Counter Attack From Matchbox Is A 1/32 Vintage Plastic Toy Soldier Retro Classic!!

Fun playful set from Matchbox that was made to rival Airfix Combat Packs back in the mid 70s. Lot´s of fun little details and action packed weapons.
'Legionnaire' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
If you like this video check out these I did on the Airfix 1/32 Combat Packs.
• The Legendary Desert C...
• The Somewhat Legendary...
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[@PhD777]

Excellent video! The 1950's through the 1970's was the BEST time for toys! 👍🏻🎅👍🏻

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks. Couldn´t agree more.

[@marcj3682]

"The 1950's through the 1970's was the BEST time for toys! " Agreed.

[@toysoldier68]

Back then there were so many great things in the field of model making and toy soldiers. We had a toy store with a separate floor just for model building, toy soldiers and miniatures. Unfortunately, none of that exists today. A great video with a great playset!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

In my hometown we had two stores that sold models. One was a toy store and the other a pure models only store. That was pretty good for a town of only 110 000 people.

[@kellysnipe9586]

The post-war "Baby Boomer" years! Toys have never been as cheap or as good quality as they were back then. That's because, after WW2, American businesses were doing very well due to amped-up production for the war effort. Not to mention they were not getting any competition from Japan or Germany since both those countries were still recovering from war damage. The U.S. dollar was incredibly strong! Nowadays? A bag of popcorn will cost you 5 bucks! And two penlight batteries will cost you 8 bucks! A good argument for socialism.

[@garyhaskins7482]

Never seen this set had no idea this existed tbh but looks so good and my fave scale 1/32 need to add this to my collection looks better than my airfix military check point but would all look ace together though.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

@@garyhaskins7482 yeah the check point would look great with this set

[@garyhaskins7482]

@@toysoldiernostalgia where could I purchase this pal ? And how much would it cost ?

[@richardgalati1323]

We did have some great toys growing up in the 70s!

[@nickclaydon2488]

I had that set as a kid, I loved it. Literally played it to death.

[@MegaParillo]

To death? So sorry for your loss.

[@jebbthetrainkid1281]

Awesome Playset. Wish they still made them like this.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Yeah they were realy special.

[@PaulGibbons13]

Hi great video as a youngster I used to collect Airfix Toy Soldiers and also Britain and Matchbox Soldiers and Toy Cars 😀

[@anastasios4415]

Another excellent video! So memories....Thanks a lot, greetings from Greece.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Cheers man :)

[@jdjimenezvelazquez5573]

Thank you very much for these videos. They take me back to my childhood. I'm 57 and since I grew up my hobby has been 1/35 scale modeling. Of course I started with Macthbox 1/76 scale models in the 80s.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Glad you enjoy them :)

[@lubeman62]

As always, superb video... growing up in New England in the sixties & seventies, Airfix & Matchbox were hands down the most commonly found manufacturers available in toy & hobby stores!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

They were also hands down the best toys.

[@cyberleaderandy1]

@@toysoldiernostalgia absolutely. Most local store had at least matchbox car is and certainly our village post office did. My parents bought me several play sets like BP petrol garages and one was a matchbox cardboard fly over (bridge) set. Good times.

[@Blackedoutewoks]

Great video and I had this set back in the late 70s or early eighties!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Must have been fun.

[@claytongrice7164]

My parents bought me this set for my 8th birthday. Played with it constantly. One of my friends shot my birthday cake up with the heavy machine gun to see how far the plastic bullets would travel into the cake. My mom didn't appreciate him using her homemade creation as a ballistics dummy!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Great birthday gift.

[@manofaction1807]

Toys R Us had an aisle with full playsets, stacked almost to the ceiling, back then... They were quite impressive!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

A kids dream and a parents nightmare lol

[@roosternm6830]

I used to have a ton of these sets and the smaller packs of soldiers. I loved the frogmen set. As I got older I started painting them and doing black and gray washes to make them look even more real. I have to admit.......I lost a bunch of them in my back yard. I played with them for hours a day and had a great time. My cousins and my friend. I got every penny worth out of them.

[@peterkean5199]

That was a great set, I got one for Christmas, 1978 I think, and had many hours of fun. I preferred the building to the Airfix outpost building but both were good. Gave it to one of my nephews in the end along with all my WWII figures.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

What a christmas present. Did all the weapons work well for you?

[@peterkean5199]

@@toysoldiernostalgia Indeed they did, happy days!

[@rudidedog243]

I remember these sets from the mid to late 70s in Ireland, loved them all but only had the Beachhead Assault one. I got it from Santa Claus.

[@lubeman62]

"Santa"...👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻...😉... always brought the best presents!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

The beachhead assault is a realy cool set. Nice Santa in Ireland.

[@rudidedog243]

@@lubeman62 yeah didn't write another Christmas letters for years, never needed another toy again.🎅

[@lubeman62]

@@rudidedog243 these sets did seem to age well...thanks for sharing

[@davelovelock4007]

Great vid bud. I was born in 75', and I used to ride my bike around and find these at garage sales. They seemed to be everywhere, I had many of them, and they were alot of the times in PERFECT condition, without missing parts, because the kid thyat owned it, prolly loved em and took care of it. These playsets were the best. My all time fav is the Marx? "navarrone battle" or whatever it was. Love the content! keep it up !!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks man and thanks for watching :)

[@dale5495]

I had fort Apache it was like a metal suitcase

[@xenomorph6961]

The colours of those plastic soldiers brought back a lot of memories :)

[@philipcroft9857]

Love your channel loved airfix/matchbox stuff in 60s/70s ..keep doing these videos please

[@MrTompkins]

Nostalgia! I was lucky enough to get one of these for christmas as a kid. Loved it! Lost a few of the bits over the years, but my own son got to play with the soldiers. He loved them too (although they were conscripted into a strange pokemon/moshi monsters/WW2 hybrid army)!😀

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

The dreaded hybrid army. My son played with my old soldiers and I had to explain that eventhough the 8th army and the Afrika Korpa were the same color they were on different sides. Do you think he listened.

[@cheezycatnip8352]

I had Counter Attack and I am constantly looking for this on Ebay, It brings me such happy memories and I would love to play with this again...however It is so expensive, no way I could afford it, but it is what it is... With that in mind, I can live vicariously through your video and I wish to thankyou for taking me back 45 years for a few moments. God Bless from Scotland.

[@cheezycatnip8352]

p.s. subbed.

[@madelief47]

As a kid of 11 - 15 I made a lot of stuff myself. The father of my best friend was a commander of a militairy base. So... we got some of the plastic blanc shots for playing. My friend got a whole band, for use of a machinegun, made of the wooden empty M1 carabine... I got some blancs too, and used them for my own made German 88 mm gun. (Some matchboxes glued on top of each other, the shield of cardbox and the barrel made of a plastic tube.) With my mouth pressing air, the "granades" would go towards the enemy; US soldiers who invaded with landingcrafs, also made of littel cardboxes, where my mother bought the coffee in... An empty box was one more landingcraft! But firing a lot af shells, ment I became dizzy, by pressing so much air into the plastic tube. From a shoebox, also cardox, I made a Normandy coastline bunker.... all the Airfix Germans had a place to fire upon. Yep, the machinegun was on the floor of that bunker. Barbed wire I made of old electricity wire.....to protect the bunker. Good memories of good days, expecially on rainy days!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Love all that creativity. How cool it would have been to see all that stuff you made. I did some stuff to. I made military vehicles out of clay in arts and crafts in school. I can´t remember if I painted them in school or at home. Anything having to do with drawing, sculpting or woodwork in school always ended up being some kinda military thing.

[@madelief47]

@@toysoldiernostalgia On school I did as well. The Spitfire was my favourite fighterplain. I got the 1/72 version of Matchbox. On the back of the box there is an overview how to paint this plane. I took it to school, and by measuring the airplane on the box, and endlarge it; a lot! I made a large Spitfire of cardboard. It looked great, however the cardboard was darkred of colour. Anyway, I took it home. Then I got an idea; why not let it fly? So, I did put a little stone in the nose of the airplane. (It had no prop.) From the attic, out of the window I did let it go into the air, into the garden....It flew very good!. So, now I considered myself a constructor of airworthy planes.... I did used the whole summer. Till Autumn it was completely worn out. End of my Spitfire...

[@josephwirtz7120]

Thanks man, that was like hanging out in your basement while we play army. Aloha

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks man!

[@Bester76]

I lost count of the number of times I bought the Pontoon Bridge set. I had at least 3 or 4 of them. I remember combining them at one point and had one huge bridge lol!

[@colinkavanagh7625]

I had the Matchbox set many years ago but still have the Airfix Waterloo set still in the attic

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

The Waterloo set is real nice :)

[@1teamski]

My favorites were the Atlantic wargames series back in the early 1980's. Those sets rocked!!!

[@GinSoakedBoy]

Would've loved these kinds of sets as a kid. We had toy soldiers, of course, what now I understand may have been knock-off Airfix models (poses look similar, but we never had those nice boxes). But these elaborate kits are another level.

[@svensvensson2724]

I've wanted this since 1978.

[@IMCproductions]

Woow, as a guy who grew up in the early 2000´s I'm impressed with all this, definitely you guys had better toys

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

At least when it comes to war toys and toy soldiers it was better back in the 70s. My son was born in 2007 and I got him some super cool toys.

[@michaelryan6947]

Many many thanks! I loved this set! Reminds me of watching "Bridge at Remargen" while building it in the 70s(?)

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks for watching 😃

[@petersackett9058]

Lovely set. Thank you.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

No problem 😀

[@chiefbigtoe7260]

Epic battle at the end! They had to design the play s on pencil and paper , since no computers back on the 70s, that is what is neat

[@georgebrooks3747]

I'm a very jealous man, thanks for rekindling my childhood

[@carlconnor2650]

Brilliant video as always.Brings back so many memories..👍👍👍

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks :)

[@Jacensbattlegrounds]

That building alone makes the set, very nice!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Totaly agree.

[@jamesjennings-yd2bc]

Oh man, I had the Waterloo one. Loved it.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

That`s a very cool set. I had quit a few of the napoleonic era soldiers but never had the playset.

[@stuartburns8657]

Wow, I remember my Dad taking me into Woolworths and picking this up. I remember the tower, statue and the building, but not so much the machine gun and grappling hook.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Damn one lucky kid. Must have been awesome to have at that age.

[@stuartburns8657]

@@toysoldiernostalgia born 1974. Assuming it must have been around until the early 80's. I did mention it to my Dad, but he can't remember lol. Thank you anyway 👏

[@Historybuff1776]

I really enjoy watching your videos. Great memories. Thank you. 👍

[@Monkey_Spunk]

This is the best thing I ever saw.

[@snapperxv]

I Remember the matchbox playsets with love, Seemed to be every Christmas. I think I was a playtester as one of my late father's exbusiness partner's was a Matchbox distributor and I seem to remember the playsets as before the years often quoted as production years. My favourite was the Seakings Harbour. Lots of Airfix as well as a couple of businesses my late father bought had stock what amounted to restraint of trade clauses on most of our shop sites meant they sat there for years in store as they were impractical for market stall sales and I was allowed to pick smaller boxes as "wages" for my juvenile help.

[@grrfy]

OMG I loved my CounterAttack set,

[@daviddenaldi816]

Oh wow- can't say I ever recall seeing the "counterattack" set- great score!!! I'd hate to be the GI that stumbles on that "Delayed" mine- it would shoot you to the moon!!! ha ha

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Death by orbit.

[@nigelcarren]

That machine gun is awesome!!!! I was about to say "I would have loved that as a kid!" But who am I kidding, I love it now!!! 🙈👍🇬🇧😂🤣😂

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Yes it worked a lot better then I expected.

[@AltCtrlFreak]

The Waterloo set looks great

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

It´s a super nice set with 8 boxes of soldiers.

[@Lamby1010]

Used to use my pocket money once a month to purchase a box , the picture on front was that sold it to me 👍

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Artwork on 70s toys were awesome.

[@yancowles]

Yep, I had this and spent many, many happy hours with it. Funnily enough, I only managed to find it using a search engine last year - it sure is an odd one to try and track down.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Yes it´s not all that easy to find one. I bought thos one of Ebay probably 17-18 years ago.

[@loganoldon8924]

That’s an awesome gun. I had no idea they existed. I know my mother never would of because of the small parts

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I had no idea either until I found it on Ebay about twenty years ago. Lot´s of the big Playsets never made it to Sweden as far as I can tell.

[@leebalmforth2269]

I had that set when I was young. From what I recall my set come with a slightly different statue. Good times

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Cool. The statue in the set matches the one on the box. But maybe they changed it over time.

[@BruvaBob]

You just brought back some amazing memories for me!! No idea how I ended up on this channel but glad I did. Me and my bro had all 3 of these sets plus a few more, we was very lucky as my grandad worked at the boots main depot and before christmas they used to do a huge sale so every year for years me and bro would get one of these sets. Cant remeber if it was airfix or matchbox but we also had a huge container dockside set with cranes etc, and then soem other battle scence of a bridge and coastal battery, would love to see them again

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Not a bad hook up you guys had. There´s a Matchbox Container Port playset. Maybe that´s the one you had. I have it in pretty mutch mint condition and will do a video on it in the next month or so. Great that it brought back memories as that´s kinda why I started the channel and included "nostalgia" in the name.

[@BruvaBob]

@@toysoldiernostalgia Wow yes I'd love to see that, I only remember it having an orange crane which loaded the containers onto a lorry, very cool as a 8yo abck in the late 70's. Im diving through your other vid's, great work buddy, keep going! You make me want to go and raid my mums loft and see what we still have other than star wars and old D&D stuff.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

@@BruvaBob you should :)

[@Leinsterman75]

I had completely forgotten I used to own this set until I saw the video. Can't remember the German vehicle being part of it though but I do remember not bothering to use the pump to fire the gun and blowing through the tube instead 😂

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Lol I tried blowing as well before I got them to work.

[@scottfw7169]

"Needs no Batteries: Powered by renewable Kid Power!" 😁

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Lol I like that.

[@cyberleaderandy1]

The "mine" looks like a toy called "Poppin Hoppies" I had as a kid in the 70's. Same design except they were bright colours and had faces on. I think made by Mattel and you pushed them down then wated for them to "pop" up. The idea was you were supposed to catch them to score points.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I had something like that as well. But mine was just a toy that jumped. Kinda boring.

[@modrevival168]

Being 7/8/9 i even thought that Matchbox sets were never as good a quality as Airfix

[@Anders1236]

Fantastic! 😂

[@paulgertsch7105]

Cool set

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Sure is 😀

[@noodles2459]

It would be cool to see sets like this for bolt action. That game uses multi-part soldiers but I like the simplicity of this.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I have quit a bit of Bolt Action figures and vehicles but still haven´t played it.

[@Keeldem]

I had the matchbox "container port" now that was hours of fun

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I have that now. Gonna make a video on it in the next couple of months.

[@RobertoMartinez-pr9bd]

I like that you have firing weapons. But I believe that at a certain time they were band because kids took there eyes out.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I guess since Airfix had the firing pillboxes Matchbox figured they had to have some firing weapons as well. I think the pillboxes are easier to use but these are so much fun.

[@ThePlasticGeneral]

Great video, cool set. I wanted to see the Statue up close, you didn't even mention it!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

It didn´t seem like an important piece but you´re absolutely right. I´ll put up a photo of it in my community feed. It´s so hard knowing how in depth I should go on sets like this. If it´s to long I´m worried that people will get bored and like in your case I didn´t show all the pieces up close that you wanted to see. Thanks for the feedback.

[@MRaadesign]

Great vid! Love these old playsets! Subscribed too. :)

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks for watching and subscribing! Wait until you see the Matchbox SeaKings playset.

[@TwesomE]

Impressive that they had rubber tires for the wheels in the military vehicle! Again a nice review well done man loved every bit of it!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks man 😃

[@Mikedadof2]

Great video and love ww2 history

[@earheadsix4119]

I had Mount Suribachi and a desert warfare set. Either from the Sears or Montgomery Wards catalog. I don’t remember.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Argh all the cool sets that were available in the US back then and never made it over here. Frustrating.

[@mazinz2]

Just learned about your channel (a video showed up in my feed). I am familiar with a few army sets of the 70’s (or ones I remember), but I never knew about something like this from Matchbox. Super cool!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

It sure is. Imagine getting it as a kid.

[@mazinz2]

Would have been awesome. I recall the giant rock mountain fortress (Marx, or some 70’s re-issue) and never being able to get it, much less have knowledge that cool sets like the ones you show existed

[@richardhockey8442]

I had the the Counter Attack set, I think I still have some of the bits for the ruined house scenery in a box in the loft

[@xray86delta]

Sure! That big projectile is a spigot mortar! 😉😸

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Looks like it could be. Even the shell with the coloring looks like one I found when googling spigot mortar. Thanks man.

[@Lebkuchenmann71]

Nice Video 👍

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks :)

[@paulmatthews7744]

I’m inspired to raid my parents’ attic where my Airfix soldiers live. 😀

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Do it :)

[@thebruehlofspandau1665]

Only hat Airfix wartaloo. Miss it. The Prussians ... These should also come back in 1:32

[@Sabaton62]

❤️👍 Super.

[@nissafors]

Jag känner igen det där playsetet från min barndoms Matchbox-kataloger, men hade det aldrig själv, så det var kul att se din recension... Kanske tur att man inte köpte det, för det verkade ju lite "barnsligt", men ganska fyndiga lösningar för minorna, kanonen och kulsprutan.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Ja undrar om de ens importerade den till Sverige.

[@daniellebcooper7160]

I can still remember seeing that playset advertised in the matchbox catalogue....and wondering what the mentioned 'action mine' was?. Nice informative vid btw.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Pretty basic operation of that mine but it worked like charm.

[@komissionkamen]

Супер набор, великолепное видео, единственное замечание, пять минут разговора в начале видео, это зря, напрасно потраченное время, уверен все перематывают кому интересен ваш канал, и многие кто первый раз, дальше не смотрят. Удачи вам, и спасибо за видео!

[@allielightfoot2769]

Dude, I had that haircut.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Whut??

[@davidcreager1945]

Have you ever done the Guns of Navvarone play set ? Or the Battle of the Bulge play set ?

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Nope neither. I think they are Marx right?

[@211inprogress]

Delayed action mine working well I see. 🤯

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Oh yeah! 😀

[@211inprogress]

​@@toysoldiernostalgia 😆👍

[@glennmaloney4962]

I had the ww II bridge attack😂

[@warrenchambers4819]

I always and still do love army playsets from back the 60s and 70s. Had a few of those coming up but the one I always wanted but haven't gotten (yet) was the Navarone playset by Marx. Maybe you can help me figure out what playset I had, it was made by Matchbox I believe and it was like a deep sea diver deal with a stand that a boat sat on and a ocean back ground. May have been a Tonka?

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Those Marx playsets are pretty now aren´t they? Never seen a deep sea playset by Matchbox. Sounds cool though.

[@gerardburton3741]

Its a pity the grappling hook is broken. As the rest of the set appears in really great condition. There some great toys out in the 1970s that required the child to have some imagination. Rather than it being spoon fed to them today on a pc.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Otherwise I would probably have broken it when I played with the set and tested everything. It was so much fun I put everything to good use for quite a bit.

[@user-vt1kz3mh8y]

У меня не было таких игрушек. Я стрелял резинкой для волос натягивая её на линейку.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

That´s one way to get something that fires :)

[@martindavis9930]

It's a good thing your mom has such a large basement for all of your toys... ?

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

My mom?

[@CaptainKeen]

Uh, ACTUALLY, that is an AMERICAN M20 Armored Utility Car, so it's depiction as a German vehicle is inaccurate!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I guess you didn`t watch the whole video 😀

[@johnkriete2152]

Should have had eye patches included. Lol

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Safety googles maybe lol.

[@warroomscale]

Why we live In Woke times and we cant have such a good military plastic soldiers like this??😢

[@Acrocanthosaurus]

500th like. What do I win?

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Sorry the price was for like number 499 😀

[@Acrocanthosaurus]

​@@toysoldiernostalgia Ha. I loved me some armymen in the seventies but don't remember Airfix being around. Is that a Brit thing?

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

@@Acrocanthosaurus yes they were made in England up until the mid 80s. They were available in the US back in the 70s but not super common. In Europe they were all over the place back then and what all the kids here wanted to get.

[@DocReasonable]

Never even knew about this as a kid, would have been crazy for it if I did.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Same here. Imagine opening this for the first time ans setting up to play.

[@DocReasonable]

​@@toysoldiernostalgia I think these playsets started coming out a bit too late for my friends and I; 1974 was my last big year of WW2 soldiers and models. Until recently, back into it all now!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

@@DocReasonable I´m born in 1968 so I think last year I kinda played with toys were around 1978-79.

[@DocReasonable]

@@toysoldiernostalgia I was born in '63, so that lines up perfectly... we both stopped around the age of 11 or 12.