NewsFlash!

[Sundance]

*eagerly awaits news of AF Jungle Force, Snow Squad and Desert Patrol or similar revelations*

[Dave Tree]

blimey, you don't want much do you?

[gung-hoeddie]

blimey, you don't want much do you?

Which reminds david, where are these guns?

[Dave Tree]

give me cobras, I give you guns

How many did you need? I'm digging round for several ppieces a the mo

[gung-hoeddie]

if possible 6 please dave that would be grand.

[Goofateer]

I've been looking over all the new pictures today. Love 'em, just love 'em. Especially since a Vamp is involved.

. . . But something is just not adding up here. Obviously the evidence suggests that the light blue Flash came before he gray Flash. And the gray Flash made it all the way to full production level painting.

It also follows that the gray Flash does indeed go with the other 4, mostly light gray figures found in the museum. Lets call that the Gray Team, and the earlier set the Blue Team.

Here's what's bothering me. The Blue Team looks very well thought out. All the components are there. They look like a team. The painting looks to be pretty decent. Most importantly the SWS symbol is clearly defined So aside from Flash looking a bit goofy in blue, it's a pretty tight team

Then we have the Gray Team. Flash looks fantastic, he truly does. But the rest of the team looks like dreck. What's the British term? I want to say "they look pants." They look very random like the art team is testing out different possible looks. But they look just so much worse than the Blue Team.

So there is some kind of disconnect here. Blue Team looks great as a set, even with goofy blue Flash But Gray Team, presumably a later, "better" version, looks horrible together, and only the gray Flash is an improvement over his blue iteration.

The other thing that jumps out at me is that the blue Flash clearly goes with the white Vamp. Aside from his position in the photo, Hasbro style figures fit in a Vamp much better than Palitoy figures do. So why is he later marked as coming with the MMS? I'm sure they just dropped the Vamp, and moved him to the MMS, but it still seams wrong to me. The SAS Panther came with Stalker, but the SAS MMS, came with no one. Makes me think a SWS MMS would come with no one.

I'm in no way saying any of these great finds are wrong. Just that there are some very odd inconsistencies.

Roger

[Sundance]

i think you've got the MMS bit ass-back'ards. i think Bombardier was supposed to come with the MMS, THEN got shifted to the SWS jeep before it got canned.

[The Baron]

No, he's right, Sundance. The blue team images predate the gray team version, as evidenced by this:



It's entirely likely that all of the gray team figures found by Dave are the blue team boys repainted. Goofateer is saying that the blue team look more co-ordinated than the gray team, I personally disagree and think that this is a better, more uniformed, look:



than this:



I can see why the revisions were made. As for Palitoy figures not fitting the Panther / VAMP, that's just not the case, although I do agree that the group shot implies that Bombardier is intended for the jeep. In my opinion the vehicle which most needs a jointed-limb figure is the FLAK / Attack Cannon as straight-limb dudes cannot put their feet onto the footplates.

[Chopper]

10/10 for logic there. I agree in regards to they grey guys looking better too. Steve sent me "Kiwi" and BAF annual 1985 yesterday. I noticed the photo of "Kiwi" in the annual had white on his legs/arms as opposed to his final grey. I wonder if Space Force was an evolution of SWF?

[The Baron]

Don't forget Kiwi was a wave-2 Space Force figure, so it's probably unlikely.

I'd love to know why Special Weapons team got axed. It's probable they got replaced by a different squad. Looking at the vehicles it implies they were replaced by SAS.

Maybe there was some legal wrangling for rights to using the SAS name? I know it was the SAS toys that initially attracted me to the range.