I picked up this red plastic biplane from a children’s magazine about 10+ years ago, I think it was the Children’s BBC TV Grandpa in My Pocket magazine.
It lookedlikeit might be suitable for 30 to 40mm figures.
Two shiny pilots from the 30mm SAE Madeira (Holger Eriksson) Range look very slender in comparison.
L to R (above) Marks Little Soldier (MLS) 30mm Officer, our two SAE pilots, then orange spaceman conversion from Pound Store Plastic Warriors, 28mm Wargames Atlantic conversion to mountain trooper and Warlord Games 28mm conversion.
As an alternative, the new Mark’s Little Soldiers 30mm or some of the larger 28mm figures might suit this two-seated biplane aircraft better?
30mm MLS character figures feature a very 1920s 30s type pilot figure
although in keeping with the pound store ‘penny dreadful’ nature of this blog, one of those penny figures with a US tanker type helmeted figure looks like he could be painted as a pilotwith flying helmet and possibly life jacket?
Good to see these versatile figures are still available in Poundland UK, surrounded by other intriguing toys. (I wonder what was so Totally Roarsome Toymania and DinoTastic?)
These Battle Squadron figures are still available in store or online
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I have used and converted many of these penny plastic figures in the past, so wondered how they fit with other modern figures. Some of these conversions from modern to colonial, space and natives can be seen here:
L to R, MLS 30mm Officer, two 30mm Pilots SAE Madeira (Holger Eriksson) , then orange spaceman conversion from Pound Store Plastic Warriors, 28mm Wargames Atlantic conversion to mountain trooper and Warlord Games 28mm conversion.
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I wondered how these pound store plastic warriors (which are about 30 to 32mm) mixed with 28mm plastic figures and new 30mm metal Marks Little Soldiers
– you can read more about them on my blog post here:
I noticed the only other vaguely ‘toy soldier’ related item in PoundLand were these larger action figures range at £3 for a box of heavily armed eight military figures with outsize weapons!
They also have some vehicle back up above, a quad type bike? and inflatable boat. Possibly large scale enough or harder to loose / useful for garden gaming?
H G Wells – Little Wars – Donald Featherstone – Sci Fi Gaming – Fantasy Gaming – Gary Gygax – Skirmish Wargaming … and Pound Store Plastic Space Marines!
Whilst these plastic and metal original figures from the 1950s and 1960s may be hard to find, fragile and / or expensive, especially in the UK, they give a style guide or mood board inspiration for cheapo pound store figure conversions.
Watch this Space 🙂
Again thanks to Alan Tradgardland Gruber for this possible theme for our next Little Wars Revisited game at Woking or Stockport …
Blog posted by Mark (Star) Man Of TIN, 12 April 2023
The simple addition of a cardboard hat brim (I sometimes use luggage label roundels) changes these Pound Store copies of Airfix and Matchbox Japanese Infantry into different Imaginations figures. I picked these Japanese up in a Pound Store about fifteen years ago.
I was idly experimenting today with the possibility of making some cheap 54mm Boy Scouts Of America figures for my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop Project, although the rifles were a bit of an obvious limitation.
I like the 1:32 / 54mm and OOHO Japanese Infantry figures as they are quite ‘old school’ uniformed figures – puttees, rifles, haversacks, ammunition pouches, water bottles. Flags, buglers, officers with swords in the OOHO set. They could all easily have come from a century before.
A change of head or hat and you have a new figure. Infantry, militia, bandit, revolutionary, irregular …
As suggested by the paint conversion into a Confederate type grey soldier (right), this is something that I also did with the OOHO Japanese Infantry as a youngster in the late 1970s and 80s when I had almost no Airfix ACW figures.
Another year of Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog posts have come and gone …
Nothing much new in the pound stores this year. Good to see these still around. Poundland – my Shelfie 2020/21
Thanks to my loyal regular blog readers and new followers who have found my blog over the last year. Your likes and comments are always welcome.
This marks the fifth Blogaversary or anniversary of the first post on my Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog, dedicated to affordable gaming or “Little Wars on a Budget”.
What’s happened since last September and our 4th Blogaversary in 2020?
Nothing much new in the online Pound stores this year? 2020/21
What with ongoing Covid restrictions I have only been into pound stores a couple of times on the high street only for ‘target: toy section’ for a minute or two.
And visits to charity shops, jumble, steam fairs, junk markets? None.
This paucity and Covid drought of penny dreadfuls and plastic tat has been relieved partly by some kind donationsfrom blog readers of old unwanted Airfix figures, some great samples of Hing Fat 54mm figures from Peter Evans and also from strategic reserves laid down in the past.
These strategic reserves are laid down according to my Pound Store Plastic Warrior wise hoarding maxims –
1. “Buy them when you see them, they’re sometimes only around for a short while”
2. “They’re only a pound”.
3. “You may not need them now, but in the future …”
2020/21 saw a couple of games using Pound Store plastics ranging from snowballing fights of Yukigassen in August …
To an RLS “Land of Counterpane” game in April on an old squared blanket …
Some mistakes – octagonal ‘hexes’ in this budget reconstruction of Games Workshop Lost Patrol for Pound Store space marines … the well known eight sided hexagon, that one …
Some curious Pound Store conversions, padding out the more expensive Chintoys plastics or old lead …
October 2020 onwards: My Arma-Dad’s Army Elizabethan muster or militia Home Guard 1588 1595 slowly builds using Pound Store knights
This of course having Spanish Fury Conquistadors and Armada troops means Aztec types are a natural match or extension (Peter Laing style ‘dual use figures’ )
With found cheap scenery from scrap … inscribed stones, temple steps, obelisks …
The Super Cheap Wargaming group on Facebook has been good for such affordable scrap terrain ideas as well.
Sometimes my Pound Store Plastic Warriors posts crossposted material or projects from my Man of TIN blog (main blog) or linked to these including:
Fembraury – The new BMC Plastic Army Women becoming Women’s Revolutionary Army of Parazuellia, part of the 1960s Morecambe and Wise comedy film The Magnificent Two whose other government and rebel troops will be padded out with Pound Store GI copies …
January 2021 – Scrap modelling Edwardian style with E Nesbit’s Wings and the Child on the building of Magic Cities
and January also involved archive history research to identify more about H.G. Wells’ connections, family and friends involved in playing his Floor Games and Little Wars c. 1911-13. Well our Pound Store Plastic Warriors strapline is “Little Wars on A Budget”.
Who knows where 2021 and 2022 will lead us?
Thanks for reading and following.
Blog posted on my Fifth Blogaversary 13 September 2021
I put in a mention for the Wargaming Pastor’s work with these figures on the Death Zap blog
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Thanks Hugh for the mention and blog link – if you don’t know it, Small Scale World is a great, almost encyclopaedic reference source for plastic soldiers and all plastic rack toys including their pirate copies and packaging.
“Spaceman and colonials from the same blob”?
Surprising what you can do with some paint, scalpel, (wire and PVA and tissue paper) …
Faces, boots, snowy white on bases were painted then stuck on Warbases MDF 2p size bases. A tiny number written on the back and base help identify figures, add names etc. in game scenarios.
As you can see, the grenade is now a snowball, thanks to a blob of some gloss white paint.
I dug out my draft snowball fight rules “Packing Sugar at Freddie” that Alan (Duchy of Tradgardland) Gruber and I have been developing on and off as a non-lethal war game, akin to Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop.
Short of time before the dining table was needed again, I quickly set up a quick scatter of white stones, white foam packaging and Christmas fir trees on a white felt gaming cloth and tablecloth.
A quick sketch of rules.
Movement is one lolly stick, half uphill. Some areas (cling film) ice is impassable.
Snowball ammunition unlimited. IGOYUGO roll d6 for each team, highest score moves first, second team next, first team shoots (throws), second team throws.
No melee, no morale, no savings throws.
Long range of three lolly sticks, hit on target on 6 on a d6
Medium range of two lolly sticks, hit on target on a 5 or 6.
Close range of one lolly stick or less, hit on target on a 4,5 or 6.
If target undercover, deduct 1 from d6 score.
Two hits means that the target figure must head (without further firing) straight away each turn towards Camp HQ to the east. Once reached, the umpire can restore the figure to ‘life’ after two turns and they can enter the game again.
Scenario and rules are explained in more detail here:
To the east is the Game HQ with umpires and observers from the local scout troop.
To the south is the Blue team base.
To the east and west are other snowball fight teams of different colours – green, red and tan – to watch the snowball fight game.
The Aim of the game / Victory Conditions
‘Capture the Flag’ style, each team must steal the rival team’s flag (barrel) from their base and return it to their own camp, without losing their own flag (barrel) from their own base.
A small bear cub wanders through the snowscape past the central snowman.
A wall heater gets disguised as a distant snow ridge with Christmas trees.
Within three moves, long range snowball shots (3 lolly sticks range) are being exchanged.
Things started to wrong for the Blue team quite quickly, leading to them either falling back South to protect their ‘flag’ end area or heading East to be restored to gaming life.
An old-fashioned black and white wargames book type photograph.
Black team are now within long range snowball distance of the Blue team camp.
Each successful snowball hit is marked by a gemstone on the base, then when reaching two hits, the figure’s game life is lost.
A metal washer or silver tape ring is used to mark those figures who have lost their ‘game life’ and are heading straight for the Game HQ to the east. Here the umpire can restore a figure to fresh game life and head back onto the table after two turns.
Movement is restricted, interrupted and shaped using logs, trees, impassable ice (marked out by gems and polythene cling film) and snow hills
Very quickly, most of the Blue team seemed to be ‘heading east’, twice hit by snowballs so temporarily out of the game and unable to fire, until their game lives can be restored by the Umpire to the east.
The Blue team’s ‘flag’ (barrel) is captured and would quickly be taken unopposed back to the Black team’s camp, so the Umpire declares this a Black team win and game is over.
‘Home’ and time for tea …
What I liked about this quick game
It could all be made very cheaply using Pound Store soldiers in grenade throwing and other poses, along with terrain of cheap Christmas fir trees, snow hills from foam packaging and other found objects such as logs on a white cloth.
I played this game solo and the dining table being in a busy area of the house with distractions, I often forgot what or who was moving or shooting at times. A simple Turn Counter would solve this.
I couldn’t find my bag of small metal washers to mark hits on figures, so quickly made some silver rings from silver present tape. The two gems as hit markers often get mixed up and left behind. I have now ordered some small clear plastic Roman blind or curtain rings for the next game.
Two hits happened very quickly to many figures, especially at close range; with no savings throws, many figures were soon heading east to the Game HQ to have a gaming life restored. A higher number of hits is perhaps needed before the game life is lost?
Anyway, a good fast fun game. Why not have a go with some suitable figures and some old Christmas stuff?
Pound Store Plastic Warriors 