A new blog follower for my Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog – welcome to The WargamingPastor – is using the good old Poundland tiny soldiers in his sci-fi battles on his DeathZap! Website.
The blog strap line “AnyoneCanAffordWargaming” is much in line with the similar Pound Store Plastic Warriors mantra of “Little Wars on a Budget”.
Sad news about the passing of the “plastic army man” game and simple sandpit rules champion Thor Shiel in the USA, passed on by Hugh Walter at the excellent Small Scale World website:
A pretty good obituary by Ed Berg: “If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right”
I have been reading Thor Sheil’s various websites for several years, inspired by his simple backyard or sandpit rules using whatever you have to hand. He had “no brand name snobbery” as Ed Berg succinctly puts it. I also liked Thor’s simple enthusiasm for enjoying whatever plastic toy soldiers you have.
An interesting obituary tribute by Ed Berg and a glimpse of the man behind these Sandpit Rules http://thortrains.blogspot.com
Worth reading and enjoying these many websites and webpages now as sadly websites like Milihistriot and Thor’s Army Men Homepage have a tendency to vanish when the author or host passes away.
Here is my pound store plastic victory parade for Thor from this Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog:
and a suitable Valhalla?
Reading about his interest in Viking ancestry and culture, as a man called Thor should have, reminded me of one of the Stan Lee RIP fan tributes featured on YouTube (from our last post), so here is the Beecher Arts Valhalla graphic tribute for Stan Lee and superhero Thor that might hopefully apply to Thor Sheil?
RIP Thor Sheil
Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, Pound Store Plastic Warrior blog, 21 November 2018.
Oh no! We’re immobilised in plastic! Will our cut-price super powers save us now?
The same scene cartooned in Clip2Comic app as a tribute to comic artist Stan Lee 2018 RIP.
As my belated tribute to the late cartoon superhero creator and artist Stan Lee, I’m pleased to have finally tracked down a couple of sets of Poundland’s finest Superheroes.
Oh no! We’re trapped inside a box now. Is there no escape?Free at last! Free at last!
I missed buying these figures a year or so back and have kept an eye out in Poundland ever since. Today they were back in store at £1 a box so I bought a couple of packs as an investment.
To escape paying franchise fees to DC Marvel and Avengers, Poundland have invented some new cut-price super hero figures of their own.
They come in four different main colours – red, blue, yellow and green.
Red Rage – all Red muscly bodysuit and face mask
Arrowhead – in Blue and red with and an arrow design on his face mask
Centrum – in Yellow bodysuit with worrying target on his front for villains to aim at.
Green Force – Green and red body suit and green face mask.
Thankfully although the Poundland Superheroes (designed by the Anker Group KFIG-PL) are nominally named, they leave their individual superpowers to your imagination.
Centrum sounds like he should be part of some disappointing and dull global or privatised utility company who fails to turn up on time and doesn’t complete the job to your satisfaction. His secret base has no answerphone service or point of contact.
Maybe Green Force is a gardening or lawn repair service superhero, able to restore your patchy lawn in return for cash?
I quite like the range of expression from smiley face to angry or aghast. You can of course swop heads, legs and bodies around.
Quick conversion ideas. A few quick head swaps with female hair, a Lego cloak and Lego head and hat. Name these yourself.
Good to see some multiracial block figures as well. A couple of female figures might have been good – unless Red Arrowhead with the painted cinched in narrow waist Is supposed to be female?
Some female block hair might do a conversion job but they do have very odd block heads, unlike the Lego stud attached hair.
Lego heads swap onto the Poundland neck stud quite well and the hands carry Lego style accessories, tools or weapons well. They also stand up on Lego studs well enough.
Other cut price Superheroes are available …
I would have loved this varied set of figures as a 70s child … almost worth box framing. Lego hardly had any mini figures then and all were bright Simpsons smiley yellow.
Worth pointing out for pound store balance that UK high street budget retailer Wilko or Wilkinsoalso does their own “bootleggo” range called Blox with some attractive bulk packs of civilian and military figures, compatible with but a fraction of the price of Lego figures. There is a fun superhero girl or superhero fan with a Boom! t-shirt in the Wilko Blox set.
Some attractive Blox figures from the 50 figure set including a golden knight / robot and superhero (fan) or Cosplay girl.
Compatible with other leading brick brands, these Poundland figures are four superheroes for a £1, compared to £2 to £3 for the average Lego superhero mini figure blind bag.
At 25p each, there are no accessories, but you can easily make your own superhero capes out of paper from a Lego template using fabric or paper and a hole punch for the head hole.
25p Man anyone?
Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN (no comment on his cut-price super powers either a softer metal version of the Man of Steel) on 17 November 2018.
And finally here is an interesting YouTube compilation of the many graphic novel picture tributes drawn as farewells to the much missed Stan Lee (1922-2018)
Pound Store Plastic Warriors 