My friend Arlin Tawzer sent me an email and some photos about some interesting 1/72nd scale US Army medical sets for use in the Korean War.
It may surprise you that there were figures for the Korean War way before IMEX came out with their sets. They were three plastic play sets, tied to the television show M*A*S*H, and made in Hong Kong by Zee Toys in 1976. The play sets included figures and small buildings or terrain pieces, and everything was made of polythene plastic. They were sold as “peg toys” on blister cards. They’ve become somewhat “holy grails” these days.
The first set was the “Latrine set”. It included a latrine with detachable roof, four oil barrels and four figures. The guy holding a bedpan or some other type of pan looks similar to an old 1/35 scale Monogram figure, while the rest look unique. The bedpan soldier looks to be wearing the M42 HBT fatigues common to Korea and late WWII. All the other soldiers appear to wear the M43 fatigues, with the jackets going past their rear ends, which is close to accurate. They all also wear the M1923 cartridge belts. One of the poses looks similar to the stretcher bearer, but his arms are slightly different, and have no ring hands.
The last set is the “Field Hospital set”. It had a great 2-piece medical tent with detachable roof, operating table,, wounded man, doctor, nurse, intravenous bottle and operating lamp.
The detail was typical Hong Hong-esque, meaning not real sharp. The tent, latrine and flags came with the stickers already applied. There were also a series of die cast, 1/87 scale vehicles meant to complement these sets. The card claimed these figures were 1/87, but they actually are really close to 1/72 scale, though maybe close to 1/76. You can see it is close in size to the IMEX Korean War American.
The second set is the “Helicopter landing pad set.” It came with a helicopter pad with a wind sock, a sandbag bunker with flagpole, stretcher, two stretcher bearers and a wounded man.
8 comments:
Hey Mike,
Bachmann Ind. Inc, Philadelphia, Pa, made in the early eighties, a 4077, MASH Train set that contained a Roco M38(on Tree) water tower, card stock buildings, and a tree of "People" in both Green & White. The people were a standared tree of Civi's & Railroad workers.
Bill Jr
Hey Bill Jr, good to hear from you. What a stroll down memory lane that set is, I remember seeing that in the stores but did not get one. I bet those "People" would be interesting to have.
Hey Mike,
I was given a couple pieces from the MASH Train Set, when I worked at Bachmann Ind.Inc, I was given an Engine, the Box Car, the Gondola, the Roco Jeep, a set of the "People", and the Water tower, when our Plant manager retired and he was cleaning out his office after 30+ Years of working for them. What a Present, besides a Complete Jouef- Orrient Express in HO Scale, with a couple extra engines, and the Jouef TGV.
Bill Jr
Bill Jr. that must have been a great job. Let me sweep the floor every night just for the spare parts!
hey Mike,
When you Didn't look at the pay check it was a Great Job, didn't pay but a little over MW, but then again most of us were being paid to Play with Trains all Day :) used to have a Nice Employee Discount though ;-) I used to have a nice collection of trains at work and when i left (On good terms) I was allowed to keep all my spare parts and train cars i had collected while i worked there (For Engine Testing) yes it was a Great Job, besides all the "Holiday Co. Parties" What Lushes i used to work with....LOL
Sounds like it was good times Bill Jr. Now of course you are your own company making resin vehicles and doing a great job too!
It was, It was the greatest Job you could ever ask for, I was being Paid to play with Trains ALL Day, from Fixing them to QC Checks on product runs from HK, to playing with the Latest and Greatest to give Pro & Cons on before Anybody else got to play with them :) Hell, the one assistant dept. Manager used to get mad at me because I Always had a train (With cars) running on my work platform of which I was Special, I had 2 platforms ;-) 1- was 4'x5' with HO & N Scale tracks, then I had one that was 6'x12' that was HO, N & G Scales tracks. My G scale track was also Twin Tracks. and I had in my G scale collection 1 of Every Car that Bachmann had made at the time. Lee Riley (R&D Manager/Designer) used to Love to come raid my collection of cars for some of the older stuff, to revamp or photo shoots to bring that paint scheme back. But he also was the one that used to give me the QC checks before stuff would go to train shows, because I was one of 3 people that was quallified to work on All 3 scales. Lee has even given me some Nice Toys, like I have in my collection a couple First Run Mold Tests (Engines). He was also the reason that I used to get away with my train running. I used to see how long it would take for an engine to Fail with a Heavy Load of cars, like some times and Inch between the front & Rear couplers Long....LOL
WOW, that does sound like it was a great job with great memories.
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