WWII Plastic Toy Soldiers

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Italeri - Toy Soldiers

Italeri is an Italian manufacturer of scale models and plastic toy soldiers. It was founded in the early 60s and its initial focus was the production of aircraft models. Over time it has branched out to cover many other types of vehicles and figures, with a slight, yet understandable bias towards Italian sets. Most of their figures are model kits, but they do have a few sets in which the figures come in one piece. The company is well regarded for its realism and originality. Many of their figure sets come in 1/72 scale but a few have also been released in 1/32. As of today, they are still going strong.

Italeri German Elite Troops - Part I

Notice how Italeri shied away from calling them Waffen-SS. I wonder if it really makes a difference in terms of sales. Notice how some of their figures are wearing extra layers to keep warm. Those are the details that add realism to a set.

Italeri German Elite Troops - Part II

Nice inclusion of a panzerschreck figure. This was the German equivalent of a bazooka, but with a more powerful 88mm round, which earned it its nickname 'panzer terror'.

Italeri PAK 40 AT gun with servants

The Italeri gun offers what other PAKs lack: a good crew. As you can see, it comes with 6 figures. Most of them are ammo handlers. But it does have a man operating the gun and an officer directing the action. The gun itself offers fewer moving parts and degrees of movement. But once it is setup it looks just as good. Probably a good combination will be the painted Italeri crew with the 21st Century Toys PAK. One thing that I do find very amusing about this set is that Italeri translated crew as servants.

Italeri Soviet Infantry

Released about 4 or 5 years ago. This is a subset of the figures that they produced in 1/72. Supreme Playsets actually came out a few months back with these 8 poses plus 4 more, based on the Italeri 1/72 figures. I bought the Supreme Playset figures just for those 4 extra poses.

Italeri Soviet ZiS 3 76mm Anti-Tank Gun

This set was released a couple of years back and it filled a huge gap in the WWII 1/32 plastic toy soldier world. In addition to the gun itself, the set contains a crew in a good variety of poses. The Soviets produced these guns from 1942 onwards in massive quantities (over 100,000) and with a 76mm round, they were capable of piercing any German Tank prior to the Tiger I and the Panther. Note that by mistake I included a German crew member in the picture! See if you can find him.

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