Forces of Valor American Civil War Union - Set 1

Forces of Valor (FOV) started hitting the market in the early 2000s with a terrific series of WWII military vehicles and figures. I mean these things were so far above previous ready-made WWII toys it was unbelievable. And then perhaps around 2005 (I'm guessing here) they produced a series of American Civil War figure sets which is what we'll be posting for some days here on Toys and Stuff. I had bought these when they came out, buying most of them at Target discount stores, and took them out of the packaging never once thinking I'd have a need for the used bubble packages. Oh well. They sat around for years with the rest of my Civil War toys until pulling them out to photograph for the blog and boy-oh-boy what a treat. After taking a really good look at these I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you will not find a better example of ready-made, pre-painted Civil War figures for the money! They are SUPERB! They are even a step above the pre-painted Conte' figures - not by much mind you, but the paint jobs on these FOV figures are a cut above. Compare these with the Conte' figures posted on April 12th and make your own decision. The biggest drawback to this whole series is that FOV never carried it beyond a few sets for each side and they never offered more accessory items like limbers and caissons to compliment the figures. What a shame.

As I've destroyed the packaging and have not been able to find item numbers for these I'm simply going to refer to them as 'Set1', 'Set 2', etc. Also, after searching Amazon.com and eBay I was able to segregate the figures into their appropriate groups and have photographed each figure I own and will present them here in their appropriate sets. Also, because I'm so impressed with these I believe I'll include my full set of photos (usually 12 shots per) for each figure. Everyone Enjoy! Fritz and Bettina :-)

The sets are packaged on bubble cards and contaon figures and accessories

The accessories are fairly standard for the group; a rock wall and one or two ammo cases

 The flag bearer is massive and carries a huge U.S. flag. This figure actually stood upright without a problem - unusual for many flag bearer figures regardless of their size

Standing Firing Rifle

Is this the finest cavalry sculpt available on the market? That horse is phenomenal, I love it! And even though it's posed to appear like it's making a hard right turn the figure is well balanced and stays upright without any problems. (There are more than a few toy companies that could lessons from this as their horses can't stand even when molded in a standing upright position!)