Scanned box, the artwork is even more
exciting than on the (above/newer post) Battle
of Berlin set, if only we actually found a Schwimmwagen with MG fitted upon opening the box, or plastic renditions of the walls of the
Kremlin - wrong city DFC! Sadly - no
such luck!
The figures are copies of Matchbox's US
infantry and as we looked at the poses above, we are here looking at the colour
variations of the two main armies, one being in a rich yellow-olive or khaki
and the other set being in a darker
olive-drab or jade-green, however there is quite a variation between figures
and each set has 31 figures, random by pose and number of each pose but always
(or certainly - in the case of my three sets) 15 in one colour-way, 16 in the
other.
In place of the Daimler armoured-car in the
Berlin set we get two jeeps in this set, both scaled larger than the figures,
one fitted with a spigot for an absent driver and looking vaguely like a US
WWII-era Jeep, following a common HK design, the other having a hole forward of
the driver's seat which may be for an equally absent driver, or a steering-wheel,
as it's not present either - we'll never know!
This second 'jeep' however is not a Jeep,
but resembles almost the Soviet version utility-car with a different bonnet
(hood) and squat'er appearance, see also next/older post (Battle of the Black Forest) for a couple more views; it also lacks
the star on the bonnet usually seen on Hong Kong Jeeps.
The different markings, plastic solour and
wheels suggest both were bought-in from separate manufacturers, with the
smaller one being supplied by the same producer who provided the armoured-car
seen in the Battle of Berlin set, the
larger one originating with the same company that made the figures.
As with the other two sets this is a 1:1
scan of the play-mat in case anyone needs to print a paper replacement for the PE original, and, in keeping with the Battle of Berlin set, seems to have
eschewed the iconic scenes of urban combat around the tractor-factory, rail
terminus, river-side wharves or main square, depicting - instead - the rural
idyll to the South of the city as described by Guy Sajer in his seminal
autobiography The Forgotten Soldier!
So we've had Berlin and Stalingrad, what great
battle next; Iwo Jima, Leningrad or Moscow, Tobruk maybe, Kohima . . . Mote
Casino, Dunkirk even . . . ? No, we're off to the Black Forest!
===============================================================
But is it Giant?
No - date is way off, source-material for
the piracies is way-off, plastic play-matt is not Giant's style, although some of the comic-stuff with Giant figures did have similar play-mats;
they were paper.
