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
