These guys actually represent Vietnam era US soldiers. I am not sure if they are supposed to be Army or Marines. I guess they could be painted as either. While this blog is technically about WWII figures, these guys hold a special place in my heart as they probably do for many folks who grew up with these figures in the 70s and 80s, so I'm going to go ahead and let them sneak into this blog. The fact that I have a few hundred of them is probably a sign that I am a bit lenient towards them when it comes to sticking to the actual WWII period. But to their credit, they have participated in many of my battles over the years fighting Germans and Japanese alike with distinction. Lastly, as you will see further below in the post, they do have some connection to WWII toy soldiers.
TimMee Vietnam US Infantry - Part I
TimMee produced 13 poses for this Vietnam era set. You can see that they are definitely Vietnam figures as they are equipped with M16s. I find that most of them evolved from the earlier TimMee WWII poses, but with much better sculpting. The level of detail and the fluidity of the figures' movements are far superior than that of their predecessors. As a reference I have included below the actual WWII TimMee guys.
TimMee Vietnam US Infantry - Part II
This is the other half of the set. If you are paying attention, there are a total of 14 figures in both pictures. By now you have probably realized that one of the guys is featured twice, but with a slight variation. If you like to solve those magazine puzzles in which you get to find the differences, go ahead and take a moment to do so, before I spoil it for you... The guy in the lower picture is throwing a grenade, whereas the one in the upper picture has his hand open. My understanding is that the one with the grenade was the original pose, which was later modified to have his hand open. I guess it gives him more of a commanding attitude, so much, that for years I thought he was the officer leading the men. I did not learn about the earlier pose until much later. BTW, the marching guy, third from the right, is a bit hard to find so if you have any of those, hold on to them. Out of a new bag that I recently got with about 40 guys, it only had one of them.
TimMee WWII US Infantry - Part I
These are the original TimMee figures. Other than the guy on the left with the sub machine gun, the other 4 guys made it into the new set. The grenade guy, as pointed out, eventually lost the grenade and was left only with a rifle. The sniper lost the scope and the officer's face was turned forward.
TimMee WWII US Infantry - Part II
The radio man, the machine gun, the bazooka and the minesweeper are also there. The prone guy is a Lido guy I believe, but it came with the rest of the guys so he snuck into the picture.
TimMee WWII US Infantry - Part III
From these, it looks like the guy holding the rifle overhead, the guy crawling on the right, and the marching guy made it to the new set. The guy holding the rifle at the waist might have evolved to the guy with the flamethrower. So all in all, the only guy who was entirely dropped was the prone machine gunner, who was replaced by the mortar man in the new set.
where did you get them
ReplyDeleteThey are all eBay recruits
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