Question about bbi German pilot (Me109)

flayrah · Post by **flayrah** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:39 am

I've had every other bbi pilot but the german and always assumed it was of the same quality and construction - but I saw a close-up photo and it seemed not to have ball jointed shoulders, or ANY elbow articulation. Is this correct, or just a bad photo I saw? If true, I wonder why bbi 'cheaped out' on this figure?

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:10 am

You are correct. The BBI German pilot does not have articulation on the arms and legs. They are moulded pieces, similar to a Star Wars figure from the 1970s. The pilot is also quite short. See the pictures below for details and comparisons:

I'm not sure why BBI cheapened out on this pilot. It may have something to do with tooling costs - figures with multiple joints and parts cost more as there is more tooling required for all the little pieces. I think the figure was shrunk so that it could fit easily into the cockpit. That, still, was an odd measure to take as 21c had success cramming a larger figure into pretty much the same amount of space. The 21c pilots, however, are actually too large (by a couple mm) to fit in the BBI cockpit without a slight alteration to make them shorter...

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:41 am

T Man thanks for the side by side. But I tell you I like the BBI pilot much more.

The BBI looks more life like than the 21st. It also has weathering on it wich the 21st does not.

I guess they forewent more parts for more atistry.

Plu the smaller fig IS SOOOOOOO MUCH EASIER TO PU INTO THE COCKPIT.

And there quite a lot of shrimpy German pilots back. As well as American Brit, French Russian.........

flayrah · Post by **flayrah** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:16 am

Wow, that is somewhat of a disappointment. Thanks for the side-by-side, that is a great comparison. As Pickelhaub said, they went for artisty rather than articulation. Still would have liked to see knee joints at least, the poor guy can't even sit in a chair.