Marx 54mm versions of 6" Toy Soldiers

Usually, in this type of posts I like to give a bit of background and history about the manufacturer, but in this case, the manufacturer of these figures is 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 resold by Minute Men Toy Soldiers as 'SWTS' sets. SWTS -Steve Weston Toy Soldiers is a dealer that also manufactures some figures. However its figures are originals, so I don't really know if SWTS was simply reselling them or if they were the ones that issued them in this smaller scale. BTW, since that time, I have also seen them advertised as DSG figures. DSG is the firm from Argentina that has recently reissued some of the Britains Deetail sets. So as you can see it is a real puzzle who makes them. If you happen to know, please leave a comment!

UPDATE: I recently had the good fortune of getting referred to Steve Weston who clarified that he bought them from DSG, and simply re-packaged them wih a SWTS label and sold them. 

Reproductions of Marx 6" figures - Japanse Infantry

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" figures - German Infantry

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" figures - German Infantry - 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" Figures - Soviet Infantry - Part I

Another decent set, but again, they are on the smaller side of 54mm. I like them however as much or more as the other 54mm Marx guys. 

Reproductions of Marx 6" Figures - Soviet Infantry - Part II

Here is the last one of the Soviet guys. I did not paint this one as it is, except for the base, almost exactly like one of the 54mm Marx guys.

Reproductions of Marx 6" Figures - US Infantry - Part I

These guys are OK, but there were a couple things I did not quite like. The first one is the size. They are definitely small and skinny. Another one is the weapon of the man on the right. It is short and stubby. 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" Figure - US Infantry - Part II

This guy is the sixth in the set. I actually find him acceptable when I look at him. Not quite sure why I left him out when I painted the other guys.

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Steve Weston Toy Soldiers - Toy Soldiers

Steve Weston Toy Soldiers is a British Business. It is both a dealer of toy soldiers from all periods and other manufacturers, as well as being a manufacturer of its own line of 54mm figures. At present, its product line is rather small, as they have only been producing their own figures for a few years and the range is mostly focused on the Wild West, however, they do have one interesting WWII set as you will see below. The other really unique and interesting offering that they have is a 1/32 British WWI Mark IV 'Tadpole' tank and its German counterpart the A7V tank. Those of course, are beyond the scope of this blog, however they do deserve a mention due to the uniqueness factor if you are into WWI, you might want to get some of those. 

Steve Weston Toy Soldiers British Infantry

This is their sinlge WWII set. As you can see, overall it is nicely sculpted. I like how the figures are standing with their weight shifted off-center as the poses look more realistic that way. They also come with a good amount of equipment on them, which shows that they pay attention to detail. Perhaps the only thing to criticize is how wide the helmets are. The helmets on a couple of them, like the guy on the very left, remind me of the helmets used by the Star Wars troops protecting the Emperor. Overall, a decent set to add to the collection. As you can see, at the time I took this picture I was in the process of painting them. Once they are fully painted they look better!

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Supreme Playsets - Toy Soldiers

Supreme Playsets is a relatively unknown company that manufactures soldiers for kids. They come in bags and are relatively inexpensive. This would be great for me as a collector if only they offered more WWII sets. They do cover a large range of figures, like knights, pirates, ancients, but only one WWII set. One interesting feature of their figures is that they come factory painted. Once I heard that they were based out of Russia, but I don't have any evidence of it. One thing that points in that direction is that they do tend to favor sets depicting Russian figures, like Russian Knights, Russian Napoleonic Infantry, or WWII Soviet Infantry as you will see below.

The Soviet Infantry set was released only 2 or 3 years back. They are recasts of the 1/72 Italeri Soviet Infantry. There is an imporant difference though between this set and the Italeri 1/32 set. While Italeri also released a Soviet Infantry set in 1/32, that set only contains 8 figures, whereas the Supreme Playsets Set contains 12. If you want to try to identify which 4 are the new ones, do so before reading the rest of the post.

Supreme Playsets Soviet Infantry - Part I

As you can see it is a solid set, althpugh the credit for that should really go to Italeri. The man on the very left is carrying an anti-tank rifle (not sure if it is a PTRS or a PTRD), which is actually a nice and unique figure/weapon across all the Soviet Infantry sets that I have seen. He's great at taking on lightly-to-medium-armored German vechicles. The two figures that Italeri did not release in 1/32 are the first and the third guys from the left.

Supreme Playsets Soviet Infantry - Part II

As you can see, Supreme Playsets relased these figures in two color schemes. The green base color that you see is actually the color of the plastic, and only the face is really painted. The rest of the figure just has some brown patches throughout the body. So, other than the eyes, which actually look fairly decent, the rest of the paint job is rather poor. The same is true for the brown figures in the first picture above. The two new poses that Italeri did not release in 1/32 are the first and the fourth guys from the right.

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Crescent - Toy Soldiers

Crescent is another English manufacturer of what now are vintage toy soldiers. According to Richard O'Brien's Collecting Foreign-made Toy Soldiers, they were founded in the 20's, and initially made lead/metal soldiers. In the 50's they started making plastic figures and they were in production into the 70's. They have a small range of WWII figures, primarly commonwealth troops, and seem to have worked on both 60mm and 54mm. In recent years I have managed to get my hands on a few of their sets. Here's what I have found.

Crescent British Commandos/Paratroops

These are 60 mm figures. I actually don't know for sure if they are Commandos or Paratroops -I've seen them labeled either way- so I plan to use them as both. Once they are painted I think they will fit in well, and having a mortar guy on the unit and another bazooka man can't hurt. For a commando or a Para unit. Of all the Crescent figures on this post, these are the easiest to find.

Crescent 60mm British Infantry - Part I

Crescent also produced 60mm British Infantry figures, and they are a large 60mm set. They apparently came factory -painted and seem to retain the paint relatively well. I believe there are 1 or 2 more poses in the set which I hope to get at some point.

Crescent 60 mm British Infantry - Part II

The officer. A nice action pose. Running into the heat of battle.

Crescent Modern British Infantry

Based on the weapons, these guys seem to be modern British Infantry. They are a bit on the smaller side of the scale for 54mm, but I think that once they are painted they will fight just fin. I particularly like the two guys on the right. Their forward lean makes them good action poses. The two on the left are at the other end of the action pose spectrum.

Crescent 'Movables' British Commandos

These guys are analogous to the Britians Swoppets. You can remove their weapons and body parts to combine them into different poses/figures. In my opinion, the level of detail and realism is not quite there, however due to their uniqueness, they deserve a spot in the collection. I think they came in sets of 7, so there is one missing from this picture.

Crescent British 8th Army

These guys are failry well sculpted for the time when they were made and and come factory painted. I am not sure exactly how many there were in the original set, but this sample gives an idea of what they looked like.

Crescent British 8th Army clones

These guys are 40mm clones made in Hong Kong. I made the mistake of buying them on eBay without checking that they were the right scale. The only bright spot is that it let me realize that there is at least one more pose that I do not have in 54mm - the guy with the sub MG.

Crescent Sikh Infantry - Part I

These are some guys that I have been trying to get for a while. They are 54mm figures. I have seen sets with 6 of them, but I have only been able to buy 3. They are also pre-WWII figures, but as you can see, they should blend in. Also factory painted.

Crescent Sikh Infantry - Part II

One more for the collection. I actually had to get a batch of 20+ mixed figures just to get this one extra pose. I find the figure a bit puzzling. On the one hand he appears to be leading a charge, but in that case, you would expect his expression to be more lively. Perhaps he jut got hit? But then he would be losing his balance, wouldn't he?

Crescent Sikh Infantry - Part III

And one more, with a good deal of original paint left on him.

Crescent Sikh Infantry - Part IV

This is the last one from the set. An action pose, rallying his comrades to move forward. This guy's paint has been touched up by the previous owner, which actually makes his beard look pretty good.

Crescent Soviet Infantry
This set was a real find as it is not easy to come by. To my knowledge there are only 5 poses. The pose on the left is rather original. As you can see they came factory painted.  The level of detail on the sculpting is fairly decent, except for the faces which are a bit dull. All in all, a nice set to have in the collection. 

Crescent WWI British Infantry - Part I

This guy is a British WWI figure, but I think that given the puttees, he might pass acceptably enough for a French WWII trooper. The helmet is different but some French guys actually wore British helmets, so I just need to find a few more of his comrades and they will form up a French unit in my army.

Crescent WWI British Infantry - Part II

Here is another guy from the British WWI set. He has more of the original paint on him, although the tip of his bayonet is broken off. If it were not for the gear on his chest, I think he could easily pass for a WWII French Infantry soldier.

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Revell - Toy Soldiers

The original Revell firm was founded in the mid 40s in California. It initially was in the business of selling toy cars and car models. Later on it diversified into many kinds of model kits, like ships and planes, the kind you spend hours assembling together. In the mid 50s they established a subsidiary in Germany. This is the branch that went into the toy soldier business. Their main focus however has been on the 1/72 scale and they have only released a handful of sets in 1/35. In 2006 Revell Plastics GmbH officially separated from its parent company which by that time had already been acquired and gone through a merge with Monogram. In the end, the subsidiary turned out to be more successful than the parent company. Unfortunately, at about the same time, it also stopped selling the 1/35 figure line and today it only sells 1/72 figures, which is too bad, because if they had gone in the opposite direction, scaling up their 1/72 figures, they would have been able to release many sets in 1/35. Anyhow, so let's take a look at what they did give us.

Revell British Paratroops - Part I

As I mentioned, Revell made these guys in 1/35 scale, so you might not want to place them right next to the Conte guys. A nice set for the most part. The second guy from the left is the one guy that I don't find that great as he seems to be falling forward. And the guy pulling his parachute is a nice, unique pose, but of course, you can only use him in some limited scenes.

Revell British Paratroops - Part II

Another interesting detail is the weapons canister. The picture does not show it clearly, but it is actually separate from the figures. I found these guys manufactured in two different plastic colors, as seen above, with green being the most common.

Revell British 8th Army - Part I

A good set for the most part. I painted several of them some time back. As you can see, the guys I left out were the ones that are standing a bit funny. But the man with the MG and the bag pipe are quite good.

Revell British 8th Army - Part II

These other guys are all quite acceptable. The man second from right firing while advancing is a nice pose. I suppose with the berets and bagpipes these guys could belong to the Black Watch, the famous Scottish regiment which fought in North Africa.

Revell Afrika Korps - Part I

These figures are actually not that far in size from the Airfix figures. Most of the guys in this set are pretty well done except for the guy on the left whose running I find a bit awkward. He seems about to trip and fall over.

Revell Afrika Korps - Part II

The set includes a very nice heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod. The two guys operating it and the gun itself can be removed from the base The guy on the left is probably my favorite figure from this set and a good example of some of the elements that make a good figure: bent knees, slight crouch, body balance shifted off-center, intense look/gaze.

Revell German Engineers or Deutsche Pioniere - Part I

As you can see there is a good diversity of poses reflecting their many roles, such as construction, demolition, mine laying, mine removal, and combat.

Matchbox German Infantry and Revell German Engineers or Deutsche Pioniere - Part II

As you can see, the Revell guys are close enough in size to mix with 1/32 figures. When I painted these guys I thought they should have a few more guys in fighting poses to also reflect their combat role, so I recruited the four Matchbox guys in the back row. A very interesting piece of equipment that comes with the Revell set is the 'Goliath' or SdKfz 303b/Gerat 672, which is operated by the man on the left. This was essentially a remote controlled tracked bomb which could be used against fortifications. This site has a good description of it.

Revell German Engineers or Deutsche Pioniere - Part III

Engineers were also tasked with river crossings and bridge building. In this case, we have a couple guys on a raft negotiating a section of a river. I must say that with that size of boat it would have taken many trips to bring a unit across a river. My guess is that the manufacturer wanted to convey the spirit of the role, without having to produce a much larger boat.

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