Toy soldiers to topic Ukrainian crisis

[cuprum]

The Russian company "Ura" began producing tin soldiers to topic current events in Ukraine.



More photos here: http://siberia-miniatures.ru/forum/showthread.php?tid=374&fid=24&block=0

[commissarmoody]

They look like commemorative tourist trinkets.
What I see them working good as in say a near future or far future monument. Say in a town square or at a memorial.
For gaming figures not so much.

[cuprum]

Why do. This is the style of the old "flat" tin soldier. At least in its Soviet tradition.



http://www.otdushi.com.ua/photo/prikoly/print:page,1,62285-soldatiki-nashego-detstva.html

[commissarmoody]

They look cool. And don't miss understand me, I like em. I just don't see using them for gaming. But for making a post soviet monument for terrain they would be ace. 

[former user]

I used to have the gilt ones (I think they were die-cast) and also some of the flat plastic sets. I might even have the toy artillery piece somewhere, I don't remember. But all nostalgia sets in the link are 54mm

[huevans]

The Russian company "Ura" began producing tin soldiers to topic current events in Ukraine.



More photos here: http://siberia-miniatures.ru/forum/showthread.php?tid=374&fid=24&block=0

Akh! Vot i "Babay"! A Strelkov gde?

[cuprum]

Here he is

[huevans]

Here he is

 

[Elbows]

Is it weird I want a crazy Cossack Christmas tree ornament now? 

[cuprum]

That website this Russian company that is produces these toy soldiers.

http://www.toy-soldiers.ru/nabori_002.htm

I do not know whether they send their products abroad.
 If there is a wish - I can buy figures  of the company for you, and send mail. But the cost will increase as a result of course ...

[former user]

so, "toy soldiers"  covering a current crisis. I know we all like to see wargaming as a vivid interest in tactics and history, manifest through miniaturization. I also understand that a certain level of abstract approach is necessary for that.
I am not judging or pointing fingers, I am just wondering how any kind of abstract approach can be achieved with casualties, civilian victims and refugees happening every hour. We are currently having wounded flown in to Berlin...

Furthermore, this is a highly politicized conflict. With one country (more or less involved in the conflict) producing toy soldiers depicting combattants in another country, I also wonder if these "miniatures" belong to the hobby we game, or are rather to be seen as propaganda instruments to raise acceptance for certain opportune political decisions. These are again mere questions I am asking myself. Examples for toys involved in propaganda would be quotable aplenty, and not only in the last 70 years...

Anyway, I welcome this impulse as an incentive for me and other mature citizens of democratically educated countries to critically reconsider aspects possibly taken for granted.

[cuprum]

And how many years must elapse from the time the war ended, so you can start playing the last conflict?

Everyone sees the game only what he wants to see ... We have here on the forum a lot of photos of figures Afghan mujahideen and NATO troops in Afghanistan. This is propaganda?

[Mathyoo]

I really don't think we should go into debating about how "right" it is to game modern (or any other) conflicts. Given I am just in the process of gaming a fictional one with modern troops, I have to say I don't like connecting it to the real events, as obviously this is not my intention.
I'm not too fond of being asked how can I game the suffering as I think no wargame (or war movie, for that matters) is any different. People died en masse during WW2, yet it's a popular gaming period. People died in Colonial wars (which raises the question of morality of colonising the world).
All fantasy and sci-fi games are based on reality and as much as we deny it, we are all the same. It's all about the "tacticool" aspects. Some people find it hard to understand how someone can game something that is actually happening as we speak and some people could argue something that has happened 50, 100, 200, 2.500 years ago was just as real at one point.

This is all just an opportunity to model stuff and use them in a game for me, with no added agenda whatsoever. Who is to say VBCW's fascist Blackshorts are not a propaganda for the rise of neo-nazi organisations in the UK?

I don't wish to be ironic, I'm just trying to say it is hard not to be hypocritical when it comes to justification of gaming any period.

[former user]

I would like to remind posters that I merely suggested to critically question certain things.
I did not condemn gaming recent conflicts or accuse anyone or anything.

I have my personal threshold in this matter, and I personally think that the toy soldiers shown above are not wargaming miniatures, but political propaganda, in the same way german kids had elastolin toy soldiers in the 1940ies and before, and that were useful in furthering their acceptance of war.
In this context I think these toy soldiers do not belong to our hobby. Which idea I described in my post above.
If posters prefer to incite a hot discussion about other things instead of taking a break and using the grey matter between the ears, well, suit yourself.

my approach to whether conflicts are chilled enough to game them, well, I would suggest going to refugee camps all over the world, pick any, and see how entertaining the people there find our hobby.....

but this is merely my personal oppinion which I wish not to impose on anyone. My suggestion was about introspection that can only take place outside the internet....

[cuprum]

Alas, I disagree with you. For me, these figures - just part of the real picture of the world. As well as small works of art and collectibles.