My mother bought one of these exact play sets for my 10th birthday, I came home from school and was handed a card and small matchbox car as a gift, I was delighted. However, my mother then asked if I could go into the spare bedroom and fetch her a pen. In the room, on the bed, was this ginormous box, I couldn’t believe my little eyes. I’m 54 now and I still remember this wonderful toy that gave me hours and hours of fun, I was a real airfix kid, models, paints, soldiers and vehicles, but this was by far the best! Thank you mum and thank you for the memory’s….

I was 12 years old leading up to Christmas 1976. In those days it was common for UK families to obtain mail order catalogues (e.g. 'Kays' or 'Grattan') - huge, thick volumes showing anything and everything one might purchase via mail order. Each catalogue had a toy section and kids in the UK would pore over these in advance, highlighting items they might like for Christmas. I remember seeing the Combat Packs for the first time in one of those catalogues and indicated my No. 1 'want' was the Desert Combat Pack. Come Christmas day, I excitedly opened my main present only to find it was the 'normal' Combat Pack instead. I hid my disappointment - but happily it ended up being a treasured item that I retain to this day - but one of these days I am going to splurge on a Desert version that eluded me over 45 years ago...!

Thank you for letting me see it! When I was a boy 40 years ago, I remember looking through the Airfix Catalogue almost every weekend and wondering what the Desert Combat Pack would be like. I remember the Airfix Catalogue being amazing for having a huge variety of boxes of soldiers and the Tamiya Catalogue being amazing for vehicles.

Excellent! Memories.....🌟

I make up sets of toy soldiers to give away to less well off folks and I standardised on 1:32 for 4-8 year olds and 1:72-76 for 7 year old and above. 1:32 is not so well served these days but I found some cheap Chinese knock-offs of long out of production sets (mostly former Matchbox figures, although not quite so well produced) so I stocked up. They are in the older style soft plastic, although they are not polythene as they take paint well, and the softer plastic is better for toys. 60 years ago when I was playing with these things they were available at 'pocket money prices' but these days the former toy makers are focused on the 'collectables' market. Things like tanks from makers such as BMC and TimMee are definitely not 'pocket money' prices, at least in the UK. Given that we know that 'imaginative play' is important for childhood development there is an actual hole in the market for inexpensive but 'good enough' toys, all made to a standard scale so they can be added to over time (not the 'fits the box' scale so common among the 'collectables' ranges). Lego are fine for 3-7 year olds but beyond that more realism is preferable and toy soldiers fit that market well. I cannot see Western manufacturers embracing this opportunity but the nostalgia market will peter out over time, if they don't cater to the youngsters they won't grow into adults with deep pockets and fond memories. I have a lot of feedback from the sets I have done so I plan to put together a formal proposal for a range and submit it to (probably Chinese) manufacturers. Distribution will be an issue, chain stores prefer a big (largely empty) box at high mark up rather than a small plastic bag of cheap soldiers and family owned shops are rare and becoming more scare over time. There again people can make use of firms like Amazon, e-bay and Etsy and If I can make it work kids will get access to all those things I lusted after when I was 10. World War Two is fairly well catered for in 1:32, there are a few (rather Asiatic) Knights sets but Sci-Fi is hard to source (I tend to use modified 'army men' and knights for those but I have to make the vehicles and space ships from scratch). For older kids 20mm or 1:72/76 remains well supported, and the development of 3D printing means that a lot of things are available at very reasonable prices but again sci-fi remains a poor relation. To date every child has had a lot of fun from the sets I make up, some are still 'into' the hobby after several years. I include notes on how to make stuff like building, hills, trees, bunkers and the like using stuff out of the bin, so they can get into world building at virtually zero cost (other than time). Toys are important, and not just for 'entertainment', we neglect them at our peril.

There it is ! The legend was true - and "Brand Spanking" Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Took me back to Christmas 1975 time travel is fun !Cheers! 10 again!

Fantastic set and devastatingly accurate pill box!!!

Great nostalgic overview and brought back a distant memory from the 70's. My mum and dad were going away for the weekend and i had to go stay with my grandparents instead of playing with friends as planned. Dad bought me this exact set minutes before dropping me off as a huge treat (they must have Really wanted to get away with no fuss) but explained it was expensive and that he didnt want his dad (grandad) to know he had just bought it. I was under strict orders to nonchantly play with the set as if i had owned it for ages. I believe his master plan went askew :) I had zero chance of pulling that off. What a great set it was!

It does appear that the DAK still need to fine tune their assault tactics.

This is the best toy set I have ever seen

A week from Sunday, I clock 57 years with my face. Great video. That playlet has a lot of play value. Well done, Airfix.

what's odd is that i never seen any of those combat pack in France in any store , only the the 1/72 soldiers boxes were on the display shelfs . had to make do with model kits and train model kits and bridges , great memories. I still have about 6000 soldiers , Napoleonic wars , Civil war ( 1861-65 ) , Crimea war , WW1 , WW2 , Vietnam . The Napoleonic War and WW2 are my biggest armies. I used two toy companies for that Airfix and Esci . I had a few hundred ancient time armies like Egyptian , Syrians , Romans , Celts from the Atlantic company. Cheers. Side note , i made sure the French Army annihilated the British red coats :)

Loved the video, I have a tone of Airfix soldiers from the 70s with boxes including the Africa Korps and British 8th Army ones but nothing like this playset. Thank you for posting, it was amazing.

I never knew older army men from 1960/1970s😮❤ are so much than modern one

I used to love playing with these toys, airfix soldiers, matchbox playsets and along with tge DINKY military toys I loved the Stuka with the metal bomb you collect drop on your soldiers also gad tge Spitfire with the battery operated propeller

Fantastic desert outpost set used to love playing with these figures when I was a kid. Things have moved on a bit since then.😆

That's a beautiful toy set ! Congrats! I use to have a napolenic wars one from esci.. and I did my own one with clay when I was a kid

What an amazing set, very nice video! Such a shame there are no more 1/32 playsets available today.

Amazing set. I like it.

Quite the rare set, I've never seen or heard of them in all my years of toy collecting.

Very cool play set. I could see me having hours of fun playing with this as a kid. Thanks for sharing this with the community. Happy hobbying my friend. Bill

Nice! I have a complete Combat Pack but it is the other set with the Cromwell tank and German halftrack. Great sets!!

Great memories! Thanks

Great review, it must be as awesome a set for a collector as it would have been for a little boy back in the day. I remember either seeing this in a toy shop / model shop, or seeing an advert for it on television, possibly both, but never had one. I did have the boxes of 1/32 Eighth Army and Afrika Korps though. I wish I still had all my toy soldiers from my boyhood. Airfix, Britains Deetail, Timpo. Not for the monetary value, but for the love with which they were given to me.

oh good old days, now toys are boring.

A really wonderful set

Loved your slo-motion disk shots! Thanks for another fun and informative video!

Top marks ! l wish some wealthy fan would restart Airfix...

Wow love it brings back memories of childhood always loved the desert dioramas

I couldn't figure out why I'd never heard of these, 1976 I was a few years too old to play with them that's why.

I don’t think the British are gonna fair too much for this one with those two beafy panzers. Either fight or die for the queen for this battle!

From George. Font worry it's good to see your face. You've bought back lots of memories I'm repeating myself but love all those sets your showing. I have an old Air Fix Catalogue with some of those items you have.George from Melbourne Victoria Australia 👍🇭🇲🦘🐨✌️

Wonderful to see! If you hold the bent/warped plastic under hot water for 20-30 seconds (or more) you can very carefully straighten it; immediately afterwards hold it under cool water to set the position.

😍 That‘s remember me on My Childhood😎 Thank you!👍

Really loved this. Way out of my parents’ financial league when I was a kid. 😢

GREAT VIDEO SIR,EUROPE HAD AIRFIX WHILE AMERICA HAD MARX TOY SETS.AIRFIX MADE THE OUTPOST IN 1/32 AND 1/72 SCALE MODEL KITS.I USED BOTH IN MY ALAMO SETUP. TAKE CARE

I remember that set. It was amazing. I also recall another one with a guards box and check point barrier and bridge I think?? Does anyone recall that one too. Happy days

Fun to watch. About the same age as you (and Swedish) and have very fond memories of my Airfix 1/32 soldiers. Afrika Korps were the first I ever got. Really liked the way they looked, especially their caps for some reason. And their binocular guy was obviously a favourite. Also had the jungle outpost. Apart from that I never had full sets but rather traded single soldiers with friends. My only shoplifting act ever was finding a single gebirgsjäger on the floor of a toy store and pocketing it... just couldn't resist. Anyway, it's a lot of fun watching your stuff. Have you done the Fallschirmjäger yet btw?

Love your passion about collecting...thanks for sharing!

get goosebumps from so much youth sentiment

Yes, impressive review!

I am from Taiwan, I think your video is great, it also carries my childhood memories

Love the vehicles in this set

Wow! I have never seen this set before. Thanks for the video.

Amazing condition- nice find

A massproduktion of pillboxes would be good 😅 So long we are using old Playmo pirateguns for a change 👍 This set is such a dream. Thanks for watching it in a closer range. Very interesting for me and my son again. Good stuff your videos all around 1:32.

Awesome 😊

For a second I thought Russell Crowe was introducing your video. The resemblance is uncanny.

That box is as old as me 😂😂

Great Set, good to great figures, Afrika Korps among my ww2 top 5 or even top3, 8th army also great, left out by me back then for no reason, and great tank and scout car. The "curved" guns were always tricky. Only had l Long Tom and m113 (but no figures for the latter). They should have done a 14 F. Set with no doublings for every Set they did 😢😂😂😂😊

Never seen that before thanks for sharing

Great job 👏

Actually had this one as a kid

I remember those pill boxes and the discs and I definately had the desert pz 4 and armoured car so I must have had this set

Another great video...those AVs look fab too! Its a real shame that they didnt release something similar for the Napoleonic wars...in 54mm...heyho!

Wow you have a face ! Never knew that there were descent tanks . Nice to see ! Have a great weekend

Very gorgeous. I have the other Combat Pack which is joyful also.

Never had this one or seen it for that matter.

I had this..... many years ago now 😢

Way cool 😎😎😎

Epic!

These sets are very similar in style of action to legos and bionicles. Tho I may have spelt it wrong

Didnt have these in the US😢 They are very cool!

Oh i wanted that set so bad

❤❤❤

Mein Jugendtraum damals.

Noice

It would be good to do the same thing with Matchbox company

That Panzer is cool did they ever sell them separately ?

do you paint the 1/32 scale soldiers?

Where did you get it

Those vehicles look about right in terms of scale. I remember reading that the Airfix vehicles in 1/32 scale were too small

NERD ALERT! the British armoured car is from the 2nd Armd Division, :) NERD OFF lol

Definitely DO NOT make them like they use to. Childrens imaginations these days are rotting away. Replaced by Video Games, Phones and Tik Tok. Such a shame.

Sir I am from India I have also preserved this toys right from 1976 to 1977 the us paratroppers British infantry Russian infantry German infantry German Afrika korps us infantry Japanese infantry Australian infantry British commandos and Italian infantry what I watched from this video is really nostalgic and nice would really love to meet if you would share your email

From George again. Forgot to ask where are you finding all these sets?. All I can find in Australia is just the reissued Airfix Toy soldiers of 15 to the box. I'm very jealous seeing these items again. I use to have the outpost house but I had to leave things behind when I and family moved overseas. I was young and had no choice. So all I had is just memories. 👍🇭🇲🦘🐨✌️