All Gauge Page and Army Men Homepage Hobby Blog: Marines

Saturday, April 14, 2018

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

Monday, November 6, 2017

BMC Iwo Jima Marines and Japanese in Marx-compatible colors.

Some years ago, I bought the Iwo Jima playset by BMC. That was when it was first released. I liked it then. The ground base was cool, and the LVT and Sherman tank looked good. Though I liked the poses and detail, I thought the colors of the Japanese figures were a bit too orange. The Marines were a lighter OD shade. I later acquired more of the sage-green Marines and tangerine-colored Japanese.

The new Add-on set issued by BMC has 14 Japanese (2 of each pose), 12 Marines (1 of each pose) plus the six-man Iwo Jima flag-raising diorama. The figures have not changed. One thing that has changed is the availability of the Iwo Jima figures in new colors. responding to customer suggestions, BMC offers this set in both the original colors and in colors that are more compatible with Marx, Tim Mee, MPC and Lido troops. These new colors are a darker green for the Marines and a khaki tan for the Japanese.

What a difference color makes! Both Marine and Japanese figures look great in these colors. The colors make the details stand out better. Frankly, I like these Japanese troops better than the Airfix counterparts. Ditto for the Marines. The Airfix 1/32 Japanese and Marines are okay, but the BMC figures are better. As good as the Marx recast Japanese Infantry figures are, BMC’s Japanese troops have better detail. They might not have as many poses, but the BMC figures are much better detailed. BMC Japanese have 7 poses, Marx’s set has 12.

Many people do not know that the originals were made as painted metal figures by King & Country. BMC licensed the figures for the Iwo Jima Playset.

The set itself has plenty of firepower. Japanese forces have riflemen supported with light machine gunners and “knee mortars”. US Marines have riflemen, BAR gunners, a flamethrower and a bazooka. There is also a peculiar figure of a Marine in life jacket standing on box. He was supposed to ride wither in he landing craft or the LVT.

Consider it a plus that the Iwo Jima Marines and Japanese are affordable, quality figures. List price is $12.20 a bag. That includes 12 Marines, 14 Japanese and an Iwo Jima flag-raising piece with six more figures. Man for man, that is less than the average price for Marx recasts. Get while the getting is good!

The BMC set has enough troops for a game of OMOG Advanced, by the way. That would place 12 on the US side and 14 for the Japanese.
*****

So how do these new “Marx compatible” colors measure up against the old ones? Let’s take a look! I have plenty in the older colors: light (Sage) green Marines and orange-tan (Tangerine) Japanese. The darker Green Marines and Tan Japanese look much better than their light green and Tangerine counterparts. See for yourself!