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A great passion of mine when I was younger was building Airfix models, and though I have had a few dabblings with this over the last few years, I found that when casting an adult's eye over my work, my ambition seemed to outstrip my abilities. I have decided to have another go. . . . You can judge the results for yourself below. I've always liked military planes, so this is what I will concentrate on, but I'll give pretty much anything a go if I like it. I remember owning a ton Airfix figures when I was younger and they still hold a lot of appeal to me so I'll pick up a few packs of these too. As a boy I was particularly passionate about the Battle of Waterloo so I will probably try a diorama when I have built up a bit of confidence (and skill!). As an adult one of the things I love about Airfix models is the box art, a lot of which has remained unchanged since I was a boy-surely a testament to its enduring quality and appeal. Below I'll post the box art and (when it's finished) a picture of the completed model.
In terms of collecting the models rather than making them, I love the late sixties/early seventies boxes. For figures these were known as Type II or "Blue Boxes" so called as they were light blue around the edges. These are a little before my time, but have by far the best art. The ones I remember from my childhood are the Type 4, white or striped boxes. For planes, the situation is analogous, although this time the early seventies boxes are known as Type 3 and the mid to late seventies boxes as Type 4. As I add these to my collection, I doubt I'll ever build them. If a feel the need to build a particular model, then I can probably pick up a recent issue at the local toy shop.
Click on the thumbnail images to see a larger picture.
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| 14th April 2001:
This is the first model I've decided to try and build. The main reason for
this is that it is easy-no camouflage. Now that I've bought it, I quite
fancy trying to build a full set of the Airfix MIG models. I guess if you
look below then you'll see if I ever did. . . 6th July 2001: Check out the pictures of the finished article. I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. I built the simple diorama from MDF board, with the contours made from polystyrene ceiling tiles covered with papier mache, painted a base colour and covered in flock.
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| Airfix Eagles. One day I will own a full set of these adventure figures. They were released in 1977 and also in the series were "The Treasure of Atlantis Adventure Set" which went along with above figure, and a jungle adventure and corresponding figure. There may be others. Let me know if you know more about this series. The figure has a great surprised expression on his face and a good accessory set (watch, knife and scabbard, spear gun, aqualung, and torch). I really like the box art, which though not up to Airfix' usual standards was still stylistically distinctive for the series. The back of the box also provides a nice summary of the contents which I'm always a fan of. | |||||
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| The cover art is
slightly suggestive of police brutality and perhaps foreshadows recent events
where anti-globalization protesters have had run-ins with local police.
Airfix seems to have made a very broad interpretation of the jurisdiction
of a military policeman. Like all the figures in this series, he has been
cast with a slightly doped up expression, which comes over as slightly sinister.
There is the usual excellent set of accessories. As above the back of the
box has a nice survey of the contents and a teaser for the adventure set
that went along with the figure.
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Click here to download a movie!!! (wma; 118k) | |||
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| This is a mixed bag
this one. The bike is pretty funky, though there is an eagle front cover
which goes on which barely fits and the figure is exactly the same as the
military policeman figure and as such doesn't fit too well on the bike.
The clockwork mechanism is quite good, though it doesn't last too long.
There is an movie of the bike moving you can download (window media format
118k)
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| In addition to the
figure, each had an extra accessory pack which contained further stuff
with which to enact adventures. This is a nice, but flawed product. Basically
there simply isn't enough in the box. What is there is good (bomb disposal
stuff. a winch, rocks, a valve(??!), but I think on opening the box, you
would have been a little disappointed. The box itself is excellent though.
Brilliant cover art and a cartoon to set the scene on the back. I guess
you have to remember that these were the days before transparent packaging,
so box art was critical in selling a product. It is a shame that these days
are gone, and most toys are sold on the basis of a photograph of the contents
or on see-through packaging. These are not as evocative as the art which
graced, particularly, Airfix products.
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War!!!! Same gormless expression on this Eagle figure, but at least he is heavily armed. I admire Airfix' attempts to make superheroes from characters like divers and medics and I can't make up my mind if I am a little disappointed that they fell back on the old staple of a heavily armed killing-machine. I like the figure, and I would love to assemble an entire squad of them, but it does seem a shame that they copped out a little. This figure came as part of a cool promo that I picked up on eBay. Included were the commando, medic and the earthquake adventure set. This made a really nice package and I wish that Airfix had done a little more of this to beef up the slightly lackluster adventure sets. I guess the medic is there for the humanitarian effort after the earthquake. One can only assume the commando was there to deal with the looters. . . . blam, blam!!!
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One for the ladies! I can't imagine any red-blooded testosterone fuelled boy wanting to play around with a cissy medic figure. . . . Except me of course. I used to have this one when I was younger. He comes with a great set of accessories. This figure probably doesn't deserve 4 stars, but nostalgia value has bumped it up.
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Despite the somewhat cissy nature of the medic figure (I've included him the photo, but he was sold separately) his adventure set rocked (no pun intended). The tent is really cool and the casts are a nice touch which could be applied to other Eagles figures who were injured in the course of duty. If you look carefully at the oxygen tank, you can see that it is the same as the one the scuba diver figure (see above) has.
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Another adventure set. Great box art and comic strip on the back. I particularly like the line "No effect. . . . I'll have to use dynamite!" How often that has rung true with me. The contents of the box, whilst always seeming a little sparse are rather good. The giant plant springs shut by the miracle of elastic band power. It also attaches to a nice base. The dynamite is cool, although why did Airfix insist on including a spare watch with so many of these sets? Were the Eagles a particularly tardy bunch of superheroes? See "Terror of the Deep" above for my rant on the decline of box art.
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