60mm Ring Hands

Belt and SMG in a dress uniform, good for military police.

Rifle and life belt for the running man.

Two colors but four different accessories.

Group photo.

Gold, green, red, blue and many different accessories to make a lot of different troops.

Accessories

One of the interesting aspects to ring hand figures is a small number of poses can be used to make many different figures.  This basic figure in a basic pose is usable for many things.  I often use him to man artillery, or to crew a boat.

Given a rifle and a life vest, he is suddenly a landing party member.  Note the gold color figure.  Ring hand figures often came in a variety of colors.

Give him a carbine and a helmet and now he's a regular G.I..

This rather worn soldier gets a belt.

Add a helmet, bipod, BAR, and belt to this figure makes a nice BAR gunner.

Accessories

Helmets, belts, life belts, even holsters and pistols.

I liked to give each figure at least one weapon or tool.

More important figures got two items.

They had plenty of different rifles.

Important figures got three, even four accessories.

MPC Figures

My favorite figures of all time are the MPC 60mm ring hand and slot hand figures.

I used the life vest and body armor.

They had at least three kinds of submachine guns.

Figures could be switched around, made for good role playing games.

This is a Marx SMG, most Marx weapons were smaller.

Motorcycles and Jeeps

Inclusion of the motorcycle has given mobility and speed to the reconnaissance forces of the Army.

It gives a single man the speed of a car, but the ability to go across country and in narrow pathways.

Individual mobility is an important aspect to modern warfare. 

The Jeep gives men the ability to move supplies and small artillery easily.

With the windshield folded down the Jeep is easy to conceal from the enemy.

It can carry heavy infantry weapons like this 100 pound flamethrower.

Guns

Artillery only fired at targets they could see from the guns until little more than 100 years ago.

Now thanks to modern technology they can fire at targets very far away.

An observer with a radio or a field phone can call in targets that are many miles away.

Targets can even be selected by map and locations like bridges can be targeted.

Modern mechanization has revolutionized military capabilities. 

Recon Tank

A new armored recon vehicle is unveiled for the first time.

It uses the turret from the Tim Mee armored car.

It uses the body from the MPC light tank.

The Timpc Armored Recon Vehicle!

MPC Tank

This tank is from MPC.  It's probably a fifty year old toy.  You can still get recast versions for around  a few bucks.  Original ones are not very expensive either.

I think this may have been based on a real vehicle.  I suspect it's from the late 1950's or early 1960's, US Army prototype.  It could have been in prototype form, or maybe just mock ups.  I am looking.

MPC Cleaning

More of my hobby show haul, I really got an unusual mix of stuff and filled in a lot of little holes.  I got many dogs, a few Renwal tank commanders, some Marx accessories, an MPC missile launcher, a space version and tank version.  I got some odd figures here and there too.

These guys were in my collection, they are mostly MPC figures, not ringhand types.  I use these blue guys for Air Force, or naval landing party.

These white guys are the American presidents, with a couple exceptions.  I have nearly all of them now.  The green and tan figures are American generals.  The silver, white and blue are a variety of personalities, including a Pope, first lady and Churchill.

MPC Germans soaking.  While they are WWII, I use them as East Germans to oppose my Pentomic Army.

These are some very old dark gray MPC Germans.  The man with the weapon at waist level his holding an unknown type carbine or submachine gun. 

MPC Ringhands

60mm figures soaking in OxiClean in the boxes.  Figures soaking in beach in the round plastic jar.

The bright color figures were cleaned and then soaked in bleach, MPC ring hand figures.

MPC ring hand and African natives with their little rafts.

MPC ring hand Confederates, Cowboys and Union troops. 

Blue MPC ring hand soldiers.  I use them for Air Force and Navy.

Note the accessories include submachine guns, and ray guns.

African native figures and hunters along the bottom.

Chopper

The man from the canoe is carried toward the helicopter.

The ground crew warms up the chopper.

The men from the outpost are very worried about their new friend.

Swiftly he is loaded onto the chopper.

The engine roars and the bird takes off.

It's only a short trip by helicopter to civilized medicine,  a trip what would take days on foot.