Toys and Stuff

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Forces of Valor (FOV) / Unimax Deep Dive: Pt 47 Set #83010 (2010) German 352nd Infantry Division (Normandy 1944) Pt 5 Pose 12

I've noticed that whenever one of these sets featured a special piece - like this machine gunner with large MG on tripod - or, if they offer several large terrain/detail pieces, that only four figures are included in the set vs. five. Also, you'll notice that this set is heavy on machine gunners featuring three in one set.

This guy is definitely firing a MG42 with what has to be one of the most over-engineered tripods of WWII. It must have been incredibly unwieldy toting this arrangement around the battlefield, and with the tripod sitting so high, the gunner had to be concealed behind a wall or sandbag pile or otherwise he'd be a sitting duck. BTW, this is another piece that will not fit on one of FOV's one-size-fits-all figure bases.

Pose 12

MG42 on Tripod

Photo culled from the Internet

FOV MG42 on Tripod

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Marx #4672 'The Flintstones' Playset (1961) - Pt 17 Fred's Car (The Flintmobile)

Fred's car, the Flintmobile, the Flintstones Flivver: this now iconic car design from the '60s has been called by several names through the years and is one of the most recognizable of 'cars' around the world. Depending on what the script called for, the car shown in the cartoon could be a one-seater, two-seater, or have a back row of seats to fit the whole family and all versions are instantly recognizable as the Flintmobile. Marx may have taken its inspiration directly from the opening credits of the show as Fred drives home from work.

I noticed when posting the photographs here that, when building my set car, I put the side frames on upside down!! OOPs - LOL

Anywho, if you didn't look at the instructions one would never know the side frames were on wrong. The car consists of eight pieces and measures 3.5" (8,89cm) L x 1.75" (4,44cm) W x 2" (5,08cm) H. Marx molded this in blue and red (shown in this post) and flip-flop colors of red and blue. Fred and Barney's cars, included in the Montgomery Wards half-set of 'The Flintstones', were molded in red and yellow and are said to be rare (I have both and will cover those in a future installment). This is a terrific copy of the cartoon car but it does have an Achille's heel: the two very small tabs which hold the top section to the deck, are often times broken off.