Interesting find: Bachmann Japanese Infantry

[FieroDude]

While visiting my local hobby shop, which is a great place to get train and RC stuff but not so well suited for the military vehicle collector, I came across an interesting find. Namely, a handful of 1/32 scale Japanese Infantry figures made by Bachmann and sold under the "Mini-Army" line. I picked up 3 for a friend of mine to use with his Pacific Theater armor. There were 3 styles on hand--an officer with sword over his head, a kneeling mortar soldier, and a rifleman charging with his bayonet. They are plastic with fixed-on stands and "hand decorated"--detail isn't bad, but there is room for additional detailing. I was going to post pics but I left my card reader at work so I will need to post pics on Monday.

My first question is: anyone ever hear of these? Supposedly they also had US, British, and German lines. Looking at the packaging, I date them as late 60's or early 70's. The fact that I also found a model plane (wish I could remember what it was--German and 1/72 or 1/144 I know) that still had an original price tag of $0.87 on it (and since marked up to $7.99) tells me that the store owner may have picked up a lot at auction or something.

The second question is: is anyone interested? There were about a dozen total, with a couple more of each of the mortar and rifleman, and several officers. If so, let me know and I will pick up the rest and put a thread on BST for them.

[mikeg]

I would say they are obviously associated with the Bachmann Miniplanes I used to buy as a young 'un in the mid '70's. After visits to the grandparents and Toys and Hobbies at Lenox Square Mall, I would buy as many as I could afford. There was quite a varied assortment- 1/144th for the fighters and whatever the scale is for the bombers and airliners, etc. I never got around to noticing the infantry line, though.

[c44]

These figures are from molds of Airfix 1/32 figures (& presumably licensed) and came out, if memory serves me, in the mid or late '70s...the paint jobs were pretty good for the price, especially the British paras...the plastic used was a different type than the Airfix so the paint adheres well, although I don't know how well any droopy weapons will respond to the hot water/freezing water fix...back in the 70s it was a great rush to come across figs like this in a toy store; the only others you might typically see were the Britains Deetail line...such was the Disco Era...