As I think you know, I’m a 1:6 action figures collector too. The only problem is the money to buy these figures and the place to show them. So I limit myself to only a few pieces. I have a complete and selected Italian paratroopers in WWII series but I wish more. I’m thinking about gladiator action figures for an insane project about Ferrum et Gloria played with 1:6 figures. I should buy at least a couple of gladiators to set a game and this means 200-250 euro to invest. At the moment I have not yet had the unscrupulousness to do this madness. But that does not prevent me from thinking about it all the time.

I’m studying what the market offers about gladiator action figures and I want to show you the result of my researches. We begin with Ignite gladiators. They are the cheapest and the less attractive.

A slim figure (scarce rations?), with a medieval axe, a thraex helm, a steel breast plate, a cloak. Well, this is not a gladiator. Take the helm and throw away what remains.

A left-handed retiarius with a t-shirt (you cannot claim it is a tunic) and a medieval mace as support weapon. And embarrassing muscle tone for a gladiator.

From this review is evident that you can find better action figures than these. But some spare parts could be useful. Next time other proposals.

If you haven’t a girl you can always buy one, a plastic one, indeed.

Amy Pond is the cutest Dr. Who’s companion and you have the possibility to have on your desk a fine reproduction of Karen Gillan (the actress) in her stage dress.

Another great toy in 1/6 format (12″ or 30cm high), with a lot of options and gadgets, and a signed limited edition availability too. The price is not so cheap, it is in pre order at only £150 from Big Chief, the producers. If you are a real fan…

This is my Gruppo Combattimento Folgore action figure. It is a custom figure created with spare parts from other figures. I made the badges using photos of real badges, reduced in size, than printed and put on a tape with a double adhesive surface. So, on a side I attached the badge, while the other surface was attached on the battle dress. With a black marker pen I darkened the borders. I obtained some good badges, I solution than I would like found before.

As you know, I have got a real battle dress of this kind for reenactment. It is more practical than the other uniforms than I own, that of Italian design. On the photo, as “bookcase guardians”, all my action figures. It is a complete series of Folgore uniforms of the WWII. The new figure is a reproduction of the paratroopers operating in the 1944-1945 for the South Reign of Italy. On the extreme right there is the paratrooper of Italian Social Republic always for 1944-1945.

This is my new 1/6 action figure that I received for Christmas from Renato. In these months I bought some specific pieces for it to realise a Folgore fighter for the Regio Esercito side in 1945. It is almost done. And my father fixed its feet because their joints were broken. Here you can see the surgical operation. Next time I will show the complete model.

Today I’m on the road for Cervia, to meet a celebration of the date of the end of WWII here in Italy, the 25th of April 1945. I’m going to participate as reenactor of the Folgore. In these months I built, with the help of Renato (and with my mother), a uniform like that dressed by this action figure. It is a version of English Battle Dress with Italian badges. You will see more when I come back.

The best present for Christmas I have received this year! It is from Renato. At the moment I have got only these pictures as preview of the thing, but it is enough for now. It is a 1:6 custom soldier that represents an Italian paratrooper who fought in Folgore during 1944-45 years for the Allies side after the treason of the 8^th of September 1943. This model is made almost of spare parts and need some other element as weapons, helmet and badges. In the following times I will find the other pieces to build the model. I have got other two models to dress in my drawer but I’m lazy and I haven’t the space to show them!

If you don’t know Gundam you can stop to read here. But if you like human manned giant anthropomorphic robots made in Japan you can understand me. I think that mecha design for Zeon side in Gundam series is the best. And Zaku is the best mecha ever. Well, there are other Zeon’s mechas and less primitive designs than those used in the first seminal anime, but the essential form of all mechas is a derivation from the Zaku features.

I like the modernisation of this mecha style, especially when they made them more huge and chunky, so I thought that the new proposal of ThreeA for a Zaku toy was a great thing. I’m a big fan of this toy maker and its robots created from Ashley Wood comics and paintings, but this time I’m perplexed. Zaku is a perfect design to me, instead the ThreeA version is really another thing. A bad thing. You can see here a preview about this toy. The worse part is the head, so small and without the monocle. Zaku is a Cyclops!!! Not my cup of tea…

The third piece of my 12 inches soldier collection. Another Italian paratrooper of WWII. This one is the last of the Folgore incarnations. In the latest months of war, the paratroopers was reorganised under the Airforce autority, so the uniforms are blue-grey.

My father was in Airforce, I served in Airforce, so my first uniform as reneactor was an Airforce one. Here you can see me this year on the south extreme of the Nettuno front.

Under the camouflage there is the classic paratrooper, and then RSI, uniform without collar, more practical than other cuts. Collar badges are the newer ones, handmade by me. I changed a lot of things on this piece because I want a particular uniform, like mine.

This samurai is the economic and lighter version. Only 5 magazines against 12 magazines of the other version. I have got a real samurai of this kind, with real magazines with bullets, but all is deactivated, they now are only pieces of metal. Mine is a little different, it is a modern reproduction with modern measures, longer because now we are more tall and big than 65 years ago. It is difficult to find old uniforms that fits well, only bigger sizes are good. And my samurai is too much green, I have to put it on sun to decolourise it.

Here you can see a comparative view of the two kind of samurai.

This piece is ready to fight in Castel di Decima, the 4th June of 1944, a few kilometres under Rome, just before the Allied occupation of the city. A bunch of men stopped a Sherman column with the use of panzerfausts and heroism. They had to slow down the run towards Rome after the front collapse after the capture of Montecassino, so Germans could lose touch and recreate a front.

Sunday the 5th of June, this year, was celebrated a remember of the fallen ones of the defence of Rome. You can see some friends of mine historically dressed. Here the report of the day: https://digilander.libero.it/historiamilitaria2/verano.htm

This is the memorial tablet for this episode in the cemetery of Rome.

Back to vinyl. You can see German equipment as panzerfaust and bombs. There is even a Beretta pistol and the paratrooper dagger. Without his dagger a paratrooper is naked!

A picture from the rear. This mode to put the MAB on the shoulder is the correct one because is more stable. I learned this with the real MAB, the Italian machine gun made by Beretta.

The three paratroopers that guards one library of mine. Folgore viewed in its incarnations: Africa, Army, Airforce.

Another beautiful piece of plastic with cloth over. In 1/6 scale. This is the second piece of my collection. An Italian paratrooper collection, inspired by my friend who was a paratrooper in the army and that brought me in the reneactor thing.

After El Alamein battle and the heroic defeat of Folgore, the Italian Army wanted to recreate this elite combat group. While drilling went on, the Savoia royal family betrayed Mussolini’s regime and suddenly, the 8th of September 1943, the King and the Italian hierarchy betrayed one’s country, fled in the hands of Allies leaving with no orders our entire Army, that surrendered to Germany Army. So two States were created, one in the north and one in the south of Italy, the former with Mussolini, the latter with monarchists.

This piece represent a Nembo paratrooper, RSI Army. You can see his dress with camouflage, the first camouflage issued on regular basis to troops in the world. This kind of mimetic colours will be used in Italian Army until recent years. Now we use a great new scheme, the “vegetata” one, that seems digital but it is a design, with a net wire on the cloth, invisible to human eyes, to blind digital spotters. Sometimes Italians do it better.

He wears a “samurai”, the bodice to transport magazines for MAB. A paratrooper has to transport independently a large amount of munitions, because he is very mobile, on enemy ground and without the possibility to supply himself. This samurai is the larger one, with the possibility to transport 12 (!) magazines and 6 bombs.

Nembo fought in Nettuno area, stopping for months the Allied forces on the beaches under Rome together with a larger number of German troops. A lot of scholars never speak about Italians in war because they think that our soldiers they were only a bunch of cowards that cry for mummy. They are racists and idiots. Italian soldiers were great in war, and paratroopers were among the best, but highest rank generals were shit, they lost the war, not the Italian soldier!

The uniform is grey-green, the particular colour that identify the Italian Army. His collar badges are with gladi, the RSI military symbol that replace the stars, the military Savoia symbol.

The 12 inches is a Dragon limited piece create for a convention. I modified it with the samurai and other minor things. I throw away the box, but real collectors never put a model outside his box…

It is dedicated to Nino Arena who fought on Anzio-Nettuno front. After he became a writer on military matters, especially on RSI topics. Here I photographed him two years ago during a conference held for the commemoration of the paratroopers fight in Castel Decima in 1944. You can see that the face is the same, even if there are some years between the two aspects…