Brief Breakdown of Hobbies and the Trade War Tariffs

  1) Most manufacturers of both toy soldiers and model trains are inextricably locked into Chinese manufacturing.

2) The days of low prices for Chinese-made hobby goods ended about ten years ago.

3) A trade war with high tariffs on Chinese hobby goods (20% to 30%) will jack prices 25% to 35%. The extra 5%  is the cost of re-pricing, producing new price lists, additional customs costs, etc. Your $450 locomotive is going to cost $550 to $650. Your box of soldiers is going to go from $15 to $20.

3) Lionel Trains has started making some of its goods in North Carolina. Tim Mee is made in the USA. AIP has moved back to the USA. Hasbro is backing out of China.  MTH, Bachmann, RMT, BMC, LOD, and most of Lionel is made in China. While some production could be moved to Korea, it will still be a costly thing. Moving production will require retooling, setting up facilities, hiring and training staff, etc. That takes time and money.

4) Everything is going to be utter chaos until the dust settles.

5) Either way, you (the hobbyist) lose.

The manufacturers should have heeded a time-honored piece if advice:

Don’t put your eggs in one basket!

BMC Juno Beach and Iwo Jima Marines

BMC recently added tow new soldier sets to its repertoire. First is Juno Beqach, a set of Canadian infantry versus German coastla defenders. Second is a new, bigger bag of Iwo Jima Marines in OD colored plastic.

The Juno Beach set uses figures from BMC’s D-Day playset. The Canadian figures are casts of the D-Day British figures in olive drab plastic. The bagpiper is omitted. There twenty figures in seven poses. Eleven Germans in gray oppose them. The set also has a rock formation and an old-style Canadian flag.

Historically, Canadian uniforms were dark green. The dyes were more stable used by the British, so that Canadian uniforms remained green even when faded. British-made uniforms tended to fade to a brown drab.

As with the Iwo Jima Marines, color makes a big difference. The Canadians in olive drab look much better than the light tan used for British troops. The Juno Beach set makes a nice addition to the D-Day playset.

Speaking of the Iwo Jima Marines, BMC now offers a bagged set of 36 figures. It comes without the flag raising diorama and has no Japanese. Just Marines. These are cast in olive drab. As I have noted in a previous review, the olive drab looks much better than the sage green that was originally used for the Marines. It is a set of quality, well-detailed World War II figures at a good price.

Large bag of BMC Marines

You can order these from Victory Buy - click here






 

Review: BMC Army Camp Equipment set

The Army Camp Equipment set by BMC is a reissue of the Marx originals. These were included in many of the Marx playsets. They were also copied by Payton and Tim Mee. The set includes three tents, two sets of stacked rifles, garbage cans, a recoilless rifle (looks to be the 75mm M20), a Bazooka, a .50 caliber machine gun, and an oversize water-cooled machine gun. A nice assortment of accessories for army men.

The tents and stacked rifles make for a nice bivouac scene. The heavier weapons have other uses. For instance, the Shambattle games call for each side having two machine guns and a cannon. One set of the Camp Equipment arms one side! The set also works well for OMOG, providing heavy weapons and camp accessories. They make excellent markers for battle games.

The .50 caliber machine gun is pretty good for a toy. Though the tripod is not realistic, the gun itself is surprising. The carrying handle on the barrel and the sight at as they should be. (If you have ever fired one of these weapons, you know what I mean.)

The recoilless rifle can be used “as is” or mounted on a vehicle. With more range and accuracy than a bazooka. the recoilless rifle was very popular with the troops.

I took one picture of the Camp Equipment with the recently-released BMC World war II soldiers. They look good together.

You can get the BMC Army Camp Equipment here  https://victorybuy.com/collections/bmc-toys

OMOG can be downloaded here: http://www.thortrains.net/milihistriot/downloads.html

and Here: http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/sandygme.htm

Review: Classic Tim Mee World War II Soldiers

BMC and Tim Mee have been bringing a lot of classic figures back to market. A few months back, they offered recasts of the Lido Combat Soldiers. Now they have issued copies of the Tim Mee World War II soldiers. The set has 11 poses and is cast in olive drab plastic. There are 28 figures in the bag.

These figures did not come from original Tim Mee molds. Back in the old days, two other companies offered their own copies of the Tim Mee figures: Dell and D&K. Jeff Imel, owner of BMC, managed to acquire the D&K mold. The result is a new run of classic figures for a new generation of collectors.

The Tim Mee World War II figures, as well as the Dell and DK copies, were very common  in the 1950s and 1960s. Bags of them could be found in toy stores, 5 & 10s, candy stores and general stores. The only figures as common were Lido “flat feet”. (Marx was only sold in a few select stores.) At less than a buck a bag, you got a lot. There were many poses of infantry in the Tim Mee set. More often than not, there was also another items. A Jeep, a cannon, maybe even a “deuce and a half” truck. Many also came with a paper flag on a thin wooden dowel with a round plastic base that simulated cobblestone.

One thing that made the Tim Mee soldiers desirable was their bases. Lido figures tended to fall over. Tim Mee soldiers stayed up until you deliberately knocked them down.

The D&K copies are a little smaller than those from the Tim Mee mold. Some say they are less detailed, but they look okay to me. Keep in mind I have handled these figures since the 1950s. Good is good, and they are as good now as they were 60 years ago. The Combat Soldiers are toy soldiers. They were never intended to be 100% accurate military miniatures.

These troops look like American soldiers circa 1944 - 1955.  They are great for World War II and the Korean War. We used to have these with the Tim Mee Jeeps and cannons and the Army trucks. This is a good set of soldiers to fill in your collection.


Here is what I got in mine

5 guys with bayonet
5 guys with bayonet overhead
5 officers with pistol
3 minesweepers
2 submahcien gunner
2 marchers
2 heavy machien gunners
1 grenade guy
1 crawling guy
1 prone shooter
1 radio guy

Apparently, you get at least one of each pose. The additional 17 figures are picked randomly, just like they did in the old days.

Soldiers with the Tim Mee Jeep and Cannon

Size is a little smaller than the original Tim Mee figures. The figures are mostly in the 55mm range, with the marcher 62mm from head to foot. Compare sizes with a full-size minesweeper.

Of course, they fit very well with those classic Tim Mee Jeeps and cannons. (And I remember that we used to try to fit the radio guys in the seats.)

Painting? I have the Castings Inc / REB 3 cavity metal molds that make copies of Tim Mee World War II soldiers.  Painting them is rather straightforward. But then, these are classic army men, so paint is not required.

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To get a feel of the old times I would pair these guys with the Tim Mee reissue Jeeps and cannons. That is how we used to get them. Bags often  included a cannon, jeep or other item.  Remembering back, those were perhaps the most common toy soldier cannons. For Civil War sets, Tim Mee took the same cannon and put red spoked wheels on them.
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For OMOG Advanced, these figures make a good all-around infantry squad. The machine gun provides heavy weapons fire. You have an officer, a submachine gunner NCO and several riflemen.

The Dell mold has twelve figures. Unlike the DK mold, It does not have the mine sweeper. Dell has the other ten poses plus the bazooka man and man charging gas mask.

These Combat Soldiers are available from Victory Buy at https://victorybuy.com/collections/bmc-toys

Review Part II - BMC D-Day Soldiers

Now we come to the second part of this review:

The BMC D-Day Playset comes with plenty of soldiers representing three armies: USA in olive drab, Germany in gray,  and Great Britain in light tan. Figures are in the 54mm to 60mm range. I first came across these figures about 20 years ago when I bought the original D-Day Playset at Toys R Us.

Here are the troops by country:

24 American Infantrymen with Gen. Teddy Roosevelt Junior

22 Germans (with Rommel figure)

12 British including a Scot playing bagpipes

That is a total of 58 figures. Indeed, a good amount of men for a playset this size. Troops also have enough heavy weapons. The Germans have two mortar crews and a couple of machine-gun teams. US forces have a couple of heavy machine-guns, bazookas. flamethrowers, BARs and mortar men. Granted, the bazooka man is lying down dead. The British have a BAR gunner

US Soldiers: Machine Gunner, BAR gunner, grenade thrower

One thing about the current batch of soldiers is that the plastic is a bit stiff. I am surprised only one rifle was broken in transit.

There is a good assortment of poses. One glaring problem stands outs. The sculpting ranges from mediocre to poor

US GIs: bazooka man (dead?_, kneeling BAR gunner. kneeling rifleman

Rifleman, casualty, mortar and mortar man, officer

General Teddy Roosevelt Junior pointing with stick, machine-gun loader, flamethrower operator (prone)

Generic mortars for US and German crews

I have had or seen most Army Men since Ajax and Plasticraft. Only a few feet from where I sit are bags of Tim Mee M16 troops, Lido World War II type infantry and a bag of the BMC Iwo Jima Marines and Japanese. To be honest, the D-Day troops are some of the most awkward sculpts I have ever seen. Immediately noticeable are the ill-fitting helmets.

German rifleman, grenade thrower, kneeling with submachine gun

German mortar men

German casualty, General Rommel (resembles like the Matchbox figure - best sculpt in the set)

German casualty, machine gunner and loader

Some of the figures could be improved by a head-swap. There is a real mixed bag when it comes ot quality among these figures.

Jeff Imel, BMC’s current owner, told me he will continue to produce these figures. Having new molds made would be too expensive.  Perhaps there is someway the existing molds could be altered to mitigate the worst of the sculpting. 

British Infantry: 3 riflemen and Bren gunner. Note the short rifles.

Rifleman, officer with Thompson submachine gun, Scot with bagpipes. 

You can get the D-Day playset through Amazon.com or BMC Toys' website. If the set is temporarily out of stock, you can usually by components of it separately.

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Review BMC D-Day Playset - Part 1

Part I - Terrain, Boats and accessories

20 Years Later

I first saw the D-Day playset by BMC some 20 years ago. The set was sold at Toys R Us. I had also bought the Rough Riders set there. Both were a pretty good set, all in all. There were three pillbox bunkers with AAA guns, a bombed out Norman farmhouse, barbed wire fences and beach obstacle. The landing craft were excellent. My only complaint concerned the soldiers. The set included American, British and German figures. The sculpting was less than mediocre.

Jeff Imel, current owner of BMC, sent me his reissue of the D-Day set for review. The box art is new. Also new are stickers for the landing craft and pillboxes. Everything else is there, too: Dragon’s teeth and Czech hedgeghog beach obstacles, barbed wire fences, and rock piles are the obstacles. Three pillboxes, each sporting AAA guns, and a bombed out Norman house are the structures. The Higgins boats are excellent and sized right for 54mm to 60mm soldiers. And the soldiers themselves have not changed. There are also a dozen small sandbag piles.

1 Norman house
3 bunkers with AAA guns with stickers
2 Higgins boats with stickers
3 barbed witre sections over 12" long
12 Dragon’s teeth tank obstacles
12 Czech Hedhog obstacles
12 small Sand bag positions
3 rock piles
3 flags -US, British, German
American infantry
British Infantry
German infantry
4 mortars (2 each for US and German infantry)
Tray-type box

Includes 3 pillboxes with flak guns

The Good News

I first must admit a bias. I have had the Marx playsets as well as similar products by MPC, Tim Mee and Ideal going back to when I was a little boy. I am also an experienced model builder and figure painter going back many years. I got my “basic training” building the old Aurora monster models and painting ROCO minitanks and Airfix soldiers. I know what is good when it comes to scenery, terrain, vehicles, boats, heavy weapons and soldiers. Therefore, I am prone to err on the side of my experience. And yes, I can be fussy about authenticity and detail.

Set includes 2 Higgins Boats, and they are big

The whole tenor of World War II playsets is altered significantly by this set. Those of us who grew up with a mix of soldiers, offscale vehicles and an odd medley of terrain are in for a surprise. Everything in this set fits  scales ranging from 1/35 to 1/29 (50mm to 60mm). There are no undersized vehicles. Terrain pieces are also consistent. In place of the handful of undersized landing boats and vehicles, this set has two large, realistic landing craft. The little barbed wire fence sections common to the old Marx sets are not here. Instead, three long sections of barbed wire fencing cover at least three feet of play battlefield. There are three realistic pillbox bunkers with antiaircraft guns on the roof. And then there is the Norman farmhouse in full scale. The set also includes anti-tank and beach obstacles.

Barbed Wire pictured with my Homecast figures, 54mm - 60mm

Dragon's teeth and Czech hedgehogs

Sandbags pictured with my homecast soldiers, 54mm troops

Yes, it is a playset, but for those of us in the toy soldier hobby, this one is for the big boys.

For those doing skirmish gaming with 54mm figures, the D-Day Playset is a great asset. It provides the kind of accessories that are needed for games. They make game set-up faster, too.

I cannot stress enough how much I like these large, realistic landing craft.

The Bad News

A few concerns. The house is difficult to assemble. The plastic is too hard and the snap-joiners are awkward. Putting it together, it flew apart like the old Lionel exploding boxcar. I prefer to cut off some of the snaps and use glue.

The soldiers use a stiff plastic. I am surprised that only one arrived with a broken rifle. Sculpting is poor. Some of the US and German figures could be salvaged with head-swaps from more proportional figures.

Pillbox pictures with my painted homecast 54mm - 60mm figures

Overall assessment

The D-Day Playset by BMC offers toy soldier collectors, modelers and wargames a variety of good accessories, scenery and equipment. These is raw material for diorama-makers and lots of goodies for skirmish gamers There is also consistency insofar as scale. Granted, these are toys, but they are some of the most realistic, scale toys in the plastic soldier hobby.

The two concerns do not diminish the D-Day playsets’s value to the toy soldier hobbyist. Get while the getting is good.

Stickers for landing craft

D-Day Pillbox Stickers

Some advice

For sci-fi fans: the barbed wire can be used a laser-barriers. Paint the upright posts black or dark metallic “gunmetal”. Paint the horizontal “wires” in day-glo colors. Shades of Forbidden Planet!  A ray-beam barrier to beat the band!

For troops debarking the landing craft, the Marx 54mm Marines have a lot of running poses. Most of the BMC poses for American and German troops are soldiers in place

You can use the landing craft, barbed wire and bunkers (without AAA guns) for landings against Japanese forces. BMC’s Iwo Jima Marines and Japanese are perfect for this. Even better, add these to the BMC Iwo Jima playset.


Tomorrow- Part II: Day Playset Soldiers

Tim Mee Recon Patrol armored cars

Lockheed XM800W

Just received: the Tim Mee “Recon Patrol: Armored Scout vehicles” set. These are based on the Lockheed XM800W, a three-axle vehicle introduced in 1972. The Tim Mee version has one less axle.

The Lockheed xm800w was one of the vehicles submitted for testing for the Cavalry. By 1975, the project was cancelled and none of Lockheed’s vehicles was accepted.

The armored car featured a 20mm auto cannon.

Tim Mee has been making these since 1978. You can see the appeal.  They have a “space age” look to them.

Overall, this is an interesting design. The roof hatch being small, was it meant for discarding spent ammo? I wonder. The driver’s hatch is like a type that swivels to allow the driver to get in or out. Armament is obviously an auto-cannon and could be anything in the 30mm to 30mm caliber. Molded on are pioneer tools and other equipment.

The Tim Mee armored cars look good in tan or green. They are clearly meant for soldiers in the 50mm to 60mm sizes.

Now my wicked mind goes to work. The turret could be altered or removed to allow a larger gun or recoilless rifle, making the car a light tank destroyer. Pop the turret and with a little work you have an open-top command car. You could also mount katyusha type rockets.

The armored car could also be a futuristic sci-fi vehicle. A little work can render that cannon into a large ray gun. One might also make it a rocket launching vehicle. Paint it white with black markings and you have an Imperial Stormtrooper support vehicle. Use other colors, and you can have a land car for the Galaxy Laser team figures. All you would need is a cunning paint job to make a Klingon battle car. Use your imagination.

Sci fi fans might consider weird looking tires to complete the effect.

A sharp hobbyists can convert these cars into an entire fleet of combat vehicles including standard cars, anti-tank defense, command cars, armored ambulances and indirect-fire rocket batteries.

There are many other ways to enhance the cars. Camouflage will look great on them. Woodland, jungle, desert and winter camo schemes can be applied. Details are prominent enough  that they can also be painted, right down to the straps,

Obviously, the Tim Mee armored cars are one of the more attractive vehicles for the toy soldeir hobby.

The cars come with stickers. Jeff Imel has done a lot of work adding stickers to both Timmee and BMC products. Hard to see in photos, the stickers include thee large and six small stars and three serial number panels in OD green.

These are cool modern recon vehicles. I also like their potential for sci-fi skirmish gaming.

Presently, you can order yours here: https://www.amazon.com/TimMee-RECON-PATROL-Armored-Cars/dp/B076ZQCRN3

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Armored cars like these are generally used for reconnaissance and infantry support. They are lightly armored and generally lightly armed, although some anti-tank versions have heavier guns. The armored cars are made for speed. Classic armored cars include the German SD Kfz 222 and 234 series, the German “Puma”, British “Saladin” and American “M8 Greyhound.” The modern Stryker vehicles are eight-wheeled armored cars used as personnel carriers wit ha few heavily-armed support versions.