Going back (hopefully) in-topic, before people start criticizing these figures, please be aware of three little letters: WIP. This means WORK-IN-PROGRESS. In other words, they aren't finished, They aren't ready to go onto the market. If there ARE areas of the figures which need attention to detail, please post them - simply dismissing them as 'cruppy' is unconstructive in the extreme... What is NOT debatable, is the disgraceful ignoring of Italian subjects up until now.

anyway...the figures themselves are exellent theyd go nicely alongside tamiyas re released m13/40 would be nice to see one of the troops perhaps armed with a beretta smg.

Strange. I thought the whole point of sending out images of work in progress was to gauge peoples opinion, or for them to express constructive criticism so that the manufacturer may them modify, fine tune or make good any errors in detail before they go to production, when its a bit too late to do anything, so they are correct when on general release . Alan

Sorry, my bad - i've modified the post above to make it clearer what I should hve said in the first place. Ubfortunately I was getting so tired of the witless insults that my judgement clouded-over...

I'm personally happy to see a few more Italian figures hitting the market.

And this is why masterbox are currently taking over the Plastic model figure market because they are not afraid to do unusual subjects with a lot of character. I for one look forward to seeing there potential new releases as you know they will surprise you, I am now looking forward to seeing what elese they have up there sleeve. cheers Keith

Whilst I agree that Italian subjects, and by that I mean all 20th century Italian subjects, have been largely ignored is fair (anyone recall the tremendous contributions Italy made to WWI as well as the more recent Middle Eastern wars? Now there are grossly ignored subjects!) let's not forget the wonderful figures from the resin houses such as Model Victoria and Royal Models to name but just 2 off the top of my head. In terms of pose, I personally find the poses of 3 of the figures similar to those of the recent DML set (I love the MG'er though) and will compliment that set very well in creating a NA diorama. With regards to detail, it's always difficult to pass comments based on viewing masters. Especially masters for plastic figures, as due to manufacturing limitations in this medium as well as the nature of the medium, what appears sharp and crisp on the master softens out during the actual production run (which is one of the reasons I personally prefer resin and WM figures). Do MB have an ETA for this set yet? I think 2010 is going to be an interesting year... and not only because Scarlett Johansson is appearing as The Black Widow in Iron Man 2

My grandfather had hillarious stories of Italians surrendering in the desert to airman who were shot down, or to small partols whod go out at night and bring back twice their number in prisoners... He was one of the Rats of Tobruk, and whilst he had a grudging respect for the afrika korps (despite being wounded by them) but nothing but disdain for the italians[/quote] First of all I apologize to the moderators but I find offensive as an Italian one that was written by this user ... I must reply to him. The Italian Armed forces have fought on all european fronts in the second world war without help of anyone...The Afrika Korps arrived in Africa but Italians didn't receveid weapons and supplies from germans as USA did to eight army....this is not my thought but it's the truth. If the eight army had not receveid as an "american gift" a few hundred of Shermans at El Alamein, the story would have gone different....And this is just an example: what about the hundreds of ships that arrived in Africa from USA full of tons of supplies, airplanes, tanks, trucks and weapons ????? Your grandfather could tell "hilarious stories" because he was very lucky: if he met Bersaglieri or Folgore paratroopers he would not have been able to tell anything, beleve me !! If your grandfather is still alive, let him know from me that is better lose a war than win with the help of someone else !

My grandfather had hillarious stories of Italians surrendering in the desert to airman who were shot down, or to small partols whod go out at night and bring back twice their number in prisoners... He was one of the Rats of Tobruk, and whilst he had a grudging respect for the afrika korps (despite being wounded by them) but nothing but disdain for the italians[/quote] First of all I apologize to the moderators but I find offensive as an Italian one that was written by this user ... I must reply to him. The Italian Armed forces have fought on all european fronts in the second world war without help of anyone...The Afrika Korps arrived in Africa but Italians didn't receveid weapons and supplies from germans as USA did to eight army....this is not my thought but it's the truth. If the eight army had not receveid as an "american gift" a few hundred of Shermans at El Alamein, the story would have gone different....And this is just an example: what about the hundreds of ships that arrived in Africa from USA full of tons of supplies, airplanes, tanks, trucks and weapons ????? Your grandfather could tell "hilarious stories" because he was very lucky: if he met Bersaglieri or Folgore paratroopers he would not have been able to tell anything, beleve me !! If your grandfather is still alive, let him know from me that is better lose a war than win with the help of someone else ! [/quote] Frankly i'm REAL tired of this. I'm tired of the silly comments which caused the reactions in the first place. I'm also real tired of the need some people feel to always get the last word in. If you want to contribute to Revisionist-history.com, sorry, but Armorama isn't going to indulge you. To repeat the things, once again, this is a thread which allows you to make Comments, suggestions etc. on a product which is undergoing development. It isn't an opportunity to grind axes on ANY kind of 'perceptions' whatsover. Comments on Masterbox's WIP are welcome - how you see the various sides of WWII simply aren't...