I like the enthusiastic sales blurb (October 2025 / March 2026).
All your poses here “various stances and soldiers … self-standing”, “high quality”, “durable”, “can be positioned however kids want to!” “these high-quality Army Men stand the test of time”
As ever they have enthusiastic product blurb such as “Free-Standing” … “constructed from durable plastic to withstand the rigorous play of any little action obsessive.”
“From intricately-detailed action scenarios to your favorite military movies and stories, the Mini Toy Soldier Figurines encourage kids to develop their creativity and imagination whilst providing hours of fun and entertainment.”
To have missed one Blogaversary for the Pound Store Plastic Warriors in September 2025 was slightly embarrassing, but to have missed this two years running?
I think I missed posting this Wild West themed 8th Blogaversary (post below) in September 2024.
No excuses, it is after all a hobby, not a job but if I had to blame anyone it’s the dearth of interesting new rack toys and fewer ‘bricks and mortar’ toy shops and newsagents.
The bulk of my gaming posts are still out first on my original Man of TIN Blog and its successor site Man of TIN Blog Two, if you are not already following or subscribed to these sites.
Online ‘recce flights’ on online pound stores, eBay Auctions and the odd shelfie this last two years have revealed a few interesting figures this year …
40mmish plastic copies of Matchbox, curiously warped but attractive figures with an Irregular Miniatures figure vibe …
with more to come. All full of potential, including cheap recently made figures suitable for garden games and all weather outposts.
Some are Shelfies rather than bought packs, as I probably have enough pound store basics? (Sounds of distant unconvinced laughter).
Budget Black Hawk Down ‘desert warriors’, Feb. 2025 – almost space marines!
But as shops and soldier ranges come and go, best to buy what you need or want now, as you may not see them again for a long time. Or as cheaply. Or as unmutated. Or ever again …
I still keep an eye out for unusual pound store plastics in unusual places, charity shops, car boots and steam fairs …
Such figures are all grist to the gaming mill now and in the future, such as futuristic figures for my ongoing (Not Quite Star Wars) or Close Little Space Wars skirmish games.
Anyway thanks to my loyal reader(s) and commenters, here’s to another year of pound store plastics.
I have a few interesting online or store shelfies and vintage pack images to share over the next few months.
1970s? Hong Kong made copies mostly of Britains Herald Khaki infantry in my plastics collection.
Cheers then!
Mark Man of TIN, happy belated Blogaversary to one and all.
Now …
********** Back to September 2024 and our 8th Blogaversary *******
It is now 8 years since I started my Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog in September 2016, separate from my Man of TIN blog on toy soldiers.
It has not been a busy year 2023/24 for pound store plastic warrior posts, I’ve not seen much pound store plastic of note or new in the last twelve months.
To be honest, much if my time recently has been sorting out vintage lead cowboys and indians for exhibition and packing away my hobby stuff ready for redecoration and display cabinets.
These Cowboy and Indian figures below featured in what was my first year blogaversary week back in September 2017.
Back to my 2008 purchases, rediscovered whilst packing away …
Western Adventure only £1.99 – that’s my kind of budget adventure.
I have four of these lovely packs, two left unopened, bought for £1.99 each in a now vanished non-chain pound store c. 2008. They are marked up as BJ Toys.
These were put away in the toy cupboard in 2008 ready for a “rainy day” that has never come (so far).
These bags have a colourful and lively photo montage cardboard header of Cowboys, Indians and desert Wild West movie terrain. Stock images. Yee-ha!
These were Pound Store standard sort of rack toy with scaled down 50mmish copies of the 1:32 Airfix Cowboys and Indians.
These Airfix copies have been around a while as I remember picking up and painting up similar pound store packs for a friend’s child c. 1995.
More recently in the last five to ten years Tobar or the late Hawkins Bazaar had hard brittle plastic sets of these Airfix cowboys.
It’s something of a credit to their design or their Airfix designer that these figure poses are still going strong three or four decades later.
Here are two of the packs opened and displayed to show typical range of contents – all the Hollywood Western cliches of totem pole, canoe, log fence, supply waggon or covered wagon – and palm tree?
Some useful playset accessories – the printed cardboard supplies box for the wagon is a simple but nice touch!
All that you need for a “western adventure”, ambush, Bank raid etc.
As usual with playsets, there is a range of figure scales and accessories, the horse and riders are smaller scale than the classic Airfix type Cowboys and Indians, which were once 54mm or 1:32 but now thinning and shrinking into the upper 40mms.
There is also a simple plastic cartoon style playmat, same in each pack.
More of a poster than a gaming mat, these playmats usually have a strange perspective view of things, seen from the rocky foreground through midground of river bank and grass prairie and forest background.
Some interesting gaming scenarios on the playmat – the broken waggon wheel up by the fruit trees, the broken cattle fence, the tiny cave or mine, colourful Indian camp cook out and shields and the log bridge over the river.
A glimpse of longhorn wild west cattle and cow skull for once!
Reminds me of the fun Backyard Battalion playmats this year.
Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 8th Blogaversary post month, 13th / 22nd September 2024 and 9th Blogaversary finally posted on Back to The Future Day 21st October 2025
Another hour or two of searching stalls and enjoying the noise, smell and shine of big steaming traction engines at the steam rally, I turned up this £3 bundle bag in a rummage box. Cheap joy!
Spot the promising flash of Rebel pilot orange?
Enjoy this Unboxing (or debagging?) at / Crossposted from my Man of TIN Blog Two:
On occasional visits to the curious Trago Mills depertment store of Falmouth in Cornwall, I stock up on Revell Aquacolor Acrylics. My only other source of such paints in person is sometimes the local Hobbycraft.
Their small array of Revell kits is next to the small toy department, where I noticed …
The current Combat Mission header with generic figure and grenade graphic 2019/25.
Having not seen the roughly 30-32mm ‘penny dreadfuls’ bags of 100 figures for a pound in Poundland for a while, it was good to see these available to hobbyists young and old, albeit now at £1.59 per 100. 1.59 pence a figure or ‘Penny halfpenny dreadfuls’?
‘Penny Dreadfuls’ is what Canadian gamer Ross Macfarlane dubbed them on my blog comments many years ago.
Next to the Combat Mission stretchy soldiers, Marine Biology sealife and slinkies, I spotted a pack of Combat Mission Army Soldiers 160 pieces for £4.19.
Generic grey camouflage print & helicopter branding on the card back header.
That’s roughly 2.5p each for a roughly 40mm figure copy of Matchbox figures.
Although unlike the £1.59 mini version with the traditional two different colours of figures equals two different armies such green and tan, there are at least three different nations represented in these Matchbox copies – Britain and Allies, American and Germans – including German Afrika Korps and British 8th Army desert troops.
We have seen this Matchbox copy mix repackaged with different headers and prices on several other online sellers back in my recent April 2025 post.
Off the sprue and on the rack, there are the usual quality control issues of too many officers, imbalance of combat weapons and too many weird poses.
These are more apparent in rack toy bags than in boxed and sprued more expensive figures (although we mustn’t forget the useless diorama poses that creep into too many ‘proper’ box sets).
Recognise these Matchbox poses through their plastic rack toy bag?
How many pistol bearing officers, ones with binoculars or Desert Fox Generals does any one side need?
It is strange to see these poses repeated and copied over and over again, getting thinner (almost semi flats?) as they morph.
54mm Britain’s Guards band, 1:32 Matchbox British Infantry Officer or General, Matchbox copy of British 8th Army Officer 50mm in 2007 down to the new 2025 40mm copy.
The Matchbox copies that I bought (same poses) from pound stores 20 years ago are 50-54mm thick bodied giants in comparison. I have seen (but not bought) worse figures recently online.
How useful are they? These roughly 40mm sized WW2 figures are not really a thing for most people’s gaming but 40mm ranges exist in metal for some periods, as they do for 42mm.
Size comparison: 40mm Schildkrot Homecast German infantry, new 40mmish British 8th Army officer, 42mm Irregular Miniatures range British Infantry.
Looking at these plastic figures in small batches, you can clearly see their d-evolution, shrinkage and flattening from the Matchbox 1:32 54mm originals, becoming now almost semi-round or semi-flat.
Matchbox copies now 40mmish German infantry (left) & Afrika Korps (right)
Matchbox German Infantry and DAK Afrika Korps – see the 1:72 originals
Matchbox copies now 40mmish German infantry officer with pistol (left) & Afrika Korps officer or General (right).
Matchbox American Infantry now morphed to 40mm (good 50-54mm copies from Tobar / Amazon can still be found online in bags or boxes).American Infantry flamethrower, once 1:32 or 54mm, now 40mm. Too many flamethrowers? I might try a quick scalpel scrape conversion possibility to an LMG or BAR and to a backpack?Finally the British Infantry and Commonwealth forces, including these two 8th Army Scottish or beret figures, now closer to 40mm.British 8th Army charging with bayonet, increasingly twisted and now 40mm. British 8th Army officer and casualty figure, now 40mm. Kandytoys details on 8th Army figure.
40mm figures – so scenery and vehicle wise, you are looking at somewhere between 1:43 and 1:48 for vehicles and scenics?
They are still useful figures that could be used for generic WW2 era infantry or ImagiNations settings.
Scale comparison with tuppenny coin or MDF bases
They probably need basing for general use, maybe on tuppenny sized washers, MDF Tuppenny War Bases or tuppeny pieces.
Good for the sandpit, good for the garden games or the tabletop, they should paint up well enough for a skirmish game. 160 pieces for around £4.00. They satisfy my inner 7 year old!
Suitable scenery to match those cheap pound store plastic warriors space type figure conversions?
Suitable cheap space figures for the reprint and update of Donald Featherstone, Skirmish Wargames science fiction scenario ‘Mining Station Sigma 9, 3015’Such 50mm figures above could be painted in 1930s-50s shiny gloss space paint, like my smaller 30mm pound store ‘penny dreadful’ cousins
Blog posted by Mark (Star) Man of TIN, 28 June 2025
Firestorm Games online April 2025 – HGL Airfix British Para copies
An occasional foray online and in toy shops – a recce flight – to see what affordable plastic toy soldier figures are around in mid April 2025
and how they are warping and thinning from their original designs to provide pocket money or party bag quantity rather than quality.
Toy soldiers for a few pence – pocket money stuff. It keeps both my inner seven year old and my inner ‘trash panda’ very happy!
Fred Aldous April 2025 – more Airfix British Para copiesBack Alley Army Store April 2025 – a strange range of Matchbox WW2 Infantry figures and an excess of German officers with pistols? American, German, British 8th Army figures amongst others. You can see the former Matchbox groups of figures thinning plastic before your eyes …
‘Kombat Kids’ seems to be a popular brand at the moment.
Kombat Kid packaging design branding also seen here Oddly wilting morphing Black Hawk Down US figures – also seen in my recent 2025 blog post here More repackaging for the ‘WW2’ old Poundland ‘penny dreadfuls’
These penny / now often 5p figures are great for conversions – here are some of my examples:
Finally who doesn’t love the slightly oddly worded description with all the possibilities of play
Inexpensive epic battles …
“Whether staging intense battles, defending fortresses or strategising military manoeuvres, these miniature soldiers are sure to inspire hours of imaginative play and excitement.”
Who can ask for more?
I think I saw this style of figures and mini tank back in 2023 in my blog post. A few packs of these useful ‘Soldiers of the Combat’ playsets are still available from various sources online.
As my fellow blogger DeathZap! Points out, “anyone can afford” to get started in war games as a hobby if you look at pound store plastics online or in the shops.
So, I hope you enjoyed my April 2025 recce of current offerings of strangely morphing toy soldier figures and their header art and (breathless) inexpensive epic description, showing you can still get a good old fashioned shiny toy soldier game (Wells’ Little Wars, Featherstone) with cheap plastic figures, especially if you give them the gloss paint treatment (see below) …
or if you prefer you can knock up a modern khaki grunge skirmish.
Shiny Blue forces …
My ‘Land of Counterpane’ game in 2021 (inspired by early gamer Robert Louis Stevenson or RLS) with cheap and cheerful pound store plastic warriors in full gloss colourful shiny paint!
In my view, Tabletop gaming doesn’t have to be expensive.
Pound store type plastic figures are one inexpensive possibility.
I couldn’t remember where I had seen such 54mm pound store soldier poses but they seemed to be cheap copies or pirated figures – at first I thought they were BMC, King and Country type figures?
Roger Halvorsen suggested (see blog post script) that they are Forces of Valor WW2 range copies.
These modern or futuristic troops can be worked backwards to reasonable WW2 US Paras (in case Airfix 1:32 reissues dry up again) through recent conflicts far out in time and space to become convincing Space Marines, Sci Fi rebels and troopers.
Cheap seaside plastic tat shop BMC Marine Copies, 50p a box in 2016.
The makers of these mystery figures were a bit of a mystery when I first found them at the seaside for 50p a box. These turned out after some time searching around online to be copies of 54mm US Marines WW2 from US manufacturer BMC designs.
I bought several box loads of these figures at various seaside plastic shops about 10 years ago but these slowly morphing and de-evolving figure designs are still out there, albeit thinning, shrinking and the crisp mouldings degrading with each reissue.
Is this a developing case of Plastic Tat nostalgia? Plastic Tat isn’t what it was in my day / ten years ago etc. etc.
That was then, this is now, 2025 …
About 20 figures for a pound, 2024/5 Toys for a Pound online
King and Country recently issued late 2024 a new range for 1992 ‘Black Hawk Down’ Somalia which would also do for Gulf War / early Afghanistan era ‘Desert Storm’ US or Allied Troops.
Issue 118 August / September 2024 Toy Soldier Collector TSCHF magazine – back page K&C advert for their new Somalia range.
The beautifully painted metal King and Country figures are obviously collectors items, display or diorama piece, rather than knockabout tabletop / beach / garden gaming figures: astonishing prices at 3 painted metal figures for $177 dollars or about $60 per figure, compared to my 20 to 30 unpainted figures for 50p to a pound!
Fine figures – but not what you could call wargaming on a budget …
Thinning down but still only a pound for 20 figures …
As for the joy of pound store figures, Man of TIN along with Stalin (supposedly) and various others would agree that “Quantity has a Quality of Its Own”
One obvious challenge with cheap pound store figures is having a good balance of poses, weapons and support gear as well, as is another challenge of having an opposition.
If you are using the WW2 US paratroop figures for a garden or tabletop recreation of D-Day, Arnhem ‘Market Garden’ and other scenarios, then a range of suitable cheap copies of old Matchbox and Airfix 54mm ish figures can be found online or secondhand. 1:32 Airfix WW2 original figures are once again available.
Pound store and playset versions of British Paras, British and German Desert Infantry, German infantry, US infantry, US Marines and Jungle warfare can all still be bought and found online, all slowly shrinking and warping but affordable or ripe for conversion. A good simple paint job can work wonders.
The King and Country diorama or collectors range of Black Hawk Down figures is awaiting an issue of enemy combatants or troops.
54mm plastic insurgents do exist such as these Mars plastic soldiers …
but these insurgent figures for me are a little too realistic, too modern, straight off each night’s TV News and ultimately not something I could comfortably game with.
Obviously with some imagination and simple modelling, your own version of ragged insurgent militia can be created by a remodelling of heads or headgear and a mix of camo uniform and colourful civilian clothes.
I am relaxing in my hobby time by collecting, painting and ‘playing with toy soldiers’ after all.
If you want to avoid the ‘too close for comfort’ modern war setting, why not escape from recent conflicts to set your games far away in time and space where your figures become convincing enough Space Marines, Sci Fi rebels and troopers?
Vehicles in this 1:32 or 54mm toy soldier scale are expensive but can be hacked from plastic toy cars as shown with this (admittedly 28mm figure?) Two-Poundland toy Hummer looking tough truck?
Currently out of stock Poundland online – Mini Car recent screenshot from Super Cheap Wargaming group on Facebook. 28mm figure for scale?
However in plastic army men toy soldier terms you already have two sides in each pack – same poses in each, but usually tan army men fighting green army men! Unless they are all one army, just wearing different camouflage for different habitats and campaigns. Green for jungle, wood and forest, tan for sand, desert and savanna.
And finally …
Before anyone mentions the view that buying cheap copies of figures is damaging to the profits and survival of figure manufacturers, as Toy Soldier Central does regarding this view about ‘knock-off’ copies):
“It’s important to acknowledge that the production of knock-off army men raises ethical concerns. Unauthorized copying of designs and molds not only undermines the intellectual property rights of original brands but also impacts the overall toy soldier industry. Legitimate brands invest time, resources, and creativity into developing their figures, and knock-offs can hinder their ability to innovate and thrive in the market … The overall quality and durability may also be inferior compared to the original brands.” (Toy Soldier Central)
“In my defence” or in response, back in 2016/7 and often ten to twenty years ago, I didn’t know what many of these unbranded ‘knock-off’ figures were when I bought them, often long before internet searches were possible.
Apart from BMC figures (US Marines) who have now returned the figures back to business, mostly available in America, these are mostly all figure ranges no longer available, some from figure manufacturers no longer producing them or in business.
As far as I can see, US based Forces of Valor (Unimax) no longer seem to make these 1990s and WW2 figure sets. I probably wouldn’t buy such individually expensive painted figure sets or afford US shipping, whereas a generic box of unpainted figures has great use for various figure and conversion projects.
I am not likely to have bought them anyway and have no interest in retaining their value by keeping them pristine and unplayed with on display in their boxes.
The manufacturers have lost no business, in fact they have gained some admiration for their original beautifully painted figures.
Whilst Airfix have recently bought a limited number of 1:32 figure sets back (currently as of 2024/5 six sets, all WW2), many of the clones of their British paratroopers have now had their helmets or headgear changed and so have almost become new figures in their own (copy)right. Airfix Cowboys and Indians are also widely available in ‘knock-off’ form.
The other most common knock-off figures are by Matchbox. These Matchbox 1:32 figures haven’t been available as original sets for years, possibly since the late 1980s? Tobar and others reproduce a bag of good hard plastic copies of the Matchbox WW2 US Infantry (but no opposition).
Again the vanished company is not losing any trade if we now buy these available copy figures.
I hope the sculptors of these classic and familiar plastic figure poses and designs would be pleased to know that their designs are still being bought, admired and played with by children right through to ‘men of a certain age’ including me!
Blog post by Mark Man of TIN, 22 February 2025
B.P.S. Blog Post Script
Roger Halvorson in Norway helped ID some of these clone ‘knock off copies’ of figures. Thanks Roger.
We have seen on this Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog how classic childhood figures like the Airfix British Paratroops slowly mutate with decades of copying almost into new figures such as these pencil erasers …
With some having curious punning packaging from the “War on Error”.
Crossposted by Mark Man Of TIN from the fully colour illustrated Man of TIN Blog Two post
Crossposted: I know Star Wars Command 54mm plastic figures are not strictly Pound Store cheap and cheerful figures, but I think that this ‘Faking Lead’ paint technique might work as well on Pound Store space figure paint conversions.
My latest ‘faking lead’ detailed old Toy Soldier touch on plastic SciFi figures – drilling the hollowcast mould holes in their heads or helmets:
I am always looking out for unusual sources of toy soldier figures.
Popping in to my local Hobbycraft to wait out a heavy traffic snarl up, I noticed a much smaller number of plastic kits, mostly Revell or Italeri aircraft or spacecraft, and few military kits. A bit of Woodland Scenics left.
No Airfix.
No figures, although they stock the Tamiya 1:35 range online.
At least they still stock my Revell Aquacolor Acrylic paints.
The only military figures I found were these Parachutists in the party Favors Range by Unique, available instore or online, a range sometimes found in the party favors section at Wilko.
They are roughly 1:32 or big 54 to 60mm, depending on how you measure.
Here are 18 different language names for Parachute Men!
These are very very brightly coloured parachute men in hard plastic, although well armed and they are definitely not civilians.
Bright colours? These work very well if trying to find these in the garden after you have flung them outside in the air. Dark green figures were always a challenge to find unless they had light or white parachutes like these.
Bright colours also mean you can tell your figure apart amongst others.
Toy soldier collectors will recognise the Airfix British Paratroops origin of the green LMG and purple rifleman figures, appropriately enough.
The orange figure is derived from the Airfix German Afrika Korps Officer with binoculars.
The blue figures are maybe some other maker’s version of an American officer?
They are all increasingly ‘thinning’ in bulk and thinner than the original Airfix as the copies have carried on over time.
These parachutists have been around a while as I picked up the Afrika Korps (binocular) Officer 10 to 15 years ago and he has been masquerading as a naval officer ever since.
With parachutes attached, these are a little pricy per figure at about 45p each in a six pack. You can find them cheaper per figure online if you shop around, although maybe not cheaper when you add postal charges.
You also have to string and thread your own parachute through the distinctive helmet ring. Online reviews suggest they don’t float or fly well, but when did they ever?
Pound Store Plastic Warriors 