Are figure heights a little off?

[Morian Miner]

I know there was discussion about this with the Japanese figures. But last night, while working on the computer, I was looking at one of my DAK figures next to a GI Joe guy. I know most Joes are on the tiny side, but the DAK figure made the Joe look like a dwarf.

So, I measured the DAK figure and he's right at 4 inches. Is this correct? How tall was the average German or American soldier in WWII? I doubt the average height was 6 foot at that time, but I could be wrong. A 3-3/4 figure is going to measure about at 5'-7", which is what I think would be average in the 40's, and a better height for WWII figs.

And how about Russians at that time? A 4 inch figure scales to 5'-4" in 1/16. If the Russians were on the shorter side at that time, having larger 1/18 figures is good because I could customize a few to man my 1/16 T-34.

Or should I just stop doing work on the night of the 4th of July?

[aferguson]

average american soldier was 5 foot 8 1/2 inches during wwii and the average german soldier was 5 foot 7....which was typical for most european nations including russia. Mongolians were definitely shorter being around 5 foot 4 and up. British avg was 5 foot 6 i believe.

The thing is that head sizes, hand sizes etc don't really vary that much with height....it's largely leg length, so using a 1/18 figure for 1/16 will sorta work but the heads and hands and even torsos will look too small...but try it and see how it looks.

Most 21c figures are too big, in my opinion, especially heads and hands but this is done for reasons of detail, holding weapons etc. Arms are usually too long as well..but that's so they have enough reach when flexed since the torso itself can't flex or twist.

Even a six foot person doesn't stand fully upright most of the time, they tend to slouch a bit, making them an inch or two shorter. So a four inch figure is really tall....this is why over the years people have thought that many of the tanks were underscale because the figures look too big beside them, when compared to real photos of tanks with soldiers and crew beside them......well it's not the tanks it's the figures that are causing this. Plus tank crews tended to be smaller.

However, that said, you have to allow for boot thickness, which usually makes a person an inch or two taller, so a four inch figure reallly isn't all that bad i guess and neither is a 3 3/4 inch figure. Again it's the head size difference that is most noticable, between joes, xd and star wars figures. This i've learned to ignore.

[Morian Miner]

Yeah, the only time I really notice the head sizes is when trying to switch head gear with figures. I think the Vietnam Mutt driver is the worst - must hang out with Barry Bonds.