Hello! Time to gauge the populace's interest again in a rather unorthodox topic, although for once it actually does involve guns.

What would you guys think of Strelets considering a small series that was devoted to the forces that fought in the Chadian-Libyan war of the 1980s, specifically the so called 'Toyota War' of 1987? The idea would be to focus on the Chadian FANT forces of Habre versus Qadhafi’s Libyan army. This was the war that saw the rise of the so called 'Technical' trucks being used against conventional twentieth century AD style armies that employed armoured vehicles.

So, that is the idea. Anybody interested?

P.S.- Cannot figure out how to put photos on here, but this website has an image of some of the FANT personnel astride their Toyota:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/the-toyota-pickup-truck-is-so-dependable-a-war-was-named-after-it-104487.html

I don't collect anything post 1945, so this one is not for me. Interesting idea though.

Same as above. Far too recent for me.
I prefer the more colourful & varied uniforms of the musket era.

I support greatly such an idea like I would encourage some sets re Angola and Mozambique civil wars including Cuban soldiers.

Yes I support more moderns! I’ve never heard of the Toyota war, but I would buy sets for this. I love to learn about new eras and history. I would really like to see some post 1945 sets. It would be great to see some limited series to see if there is interest then they could be expanded. For example:
1950s:
Korea - winter USMC and winter Chinese (for Chosin Resovoir)
French Indochina - FFL paras and Viet Minh (for Dien Bien Phu)
1960s
Angola - Portuguese, guerrillas, Cubans
Six Day War- israelis, Egyptians (for Sinai front)
1970s
Yom Kipur - Israelis, Egptians, Syrians
Rhodesia- Selous Scouts, Guerrillas
1980s
Iran Iraq War - Iraqis and Iranians

This would be a nice start and could be expanded on.

Hopefully one day some of these will be realized!

John. Your selected list is music to my ears. I collect Napoleonics and WW2 but variety is the spice of life and may be it serves to attract new people to the hobby. History did not stop with world war two and relative recent times are history as well. Moreover for example we already have Israeli Defence Force (which is super great and will love some more) but we lack Egyptians, Lebanese, Gordanian etc. A small series or a couple of big boxes (like we have for Normans / Vikings) to cover these forces will be a dream come true for us who already have militay cars, tanks etc related to the era 1960 till 1989. Another consideration may be Argentinian army to cover Falklands - Brtish exist but will not mind some more.I fail to understand why soldiers related to recent times when we were growing up and are part of our memories cannot materialise as plastic soldiers in our beloved hobby. Please consider our ideas and wishes. Thanks

Definitely more modern sets are required, for instance French in Indochina and so on, as suggested before. I would be interested in buying any new modern subject.

Cheers,

Ale

Interesting proposals!
I am personally not interested in contemporary conflicts and armies which were partly already produced from some others manufactorers like Revell, Orion, Germania or Caesar. My interest ends already with the russian revolution.

I would buy most any post-WWII set, but I would buy more of some than others. I would like Cuban Missile Crisis sets, one American and one Cuban, Americans with M14 rifles and Cubans with their scruffy revolutionary look. I think Cubans for the Revolution would be useful. Engineer Basevich make them in 1/32nd scale and they sold out almost immediately.

Orion has dome a few sets for the Vietnam War. I would like a few more of those, French at Bien Diem Phu would be a good addition there.

It's the 50th anniversary of James Bond Dr. No movie and the recent passing of Sean Connery has generated a lot of interest in spy movies. I think that a set or two of "James Bond" figures would be great. Whenever I run a poll on what figures people want from Airfix it always comes out as #1 with suggestions of several sets to cover the first ten movies or so. Bond and other friendly forces and spies; Bond Girls, Little Nellie Gyro-copter, Thunderball with scuba divers and so on.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Interesting to hear everyone's ideas, thanks! Based on what I am seeing there is a more or less mixed reaction to post-1945 sets, although an exploration of the French and their associated allies/enemies in Indochina at some point from 1945-1954 may be warranted. Strelets is pretty dedicated to the core eras of the UK market though (Hastings/Crecy/Agincourt/18th Century/Nap/Empire/WWI/WWII/etc.), so something associated with the British in India or maybe the Seven Years' War seems more likely in my opinion. But we shall see. :sunglasses:

I have no real interest in in post 1945, but there is one exception , the Falklands war, largely infantry V infantry , and few artillery pieces. A handful of sets covers it.

Post 1945 conflicts have only been scantily covered by Braille figure plastic manufacturers to date and while the new Vietnam War sets from Orion go some way to readdress the situation for that conflict there is still plenty to do and I would buy all of the above suggestions.
Several conflicts have figures for one side but not the other.

A case in point being the Falklands War where no one has made any Argentinians and the British sets are not easy to find.
The same goes for the Wars against Iraq where we have several sets of US troops and some for their allies but no Iraqi sets.

A good place to start with post 1945 conflicts would be IMHO the Korean war and French Indochina as we already have large amounts of vehicles and planes from WW2 that can be used in these wars. It would also mean Strelets can expand their FFL range with a set of FFL Paras at Dien Bien Phu.

FFL Para for Dien Bien Phu what a dream. And other French troops in Indo China war and from other nations that participated in Korean War.Please consider making some sets from these periods.

The war with Chad is a bit too far off the beaten track for me but a lot of the other suggestions sound very reasonable. Personally I think fairly generic African soldiers would be very useful for those who want to do the liberation struggles.I think vehicles should be left to a dedicated kit manufacturer .

Remember we can only expect things that at the very least will break even and will hopefully make Strelets some money.

Thus the point of asking the crowd. Since this pretty much turned into a general discussion of post-1945 sets I think it is fair to say French in Vietnam is a mild risk for Strelets, while the rest seem to be too far away from the Hastings 1066 and 1700-1945 sets they prefer to focus on.

Hey, Strelets, Norse villagers for your 1066 line? Come on, you know it would be fun. For Odin! :smile:

I think there is huge untaped areas in the post-1945 era. I think the Falklands and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan along with Vietnam has huge potential (Vietnam-era ANZACs for example???).