What was your first set of 1/72 figures?

[armpcm]

My first set was Airfix German Infantry circa 1981

[ironzentaur]

Well, this is a interesting Topic. So thanks for opening and sharing all your stories.
Just like a journey through my own childhood (Born 1962).
And indeed: The first set is depending on your Age.
My first set has been of course Airfix. Waterloo Highlanders.
Don't ask my why. Maybe the just the Picture of the box (i was about 10 years old?!?).
Before i could realize my wish and buy the Wagon Train, this set disappeared from the market.
I had to wait for about 35 years and then there was no hesitation anymore:
Just bought 5 of them and felt like a child again.

[deeguit]

My first set was the assault set from waterloo given to my at my 11th birthday.

[Wheeling Turn]

I cannot remember the first set but my first sets where from Matchbox,Airfix and the famous "Hong Kong" polybags.
I must be around five or six years old and played some carpet wars with them. And of course the grey ones where the baddies with French Guard Grenadiers mixed with German WWII Infantry against the Good Green Guys.

[Mário]

My first set was the WW1 British Infantry, in 1967. They still exist (most of them), were painted by me and my son in 2010 and we still use them for wargaming.
A good day for all.

[Peter]

My first set was Airfix British Paratroops, around 1973. They were sold by MPC as part of a model kit called 'Battle of the Bulge!' containing a half-track model and a vacu-form base. I was too young to question whether British Paratroops could pass as American Airborne, but the best part was the pictures of the other kits on the side of the box, which I learned later on were all Airfix first-edition soldiers. Those lead me to 'D-Day!' (Germans) 'Gaudalcanal!" (Japanese) and 'Pearl Harbor!' (USA). Ironically the latter contained the British Combat Group as US GIs, so that made things even more confusing later on. The only painting I did was to bloody up the casualty figures.

Then came the discovery of true Airfix in the blue and/or white boxes...at $0.85 each!

I remember those boxes! But at that moment I didn't have enough money to buy one. Just enough for a single box of figures

@Markus: if we count the "Hong Kong" bags as figures, then that were my first ones. A full bag of cowboys and indians with wagons! I still have the horses, but the figures are gone!

[Beano Boy]

It was the HAT 8095 French Line Infantry 1808-1812,and I bought 2 boxes in 2003,and found them rather chunky-like and rubbery!The muskeet`s were very soft and would bend,but I re,enforced them with tinny stripes of paper,and painted them.These were the very first models that I painted,and looking back at them now it appears like I used a yard-brush on them,but one has to start somewhwere,and they are still rather charming!

[David O'Brien]

Easy
-Airfix's first ie 01701 not very good for battles except battle of the bands but at the dawn of tiny plastic figure time.

David

[supermarines]

Esci Barbarians. I was 10 years old. I chose them because of the sexy woman on the cover:)

[HoScaleGeek]

Luftwaffe Personnel, by Airfix. when I was 6 or 7 years old. I took a look inside the box wondering where the plane was to be found. At least the set had three or four figures in it holding a bazooka.

[Panzer_Grenadire]

Like many of us, I was also kicked in the hobby by Airfix at the beginning of 80'... of course, 1/72 WWII German Infantry...
I received the set from abroad, and I was very proud, in communist countries Airfix was a rarity and you could not buy them from the shops, somebody had to bring them.

Obviously, there were the domestic figs, in larger scales, poorer copies of famous brands...from those I had thousands...

[Xantippos]

I thought I had posted here :S . Perhaps it was a similar post.

Probably, the Esci British Paratroopers, which I still keep some of them, most mutilated due to so many battles fought! although before I had 1/35 soldiers cheap copies of Airfix, WW2 British 8th army and German Afrika Korps.

My first Napoleonic sets were Highlanders and British Infantry, bought from a shop where they had been sitting around for 20 years or so! in those times it was impossible to get other Napoleonic, so they were left alone, and as battles between weren't much exciting, and they looked very strange to me (they still look so today!) I wasn't very attracted to them.

My first ancients were Praetorians and Anglo Saxons from Revell, which fought thousands of battles between themselves as simply Romans against Barbarians.

If back in the 80s there would have been more 1/35 kits or vehicles and sets of soldiers, at reasonable prices (there was just some very few and ultra expensive 1/35 kits in my area) I would have only played and collected 1/35. But there was so much aircraft, vehicles and soldiers to choose from with 1/72 ,that I abandoned 1/35.

[Erik-Jan]

in my case that would be the revell australian infantry

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=342

followed by the revell french infantry (WW1)

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=440

both bought with a large discount at blokker.. when it was i dont know anymore anyhow it was a long time ago.

my first nappies.. : the italeri Scots Greys

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=190

the greys are (after 2 times being repainted) still a part of my waterloo-project.

the french and ausies are laying around unused..

[Rod MacArthur]

In about 1960, my first sets were the earliest sets of Airfix British and German WW2. I had no wargame rules in those days, so the figures were not based and games were very basic.

Once I discovered genuine Wargaming (through Don Featherstone, who lived in my home town of Southampton), I bought the earliest ACW figures, and these were my first ones properly based for wargames (using Don's rules as in his 1962 book "War Games". We had no cavalry in the early days, so converted them from artillery outriders.

Things moved on later, with my first Napoleonics in 1969, which were Highlanders painted as Gordon Highlanders, and I still have them.

Rod

[Bramble15]

My first set was Esci's British Soldiers. I think I got them around 1983 while in North Carolina on a family visit/vacation.

[Emperor]

My first set was Pavlovski grenadiers from Italeri...I even made a little diorama with unpainted soldiers back than in 2001...

[Ochoin]

Right at the bottom of the 'Bits Box' I found a few old Airfix Afrika Corps figures. These are 45 years old? And very brittle.


donald

[zirrian]

My father had a bunch of 1/72 minis way before my days as a modeler, so perhaps those could be considered as my first minis, as he bought them to me. I was young (I'm still is, but for a 20 years old, being 10 years old is young ), and we went to a big toy store to get some stuffs. My dad saw they had a model section, so we went there, and the little plastic men in boxes enchanted me. I've played with my dad's 1:72 Esci minis before that, but then I got my first minis. They were Italeri, but I'm not sure...100 years war French or English, Celt infantry, Persians, Macedonian Cavalry...I don't remember exactly, but these were the sets I owned for a very long time. The first setsI bought on purpose were Italeri's Templars, Dark Dream Studios' Landsknecht pikemen and Strelets' HYW British.

[davbenbak1]

It was a Normandy landing/raid type set. Think it was Airfix? British commandos, some German infantry, a landing craft and a plastic diorama type base. Think the soldiers are still somewhere in the attic. Does this set sound familiar to anyone?

[Peter]

Something like this:



http://henk.fox3000.com/Airfix/dio-03.jpg



http://henk.fox3000.com/Airfix/dio-10.jpg