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Not only a model box


Proud Kraut

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Your toys are great. I enjoyed many of the same as a kid. This summer I was in England with my son and thought it woud be great to get him some Britains only to find out they are no longer made. The toys from your attic are great. Maybe we will get lucky and a manufacturer will see this forum string and bring back these classics.

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Thanks AFBRAT, yes, I'm hoping this as well, not only for Airfix kits but also some other great toys from the past...

 

 

Great thread! Can we maybe broaden the Airfix theme a little? When I was a kid growing up in the UK in the 50s > 60s, like most boys of my age I cut my proverbial teeth on Airfix kits. They were cheap, readily available...but above all...fun to build! Then, I grew up, discovered girls, moved away from home and went to university to be educated. Making models became a thing of the past. Then...one day in the mid 70s, I was window-shopping when I happened upon a well-stocked hobby shop. My latent model-making curiosity was aroused so I went inside to take a look-see. There on the shelves were neat stacks of boxed kits bearing the familiar Airfix logo..but alongside them, even bigger stacks of boxed kits bearing an unfamiliar name/logo. Tamiya. Each box had great artwork and the subjects were wide-ranging. I took down a box which contained a 1:35 kit of an 8-wheeled SdKfz 232 armoured car. I opened the box and examined the sprues. The quality of moulding and detailing was astounding! How things had moved on in the 6 or 7 years since I last built an Airfix kit. Evidently, the Japanese product was far superior (and more expensive) I bought it and made it....my first kit in years. I enjoyed it so much I went and bought another Tamiya kit. I was hooked again and for the next 5 years became a military modeller until the models gave way to collecting the real thing...which I do to this day, some 25 years later.

 

As for Airfix? The writing was on the wall. The Japanese were producing more and better kits...then along came Italeri too! Airfix, for reasons best known to themselves, bucked the 1:35 trend and ploughed their own furrow with a limited range of 1:32 armour kits and their popular "Multi-pose" figures. Things were never quite the same again, but I hold them in great affection as an important part of my developing years.

Ian

 

 

Ian, you hit the nail on the head. Esci, Revell, Matchbox kits, Nitto, Hasegawa etc. became very popular in Germany with tons of new kits. And what did Airfix? Nothing! I'm adding a page from the 1985's Airfix catalogue. It shows the COMPLETE Airfix 1:32 and 1:72 tank, ships and figures programm. The same Tiger, that was produced since 1960, that was for sure not enough to survive. Sad but true, Airfix overslept the 1980's.

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Indeed they did Lars! If you compare a Tamiya catalog from the same period, it'll be glossy, full of tanks, planes, ships etc., and lavishly illustrated with great dioramas featuring their products...that's where Francois Verlinden got his first exposure! It was "no contest"!

 

Ian :thumbsup:

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Lars, Ian, Leo, AFBRAT et al

You guys have officially ruined my Sunday---

 

I had planned to do nothing but drink beer and watch foorball but instead, I had to traipse through the attic and back rooms of the house to take these pictures of what truly was my first mania before militaria----

and you hit hit it on the head---I had just about broken the habit of airfix when I was sent to work in the port of Yokohama jsut as the Tamiya etc models burst on the scene---I was buying them at 2 bucks a box and sending them home by the crate---who knew there were so many different japanese two seater WW2 aircraft? ---and I had to have them all---

 

check out these photos and see what you have brought back to life....arghh! now I have to go put all of them away before my wife discovers I still have all this stuff---btw; note the blue tool box with all the little compartments filled with soldiers---I have two more just as full...

 

as someone else mention here--it was quite possible for Ghurkas and the 7th cavalry to make an appearance and help the foreign legion defeat the bedouins and the russians.

 

regards, Al

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Oh dear CW4AFB...you're evidently a "lost cause"! I mean...who else would have a such a highly organised filing system for his 1:72 figures.?! Top left: "Afrika Korps"...Top right: "8th Army"...Middle row: "Machine gunners, prone, green"..."Riflemen, kneeling, brown"...etc ( Counselling may be available!)

 

 

Ian ;)

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Great thread, Lars! It's great to see other guys still in touch with their childhood. I used to have a ton of Atlantic figures. I loved those things. They had great detail and I loved the smal packs that had everything from hospital tents to ski troops! Great memories. I sold off the wargames a long time ago on E-Bay. You can only keep so much....

 

-Ski

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NOOOOOOOO, I wont stop you. YOU HAVE THE HIGH CHAPARAL COWBOY SET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That knocks my socks off..... :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Lars---glad you liked it---as you are aware, Big John, Uncle Buck and Manolito were often critical in helping the British colonials fight of the Zules and Confederate Army...

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This is a fun thread to read! Like many, my childhood interest in toy models and soldiers was the foundation for military collecting. I have built many Monogram airplane models and a assembled a few Tamiya figures, but I still like the old lead soldiers the best--hunting down figures and sets can be as elusive and rewarding as militaria. I received a handful of small Airfix paratroopers when I was younger, but to me they weren't nearly as interesting as the larger scales :D

 

-Johannes

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Lars,

 

The box art is great. I haven't seen those images in a long time. It's great that you saved them, thanks for posting them. Seeing your figures and the box art has sparked some memories. The Airfix models and figures that I played with as a kid has a rather tenuous WWII, 8th Army connection to it. I first saw Airfix kits and figures from the 3 brothers that lived down the street. Their father was a WWII veteran and their mother was an English war bride from Hull. Their Airfix collection was started when an uncle who was an 8th Army Veteran came over here to visit his sister and bought them some 00 "desert rat" soldiers and Corgi trucks from England. I can remember listening to the uncle (who's name I can't remember now) talking about being in the desert and telling us the names of the different tanks and planes. I could ID a Spitfire, and Lancaster before I knew what a Mustang and B17 was, pretty shameful for a little Yank. Their Grandmother and Mother would also on occasion talk about the Blitz, and how close the bombs had come to them. On his later visits the uncle would also include me and bring me a box of soldiers, I was a happy kid.

 

Dennis

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Wonderfull box art, can't get enough of it. Thank you very much for sharing these!

 

Lars

Hey Lars---I gotta ask, what part of Germany did you grow up in? I lived in Wiesbaden from 1959 to 63 and then again from 1967to 73. It's no lie that even after 37 years I know I could still find the model shop where I used to buy all of these kits---man, if thats not a sad trait of collector mania, I don't know what is---and pretty amazing how many other guys here have all the same shared memories----Airfix must have been the starter drug for many militaria collectors....heck, they even had "fix" in their name.

Al

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Hey Lars---I gotta ask, what part of Germany did you grow up in? I lived in Wiesbaden from 1959 to 63 and then again from 1967to 73. It's no lie that even after 37 years I know I could still find the model shop where I used to buy all of these kits---man, if thats not a sad trait of collector mania, I don't know what is---and pretty amazing how many other guys here have all the same shared memories----Airfix must have been the starter drug for many militaria collectors....heck, they even had "fix" in their name.

Al

 

Hi Al,

 

I grew up in Hessen, in the near of Marburg/Giessen (you probably will not have heard of these towns). I visited my old hometown last year and learned, that the shop where I bought my first Airfix kits, is gone long time ago. But I do agree: I believe, Airfix was one of my "primers" for militaria collecting for sure.

 

Lars

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Hi Al,

 

I grew up in Hessen, in the near of Marburg/Giessen (you probably will not have heard of these towns). I visited my old hometown last year and learned, that the shop where I bought my first Airfix kits, is gone long time ago. But I do agree: I believe, Airfix was one of my "primers" for militaria collecting for sure.

 

Lars

 

Lars---you kidding me?---heck, Giessen was only 40 miles away---we were practically neighbors. I'm going back in the attic this weekend and find some more box art for you and Ian...(and Ian, yes I probably do need therapy for compartmentalizing all those figures into separate little tool bins---it just seemed like a good idea at the time..whats worse, I didn't take a picture of how I stored all the thousand of those figures I painted---that was really obsessive/compulsive)

regards, Al

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Lars---you kidding me?---heck, Giessen was only 40 miles away---we were practically neighbors. I'm going back in the attic this weekend and find some more box art for you and Ian...(and Ian, yes I probably do need therapy for compartmentalizing all those figures into separate little tool bins---it just seemed like a good idea at the time..whats worse, I didn't take a picture of how I stored all the thousand of those figures I painted---that was really obsessive/compulsive)

regards, Al

 

I used to work in Hanau for a short time, so I got to know the area of Hessen quite well. This thread has brought back some good memories.

-Johannes

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Lars/Ian---heres some more---do you remember the Roco line of military vehicles? heres a sample....these actually came in handy later when I was an 11H30 TOW section sergeant---my gunners used these to practice friend or foe vehicle recognition---much better than those old decks of cards they gave us to study----second picture is some more airfix etc WWI aircraft covers---couldn't throw these out, heck you might need the painting directions for another model someday...I know, I know......I picked up the tin box in France about 1969---it had pictures of WWI aircraft so it became a "must have".

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and some more---the top picture shows the variety of boxes I used to store the painted 1:72 figures---no small box was ever thrown out if I was around---you can't read the labels but they run the spectrum from Romans to Napoleonics -Austrian (Infantry) and the second picture shows some more of those very cool French Starlux and Mokarex figures....

Al

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Lars/Ian---heres some more---do you remember the Roco line of military vehicles? heres a sample....these actually came in handy later when I was an 11H30 TOW section sergeant---my gunners used these to practice friend or foe vehicle recognition---much better than those old decks of cards they gave us to study----second picture is some more airfix etc WWI aircraft covers---couldn't throw these out, heck you might need the painting directions for another model someday...I know, I know......I picked up the tin box in France about 1969---it had pictures of WWI aircraft so it became a "must have".

 

 

STUNNING! Wait...I'll be back in a few minutes....

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