"Collector's Battlefield 28mm figure review?" Topic

Hello,
Attended the West Coaster Toy Soldier Show today and saw this new range of pre-painted 28mm WWII figures and vehicles. Seems to cover American Airborne, Glider and armor troops as well as German Airborne, SS and armor. Anyone done a review of these figures yet? The rules?

I did find their website: collectorsbattlefield.com

They were available at Cold Wars this weekend also.

From looking at the pictures the paint job looks okay, and the price is not unreasonable. My figures are painted better but I pay $7 USD – $10 USD per figure depending on whether it has camouflage or not.

I think the selling point to this game is not only pre-painted figures, but also the game cards that make this game 'collectable' and readily playable like Magic and Clix. The target audience would be teenagers in high school game clubs with shorter attention spans who have an interest in WWII rather than the more "serious" gamers who play DHC7B, Nuts, CoC, RoE, Bolt Action WWII, etc in the course of a whole afternoon.

I saw their flyer at Cold Wars this past weekend and had a close look at their stand. In person they do not look as good as the photos or on the web site. To put it succinctly I would say they are more toy soldiers than wargames figures. I also saw some issues with flash and bent bits like the loader on the Pak 40 was holding a bent shell. Something you would take care of before painting.

For what you get the pricing is not fantastic. $50 USD for a jeep and 3 figures or $65 USD for a Sherman (I'd expect better quality for that price – and you still have to put the decals on).

I think 28mm Fanatik has it spot on with the audience and appeal of these things.

I was at Cold Wars and actually thought that the figures looked much better in person than in the photos. I bought a full set, I just don't have time to paint so they were perfect for me. I'm new to the hobby and for me and my son it was a perfect way to start playing. I'm afraid I'm not cut out for painting :-)

The rules are actually pretty advanced from what I can tell, pictures were good but still will take some time to study. Can't have it all I guess. Now I need some terrain.

I agree with PanzerWrap. I also saw them at Cold Wars and talked with the owner twice at length. I thought they were nicely painted and a good price considering the cost of metal minis and typical painting costs – not to mention the detail of the German camo was not beyond my ability, but would take a lot of time. The same for the vehicles. They are not "collectable" in the gaming sense of random, but are also aimed at WWII toy collectors that want to set up dioramas. What was also nice is the ability to buy a set of painted minis ready for a specific battle that would have wide applicability to the '44 western front campaigns. I would not dismiss them as for newbies. I like and will buy some to go with my serious collection of hundreds of painted 28mm WWII minis used for gaming. Just my 2 cents. I plan to buy some to ease my transition from 1/50th Solidos to 1/56th scale.

Lost Pict

I also saw them at Cold Wars and thought they looked pretty good. I especially liked the paint job on the German vehicles. If they would have had some ones that I didn't already have I would have purchased them.

Today I spent some time examining the figures I bought at the show closely. I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of subtle highlights I hadn't noticed at the show. The German bread bags even had weathered leather straps. The shading is done nicely too. I also liked the decals included but might have liked to have those applied not just loose. One criticism though, there doesn't seem to be a Fallschirmjager mortar team offered, this needs to be remedied as they relied on heavy mortars often. I'll be keeping an eye on new releases for sure.