The Fantastic Airfix ww2 British Commandos In 1/32 Scale. 

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.

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 😅

Iconic set! That officer nonchalantly about to fire his revolver…the drawings on the covers really helped to fire the imagination too didn’t they? Thanks!

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.

I'm 68 1/2 yrs old! I remember all the Airfix kits! Better days! A+!

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.

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!

❤❤😢 I miss those days thanks for the memories

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.

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. 😊😊

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)

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 ! 😊😊👍

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

just subscribed…. so many memories… i have to catch up. thank you.

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.

High quality video production here. Your review really showed off how awesome these soldiers are!

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.🙂

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 👍

These and Japanese Infantry were my favourites❤

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.

Had two sets of these loved em!

I had those figures abot 500 of them l bought them in Woolworth back in 1982

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.

Another good vid. Love all the details about the box releases.

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.

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…

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...

Very impressive collection.

So beautiful figures!! I got the Matchbox 1/76 scale miniatures 🙂

Wow all of a sudden I feel like 10 again. Thanks!

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

One of the sets that I wish to make a comeback. Very good video, sir

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

Great job man so cool 😎

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.

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 🤠

Great figures from Airfix and even better presentation. 10/10

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 😅

We had the HO scale soldiers in the US, the Airfix were the best, i had so many of these sets,whst great memories.

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!!)

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 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.

Nice set.

Brit Cdos... A very nice set indeed!

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.

At first glance it seems to me the Matchbox Commandos superseed the Airfix ones.

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.😁

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?

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.

Cool

They were sculpted by Ron Cameron, who also designed most of the Brtains Deetail ranges

Nice explanation of the figures...Brings back good memories from my youth. (Question: Which country are you from?). Keep up the GOOD work!!😄😎👍

Last one is my favorite. So cool. BTW: you can use hot water to straighten the weapon tips.

My favourite Airfix soldier set

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

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.

I remember in my younger days I had the 8th army or desert rats also the Africa korp

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 🇬🇧

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?

Hobbycraft are doing these Airfix Classics sets at £8.25. I got myself the German Infantry, US Infantry and British Paratroopers......

Do you have Matchbox miniatures from that time? I Loved them.

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?

I would like your opinion on the Italian Infantry set. on design and production history. Thank you

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.

you have all the boxes aside from the greek version , here we called them greek commandos off course , produced by solpa

If you wanted to be picky the sub machine gun ro rifle ratio is a bit excessive.

Nice review, but you lack the Commandos red box from the 2009-2014 edition

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

Does anyone know why some figures have numbers on their canteens and others don't?

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 ;-)

Did/ does your interest stretch as far as, Action Man?

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.

Are you on Facebook Please? I enjoy your programs :)

🍺👍🏻

Hallo Kamerad,sammelst Du auch in 1:72 ? Napoleonik Wars

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 .

Russian were reddish brown i believe

Another "really cool" video.

'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.👍🇭🇲🐨🦘✌️