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REVIEW
Master Box WWII Civilians
c5flies
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California, United States
Joined: October 21, 2007
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Posted: Monday, May 30, 2011 - 07:11 PM UTC
Randy Harvey reviews and builds a set of four Civilians, Western region, WWII with telega from Master Box.

Link to Item



If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
MrMox
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Aarhus, Denmark
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Posted: Monday, May 30, 2011 - 08:00 PM UTC
Thanks for the review - honest and to the point.

The price of this kit allows a little extra work to be done compared with civilians in resin, But the fit issue shouldnt be present in new figures.

Nice to see the figures buildt up !

Cheers/Jan
Kinggeorges
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Barcelona, Spain / España
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Posted: Monday, May 30, 2011 - 10:56 PM UTC
Hi James,

Nice review, I really appreciate the build in reviezw that really give you a perfect view of the figure, their fitting problems, poses, etc.
I would second Jan by saying that giving the originality, the quality of details, and the pricing, we could easily forgive some fitting problem.

Best,
Julien
roudeleiw
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Luxembourg
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 01:03 AM UTC
Thanks James for this in depth review.

It really confirms what i already experienced with another MB set and i firmly believe that such (deliberate?) misleading regarding the resemblances of the figures between boxart and content should more strongly be condemned.

Good Job James

Claude

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ARMORAMA
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England - South West, United Kingdom
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 01:14 AM UTC
I have to agree with the reviewer in that the boys head looks too big, but I really like the other three figures. Thank you for the review.
JasonD
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Wales, United Kingdom
Joined: February 11, 2008
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 02:20 AM UTC
Good review and great to see masterbox releasing such innovative subjects.

With regards to the boy figure, as for the pose having a 2 year old girl a 3 year old niece and with most of my friends having kids between the age of 18 months and 5 years I can tell you young kids rarely if ever stand up straight. They move in strange ways, often placing more weight on one foot than the other, walking with odd gates etc. I think I can see what the sculptor was trying to achieve, I slightly nervous pose with the weight more on one foot.

As for the head, children's heads are bigger in relation to the rest of the body than in adults. If you calculate a humans height on the basis of head length then your average adult is 8 heads high. For a 1 year old this it is 4 heads , with the value increasing slowly with age, 5 heads at 4, 6.5 heads at 8 etc. The big head is not necessarily wrong depending on the age intended but that s not to say that t doesnt look right! From the photos it looks like they were intending a child of 5 or 6 so that would put it at around 5 to 6 heads high.
retiredbee2
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 02:37 AM UTC
These are really great. In a group of real people, there will be some with heads that seem too large and some that seem too small. Real people have all sorts of body shapes and sizes, tall and short, fat and skinny. This one size fits all attitude is not realistic. I, being one of the (Oh ,no, not more Germans) people who have asked for civilians and other variety, have put my money where my mouth is. I have some coming in the mail from Lucky model. Should have them soon. Am looking forward to more of the same. Maybe they will come out with some middle Eastern Arabic type civilians. Master box has very nice quality and they seem to be the leaders in variety. Maybe Dragon will someday get on board with a little change. Can you imagine the possibilities if they started cranking out WW I stuff ?
c5flies
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 04:40 AM UTC
Credit for the review goes to Randy, and I agree he did a great job on it. It's always a benefit to see these built up out of the box showing any work that needs to be done. Thanks again Randy for a fine job
captnenglish
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 05:00 AM UTC
Thanks for the review. I picked up this set about a month ago and agree completely with the reviewer, but with a little work it will fit my and any modellers needs.
retiredbee2
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 05:21 AM UTC
It really is a very nice review. Thanks. The figures do not exactly match the box art, but figures are often modified anyways , so I see that as a non issue. Just my two pennies worth.
HARV
#012
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 05:53 AM UTC
Thank you for the kind comments and everything everyone. I always appreciate any and all feedback on my reviews.


Thanks again.

Randy
Biggles2
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Quebec, Canada
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 09:20 AM UTC
I find this criticism a little harsh. I have this set as well as the Eastern European civilian set. I found the Eastern European a little better, but I have yet to buy a plastic set of figures (including Dragon) that didn't need some filling - the more parts there are, the more filling needed. The little guy's head probably looks too big because, in general, small children have heads that are slightly larger in proportion to their body. With a little work with a hot knife you can have the hair and beards sticking out whichever way you choose. After this small amount of extra work, and priming, these figures can look almost as good as resin, at a fraction of the cost.
exer
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Dublin, Ireland
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Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - 09:47 AM UTC
I have this set and the Eastern European set and with a little work they build up nicely in very good figures. True there is some clean up but more than on any other plastic set I've built recently.

I think 65% is a very low score for this set.
Ranchhand
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Texas, United States
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Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 - 03:54 AM UTC
in my opinion the boy looks more like a little person with that giant head!
dioman13
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Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 - 05:25 AM UTC
Just like most figure kits. Show me a company that does figures where all the parts fall together constantly. Some fit problems here or there. I agree with the art work not matching the set, it can throw a small wrench in the gears. We are modelers and redoing figures a bit is just like a tank/plane, we fit them to our needs with alterating what we need to. But, it is a civilian set and I for one am overjoyed at having them. Sand here, fill there, I'll deal with it when I do them just like most figures. There's just are not enough figure civilian sets out there and a bit of work is worth the price to have them. This was a fantastic review pointing out the good and bad, the build up O.O.B. was real good as we can see what we have in store for us. I will still buy the two sets of each of them. Hope M.B. continues with this type of offering as no-one else seems to have the gumption to address the need for civilian figures besides the expensive resin set(s).
Plasticbattle
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Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 - 05:35 AM UTC
As with any review, the reviewer´s own opinion is included on the final summary. If I wrote a review, I´ll score it as it appears to me ... doesn´t necessarily have to be fair or equal to everybody elses views.
But Luckily, Randy included images of the details and the built up figures so we can judge for ourselves and make our minds up. Anybody who has built some figure sets, knows what to expect and what is usual in this media.
In my opinion they may need more work than the average tristar or dragon set, but as neither of these produce civilian figures, Id glady have these and do the the little extra work thats needed!
HARV
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Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 03:40 PM UTC
Thank you for the input and feedback guys. It is appreciated.

Thank you for your comments Frank.

Randy
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