Introducing the SD KFZ 7

The SD KFZ 7 -Sd Kfz stands for Sonderkraftfahrzeug or special motorized vehicle- was a half-tracked heavy truck used by the German armed forces primarily to pull artillery pieces or anti-aircraft guns such as 88s or heavy howitzers. It had enough power to tow up to 8 tons -therefore it's sometimes referred to as an 8-ton truck- and it could seat about 12 men, usually the crew of the gun being towed, with some additional room in the back for ammunition. It was introduced in 1938 and saw action throughout the war in all its different fronts. A few variations were made, some of them replacing the seating area with mounted 20mm anti-aircraft guns. It was issued primarily to the mechanized panzer and panzergrenadier divisions so that they could tow the artillery attached to them. Non-mechanized divisions, which were many, still relied heavily on horses to tow their equipment. In terms of available vehicles, both 21st Century Toys and Forces of Valor have provided us with a couple variations. Let's take a look.

21st Century Toys Sd Kfz 7 - Grey

This vehicle comes with a canvas top that can be removed and a foldable windshield. Ideal for early war campaigns.

21st Century Toys Sd Kfz 7 - Cammo

21C Toys also produced the same vehicle in a cammo color scheme. Nice for a mid to late war campaign. As in the previous picture, the top can be removed.

Forces of Valor Sd Kfz 7

If I recall correctly, Forces of Valor sold this one as a Normandy edition. I personally find it that it's the one that could fit better in a desert setting as part of Rommel's army. The six figures that come with it complement it nicely. In contrast to the 21C vehicles, this one is made of metal which makes it feel much heavier, as a heavy tractor ought to feel.

Forces of Valor Sd Kfz 7/1

This is the AA version with the quadruple 20mm guns. The sides of the back can be folded down to provide greater rotation freedom to the gun. A nice piece of equipment as usual from FOV with greater attention to detail. And it also comes with a good looking crew.

Click here to check out more German Vehicles

Click here to see a description of the 88 mm guns.

Click here to see a set of 88mm guns in action.

Here you can see other Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft guns.



The Toy Story GIs

Following on the footsteps of the post about the TimMee GIs, I'd also like to introduce the GIs from Toy Story. These guys are Disney's representation of the TimMee green army men that many kids grew up playing with during the 70's and 80's, as well as the many clones that have followed them up to the present day. As far as I am aware of, these guys existed initially only in digital form and it was only later that they were cast into actual plastic figures. You can find them in buckets with about 80 of them -well, 82 if you count the two paratroopers. As I mentioned in the other post, these guys represent Vietnam era soldiers, so they are technically off topic for this blog, but since I gave the Vietnam TimMee guys a break, I figure I should also do the same with their offspring. Note that only 7 of the original 13 poses are represented. Most of the new figures are poses/actions that were displayed during the movie.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part I

Except for the second guy from the right, the other four poses are roughly the same as their TimMee predecesors. The new guy however is not one that I remember from the film, so I am not sure why they did not go with one more of the orginal TimMee poses.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part II

Here we have figures 1, 2 and 4 from the right from the original TimMee set. The other two are poses from the film. One is the officer who controls the whole mission to scout the new presents, and the other is the one that is used during the marching sequence if I recall correctly.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part III

This is one of the guys that drops from the second floor during the daring scouting mission.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part IV

Here is his wing man. The only thing I don't quite like is that the ring where the parachute strings are attached is on top of the helmet. I don't recall if that's how the figures in the movie had theirs attached. Anyhow, all in all a nice set and a nice tip of the hat towards the original TimMee GIs.

Burger King GIs

Here's a bit of an unusual set. It is modeled after the Toy Story GIs, released in 1995. They are about 65mm tall. If there were a few more poses, it woud make a good unit. Given their limited number of poses, they will have to be combined with some 70 mm GIs to give them some support. 

Click here to see a post about the original TimMee Vietnam GIs

Making an exception - TimMee GIs

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.

Click here to see pictures of actual WWII GIs.

Click here to see pictures of more GIs.

A Cautionary Tale

A few weeks back I came across the figures in this post on eBay. They were listed as Dulcop Turkish Infantry. The picture that came along was small and was taken from a distance so that you could not see very well the detail on the figures. I could see however that one of them was holding something that looked like a sabre, and I could tell that the men were wearing puttees. The head gear also seemed to be field caps instead of helmets. To me they looked like Japanese. I was also doubtful that they were made by Dulcop as the Dulcop bases are distinctly square. A quick google search boosted my assumptions as nothing came up for Dulcop Turkish figures. So I assumed that the seller did not know what he was posting and proceeded to bid on the figures assuming they were Japanese and I knew better. Well, a few days later when the package arrived I discovered that the seller had been right about one thing: they were certainly Turkish. Those 'field caps' have no resemblance with the Japanese head gear and the officer with the sword is wearing an ottoman hat (aka Fez). In retrospective I can't believe that I mistook them for Japanese, but I guess that's what happens when you get too wrapped up in your own assumptions. Upon further research I found out that these guys are WWI Turkish Infantry made by Reamsa. I might still paint them as Japanese and see if they blend in. Or I suppose that you could also do a conversion and give them Japanese heads. In any case, one thing is for sure. Next time I am not 100% sure what I am bidding on I will try to find out for sure before I buy it!

WWI Reamsa Turkish Infantry

Action Report: Heart of the South Toy Soldier Show - The haul

Last weekend I got to attend the Heart of the South Toy Soldier Show. It is a relatively small event, but with a loyal set customers and vendors in attendance. I went there primarily looking for the new set of CTS GIs and the new Forces of Valor 6x6 1.5 Cargo Truck. I found both items and a few more things. The highlight of the shopping experience was digging into a large bin, the size of a whole table with thousands of soldiers. Everything was 50 cents and if you knew what you were looking for you could find some nice gems in there. Lately the demands of real life have kept me a bit busy, so rather than waiting for the opportunity to setup separate scenes with the new figures I've decided to take a few quick snapshots and share them with you now. Hopefully at some not so distant point I will be able to present them in a better setting.

Marx German Infantry

I already have a good number of these marching guys, but it does not hurt to have another couple squads to enhance the parade scene. They are not so easy to find, so it was a nice surprise to see that there were quite a few to be found in that bin!

Classic Toy Soldiers GIs Set 2

I got two bags of these. Each bag comes with 2 sets of figures in 8 poses. The main attraction for me were the artillery crew guys - see the three guys on the left. I have several Long Tom artillery pieces from 21st Century Toys which came without crews, so these guys will fill that role. But don't get me wrong, the other 5 guys are also nice decent poses which will look just fine either as GIs or marines.

Marx US GIs - Battleground Set - Part 1

Today you can buy Marx recast figures, but unfortunately they do not include some of these poses, so I was glad to run into them and pick up a few more of these guys.

Marx US GIs - Battleground Set - Part 2

I found six of these stretcher bearers and two of the wounded guys. Unfortunately I did not fnd any stretcher, but that's OK. Stretchers won't be hard to make. I did not have any of these guys in my collection, so they were a nice find.

Marx US GIs - Battleground Set - Part 3

The guy lying down is the one that goes on the stretcher. The man carrying his budy was also a great find. Actually, I found the guy who is being carried at a different vendor. He cost twice as much as the one who is carrying him, but I bought him without hesitation as I was quite happy to be able to find both of them on the same outing.

Airfix Italian Infantry

These two guys were also a good find. On eBay Italian Infantry usually sells for 3-4 dollars a piece. The officers sometimes for more, so these guys subsidized the rest of the purchase.

Timpo US Infantry

This guy is also a vintage figure. First I mistook him for a Britains Herald figure but Brian Carrick identified him as a Timpo guy. The rest of the Timpo figures look so good that now I am going to have to go hunt for the rest of the squad.  

Unknown Soviet Infantry

I don't know who the manufacturer is but if I ever come across a figure that I have not seen before I pick it up and find out later! In the worst case I have a new pose. In the best case I found an odd collector's item. I suspect this might be a case of the former, but who knows...

Auburn US GIs

I was not familiar with these figures before the show, but a fellow collector who was also digging through the bin identified them for me. They are about 70 mm tall, so a bit beyond my scale however I liked the sculpting work, particularly that of the two guys on the left who look very confident. I was told they were Korean War figures, but I think they can pass for WWII guys.

I also found this little raft. I have no idea what figures it came with or who made it, but as with the Soviet guy, I hope to find out sooner or later.

MPC DUKW

This one did not come from the bin. I had been keeping an eye for one of these for a while to include it in the Marines scene that I am putting together in my head and when I saw it at the show -the only one there-I grabbed it! I plan on painting it so it will look even better.

Forces of Valor 6x6 1.5 Dodge Cargo Truck

This was the other item on my shopping list and I barely got it. It was the second to last. As you can see it comes with a little assortment of accessories. These are of not much use by themselves, but combined with the other things that come with the other vehicles they add a good dose of realism to your scenes. I have to say though that I am finding it harder and harder to justify buying the FOV vehicles. They have become quite pricey and the truck itself is not that special or different from the 2.5 ton truck they had previously released.

Conte German Waffen SS

This guy is actually a metal figure. I don't collect metal figures as they really push you to a whole different price range, but I certainly appreciate their look and feel -their extra weight makes them feel much sturdier and they usually come with a nice paint job out of the box. So how did I come home with this figure? I won it in a raffle! All the entrance tickets participate and vendors throw in the prices. They draw about a dozen numbers throughout the day and if you win, you get to pick one of the prizes.  So this rounded up nicely a good and fun morning at the show!

Click here to see some more Marx German guys marching

Click here to see a twin of the Timpo radio man in action 

Click here to see the rest of the Italian Infantry