I don't really have any info about the manufacturer of the OWN figures. The figures are made in China, but nowadays that does not mean that the firm behind them is Chinese. From what I can tell, they have also manufactured a couple other sets, all related to Chinese conflicts, so maybe they do have a strong Chinese connection. I have not been able to locate a web site or any ecommerce presence. I bought these guys through eBay, but my impression is that the guy who sold them is a reseller. So if you happen to have any more info about this firm please go ahead and let us know in the comments section.
OWN Chinese Infantry - Part I
These figures are actually fairly nice. They represent the early divisions which were equipped with German equipment and were overall better trained and more effective. The sculpting is fairly good both in terms of the poses and the level of detail. There are only two things that I did not like that much. First was the price. At $2.25 a piece they are above the average for new production plastic figures. The second was that they come in multiple sections and you have to spend a good amount of time putting them together and finding the right glue for the job.
OWN Chinese Infantry - Part II
The advantage however of how they were manufactured is that you can avoid the solid blocks of plastic that other figures would otherwise have in between their arms when holding a weapon across the chest. So I suppose that also justifies a bit the higher price. They actually come in two sets. The firs set contains the 8 poses above, and you get 16 figures.
OWN Chinese Infantry - Part III
This are the poses in the second set. You also get 16 figures, which means that you end up with 4 poses of each, whether you need that many or not. So setting aside the packaging, I still think that the OWN figures do add a badly needed variety to the Chinese Infantry units. And BTW, looking at their uniforms, made me realize that I can use some AIP WWI Germans to reinforce them as the heltmet shape and the use of puttees give them a strong resemblance. These guys by the way, wore a kahki uniform, so they won't match the other Chinese troops with the light blue outfits.
OWN Chinese Infantry - Part IV
Another thing which was a bit of a pain was how much flashing and extra bits of plastic came attached to the figures. Even before you got to the part about gluing them together you had to spend a good chunk of time just trimming off all these extra bits of plastic left over from the injection process.
OWN Chinese Infantry - Part V
Here are a couple more shots of how they come preassembly.
OWN Chinese Infantry - Part VI
OWN Chinese Infantry - Part VII
Here is add-on set. It contains three nice artillery crewmen plus four of the infantry poses already released in the previous set - actually it contains 6/8 of each for a total of 14 figures in the set. In reality, I would have preferred to be able to buy just the artillery guys. Again, the figures require assembly, but with the right glue, that's not much problem and the result is well worth the effort. Here I have displayed them with a German PAK 36, which the early Chinese army might have had, given the close relationship that they had with Germany at the onset of WW2.
Click here to see a post about the Chinese Infantry
