zvezda products from Ancient to Medieval to Napoleonic and modern soldiers for 1/72 scale is unmatched when it comes to quality of the products. I am surprised if its not included. For those of you who would like to view their products as well as Airfix and others here is the link: www.plasticsoldierreview.com/
Not mentioned at all in the book but it's possible zvedza were not old enough as a company to be competitive or due to the world the way it was in Airfixs heyday (cold war)
