Who's best at plastic? (1 Viewer)

[kreddy]

Just curious . . . in your opinion, who currently produces the best and most affordable plastic toy soldiers? Do you have different choices for certain time periods? And who has the best painted plastic figures and the best unpainted figures?

 

[thebritfarmer]

I would say if you like Cowboys & Indians, Civil War or Knights the Super Deetail painted plastics from Britains would be hard to beat.

 

[Wraith]

Conte. Just my opinion of course, but if he's turned his hand to it, then it's pretty d*mn good.
Some of my favourite poses though, go back 30 or so years to when Airfix where king (at least this side of the water). In particular, the 7th Cav set and the SAS set include some fantastic poses.

 

[Scott]

Armies_In_Plastic for ranges and price. Conte for authenticity and TSSD for conversions.

 

[eborris]

TSSD gets my vote, followed closely by Plastic Underground.

 

[eborris]

Conte. Just my opinion of course, but if he's turned his hand to it, then it's pretty d*mn good.
Some of my favourite poses though, go back 30 or so years to when Airfix where king (at least this side of the water). In particular, the 7th Cav set and the SAS set include some fantastic poses.

Is he still making plastic?

 

[Wraith]

Is he still making plastic?

Well, there was a rumour.....

 

[eborris]

Well, there was a rumour.....

Been so long and at my age you tend to forget.

 

[binder001]

Personal opinion from a WW2 collector/convertor;

I think Conte is #1 even if he doesn't release new things very often. He was one of the first to issue multi-piece figures, then went further with the WW2 GIs and even further with the Spartans. He is the most innovative but it's like pulling teeth to get new stuff and it's going to get harder to find his products with his new "approved dealers".

#2 TSSD - very innovative and learning FAST. Nick and Deanna's figures get better with each release. They have covered a variety of subjects. I wish they would go back and expand on some of their WW2 sets like they did the Civil War stuff.

#3 Italeri - they work in smaller 1/32nd to 1/35th scale as well as 1/72nd but they have taken on artillery and crews as well as combat figures and generally do them well. THey may be a bit small but the people look like people and the guns look like the guns they are supposed to represent.

#4 Loius Marx and Co. Yes, their stuff is 40-50 years old but they were the innovator and leader. Would we have the ranges and quality of plastic figures without Mr Marx? They still stand high for their poses and the quality of their sculpting.

I admit that I don't do the eras that AIP makes. I looked at a set of WW1 US doughboys and found the detail "soft" and the weapons very "clunky" (I am a bit of a gun nut, so the renditions of firearms are important to me)

Auburn's vinyl figures from the early 60's had nice casual poses, but rather mundane shooting poses (for the Marines/GIs). A bit larger than many lines, but their anantomy and balance was quite good.

I am impressed by Steve Weston's figures from the American West.

The later FoV figures are nice 1/32nd figures. Their early figures were ill-proportioned and poor.

Some of the 21C WW2 figures were good sculpts, but often indifferently molded.

As far as painted plastics - I paint my own, so I can't really judge the other peoples' work.

Gary

 

[Scott]

I'm going with idea that plastics should be relatively inexpensive, sturdy, and well made. They should be "done" when you get them needing no more work that removing them from "trees", or straightening them on warm water. You shouldn't have to paint them if you don't want to.

Call to Arms and Italieri fails in that, because all armies are cream color plastic. They then become "model kits."

Barszo are expensive and brittle or the muskets don't hold straightening with warm then cold water. Sometimes the castings are poor. I'm thinking of the early sets of Indians and pioneers. I do like their pirates.

AIP are mostly ready out of the box. Four boxes and you have a "mass" armies in the right "color."

TSSD are "neat" BUT, the poses are often "characters" that need conversions to make "mass" armies. I have 100s now so I think they are worth the work.

Conte has more standard poses of charging and firing to make large armies and the poses are more "anonymous." You don't have 20 cigar chomping sergeants.

I have given up on IMEX, and Accurate with it's bad poses and lack of correct gear. The flint lock details are excellent though and I cut up "spare" Accurates to convert TSSD muskets to flintlocks for the Alamo.

I get a few more Marx Civil War repros when ever I can. I have 100s of the figures and accessories to recreate the CW playset that I had back in 1961.

 

[Scott]

I forgot Steve Weston figures. You can have fun with them!

I love converting them but one bag can do it for a collection.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Nothing done by anyone else matches the Conte poseable Spartans.

 

[Scott]

I'd get them but I have to limit my armies to between 1600 and 1900 for space!

Those are beautiful! The Hobbie Bunker has a box of loose ones.

 

[thebritfarmer]

Nothing done by anyone else matches the Conte poseable Spartans.

In todays market I would agree with you there.

 

[eborris]

Aside from the hand breaking problems I've had if you try to move them too much, they are revolutionary figures, ground breaking innovations. However, to date they have no opponents, these 300 Spartans will die of old age.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Aside from the hand breaking problems I've had if you try to move them too much, they are revolutionary figures, ground breaking innovations. However, to date they have no opponents, these 300 Spartans will die of old age.

Yes that is a problem. I do hope Richard is right about bringing the Persians out. I have thought of painting some of the "Spartans" as Athenians to provoke some form of combat.

I had the hands issue on the first few but now I don't reposition them with out dipping them first in hot water and it seems to work fine.

 

[theBaron]

I think you still can't beat 99-cent bags of army men, made in Hong Kong, for quality and price. That is, not bad quality, for the price. I still see them sold in grocery stores and dollar stores.

 

[Scott]

Can you believe that repro Marx Civil War figures were sold that way in Mexico as party favors a while back? I believe they were ment to be pinata stuffings.

(No stereotypes intended because of my Cousin Carman)

 

[eborris]

Can you believe that repro Marx Civil War figures were sold that way in Mexico as party favors a while back? I believe they were ment to be pinata stuffings.

(No stereotypes intended because of my Cousin Carman)

Yeah, but they probably cast them in red and green, people sell that stuff on e-bay all the time and they come in some bizarre colors.

 

[kreddy]

I think you still can't beat 99-cent bags of army men, made in Hong Kong, for quality and price. That is, not bad quality, for the price. I still see them sold in grocery stores and dollar stores.

But those figures constantly seem to get smaller and smaller all the time!