Vintage Wargaming: Springwood Plastics

Showing posts with label Springwood Plastics. Show all posts

Saturday, 22 February 2014

My Old Dutch

Another ebay purchase and a surprise twice over - first in the form of a second chance offer to buy them, and second to discover some of the figures weren't metal. I'm not sure how I feel about this as it wasn't referred to anywhere in the description. At first (and in an earlier version of this post) my initial thought when I saw the photograph for the first time was that they were Springwood Plastics, with the exception of the mounted officer and pioneer, who are S Range.

However Fire at Will, who has several thousand Springwood Plastics figures humself, has pointed out that they are actually something even rarer to see in this quantity, and are in fact by the French company SEGOM. So the twist in the tail/tale is that they are now a surprise three times over and they look an even better purchase than before. In one sense it is the quality of the figure rather than their maker that matters, but it is always nice to have something new in the collection.

An earlier post here on Vintage Wargaming has the Rene North "Paint YOur Own" cards with uniform information for this unit.

(I've just realised I've used the same heading for this as a recent post on the Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargames Figures blog - sorry Ian - so I have changed it0

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Springwood Plastics

Thanks to a swap with Fire at Will I have now got my greasy fingers on some Springwood Plastics figures. As I mentioned in earlier posts these seem to have completely slipped under my radar when they first came out. They are smart practical wargames figures which I could imagine working well with, say, Rose metals. The figures here are British infantry painted by Will as Portuguese.

Friday, 3 September 2010

Rospaks

You might be forgiven for thinking hard plastic wargaming figures were invented by the Perry Twins, Valiant, Victrix, Wargames Factory, Plastic Soldier Company etc. Some us however might remember Springwood Plastics, the Esci hard plastic British Paratroopers, or the short lived Rospaks 25mm hard plastic Ancients figures.

This last range was available only briefly from December 1981 to October 1982 when they were withdrawn. I don't currently have a listing of them but I will look for some contemporary ads or reviews in due course. It is very difficult to find pictures of them so I thought it would be worthwhile and of interest to post some pictures, both of unopened packs and of some of the figures, both Romans and Greeks, below.

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Springwood Models Plastic Napoleonics

I first came across Springwood Plastic 20mm Napoleonic figures on Will's Wargames Blog.I don't remember them at all from the time. I've now been able to follow a trail about them from Wargamer's Newsletters from 1972 to 1974 - these items are reproduced below. I've left the SEGOM ad from the same page attached to their 1972 advertisement - more of SEGOM, possibly, anon. For a look at the actual Springwood figures, follow the link above to Will's blog.

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