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Re: Friday Eve

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
In olden times when we were not waling uphill, both ways, to and from school, and facing attacks by red Indians and the occasional mammoth, we got usually two and sometimes four Airfix sets per year. We found out about them in about March when the UK magazines from February would arrive and the figures would show up about a year later, in Southern California where I grew up. One set of Airfix figures and one Roco Minitank could he had for my $1 weekly allowance.


Indians and Mammoths? Such Luxury! You yankee kids! We just had each other to face&fight in the snow...
Not to mention you having Roco Giant or Hong Kong figures.


I got an Airfix H.M.S. Victory my uncle had never assembled. For some reason there was an Airfix 1971 catalogue in the box also. So I had something to drool over for years.
I don't know how to describe how lucky & happy I was later when a classmate of mine desided to sell me his Airfix playsets "Caesar's Gate" & "Wild West" & "Zoo". This happened round 1979 so I could never imagine what people pay for those sets nowadays.

Re: Friday Eve...and 'Welcome'!

Asher Croy
I appreciate the feedback minuteman. Being at the ripe old age of 21 I haven’t been around the hobby long. I am pretty blessed though to have entered the hobby at a time when so many eras and time periods have been or are being covered. I don’t know how you all managed living off the occasional airfix set, but props to you. And until even more recently I had never known about these forums. It’s very enjoyable to talk about the hobby with others.
You are very Welcome to this Forum, Asher!! It is open and honest, and generally good natured. It is certainly a very good place to discuss things to do with 1/72 plastic soldiers, and not necessarily limited only to Strelets' fine products either.

The replies from Mike B and Flambeau to your post reflect that there are a good number of 'old timers' here, and those far-off days were somewhat impoverished in terms of what we had to 'play' with! Things have improved since:grinning:

There is an interestig feature on the Plastic Soldier Review (PSR) site at http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/ShowFeature.aspx?id=27
which gives a review of year-by-year production of new sets, going all the way back to the first Airfix set in 1958. You will see from this that 2009 was the reecord year, but the hobby has done well also in more recent years, and despite the pandemic a good number of sets were released in 2020 and 2021.

There is a lot of very useful information on the PSR site; you may have discovered it already, but if not have a look.

Re: Friday Eve...and 'Welcome'!

Minuteman
Asher Croy
I appreciate the feedback minuteman. Being at the ripe old age of 21 I haven’t been around the hobby long. I am pretty blessed though to have entered the hobby at a time when so many eras and time periods have been or are being covered. I don’t know how you all managed living off the occasional airfix set, but props to you. And until even more recently I had never known about these forums. It’s very enjoyable to talk about the hobby with others.
You are very Welcome to this Forum, Asher!! It is open and honest, and generally good natured. It is certainly a very good place to discuss things to do with 1/72 plastic soldiers, and not necessarily limited only to Strelets' fine products either.

The replies from Mike B and Flambeau to your post reflect that there are a good number of 'old timers' here, and those far-off days were somewhat impoverished in terms of what we had to 'play' with! Things have improved since:grinning:

There is an interestig feature on the Plastic Soldier Review (PSR) site at http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/ShowFeature.aspx?id=27
which gives a review of year-by-year production of new sets, going all the way back to the first Airfix set in 1958. You will see from this that 2009 was the reecord year, but the hobby has done well also in more recent years, and despite the pandemic a good number of sets were released in 2020 and 2021.

There is a lot of very useful information on the PSR site; you may have discovered it already, but if not have a look.
I’ll have to give that link to PSR a look. It’s satisfying to see the progression made in the quality and quantity of figures. As for the site as a whole though, I am all too familiar. I don’t remember how, but several years ago I stumbled across the link and binge read countless reviews. I had never known that the toy soldier industry had been so large and accommodated so many different eras. Ever since then I’ve been hooked, and I appreciate the welcomes! This is a great community to be apart of.

Re: Friday Eve

The recent upsurge in ancients has been quite nice. I am not a proper old timer, but do remember the days where I used some old RISK game pieces as Babylonians and conscripted the first version Airfix British Paratroopers to be Polish infantry for the Italian theatre.

My first Napoleonic set was an accident; I ordered some guys entitled "British Infantry" in order to fit my Italian Theatre armies of 1943-45, but instead Revell's British Infantry for Waterloo showed up. So I built up a little army around them and a few of the brand new HaT sets of French, Dutch, and Austrians. Had no idea about anything Napoleonic at that point, it is not taught at all in a lot of USA school systems.

Welcome welcome! I had a time about 15 years ago where I thought the hobby was doomed in the face of PC gaming, but have actually found that the figures compliment the weaknesses of their virtual brethren nicely. So hopefully everything remains an enjoyable experience for all! :)