Having only recently made a return to plastic modelling, I have never used MasterBox figures before, but after reading several reviews about them I decided to give them a go
I picked up two sets from the hobby store (MB3517 German Captives, 1944) and (MB3514 Europe, 1945) No special reason for these two, they just happened to be there. Since I have a few days free before my Summer break and a few ideas for some of the figures, I thought I'd dive in.
Now, before I go on, I should mention that I seldom, if ever, build a figure OOB unless it's a top quality resin or white metal casting with a good pose, so the following points are no real problem to me, just an irritation, however I thought I'd give everyone a heads up.
Here goes.
Working on three figures from the German Captives set for a small vignette, they being the Russian and the two un-injured Germans. All plastic figures suffer from minor flash lines and fit gaps. These are no exception, but better than some, so first up, the Russian.
He comes with the early style back pack, little more than a sack tied at the neck and worn on the webbing. Not a problem as my references show it still being worn at wars end, however with this early pack the reference photos all show the webbing breast strap in place, as per the box art, but NOT moulded on the figure. This would be correct with the later style pack, but then the webbing straps moulded on the back of the shoulders is wrong, so a simple swop from the spares box is out. I'm choosing to go with the kit pack and add the breast strap. It means grinding off and re-doing some detail from the chest area so it maybe easier to grind off and rework the rear straps and go with a late pack.
The arms to shoulder join is good, but no matter how you try to line things up, he's not going to hold his rifle. Best solution IMO is to get the best fit at the shoulder, amputate the hands, fit to rifle, then drill, pin and rejoin at the wrists, making good with putty.
As for the rifle itself, I'm not sure which type is supposed to be represented in the kit, my moulding was that bad, so it's junked and I'm going with a Mosin-Nagant M1891/30 from the spares box!
Now for the German POW's. As I already said, I'm only using two and the only real problem is the join of the tunic front pieces, where they're shown unbuttoned. Once the gaps in the join are filled and sanded, you're going to loose the breast pockets.
Points of note with the Germans are that all five are wearing the lace-up ankle boot with gaiters, issued in 1943. Four wear the M43 service tunic and one the M43 field blouse. The blouse is moulded with straight cut, unpleated pockets but the four tunics all have the three pointed, pleated pockets, as per the earlier Model 1936 tunic. Whilst the references prove this isn't "wrong" (some M43 tunics were made with points and pleats) it would be highly unusual for all four prisoners to have this style. Very easy to convert the pockets to straight cut and file off the pleat detail though, should you feel like it.
Another minor point is that none of the prisoners have water bottle or canteen. From the many pictures of POW's, the vast majority have been allowed to keep these two items of kit. Back to the spares box it seems!
To sum up then, IMO, interesting figures but plenty of extra work needed to look the part and to support what I've read in other posts, false and misleading box art.
Sorry if this goes on a bit folks, but I hope it's of help to some of you.
Happy Modelling.

Richard

Good unofficial review IMHO thank you for posting.

Thanks Matthew.

Maybe I just got a bad set with regard the rifle moulding, but that doesn't excuse the other problems.
I've just had a quick look over the other set (MB3514) before adding it to the stash.
The female figure with the NCO is shown on the box as wearing ankle socks and shoes with a strap over...False box art again I'm afraid! She's moulded without socks and with identical footwear to the other female.
From reading the official reviews, this box art to contents error seems to be a regular MB problem and could IMHO put some people off buying what are otherwise decent, reasonably priced figure sets.
My apologies for not adding a couple of photos to this thread, but all my camera gear is packed ready for the holiday

M.B. does seem to have a problem with the box art and what you do get. Also the fit problem is in a bunch of their figures as to holding things and shoulders fitting perfect. But aside from that, the figure sets are pretty unique as far as poses and animation. To be fair, most companies have the hand holding problem and shoulder fit. I do vign's so I do alot of figures and experiance this constantly. D.M.L. is another of my favorite figure companies but the hands are almost always an issue. Small fix for pretty decient figures though. So basicly, a tweek here and there and we're on our way. Though I'm not a rivit counter, the problem with uniforms with the right pleats, cuffs, buttons can be a frustrating issue that only the spare parts box will solve. But the way I look at it, we could be stuck with the figures we had 20 years ago. So on average, I'm pretty happy with what I get to work with. Still the box art work can be real missleading and they should tighen up on it. I bought the civil war scout and tracker and was supprized. On the cover art work no indian horse was present, but in the kit it was. Now if it showed it on the art work and was not there in the kit, it could have been a major problem. Goes both ways with M.B.

I personally think it more than a bit anal to be put out because a little girl figure is, or isn't, wearing socks, or a different shoe type as is depicted on the box art. Is that going to trash your whole diorama concept?

I do think you should get in the box what is on the box, after all if you bought a set of figures shown charging the enemy and inside was a set of figures sat eating a drinking you would be less than happy. I can also see what Biggles is saying but accuracy requirements are down to the individual. I was looking for some figures on the TANK websiite the other day and noticed that a number of the figures were shown reversed(mirror image) which left me unsure of what was being sold as regards posture, and so I didn't buy them.

Richard, I find this perspective of yours tiresome.... and yet for some reason I can't disagree with you.

Manufacturers should have some coordination with what's in the kit and what's on the box art. Sigh... even minor things.

Following this reasoning we would also have to criticize or boycott all Dragon figure sets as well. They always show weapon slings on the box art but are rarely present in the kit.