POST JAPANESE, MARINE AND BBI FIGURE FINDS & DISCUSSION

[digger]

Aferg is right - they will eventually be in good supply. At the moment it may be like the Japanese - WM first, but that's OK.
Razor - can you confirm that they did mess with the hair color & faces, or are the heads exactly the same?
I know in addition to the new Camo they have new color gear and packs which can be swapped out with the S1 guys for variety.

[Razor17019]

Digger-
Just took a quick look at them before they were put into layaway at WM.
Did notice that Dizzy had dark hair and the equipment was more a light tan then olived drab green like the S1 Marines.

[mediump]

Do the S2 marines have any different articulation?
I noticed the pictures of the japs on the S1 marines card show 'old' articulation, and was just hoping the marines would be improved

[fredricchio]

Nope, same articulation as the first series, but I would expect all the figures from here on out would be like the Japanese figs, at least.

[kevrut]

S1- Tommy Brit has blonde hair.
S2- Tommy Brit had brown hair.

[DVSk89]

I just got my bbi paratroops and they're pretty cool. The only problem is posing the arms 2 hold the gun right. I can't really get it so it looks like hes holding it straight or aiming. I broke cleary's garand trying to pose his arms heh...They come with belts on them too. The weird thing is on the back of the box it shows the paratroopers with their front packs facing outward, but mine has the pack facing inward I'm not sure if they messed up or if its supposed to be like that. I thought the arms were so dissapointing though, now i really appreciate the extra arms that 21st century put on their action figures now. i give them a 7/10.

[digger]

The weird thing is on the back of the box it shows the paratroopers with their front packs facing outward, but mine has the pack facing inward I'm not sure if they messed up or if its supposed to be like that. I thought the arms were so dissapointing though, now i really appreciate the extra arms that 21st century put on their action figures now. i give them a 7/10.

The packs are supposed to face inward so not to interefere with the chute. It is one of many small details they got right
I agree you don't know what you've got till it's gone like the extra arms in firing position The USMC, Japanese & Paras are all lousy shots If it's too expensive to pack in extra arms then at least one guy in every series has to be ready to fire

Note - as Ranger pointed out you can pluck the straps off their shoulders and stick them back on w/o destroying the figure

[aferguson]

i'm still using leftover extra arms from the first series xd figures for custom work. They were the best...

[DVSk89]

ohh thats cool you can take off the straps.

[rmoore456]

S2 Marines have landed in Normal, Illinois. Marked at clearance of $3.00.

Ray

[digger]

S2 Marines have landed in Normal, Illinois. Marked at clearance of $3.00.

Ray

Damn....I would clean them out.....

[mwanz]

Ranger: Found droves of the new Marines in the Ft Myers Walmart. I was looking for the japanese.

[KAMIKAZE]

Found about 15 S2 Marines in San Antonio today.

Mark

[Plastic Spastic]

Found the Paras and a Corsair at TRU Eastland. Corsair is pretty cool but the landing gear are mushy when it comes to locking in the down position; they don't. The landing gear door panels that are attached to the landing gear struts don't like to stay on at all and interfere with the gear piovting forward. The prop snaps into the engine with a lego technic style slotted compression flange system that allows for no easy spinning of the prop, and were the hole hollowed out a bit the short length of the "axle" would make it wobbly as hell. The detailing on the plane is pretty cool, with lots of lights executed as clear or colored plastic lenses set in the wings and a couple of standout areas are the slightly moveable door ( I think for an oil cooler) on the bottom of the fuselage. The clear windows underneath the pilot's feet are very detailed and quite an impressive area of the plane, as is the very detailed cockpit. Both of these areas have extra detail added that you can see inside the plane from the outside. The landing gear themselves are a little soft on detail, and the tail wheel, which is always hard to get right on WWII tail draggers, many of which were thin solid rubber tires, still seems a little heavy on rim to rubber ratio, kind of like the discomfort you feel when talking to someone with a little more gums than teeth; proportions just don't quite seem right. The mechanism of the tail wheel doesn't allow the wheel to poke down slightly through the wheel slot in the doors when raised, but that's probably a beast to engineer in the toy. Can't remember if 21st's does this. The tail hook detail is kind of soft at the hook. Unlike 21st's F4U, the wing folds haven't broken within my first 5 folding operations. The joints however are big nylon affairs that require sliding in addition to pivoting to get the wings up, leaving a huge area of unrealsitic plastic showing. Getting those wing outer panels snapped onto the center panel scared the hell out of me, it was almost as bad as removing my stuka's wings. Go slow and thing about your happy place as you perform this step. Two struts are provided to tie the wings to the fuse, which is a nice touch, but the pegs on the struts are too large for their holes and as they are rubbery, will mushroom before they will pop in. The seperate pitot is a nice touch to avoid breakage in store and the tank pylons have caps to cover the tank mounting pegs when the tanks are not used but the pylons are. The rockets are well done but the mounting struts are molded into the rockets. This is bush league, below BBI, 21st and maybe even PTE. Sure the old-school G.I. Joe barbel shaped hole in the rocket was kind of lame but at least I didn't have to look at rocket mounting struts sticking out of my rocket as I did close up POV shots of the plastic missiles heading toward their targets. I think it might be pretty easy to sacrifice two rockets to get seperate struts and rockets to cast as replacements. The moveable control surfaces are a joke; they should really have been molded with the wing as badly as the joints were executed. I can't remember if any 1/18 airplane from either company has ever had decent articulation of control surfaces, and I hate how they pick a few surfaces to "articulate" and leave the others molded solid with the airfoils. I think the stabilators on the two BBI jets roll if I remember correctly. Toy Cos. : If you do articulated surfaces, shoot for rudder, elevators/stabiliators, ailerons and flaps. If you wanna go varsity and scare the hell out of us with your prowess, get some leading edge slats and speed brakes to move, but don't do any of it if it's not going to work. Do not try cowl flaps as unless you are that brazilian dentist from FSM doing it in metal you will not make it work. The overall paint is pretty good; I seem to have read that it might not be a "real" plane that really flew. That's disappointing if true but it didn't keep me from buying it. The 1943 red surrounds are pretty striking and the 3 color scheme is done fairly well. It could have used a little more weathering but given the QC problems with 1/18 scale plane weathering it's probably best that they didn't go any further than they did. I already have one poorly factory weathered F4U in my inventory. The pilot is pretty cool, BBI has leapfrogged 21st's Pacific pilot just like they did with the USAAF pilot with the mustang. I had read that he has cap, goggle, and mask. He has a fabric flying cap with goggles and dangling chin strap molded into it as one piece. That and a removeable chute pack are his only accessories.
As for the paras. I'm really easing out of the toy buying game for a lot of reasons: spending more time and money on film making and design, growing up a bit maybe, and generally getting sick of the poor performance of toy companies and retailirs in getting stuff I want into the stores. As a result, I didn't buy all the paras when I saw them as I might have a couple of years ago. I bought one, Capt. Cleary, to take home and analyze and throw off the balcony. The chute straps are molded on. These guy are all caught in the act of jumping and their gear is rigged accordingly. Lots of Ruppert action. The Captain comes with a 50 calibre machine gun and tripod. Not sure how many 0-3s humped a "ma deuce" out the C-47 doorway but it makes for an intriguing story. All of the paras come with a wealth of accessories, all of them have some or all of the following: mortar, bags, grenades, walkie talkie, shovel, pistol, bazooka with rounds, and a few more things. The chute is probably the best 1/18 scale chute I've ever seen, although the choice of a Pacific Marines camo pattern seems odd for the canopy. It's fun as hell to toss the little bastard and watch him hang in the silk. Wanting to fire him out of my surgical tubign balloon launcher but scared it will do a "Master Balsters" and rip the chute off without launching the witch.

Also got the Marines at Wally World, S2 with camo. I do not like the Camo versions and wish I could have just gotten the green ones but for 3 bucks a piece and with them having all 7 I went ahead. I have always been fascinated by the fact that sometimes stores that have been devoid of new stuff for months or years get new exciting stuff and put it on clearance immediately. This part of the country has not received such look on most Walmart 1/18 scale stuff so I guess it was about time it happened. Now I know how those people who got Spitfires for a dollar or whatever must have felt.

Anyway, these are the toys I wanted as a kid when I had to settle for Joe and American Defense. Glad they are making them. I'm not sure I should have bought the corsair, but it's pretty cool anyway, glad I only bought one Para, and at 3 bones each not too remorseful about the Marines.

If any of this is duplicated reporting I apologize, but there were many things that I didn't think I read from anyone about the products, almost all good, so I wanted to pass them on.

[Teamski]

Thanks for the report Spastic! It was a really good run-down.

Flight controls are always going to be a contentious issue. I have to say I like how bbi tabbed their flight controls. It is a really simplistic solution, but with a bit of work, they do the job. To me, the best flight controls are that of the P-47. The elevators, rudder and flaps are fully hinged. Other flight controls are downright bad. I'm not a big fan of the flaps on the 190 or any of the flight controls on the Spitfire. No motion whatsoever. One of the most detailed flight controls of all aircraft is the 109G. The plane has movable slats for Pete's sake! Now that is attention to detail!

Economy has got to be a driving force in the inclusion of movable flight controls. You gotta figure how much cost is added to a plane in production from the addition of working flaps alone! For a $40-$50 plane to have operating flaps at all is a miracle in my book. Maybe this is one of the main reasons for the questionable production values on the rockets and the gear. That said, the bbi Corsair's flaps has got to be one of the most attractive features of any 1:18 plane made so far IMHO. Now when I get home, the gear might make me wince.......

Here is where the basic difference between 21st and bbi production methods differ. As everybody has seen, bbi relies on softer materials for many parts of the plane: gear, munitions, antennas, and horizontal stabilizers on the jets. 21st sticks with hard platics throughout. This, in the end, gives you a plane that is more robust on the gear and not prone to distortion. SO you have a decision to make. More detail/ more fragile, or a bit less detail/ more robust. In the end, both have room on my shelf!

-Ski

[KAGNEW]

i think you are right.
except my shelves runneth over. my ceiling is getting full.what will i do?
start hanging them in garage, thats what i'll do!
so keep'em comeing
he! he!

[SpareParts]

Gung-ho! The gyrenes are here in Washington Il. S1 series, plus BoB German and American. $4.97 ea. of course. I personally have never seen any of the super buys everyone else brags about...

[Plastic Spastic]

Here's a launch report on a BBI paratrooper. Everyone should buy one of these just to play with it, whether you're gonna "collect 'em all" or not. Using a water balloon catapault, my brother and I got the para to about 35 feet and his chute opened beautifully with about 10-15 seconds of hang time. Very fun and a good scale appearance to the chute.

[75th Ranger]

S2 marines landed in Florida, well only a few but they seem to be coming in in waves!!!

nice paint jobs and look beeter than the 1st series.

price $4.97 @

[kevrut]

S2 Marines in East Peoria, IL. Alot of FW-190's on the top shelf. Still full price.

[Charlemagne]

I have found the BBI paras, P-51, and the Corsair at the TRU on South Dale Mabry for those of you in the area who are interested.

Dan

[digger]

Boys....21st has slipped one by me...the clip on the Japanese sub-machine gun is REMOVABLE!!
I thought I broke it but I realized it supposed to come out and can be stuck right back in. Very nice detail

[KAGNEW]

does anybody do a 1/18 M-14 U S Army rifle?

[digger]

Yes - bbi makes a modern version with sniper scope, and a version with folding stock which can be snuck into VN dioramas.

[bluesparrow]

Been a while since I filed a report.

-TRU got some more of the Corsairs on the shelves as well as a similar plane the name of which I forget(not a plane guy). Actually thinking back, one was BBi and one was 21st.

-The local walmart got in the 21st Marines. I haven't been following the thread but it was a combination of the camo repaints and the regular green uniforms, dunno if that's unusual. I got four, and they're great. Even took a pic(clickable thumbnail):