Airfix's Little Soldiers

I was clearing up some of the detritus in my office when I came across a file box that I thought was empty, only to discover that it contained a book that I had totally forgotten about ... AIRFIX'S LITTLE SOLDIERS: HO/OO FROM 1959 TO 2009 by Jean-Christophe Carbonel.

The book was published in 2009 by Historie & Collections (ISBN 978 2 35250 089 6) and the first half tells the story of the Airfix HO/OO-scale figures and catalogues each of the sets that were issued.

The second half of the book examines

• The forts, gift sets, and other wargames that were sold and that included Airfix figures.
• The numerous re-issues of the figures that have taken place.
• The compatible sets of figures issued by competitors.

Reading this book brought back a lot of memories, especially of my pink plastic Guards Band and Guards Colour Party (the first Airfix figures that I bought!) and the American Civil War Infantry and Artillery. I was also struck by how much I preferred the original figures in the German Infantry set to the later issues, and I only wish that they were still available ... although preferably in hard plastic.