In praise of Power Team

[aferguson]

You know, they may not be the best quality or most accurate and they may not always be correct to scale but power team stuff has a thousand uses. Ever since i was able to buy a bunch of it just before christmas, i've been finding all kinds of uses for the stuff.

They have original subjects like the tower and bridge, oodles of useful accessories, even little things like wire cutters, plus the figures. The figs really aren't very good but i have made a pile of customs out of them, using them almost as armatures to build up the custom around....and you can bend them into almost any pose you need. I'm currently making a bunch of Canadian soldiers out of them (plus some Pickelhaube custom british helmets) to make an Ortona diorama, using a couple of pte bombed out buidlings plus some 21c fallschirmjagers. It would not have been possible without good ole power team.

[holensock]

Plus PTE is fun!!

[Jesse James]

I can't argue with this at all....

I'm not a huge fan of the figures but holensock is, and they are really articulated well. If their sculpts were a hair better, I'd certainly be more interested in them. They're really on the cusp of being better. Removable helmets alone would force me to buy buy buy on the figure front, haha.

But for custom bases? I think they're great.

And the rest of the line... It's hard to dump on it. A lot of Star Wars guys have done just that, and I think they're just short-sighted about the quality there. Sometimes a simple paintjob, and the addition of a more Star Wars-ish weapon is all it takes to make something look very sci-fi. I've found uses for them, very abstract from their original intent, far beyond that which I think most people considered for them. My stash of stuff is disturbing, I have so much. I really need to get off my duff and do some permanent pieces using them, but I keep working instead on the shelving in my office/work areas for them to ultimately be focal points for displays.

I mean, some work and the towers make awesome work platforms for Imperial walkers, and with a little extra effort you can make something that you barely even recognize the tower as the base part. That's versatility in a toy and probably why this stuff doesn't generally last on shelves here. My Big Lots didn't have one sale on this stuff, and blew through every piece save for a handful of items. I swear they had dozens and dozens of towers alone, and sold them all.

[Tanker85]

I've bought many of their vehicles and hope to see the 1/4 ton trailer soon. They make great dates for all my 5 yr old daughters Disney Princesses and she loves it when I pick them up in the Black Hawk and fly them to the ball. Currently the APC is pulling Guard Duty around the Castle compound as the girls sleep soundly. PTE allows me to interact with her showing my love of military stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if she grows
up to marry a soldier.

Eric

[tmanthegreat]

Especially with the overall dearth in 1:18 military goods, I've gotten more into PTE over the past few years and am always quite excited to see the annual restocks at Big Lots. I'm probably more of a PTE fan than I let off to be All the little accessories - the crates, barrels, jerry cans, wire cutters, shovels, and so on are excellent. I like the rucksacks & radio packs as well since they can make good stowage on a modern vehicles and in dioramas. The PTE weapons generally stink, traditionally being too soft and rubbery. However, the newer PTE items I've bought (Type 98 MBT, APC, FAV, Dauphin Helo) seemed to have small arms weapons made of stiffer plastic...

PTE also seems to have done well with the large diorama/playset pieces for the most part, though there always seems to be an abundance of the watch towers both before and after the holidays in my area... Really, their buildings and diorama accessories are excellent for what they are and they have quite the variety from tents, bunks, sanbag fortifications, to whole bases and that wonderful bombed-out middle eastern building.

As has been said before, the vehicles are hit and miss. Their M1 tank is underscaled, the DPV is overscaled, and the aircraft look like crap. The helicopters are not too bad (I rather like the Chinese Dauphin) but still leave some to be desired. The hummers and jeeps, while cheap compared to their BBI and 21c offerings, are nevertheless not too bad and useful for filler material. The newest vehicles (Type 98 tank, APC, and FAV) are some of the best yet in terms of accuracy & scale.

The figures in their current form need improvement, at least in terms of the head sculpt and body proportions. The articulation is great and the PTE 1:18 figures are still some of the best-articulated figures in the scale. It would be great if those improved figures that were sold in China this past year made it over here this year. They looked good.

PTE also has decent 1:6 scale figures. Obviously they are not anywhere near the quality of the fancy collector offerings, but the uniforms and weapons are generally accurate and they come with some nice accessories, particularly in those large diorama packs if you happen across one.

[parrish333]

Aferg and Tman - I don't think they're intended to be wire cutters, though that's exactly what I used them for until - PLUNK, it snapped right into place on the bottom of a PTE M249. They are bipods

But regardless, I wholeheartedly agree that all the little accessories you mentioned are killer. For whatever reason, 21C and BBI never did much with diorama-type accessories, though I've been very pleased with some of FOVs forays into that.

I also really dig the CRRC (black rubber boat) they did. The BBI one was probably better, but I never was able to find it when I wanted it. Probably a bit underscale. It barely fits into the Chap Mei Sea Knight though which is nice!

[Jesse James]

There actually are separate wire cutters too parrish. But there is a flexible black bipod too, but the wirecutters are grey with black handles, hard plastic (they'd snap if you flexed them too much as they're made of styrene).

[parrish333]

There actually are separate wire cutters too parrish. But there is a flexible black bipod too, but the wirecutters are grey with black handles, hard plastic (they'd snap if you flexed them too much as they're made of styrene).

Wow - I've got a lot of PTE stuff and I don't remember those. Do you know what set(s) they came with? There's some large wire/bolt cutters that came with an FOV modern guy or two which I also like.

[digger]

Early PTE guys had removable knee pads for firefights. Great little extra.

[Jesse James]

They're in a lot of different sets, but I know some of the SWAT guys had them for sure, recently. I can't' think what all military sets have them.

If you check out Marauder Gun Runners Inc., you could probably find them for sale there.