"Toys and 15mm SFTTWG" Topic

I've been looking at quite a few neato items in the toy aisles at dollar stores, as well as finding all kinds of stuff on ebay and such, just by doing searches for "1/100 scale".

I was wondering what various toy lines people have utilized with 15mm or 1/100 scale gaming. My most recent discovery is something called New Ways Sky Pilot. They appear to make 1/100 scale diecast pre-painted aircraft.

Also, I've noticed that ebay is notoriously unreliable when it comes to scale. An item will appear as "1/100" or "1/120" scale, and yet be clearly labeled (for instance) 1/87 or 1/144 scale.

What toy lines have you found that are reliably 1/100 scale, or fit in well with 15mm figures and the vehicles specifically made to work with them?

Johnny Lightning? Matchbox Adventure Links? Hot Wheels? Sky Pilot?

Any clues or hints from the more experienced toy gamers/converters/bashers would be more than welcome.

Cheers.

The Johnny Lighting Shermans and Abrahms are spot on 1/100.

The 1/100 Italieri/Fabbri helicopters are true 1/100.

I'm a toy aisle fanatic. But most of the product is 'box scale', you have to measure individual items to find their scale. F'rinstance:

In the Corgi Fighting Machines line the Bf-109E is spot-on 1/100. The other fighters…aren't. The P-38 is 1/144, the Ju-87 and the Mosquito are close enuff to 1/144, the others wander around 1/110, 1/120, 1/130.

The Maisto/Motorworks Spitfire, Thunderbolt, Hellcat, Zero and Corsair are all about 1/100, but not the rest of the line.

The MPC Postage Stamp Planes have their scales listed on the stands, which you can read through the unopened packages. That's nice, you can tell the 1/96 model from the 1/108, 1/180, 1/87, whatever.

I've got a bunch of Transformer toys I picked up at Wal-Mart for $5 USD each. I glue them "shut" and plan to repaint them (translation: send them to my painter).

Often I find great stuff from bits. For example I made a mining complex by breaking apart some cheap no-name space ships. Just glued them down, added the flock and what not, added some paint here and there.

I've also eyed some of those play sets – ones with 15 construction vehicles or tanks and planes.

Lots of good toy fodder out there….

leidang & zippyfusenet: Thanks. Very specific. I shall check into all of those. I found a couple things that looked interesting today.

Extra Crispy said:

Often I find great stuff from bits. For example I made a mining complex by breaking apart some cheap no-name space ships. Just glued them down, added the flock and what not, added some paint here and there.

I shall "borrow" this idea. Bonus points for pictures.

I've also eyed some of those play sets – ones with 15 construction vehicles or tanks and planes.

You and me both. I stand in the aisle trying to decide which grouping will be the most useful over the run of the entire campaign. 8)

I check out the "Match Box" line, all the time, plus I keep my eye out for any large planes from super hero lines as well, looking for any that would work as small trader ships.

A little while back while in my favorite salon (SALvatiON army store)I lucked into a Hasbro Superhero Squad Helicarrier. It was missing the 4 turbofans and several easily removeable parts. It looked so sad and lonely there, abandoned to the boneyard of toys.

link

However, when you flip it upside down, the potential is revealed: with some modifications it can become a striking Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon interplanetary crusier! Astro-pulp airmen to your ships!

Salvation army, DAV, all sorts of 'thrift' stores are great. I recently found the stealth ship from "Cars 2". will have to glue it shut, and paint the windows of the conning tower the hide the eyes and that will be about it to make it useful.

Agree with the Matchbox stuff such as this:

The cars here are currently in packs of 10 at Poundland and the hovercraft was £1.00 GBP for one.

Again, £1.00 GBP for the truck and a better view of the hovercraft :

More Matchbox (including the truck from the 80's bottom-right):

I posted a picture of a WIP matchbox MATV on my blog yesterday that might be of interest. sologamer.co.uk/painting-update

Also, trying a google image search for 15mm matchbox should give you a few ideas.

Solo

Awesome stuff. I was looking at some of the Matchbox stuff in Poundland last night. After seeing this, I think I'll head back that way on the way home from work!

The construction vehicles look absolutely outstanding. I also love the buildings with the dark windows. You can't go wrong with the toy vehicles. They scale out quite nicely for an unbeatable price.

BaldLea: I think I got the same hovercraft.

Solo: Nice painting there.

Glad to see most folks agree on Matchbox, have to look at some superhero aircraft and licensed-toy spacecraft.

The old military Matchbox range is getting quite dated now in my opinion if you want to use them for modern near future or sci-fi games, however with some effort you can bring them right up to date or send them into the near or far future by adding different types of turret or even extra turrets, adding extra items to the outside of the hulls, changing wheel sizes if the toys wheel arches are big enough. I have had good success with several old Matchbox Commando APC's by filling off the rear armour and adding a different sci-fi looking turret i have managed to convert them into something that would not look out of place in a near future Russian/ Neo Soviet fighting force.

Pics of conversions always welcome. 8)

I got a couple more things for my "military museum" scenario.

I looked into Model Power Diecast & Postage Stamp, and picked up (in or around 1/100 scale) a MiG-15, a MiG-23 and a B-1B Lancer, all at pretty good discounts (like 40-50% off list), from Hobbylinc and The Flying Mule, in diecast. Those will all fit in well with my "Old Cold War" air power assets theme for the museum's acquisitions.

I might even use them on the flight stands. There was a real plane mounted on a flight stand at a jaunty angle in a public park in my hometown when I was a kid, so I find it perfectly acceptable. I might just use the diecast ones in a different area of the museum, more as "displays" and less as "working aircraft". :)

I also succumbed to my love for all things Snap-Tite, and got a couple more items in that category as well. It should be interesting to see how all of these "1: 100 scale" items play together. It has been a pretty easy way to fill up parking lots with vehicles for a scenario. No painting required! 8)

A B-1B in 1/100 would be a pretty big model. While the Postage Stamp Planes are accurately identified for scale on their bases, sometimes catalogs listings of the models are in error. It's best to inspect the models yourself. I hope you're not disappointed in this batch.

zippyfusenet:

Yeah, after I got overzealous and ordered it, I realized it was 1: 221 scale, so it's definitely going to be a "model" at the museum, and possibly later a model that is ripe for conversion and kitbashing.

I double-checked the other ones, and they're 1/102 and 1/100 scale.

The sales get me every time. And some of the sites are not great for searching by scale. They get a little clunky.

Also, buying planes at midnight probably doesn't help.

Oh, well it was half-off… 8)

I have to say I'm learning quite a bit about Cold War aviation history.

Hmm… let's see how the New Ray Sky Pilot stuff matches up…

*shiny object*

Your Pound stores have better cheap toys than our Dollar stores. Must be the rate of exchange plus VAT.

After trawling my son's box of diecast bits (he's all grown up now), some of the highlights were a few aircraft that are perfect for 6mm SF.
Two cheap B2 spirits and an early F-19 stealth concept like this one:

Also a whole bunch of Corgi WWII warbirds around the 1/100 scale. Two of sets of the Fighter Scramble:

I knew he'd grow out of them evetually!

Nice!

How do the 1/100 scale planes size up with 15mm figures?