NOR001-NOR011 Normandy US Paratroopers Pre-Order! (1 Viewer)

[FirstLegion]

We have long been asked when we would expand our WWII range to cover the campaign in NW Europe and we are pleased to announce that the time has finally come. And what better way to kick off the "Great Crusade" than with those who were among the first to land in France to begin the liberation of Europe, the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army. The 101st Division landed in Normandy on the early hours of June 6th 1944 but were spread out due to missed drop zones. After isolated battles by various pockets of men, the division consolidated and pushed on St. Come du Mont on June 8th and pressed for the causeways to Utah Beach on June 10th. On June 12th they attacked Carentan driving out the German Fallschirmjagers and beat off ferocious counterattacks to the southwest of the town by SS Panzergrenadiers of the 17th Division and Fallschirmjagers supported by Assault guns on June 13th in the Battle of Bloody Gulch. After this period of non-stop fighting, the division was assigned the role of defending the left flank of VII corps and shortly later taken out of the line and placed in operational reserve having taken heavy casualties in men and material. We sincerely hope you enjoy them and welcome this addition to our ever expanding World War II figure range. These wonderful figures are now available for pre-order and will be shipping in early September at the same time as our DAK Motorcycles and AWI Haslet's Delaware. So yes, they will be available for dealers for the Chicago show.

NOR001 US 101st Airborne Captain with Thompson SMG - $59.95
NOR002 US 101st Airborne Sergeant with M1A1 Carbine - $59.95
NOR003 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Running with M1 Garand and Ammo Box - $59.95
NOR004 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Running with M1 Garand - $59.95
NOR005 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Running with Thompson SMG - $59.95
NOR006 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Standing with M1 Garand - $59.95
NOR007 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Standing Firing M1 Garand - $59.95
NOR008 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Running with M1 Garand - $59.95
NOR009 US 101st Airborne Corporal Running with Thompson SMG - $59.95
NOR010 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Firing Thompson SMG - $59.95
NOR011 US 101st Airborne Paratrooper Bazooka Team - $124.95
Shipping Early September 2012

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[FirstLegion]

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Thanks for looking and we sincerely hope you enjoy them!

Best,

Matt
First Legion Ltd

 

[notascoldasbastogne]

AWSOME!!! Cant wait for these Fig's SOLD SOLD!!! thank you Sir MATT {bravo}}{bravo}}{bravo}}

 

[Gebhard]

Congratulations to First Legion on creating some really FANTASTIC looking figures here {bravo}}{bravo}}{bravo}} Can you say CHA CHING $$ an instant winner :wink2: . Can't wait to see who you have in store to face off against these guys just GREAT TIMES for First Legion WWII Collectors . Regards Gebhard

 

[notascoldasbastogne]

Matt you and your First Legion Machine are just Amazing!!!! These Fig's are second to none {bravo}}{bravo}}{bravo}}

 

[Sahara]

Super figures!!!!! I can't wait to pick these guys up in Chicago. Great job FL.

 

[Fusilier]

The long-awaited Airborne troops have arrived! This announcement should make a number of collectors happy, as WW2 Airborne is about as popular a subject as you can get. One question though. The rank chevrons on two of the figures appear to me to be pointing down. Shouldn't they be pointing up? Or am I just seeing things? Check out these pics of NOR002 and NOR009 from the First Legion website:





Is it just me?

Noah

 

[sammy719]

Available for the Chicago show is music to my ears, now that we have some good close ups of these Paras and I must say they look as good as I thought they would be, I'm not getting into that "my Paras are better then your Paras" non-sense but I will make this comment these new First legion Paras are better looking then anything I have seen, take a close look at the equipment/guns/uniforms right down to the insignia and the boot knife even the shoe stings on the boots look good!! I know the toy soldier hobby prices are higher these days more then ever before but when you get this type of figure or set in return well it's money well spent in my humble opinion, thanks again to Matt and his team at First Legion for another great range, and for all my emails ''Matt, are we ever going to see a Western Front range"? I promise not to bug you for awhile ...but you know you can't have some Paras without some new Germans to fight...Sammy

 

[Vezzolf]

Now then....let's say it all together now.....FIRST LEGION RULES{eek3}^&grin^&grin^&grin.

 

[chrisharrison]

The long-awaited Airborne troops have arrived! This announcement should make a number of collectors happy, as WW2 Airborne is about as popular a subject as you can get. One question though. The rank chevrons on two of the figures appear to me to be pointing down. Shouldn't they be pointing up? Or am I just seeing things? Check out these pics of NOR002 and NOR009 from the First Legion website:


Is it just me?

Noah

Noah, I think you might be on to something. British and Commonwealth forces have chevrons like this, but the US guys have them the other way round. I can only find photos of US 101 in WWII with the chevrons the other way. In my experience Matt is pretty much always spot on with historical detail right down to the buttons (literally), so maybe he can shed some light on this?

I got out of the toy soldier game a few months back due to financial issues and sold all my figures...but FL and the new WWII stuff has set the fire burning again and I think I am back in!

Chris

 

[lancer]

The long-awaited Airborne troops have arrived! This announcement should make a number of collectors happy, as WW2 Airborne is about as popular a subject as you can get. One question though. The rank chevrons on two of the figures appear to me to be pointing down. Shouldn't they be pointing up? Or am I just seeing things? Check out these pics of NOR002 and NOR009 from the First Legion website:

View attachment 103625

View attachment 103626

Is it just me?

Noah

Good catch. I'm so used to seeing British chevrons, these went right past me. Of course the chevrons should be reversed, pointing upwards. Still great looking paras. -- Al

 

[Normandy1944]

Very nice but why always the 101th Airborne Division
and not the 82th Airborne Division??

The 82th has more combat days than the 101th!

Harrie

 

[Fusilier]

Noah, I think you might be on to something. British and Commonwealth forces have chevrons like this, but the US guys have them the other way round. I can only find photos of US 101 in WWII with the chevrons the other way. In my experience Matt is pretty much always spot on with historical detail right down to the buttons (literally), so maybe he can shed some light on this?

I got out of the toy soldier game a few months back due to financial issues and sold all my figures...but FL and the new WWII stuff has set the fire burning again and I think I am back in!

Chris

Good catch. I'm so used to seeing British chevrons, these went right past me. Of course the chevrons should be reversed, pointing upwards. Still great looking paras. -- Al

Chris and Al, that is what I had intially thought of, that these look like British style rank chevrons. Don't get me wrong, I really do like this release, as these figures are really well done. It's just that the insignia thing jumped out at me when I veiwed the extra pics on FL's website. Like you guys, I thought American troops always used the chevrons which pointed up, but WW2 is not my specialty, so I thought I should ask.

Noah

 

[Gebhard]

The long-awaited Airborne troops have arrived! This announcement should make a number of collectors happy, as WW2 Airborne is about as popular a subject as you can get. One question though. The rank chevrons on two of the figures appear to me to be pointing down. Shouldn't they be pointing up? Or am I just seeing things? Check out these pics of NOR002 and NOR009 from the First Legion website:

View attachment 103625

View attachment 103626

Is it just me?

Noah

Hi Noah ,
Great eye {bravo}} wonder if this will hold up the release any ^&confuse I know how much First Legion pride themselves on getting it right , and I know its one of the things I really enjoy about thier figures . I'm surprised no body picked up on it before from the initial promo shot , i no I didn't notice ... must have been the position of the figures . Again good catch and I'm sure it will only go to improve the figures , really looking to see what FL have instore to face these guys . The collor of the uniforms and gear are just excellent .. Regards Gebhard

 

[Firebat]

I spoke to Matt about a month ago regarding the Flag on the shoulder, which the 101st did NOT wear in Normandy only the 82nd did. He said the flag was molded in and could not be changed, so I assume the same goes for the chevrons. They will do it right on the next batch. This is still excellent stuff and a minor drawback. ( Someone must have worn a flag, but I spoke to Wild Bill Guarnere and he confirmed they were not authorized to wear the flag)

By the way K&C goofed on this also. I got to Thomas Gunn early on this and you will see he got it right. Alex

 

[6th Wisconsin]

I do hope it is possible to correct the chevrons. I can definitely live with flags versus no flags, but I think the chevron is pretty obvious once you get a figure and have time to examine it. I love these figures and have been wanting to add them to a nice base I bought from Ken Osen a few years ago. The sergeant with the thumbs up signal is my fave and a big part of the dio I want to construct. All in all though, I think they are extremely nice and can't wait to add a few.

 

[FirstLegion]

Yes, as has been pointed out, the Chevrons are upside down on two figures. This was just an oversight that we simply never noticed until it was pointed out here on the forum. I only wish it had been caught sooner, but the figures are finished production and the Chevrons sculpted onto the figure, so that ship has sailed as they say... We always strive to do impeccable research on our figures, but we are far from perfect and every once in awhile we make a mistake. In this case, a rather obvious one. Despite this, however, we do think the figures are outstanding. The Sergeant is my favorite of the bunch despite his Chevrons. :wink2:

Humbly Yours,

Matt
First Legion Ltd

 

[Mitch]

For me, this would have put me off having the figures with the incorrect stripes. I am a little unsure how collectors of US Para's will react. Alex as a person who likes their detail what do you think? They cannot really be used in a diorama of any kind where you can see them. Flags are a different matter as there are pictures of some of these guys with them in normandy so, there is always the exception to the rule in these matters. I would think that molding on the flags and chevrons should be something that would be ended as a means to aid painters and similar. With some of the very detailed markings that can be produced today I would have thought it would have been better to have gone down this route as once the error was noticed it could easily have been rectified than stay as a permanent feature of the figure.

Would it really be a lot of work to remake a couple of arms on these affected figures and delay their release rather than have them released knowing of the issue?

Please note these are serious questions and points which, I think we should be able to discuss rationally. I am interested
Mitch

 

[Vezzolf]

FL prides itself on accuracy and this company cares about its product and is obviously committed to excellence:salute::.....I have no doubt these corrections will be made in the next batch as Matt respectfully explained........Although I am a FL Stalingrad collector I still think that for me anyway these figures will be very hard to pass up.....the detail and paint looks fantastic....Still a superb start of a great Normandy Series, which is likely to just get better with each release.

 

[graycap]

Impressed that FL have admitted the chevron problem. I'm somewhat surprised (and dissapointed) however, given the amount of readily available reference material devoted to US Airborne Forces in WWII out there in the form of books, re-enactor groups, films etc that this error got through. Still there are enough other figures in this first release to keep happy those collectors that will want to to give the guys with the wrong chevrons a miss.