Usually, in this type of post I like to give a bit of background and history about the manufacturer. In the case of these figures, the manufacturer started out as a bit of a mystery to me. Back in the 70's Marx produced these figures in 6" scale. They were big and solid. A few years back though I ran into them in 54mm scale -albeit on the smaller side of 54mm. They were being sold by Minute Men Toy Soldiers as 'SWTS' sets. SWTS -Steve Weston Toy Soldiers is a dealer that also manufactures some figures. However Steve's figures are originals, so at first I didn't really know if SWTS was simply reselling them or if they were the ones that issued them in this smaller scale. Adding to the puzzle is that I also saw them advertised as DSG figures. DSG is the firm from Argentina that reissued some of the Britains Deetail sets. Eventually I had the good fortune of getting referred to Steve Weston himself who clarified that he bought them from DSG, and simply re-packaged them with a SWTS label and sold them.
Reproductions of Marx 6" Japanese Infantry by DSG and sold by SWTS
As you can see that they have a very close resemblance to the Glencoe/Marx figures, which makes sense given their common origin. They are nice, action poses which fit well with other Japanese troops.
Reproductions of Marx 6" German Infantry by DSG and sold by SWTS
Several of these guys have a strong resemblance with the CTS German Infantry. One thing that I don't like is that the guy who is running carrying the ammo box used to have one foot off the ground in the 6" version, but in this scale they forced it to have the back foot on the base, and to lower the rest of the figure they shaved the bottom of the front foot.
Reproductions of Marx 6" German Infantry by DSG and sold by SWTS - Painted
In this picture you might be able to see what I was talking about the front foot of the guy on the left. I did not paint the rest of the set because I had already painted the equivalent poses from CTS and they are almost identical.
Reproductions of Marx 6" Soviet Infantry by DSG and sold by SWTS - Part I
This set has 6 poses and they are scaled down versions of 6" Marx Soviet guys which I happened to have as a kid. The poses are actually pretty good, except for the fact that these guys are closer to 50mm and maybe some of the sculpting detail got eroded in the process to clone them/scale them down. The least exciting guy is the guy walking with his rifle across his body, but I actually like the fact that we get one more guy with a long coat on as they paint up nicely.
Reproductions of Marx 6" Soviet Infantry by DSG and sold by SWTS - Part II
Here is the last guy in the set. Except for the base, he is almost exactly like one of the 54mm Marx guys. A good, intense pose for your hand to hand battles scenes of the Eastern Front.
Reproductions of Marx 6" US Infantry by DSG and sold by SWTS - Part I
These are scaled down clones of the 6" Marx GIs. Unfortunately, they lost a bit of detail in the cloning/scaling down process - look at the submachine gun of the man on the right for instance. And they also turned out to be quite small. Maybe closer to 50mm instead of 54mm. One thing that I did like is a nice detail on the middle man. Notice how the straps of his helmet flap in the air as he runs forward!
Reproductions of Marx 6" US Infantry by DSG and sold by SWTS - Part II
This guy is the sixth in the set. A reasonably solid guy, albeit with somewhat skinny legs. But you can always use a firing rifleman in your unit. Perhaps what I like the most about these guys is the memories they bring back of the 6" GIs I had when I was a boy.
Click here to see a post about Marx figures
Click here to see some Marx figures in action
Click here to see some more Marx figures in action
Click here to see a post about SWTS figures
Marx made both the 6" and 54mm. Glencoe and others LEASED the mold for the 54mm figs. The 6" molds again are MARX but others seem to have run the mold and offered them to Dealers.
ReplyDeleteExactly. It's that part of the story - how the 6" molds got turned into 54mm figures that is a bit obscure...
ReplyDeleteIn what quantities are these figures available, and at what prices? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThey were relatively affordable as I recall, but I have not seen them offered in a while so I don't know their current price. Even the DSG site does not have them listed, but if you email them they might still have them in stock. They came in sets of about a dozen.
ReplyDeleteThe sets are 54 mm approx sets base-copied but not clone in all 6" poses marx set .Americans,germans ,russian and Japanese and were original made in ITALY by RP and sold with other molds to south america in 90s were eventually were recast back again .The mold still there .
ReplyDeleteSW did purchase the bags bough by Argentina dealer who in turn had bough the left over stock from one store in Paraguay .
I have original bags cards as well resold several sets in 2014/2016 .CTS got a large batch in 2017 and sold many as well.
Best
Great to know that! Thanks a lot for adding more detail to this elusive story!
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