[pukingdog]

An outfit called War Story is apparently going to release an early China campaign Japanese Army machine gunner.
Listed as Japanese Army - Taisho Gunner Songhu (WS001), it has appeared in the pre-order section at Monkey Depot, tho the price is yet to be announced. I didn't have any luck searching for the company itself.

The parts list follows:

Features
Head carving x1
body x1
military uniform x1
army cap x1
shirt x1
Leggings x2
fur boots x1 (I believe this may be meant to convey that they are "rough out" boots.)
Kettle x1
lunch box x1
Shovel x1
Shovel cover x1
steel helmet x1
Leather belt x1
tent x1
army blanket x1
backpack x1
Mess kits x1
Type 11 light machine gun
Clamp pack x2
Hand type x4

There's gallery of photos featured here.

Since every good onesixther can readily come up with both praise and complaint, here's mine:

I like the early war approach, as well as his Type 11 light machine gun. I'm hoping they will follow on with a rifleman. The helmet has a single leather chin strap, unlike any of the elaborate chin ties usually seen. I'll have to dig thru my refs, but that bit feels wrong. I wish they had given him a coat, and even a pile cap, but, again , that might come later. Cold weather warfare was a part of the fighting in that long, bloody conflict.

Other than DiD, IJA figures have been pretty thin in the hobby. I will be interested to see how this one does, and if there is a follow on.

 

[waffenguy]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

Good to see a Japanese soldier; it's been some time. Are those sideburns typical of the period I wonder?

 

[jello_vicious]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

Dangnamit! I've spent my action figure budget this year and then this comes up.

 

[Spitfire]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

Good to see a Japanese soldier; it's been some time. Are those sideburns typical of the period I wonder?

I highly doubt it. That's the first thing that jumped out at me as not historically accurate. However, it's nice to see a new company stepping into the WWII area. There's been precious little of that lately.

 

[pukingdog]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

Yep, I didn't look too close at the head, and those trimmed stiletto sideburns seem like action film character refugees. Which makes me wonder what sort of body he'll have. With outfits like COO Models cranking out decent and affordable bodies of varied heights, companies need to address that. Some picked units had strapping lads, but most had soldiers of the average heights of the day.

 

[SPEARHEAD]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

As of today I checked the price announcement on EBay:
$160- Full Item Price
$40- Pre-Order
Estimated date of availability: October-December

My 2 cents (judging based on the promo pics):

The set looks good representing a major period of the (Second) Sino-Japanese War in 1937.

I still think the price is a little high... c'mon, NO BAYONET???:doh
He may be a gunner but no Japanese soldier ever goes to battle without a blade!:lol

But seriously it's hard to complain when a Japanese figure hit the market since they're so hard to find, the 3R ones are rare and quite expensive too.
On the plus side most of the gear can be used for other WW2 Japanese figures.

The prize piece is the LMG. Although replaced by the Nambu Type 96/99 LMG, still the Taisho Type 11 LMG was actively used until 1945 not just in China-Burma-India theater but also in the Pacific.
Even the uniform jacket with few modifications is good for later use post 1937.

I'm not too keen about the long sideburns on the figure, but ok the head still resembles the typical Japanese soldier we see in photos.
He may look taller than the average Japanese soldier of the time but that's fine- it's all about the posing. Anyway a tall figure looks perfect for a Kempeitai (military police) kitbash.

The boots seem so-so, the puttees though look accurate and less 'textured' compared to the 3R ones.

The 'throw-away piece' in this set is the helmet- it doesn't even come with a liner with the proper cloth chin straps.:dunno

Overall this set is good for kitbashers like myself who will weather-the-s*!t out of this figure:gimme:hifive:wink

 

[Mordred]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

Nice to see cost aside. Cost would be more justified if they had a cleaning kit and maybe an ammo carrier box that the assistant gunner carries. I picked up a Type 11 die cast gun awhile back and the battlegear ammo pounches. The gun is slightly under scale, so I guess I'll have to pick one of these up to compare.

 

[jomaccudo]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

I am not really a military figure collector (and am new to figure collecting in general), but this is one I may want to get. I have hundreds of photographs from my great grandfather, who was a photographer for the Japanese army during the second Sino-Japanese war. Not a proud moment for my family, but an important piece of history. From these replies, it's sounding like Japanese soldiers from the Chinese conflict aren't common? If that's true, I hope they do more. It would be neat to make a build of my great grandfather.

 

[pukingdog]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

The Japanese soldiers made by companies like DiD could represent troops in China, as the world war progressed, but they seemed mostly modelled after later troops in the Pacific theater, jomaccudo. There are some very good studies and uniform plates on the IJA, and some are available archived online.

 

[Kampungbatak]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

Ya... it's good to see another Japanese soldier in production!

 

[mailalan]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

The prize piece is the LMG. Although replaced by the Nambu Type 96/99 LMG, still the Taisho Type 11 LMG was actively used until 1945 not just in China-Burma-India theater but also in the Pacific.

I agree the Type 11 machine gun is the star of this set. I have some of the old 21st Century Toys Ultimate Soldier Nambu Type 96/99 machine guns that came in their "WWII Japanese Infantry Weapons Set". As far as I know they were pretty much the only Japanese LMG's available before this set. I expect this Type 11 will be of much better quality than the old 21st Century gun.

This is really nice to see an early war Japanese release.

 

[pukingdog]

Re: New Japanese Soldier, early-WW2 - up for pre-order, but no price set yet

I'm back with some screenshots from Jackie Chan's RAILROAD TIGERS, a movie I enjoyed. They did a good job of uniforming and equipping the IJA soldiers (with a notable over-barreling of their tanks), and that's what I wish companies would include, i.e., the winter uniforms.

 

[pukingdog]

I was at Timewalker yesterday, and Nathen had one of these set up in one of the glass cases. The uniform and gear looked very good, including the cap/service hat, which did not look as large as in these pics. The body was tight, and stood on its own. The Type 11 light machine gun is a handsome looking piece, tho ironically, it is anything but light. It is all metal (a casting?) and well-painted, but it's a bit of a paper weight.

I didn't PO this, but rather, ordered the Kadhobby Pattiz Japanese Army infantryman - New, heavily equipped IJA soldier from PATTIZ..... If the pricing ends up as advertised, that figure will be about 2/3 the price of the War story figure, and is equipped with a rifle, as well as additionally having a Nambu machinegun, "knee" mortar (grenade launcher), and a Nambu pistol, with holster and strap.
Time will tell what kind of body it will have.

If only AlertLine would now produce a Japanese winter uniform set, with heavy coat, pile cap, mittens, and winter boots.

 

[SPEARHEAD]

I was at Timewalker yesterday, and Nathen had one of these set up in one of the glass cases. The uniform and gear looked very good, including the cap/service hat, which did not look as large as in these pics. The body was tight, and stood on its own. The Type 11 light machine gun is a handsome looking piece, tho ironically, it is anything but light. It is all metal (a casting?) and well-painted, but it's a bit of a paper weight.

I didn't PO this, but rather, ordered the Kadhobby Pattiz Japanese Army infantryman - New, heavily equipped IJA soldier from PATTIZ..... If the pricing ends up as advertised, that figure will be about 2/3 the price of the War story figure, and is equipped with a rifle, as well as additionally having a Nambu machinegun, "knee" mortar (grenade launcher), and a Nambu pistol, with holster and strap.
Time will tell what kind of body it will have.

If only AlertLine would now produce a Japanese winter uniform set, with heavy coat, pile cap, mittens, and winter boots.

Thanks for the updates!
I was kinda expecting the LMG to be casted with no movable parts. At least I hope the bipod is stable and the magazine well cover wouldn't break easily.
Is the helmet metal? Does it have liners?
It still seems lightly loaded (no bayonet!) and overpriced if compared next to the upcoming Pattiz set which is armed to the teeth.
Nevertheless any Japanese figure set is welcome.

I agree Alert Line should produce an IJA or IJN set to fill that void, instead of rehashing any more German items.:gimme

 

[narius]

This looks really nice.

 

[pukingdog]

Is the helmet metal? Does it have liners?

The helmet was attached to the pack, so I didn't try to examine it. The pictures of both companies' helmets don't reveal much detail clearly, as far as the suspensions/liners and "chinstraps", excepting one image. It seems to be a detail they felt did not merit much attention. I recall from when I was very young, being told that some societies considered it ill-mannered, or even taboo, to look inside helmets. Each company provides a helmet which is shaped similarly (there being several shapes issued), and in rather pristine shape.
I like DiD's helmet that they provided with 'Nakamura Ryuichi', it is more brownish and rough-textured, and has decent chin ties. I will admit that I never pulled the cover off of bbi's NLF figure, so I don't know what that helmet looks like.

 

[Mordred]

Thanks for the updates!
I was kinda expecting the LMG to be casted with no movable parts. At least I hope the bipod is stable and the magazine well cover wouldn't break easily.
Is the helmet metal? Does it have liners?
It still seems lightly loaded (no bayonet!) and overpriced if compared next to the upcoming Pattiz set which is armed to the teeth.
Nevertheless any Japanese figure set is welcome.

I agree Alert Line should produce an IJA or IJN set to fill that void, instead of rehashing any more German items.:gimme

I unpacked mine from war-toys last night. LMG is metal cast. Well cover moves and comes with one clip to put in it. I just put some other arisaka clips I had in it and it looks legit filled up. Bipod feel solid. Helmet is metal and fits head well. Has authentic liner. Still feel its a tad small. Overall the set is really nice. The uniform is well tailored and figure comes with really nice MG ammo pouches. Uniform is early war and different from the rest of my Japanese figures. Figure is also pretty much ready to display right out of box (they put the puttees on and saved us that stress).

My only wish list items would be a lower cost (this is a $120 figure max IMO), a shorter/smaller figure and I was hoping for a cleaning pouch for the gun. Overall get one because they will be gone soon.

 

[Pontiacivan]

Wow! Tha quality looks fantastic!

 

[SPEARHEAD]

I unpacked mine from war-toys last night. LMG is metal cast. Well cover moves and comes with one clip to put in it. I just put some other arisaka clips I had in it and it looks legit filled up. Bipod feel solid. Helmet is metal and fits head well. Has authentic liner. Still feel its a tad small. Overall the set is really nice. The uniform is well tailored and figure comes with really nice MG ammo pouches. Uniform is early war and different from the rest of my Japanese figures. Figure is also pretty much ready to display right out of box (they put the puttees on and saved us that stress).

My only wish list items would be a lower cost (this is a $120 figure max IMO), a shorter/smaller figure and I was hoping for a cleaning pouch for the gun. Overall get one because they will be gone soon.

Thanks for the 'unboxing' review you provided.:thumb
It's also good to hear the leg puttees are already on the figure, it's a real pain in the neck to assemble.
I'm definitely getting a set before they disappear:gimme

 

[SPEARHEAD]

The helmet was attached to the pack, so I didn't try to examine it. The pictures of both companies' helmets don't reveal much detail clearly, as far as the suspensions/liners and "chinstraps", excepting one image. It seems to be a detail they felt did not merit much attention. I recall from when I was very young, being told that some societies considered it ill-mannered, or even taboo, to look inside helmets. Each company provides a helmet which is shaped similarly (there being several shapes issued), and in rather pristine shape.
I like DiD's helmet that they provided with 'Nakamura Ryuichi', it is more brownish and rough-textured, and has decent chin ties. I will admit that I never pulled the cover off of bbi's NLF figure, so I don't know what that helmet looks like.

Thanks!:thumb
I agree the DID helmet was well done especially the weathering texture, perhaps a bit on the narrow side but fits perfectly with smaller heads.
The BBI SNLF marine helmet looks great too even without the cover. I uncovered one once out of curiosity.
I'm not sure it's metal but it's made of similar hard material used on other BBI helmets at that time.