It's been a while since we gave Strelets our suggestions for things we would like to have in 1/72nd scale soft plastic figures.

Here are a few I have been thinking about.

1. Spies, think about every James Bond movie, or Matt Helm, Man from UNCLE, or even Austin Powers, there are many things that would be interesting here. Men in suits or tuxedos with handguns, guards with MP40 machine pistols, women in evening gowns and a pocket pistol. A man using a jet pack, or a woman riding a motorcycle with rockets on it. Harsh border guards, and fedora wearing police detectives would all work well for this and other set ups.

2. A band, that is to say a rock and roll band, jazz combo, even a calypso band. Night clubs, USO performers, many places where soldiers gather there are often live musicians playing in the back ground. This would make a great mini-set with a dozen or so different poses.

3. SCUBA divers and deep sea divers. Atlantic did a rather weak set of divers but they were rather limited. Think about the movie Thunderball, or Men of Honor about the deep sea diver in the US Navy. There are many nations for about 100 years who used essentially the same deep sea diver sets.

4. US Navy Early World War Two, Set 2. These guys can be infantry, with Lewis guns, BARs, Springfield rifles and Thompson submachine guns, and Cold .45s. In the Philippine Campaign the US Navy fielded an naval infantry battalion wearing regular navy uniforms but carrying a variety of light weapons. They did very well against the Japanese. This set will fit perfectly with the other Strelets early WWII sets.

5. US Army Berlin Crisis, these guys would have a mixture of World War Two and Korean War weapons with post war uniforms. They are the same troops who would have invaded Cuba during the Missile Crisis in the early 1960s.

6. Cuban Revolutionaries, one of the 54mm companies makes these figures and they are great. They work well for both Cubans and as mercenaries, or soldiers from other small countries in the first half of the Cold War.

7. 20th Century Civilians, Airfix made a great set of these figures and it has been off the market for decades. Just regular folks walking along, waiting for the bus, doing what people do. The Aifix set works well from about 1900 to about now because they are rather generic and don't fit any specific time period, apart from the Bobby who is obviously British.

8. American police for the post-WWII era. Red Box do a good set of police for the 1930s but after WWII uniforms changed a lot, and so did equipment. Smokey the Bear hats, bus driver hats, M16 rifles, Mini-14s, tear gas grenade launchers, maybe even horse mounted police and a dog.

9. WWII German Kriegsmarine landed spies in the US, Canada, and Greenland in World War Two. They landed small groups to plant weather stations in the New World and Arctic. They conducted boardings of neutral ships and even served as infantry battalions in 1944 and 1945.

10. Adventurers, Indiana Jones, Tin Tin, and many other who carry handguns, whip, wear a leather jacket, and participate in archeology, espionage, and other activities. They wear fedora hats, pith helmets, sun helmets and could be from any Western nation.

A few ideas, probably only take you 5 years working on nothing else to get these done, I know. But they are things I would buy.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

Hi.It is interesting to make our suggestions. I would start with respectfully suggesting sets where Strelets just initiated a series and stopped for example: Polish Russian war (just 1 set), Rif war (no Spanish), War 1812 (1 set). Then I would respectfully consider certain gaps in the hobby which require just a couple of sets for example: Royal Navy WW2 (lots of RN cars/trucks at our scale already exist - Oxford brand), Dutch, Norwegian, Vichy, Danish, Belgian, Colonial troops (WW2). Take this opportunity to show my appreciation for Strelets' efforts despite exceptionally difficult circumstances.

George, Oxford model cars and trucks are amazing. I have about four of them and they are wonderful.

What kind of Vichy troops would you like? If European, how would they differ from regular WWII French like Pegasus? I would support Vichy troops for North Africa, Tunisia, as they wore a combination of French and German uniforms.

As for RN, what should they be doing? Stoking the coal fired furnaces on old battleships? Mopping the decks? Standing watch on an MTB? Perhaps some for the Campbeltown raid would be good, a few with rifles and SMGs perhaps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Nazaire_Raid

Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Belgian troops did not spend too much time in combat under their own flag, not sure about those, however, the KNIL the Dutch colonial troops for WWII would be perfect for Strelets since they already make their opponents the Japanese.

Good list George!

Bunkermeister

Strictly speaking for WWII here, I would also love for some of the minor nations to be represented better. Strelets has done it in the past providing us with Hungarians, Romanians, and winter Italians and for that I am very grateful. As far as minor nations that saw heavy combat go, I would love to see some Bulgarians by somebody at some point. They were really only used for occupation and anti-partisan operations while allied with Germany, but after the soviets hijacked their country the Bulgarian army was used heavily. Some Greeks would also be awesome!
Of course I have to remind myself that it is sometimes for the best that every set I want isn’t released, because I’d have far too many active projects if that was the case. And regarding WWII, the early Philippines campaign has my attention with these new sets by Strelets.

I am very open minded, so as long as it is pre-1914 I am all for it (post-1914 stuff is obviously popular too, but not to my personal taste). Good luck with the current projects! :D

I am kinda with you there Babylonian. I do enjoy collecting the world wars (especially wwi) just because it’s hard not to at times, but I’ll always prefer my horse and musket era more. 1700-1900 is probably where’d I’d say my sweet spot is. I’ll buy pretty much anything that covers those two centuries.

I agree with Asher, WW2 Greeks would indeed be awesome, and would provide another opponent for the current sets of Italian Infantry in European campaign dress. I would also go for a set of French Army Senegalese Tirailleurs, for either WW1 or WW2. Strelets has already made a nice set of WW2 Moroccan Goumiers, so the Senegalese would be a natural follow-up.

I fully agree that Greeks & Bulgarians (WW2), Senegalese would simply be awesome.I would add the Yugoslavian Army & Ustase of Croatia. These fringe armies though not main protagonists of WW2 were still important for WW2. For us collectors of WW2 sets these fringe armies have immense value comparable to a limited edition set. So it makes financial sense to provide us with these sets. Moreover, a couple of sets from each of these armies would be enough to fill this huge gap in our beloved hobby.

Just one set of generic WSS French line cavalry which could then work for Dutch, Prussian, Hanoverian etc etc would be my wish

I like the idea of generic historical militarysets. I can see that would work well for WSS. By the same token I would like to see generic Hussars in Shako for the Waterloo campaign for use as British, KGL and Hanoverian.

Plus throw in some French Hussars for good measure with
their later taller cylindrical shako.

With all the niche USA centric suggestions I'm surprised that a request hadn't been raised for Trump insurrectionists or evangelical protestors.

Danny

Completely agree with this Rich. At the moment Zvezdas Swedish Dragoons have to fill this role. A set of French line cav would be extremely versatile.

I just noticed this thread....tuned in for my Friday news fix. I am still batting for the War of Independence/French and Indian War. Highlanders, Morgan's Riflemen. Tarleton's Loyal legion, Washington's Dragoons to oppose them. Stay safe

How about a line for the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).

Hi Pedro. Fully support Mexican Revolution and also a generic set of Mexican bandits, mounted and dismounted. The latter is a gap in the Western series: we have cowboys, sheriffs, Indians, US Cavalry, gold rush, outlaws, pioneers but not one set of Mexican bandits

Great idea, I second, lots of figures to display and then lots of sets to buy!!!

This is probably too niche but personally I’d like to see late 20th Century/early 21st Century riot police of various hues, plus rioters obviously.

The way modern conflicts are developing the gap between conventional warfare and police work is diminishing. Riots are usually but not always fairly non lethal, but can be the prelude to or acts in Civil wars or intracommunity strife.

Personally I’d like to see some variants: armed with rectangular shields to form a ‘shield wall’ arrangement, usually your normal cops brought in for the day and event, the supervisors with round shields for deployability. Shields are often Perspex so could be left to be made by the purchaser.

Then the paramilitary police, (think CRS in France or various gendarmeries world-wide) perhaps engaged as ‘snatch squads to dart out and make arrests, others with special non-lethal weapons, or lethal barrelled weapons as a last resort.

Mounted police units might make an interesting addition too.

Finally, military deployed to back regular police, like the British Army did in Operation Banner.

Osprey did a title on riot police so people are starting to think similarly to me.

Anyway, just my idea although probably not mainstream enough. Thank you for reading.

Agree with Graham, urban conflict is becoming more prevalent - we need modern police - both patrol and riot. There are lots of cheap scale/close to scale police vehicles out there at dollar stores etc.

... a great must be in my opinion is some WW2, western front (or north Italy) British Army in winter uniform. Several British and Canadian divisions fought gallantly under Monty's and Alexander's command, and there is only minor representation in our hobby. I also agree with Greek infantry, but why Bulgarians? They fought nowhere, except as an occupation army, torturing and murdering people...

I completely disagree with your Bulgarian comment Marios. I’ll point you in the direction of the book “Red Wind Over the Balkans: The Soviet Offensive South of the Danube, September-October 1944” by Kaloyan Matev. After the Bolsheviks took over the Bulgarian government, the fresh Bulgarian divisions were immediately put to use by the soviets. They bore the brunt of the fighting during the southern Balkan campaign. And they did no more torturing and murdering than the allies did in their occupied lands as they were ultimately hoping to integrate these territories (which were home to many ethnic Bulgarians) back into the country.

https://www.ime.gr/chronos/14/en/1940_1945/occupation/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

I’m aware that atrocities were committed during the occupation. I just said that they were no worse than atrocities committed by the allies. Should we not make sets of miniatures for the Brits and Americans for the fire bombing of Dresden? The Soviets for their countless offenses? And that’s not even to mention the Germans who are incredibly popular in the hobby despite their activities during the war. And I’m assuming that with your Wikipedia link you’re trying to show that the Bulgarians didn’t lose millions of men. That doesn’t take away from their notable contributions in the Balkans in 1944.

Thanks for your support Pedro!!

Pathans!
Would open the conflict up in 1/72. A firm favourite in metal ranges. To complement colonial Brits and Russians.
I know some might also dream of Afghan army, Persians, Khiva etc, but at the least Pathans should be done. (Esci had a few good poses in their old set, but very few.) A bit like what was done with the Arab revolt or Rif rebellion sets, but dress is not identical.
Thanks for consideration!

Hello,

The first thing that springs to my mind are Jacobites.
To be honest the 2 existing sets are not that good.

Regards

https://bunkermeister.blogspot.com/2025/02/batman-and-henchmen.html

https://bunkermeister.blogspot.com/2025/02/new-spraypaint.html

Another type of figure I would like is generic superheroes.

Consider most superheroes wear a body suit, with our without a cape, and with or without headgear.

So even a small set of male and female figures would give you enough variation to do almost any figure as it is the paint job that differentiates most superheroes.

Captain America and Batman wear essentially the same outfit, Superman wears the same clothing as Shazam. It is the painting that makes them specific.

I am building superheroes using existing figures, here are some from the Batman 66 universe, based on the TV show and Batman 66 comics.


New Spray Paint for the General Gumm and henchmen figures.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Add my vote to Pedro and George's for Mexican Revolution sets. I also would love to see more Plains Indian Wars sets from Strelets. Only the US Cavalry were done and they are long out of production.

A revamp of the Jacobites sets would be good. Especially as the Red box Government forces are so good.
1950s US figures would also be interesting.

Mexican Revolution figures would be nice. Would also like to see the WW1 range continue..lots of big gaps still and some more figures for the Rif War specially the Spanish and some Rif Berbers.
WW2 Greeks for 1940 against the Italians gets my support too.

Unfortunately another neglected period in our hobby is the English Civil War. A few sets covering this period will remedy this gap.

Excellent suggestion George, for a very colourful period. The figures would be very versatile and also allow expansion in many cases to Thirty Years War and beyond in Europe.

Regards
Danny

I've never seen a set of figures from the Paraguayan War from 1864 to 1870 where Paraguay took on Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

It was a complete bloodbath for Paraguay whose population shrank by reports of 60-90%.