Matchbox Vintage Plastic Toy Soldiers 1/32 German Infantry

A very nice set of your bred and butter figures. Maybe a bit to close in poses to another contemporary brand??
Matchbox 1/32 Scale Vintage Plastic Army Toy Soldiers. WW2 German Infantry.

[@ArminDiel]

The officer is really kind of cool! Like a bank robber! 😂 And the flamethrower! Thats something special! Never saw that in any other set!

[@Chriskros1984]

Love this set , never saw a german toy soldier with a flamethrower

[@KRAZEEIZATION]

Not as good as Airfix but still pretty good.

[@dunc0127]

I like the fact that you put both the Airfix and Matchbox figures side by side...and love your commentary too...keep up with the great videos.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Thanks man. I will do more comparisons videos later on. Now I started to go through all the Atlantic sets and figured I could compare Airfix, Matchbox and Atlantic unit for unit.

[@chrisyother4870]

The Airfix figures look WAY better!!!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I agree :)

[@George-pp2hr]

Agreed also. Airfix is much better. They are still popular. I'm glad they've been rereleased but less quantity. 15 figures to a smaller box. Years ago they even came in a small plastic rapper packet!👍🇭🇲🦘🐨✌️

[@18ferris88]

In re the airfix German sub-machine gun: the man who sculpted them had a website in the 1990s/ early 2000s. I asked him about it 20+ years ago and his answer was that it was a mistake. He didn't know what an mp40 looked like. Maybe you can find his site on an internet archive

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Wow I have to find that website.

[@umloucoaleatorio7713]

Very cool must be Nice Paint this soldiers to add more details 😉

[@georgeaitken2719]

I remember my first matchbox soldier set in 1/76 scale before that it was airfix the soldiers were like a breath of fresh air every box had something different a dingy with the commandos a pack donkey the other thing was the matchbox model kit’s like the panzer 3

[@WildFlame8432]

I personally see this set as german versions of the us infantry set

[@minhkhoaluong25]

Many sculpts from this set look very similar to the american ones.

[@olivier3847]

i actually saw conversions of the american set figures into winter german infantry

[@WildFlame8432]

@@olivier3847 cool

[@Bowtie1972]

the thing on the back of the grenadier, is the eating tin.

[@olivier3847]

🎼i like your choice of music 🪖🎶

[@iansands8607]

The Airfix sets look far better.

[@olivier3847]

5:26 i actually think these are very much the same style and proportions...did you get a hold of the sculptor in the end?

[@markborner291]

I never had this set as they never seemed to be available in the UK as per the previous commenter. This seems to be one of the rare cases however when the Airfix set was better. Looking at them now the colour is really horrible and they seem excessively chunky. Great video and thanks so much for sharing your fantastic collection.😀

[@Twirlyhead]

The Airfix 1/32 sets were generally excellent and for the most part better than the Matchbox. Examples such as 8th Army, Afrika Korps, British Paratroops etc, etc, etc,..

[@ewmhop]

GO VIDEO SIR,THE MACHINEGUNER LOOK LIKE HE HOLDING A MP40. THEY LOOK LIKE MATCHBOX RECASTS. GOD BLESS

[@historicmilitaria1944]

Surprisingly the 1/32 matchbox figures were never very popular in the uk the shops always seemed to have the 1/76 versions more,I remember when they first hit the shops back in 1982/83 priced at 75p a box....they were cheaper than the equivalent airfix but did not seem to be available for long.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

That`s probably why they are so hard to find in good condition these days. I don`t remember seeing them in shops in Sweden at all.

[@cyberleaderandy1]

​@@toysoldiernostalgianot in UK toy shops. It was Britains and Airfix. My local post office stocked a lot of matchbox cars, some kits and even the Matchbox pirates at one point but i can't remember figures

[@LausPompeia]

In Italy only 1/76.

[@donaldwiller9238]

Good review 👍

[@manuelmaggioli9077]

Superb set in my opinion, after Airfix... 😂

[@richardsiddall4502]

Do you remember a matchbox set that included german and american troops, a battleboard and ruined town terrain such as buildings and walls and other such accesories, it may have also had vehicles, a friend of mine had the set, I'm going back around 40+ years.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

There`s actually two sets. One in 1/32 and one in 1/76. I don`t remember seeing those as a kid but I have the one in 1/32 now. I will do a video on it one of these days. Airfix also had two 1/32 play sets.

[@georgeaitken2719]

Had both sets as a kid the 1/76 one had two landing craft 3 metal vehicles 15 soldiers 6 ruined buildings beach defences and some fuel drums etc the 1/32 one had a m20 vehicle

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

@@georgeaitken2719 wow not bad. i never even saw those sets in shops as a kid. At least from what I can remember. But maybe they were just to expensive so I never bothered to look at them.

[@georgeaitken2719]

The strange thing about the 1/76 set was the 15 soldiers were American but were cast in blue

[@robchamberlin4900]

I had that set.came with US and German soldiers, plastic green and gray troop trucks and 3 or 4 redoubts

[@minhkhoaluong25]

I wish I had these vintage matchbox figures so much. Armymen made in China now are mostly terrible.

[@SuperOthello2]

Matchbox- Eighth Army set easily unique in the poses. The Matchbox German infantry seems very different.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Yes the feeling I get is that it´s the first sett and the sculptur kinda made it easy and didn´t do that many poses and copied some from Airfix.

[@martinradcliffe4798]

Never had any of the Matchbox 1/32 figures. They seem to have been just larger versions of the 1/76 sets.

[@stevelyons3347]

They were

[@MrJurgen71]

I just noticed that I have same set. I have also other set of these which look much better and little taller. In that set like yours i had ticket, and there was info that made in 1994. I think maby china version?. Also the box was different than other one. 1/32 on yellow is blurier and +8 text confused me too vs other matchbox sets. Mine was sealed with plastic. After that I began very carefull when I'm looking these😊

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

That’s a chinese or Hong Kong copy. Sometimes those have pretty good figures.

[@motorrebell]

Seems the Grenade Guy has a german Mess kit ( Essgeschirr) on his back !

[@flitsertheo]

Then it's odd to find only that on his back and not the rest of his equipment (Zeltbahn, large backpack, ...)

[@Twirlyhead]

Yes. Some copying there for sure. It would be churlish of Airfix to complain too much though as their beginning in toy soldiers, Infantry Combat Group, was a copy of a Britains set. The airfix set is better except for that odd sub-machine gun but even that is better done than the _truer_ matchbox equivalent.

[@williambaker427]

Mess tin on back of German soldier throwing the grenade.

[@svensvensson2724]

Bill Farmer sculpted these. The first 3 sets, Germans, Americans & Brits, are not that great. But he really put Airfix to shame with the next sets. Afrika Korps, 8th Army, & Commandos. He used to have a website with pictures of the sculpting and shrinking to size, but it's gone. I think it's still on Wayback Machine, but I don't know how to find it.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

I mention Bill Farmer in a couple of the videos I made on all the Matchbox sets 😀

[@peterdammeliusosterode3424]

Hm. Det där på ryggen torde föreställa kokkärlet. Inte särskillt övertygande dock.😁

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Ok yes I see what you´re saying. Looks like that would be it. But having the mess kit and nothing else on the back of the webbing seem far fetched. But then again these are toy soldiers. Thanks for the info.

[@StephenLyons-tl8ie]

Cool!

[@eltenda]

Great set but I never like how the "mp 40 " looks like 👍

[@warroomscale]

Is it posible to finde them in Europe ?

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Yes on Ebay and Facebook groups.

[@donrobinson6613]

I like the Aifix set more. The Matchbox figures seem too chunky, their heads seem too big, their legs too short compared to their torso & their poses seem unnatural..

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

They are for sure a bit more toy like.

[@flitsertheo]

They seem to "walk as an Egyptian" too. With almost flat poses.

[@robertpearce2244]

Interesting how neither Airfix or Matchbox could sculpt an MP40…🧐

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Wonder how it could be such a problem to get it right.

[@robertpearce2244]

@@toysoldiernostalgia it is odd, especially when you see the likes of Tamiya producing good 1/32 scale versions at the same time!

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

@@robertpearce2244 well Tamiya (1/35) was producing hard plastic models with several parts per soldier which I think would make it easier to cast intricate parts. Airfix and Matchbox it seems like couldn´t make up their mind if they were making toy soldiers or model figures. But still I think they could have made a great looking mp40.

[@robertpearce2244]

@@toysoldiernostalgia that’s a fair point! If you look at the K98 ammo pouches for example, they are very nondescript. Yet the gas mask can is well defined! You can’t win!!

[@chiefbigtoe7260]

Can you paint those?

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Do you mean if I can paint them or if you can paint these figures in generall?

[@chiefbigtoe7260]

@@toysoldiernostalgia yes in general,

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

@@chiefbigtoe7260 yes but the soft plastic needs a realy good primer for basecoat to get a good result.

[@alessiodecarolis]

Pratically they copied the Airfix poses, at least the Commandos could be used to complement their 1/32 equivalent, and the 1/76 version was better than Airfix ones

[@zaynevanday142]

The MP40’s don’t look realistic and the rifles are short 😂

[@monkeysa43]

I looked at them way overpriced for what they are. I’m going to stick to dinky toys.

[@toysoldiernostalgia]

Yes I think you have to be hard core into toy soldiers to fork up the cash they are asking for the Matchbox sets.

[@goldmanjace]

Cool! I still have mine!