Introduction

2012 was a great year for new figures hitting the market in injection moulded plastic, and the set I am going to review here just made it into 2012 in time for Christmas. This set of figures is “Women of World War Two Era” from Master Box and it features four adult female figure and a girl.

Contents

The product is supplied in an end opening box with an illustration of four of the figures in the set by Andrey Karaschuk. On the rear of the box is a picture of the assembled five figures in the set which serves as an assembly guide and a suggested painting guide. Inside the box you will find a single sprue packaged in a polythene bag.

Review

The four adult figures included in this set I will cover as a whole as they are fundamentally the same with variations in pose and hair styling. Starting with the heads, which are all separate from the torsos. These have separate hats and, in some cases, the long hair needs to be added at the rear providing a nice undercut which improves appearance. The facial details are the first injection moulded figures I have seen that look as if they were sculpted to be feminine rather than masculine faces with long hair. The hats included with three of the figures are suitably styled for the 1940’s with nice variations in style.

The clothing of the four adult figures has also been nicely replicated with appropriate styles and variation in skirt length. The skirt length of this period always fell below the knee and this set depicts this nicely with the slight variation in length. It should be noted that the female figures in this set are much better suited to an urban setting rather than a rural setting as the clothes would be best described as smart to smart casual as opposed to rural workers of the period. The creases shown on the figures is minimal as the figures are all standing upright but is acceptable and gives a good impression of the material for a skirt.

The arms and hands of the figures vary in quality from poor in one case and fair to good on the others. The figure that I have noted as poor is very easy corrected as the problem is a thumb that just looks wrong (as in too long) otherwise this area of the figures is fine. The legs of the adult figures are all separate and join at the groin, this has allowed the skirts to be moulded reasonably thinly and in either 2 or 3 parts. The footwear depicted on these figures varies between high heels and in one case wedge heels which are also appropriate for the period.

The stature of the adult female figures is best described as slight with what I can best describe as normal features rather than playboy figures, this to me is at least is more realistic for the time. The general look of the figures in the set is very good and I believe some of, if not the best, female figures in plastic I have seen. I have included a picture of my grandmother taken during World War Two while she was still single as I felt this may be of help.

The female child in the set is not as depicted on the front of the box as the included child appears to be a little older due to being taller when assembled and the head detail is also different from the box front. The body looks to be anatomically correct in terms of the body looking correctly scaled in the reduced size. One thing I don’t like about the figure is that due to the very short skirt the legs attach directly to a solid skirt bottom with one of the legs already attached, I would rather have seen a shallow indent so that the legs look like a part of the body rather than attached to the skirt.

Conclusion

This set of female figures is a great addition to their range with the possible exception of the child, and it is good to see some civilian figures from the World War Two period that are appropriate for, I believe, any country within Europe or the USA/Canada. It is also good to see figures of females that look like the girl next door so to speak rather than in a magazine, and that started as female figures with female faces.

Photos of assembled and painted figures displayed at bottom provided by Frederick Boucher.