Timpo Swoppets
Part 1 AUSTRALIANS
I decided to create a post based on nostalgia for my childhood; Timpo swoppets were a major part of my childhood collection and wargames with marbles, sand bombs, elastic bands, matchstick firing cannons and other fiendish devices.
So which soldiers to start with? Currently I'm reading the new book on Sandakan by Michelle Cunningham, Hell on Earth or Sandakan Australia's Greatest War Tragedy. I bought the book for my father but decided to read it first! The forced march from Sandakan to Ranau resulted n the deaths of most of the British and Australians POWS. My grandfather, engineer, Jim O'Connell was one of those who died. The movement of starving and ill men was necessitated by the encroaching allied forces but the cruelty of Japanese commanders and guards, involving confining ill men to cages and beating and kicking men to death happened before the march. Limits of a small bowl of watery rice each day became the norm. A tribute to the Aussies seemed the way to start.
Timpo never made the Japanese, which is a shame, although, as with the Germans, there would have been an argument about who had to be the 'bad guys'. Timpo French Foreign Legion could pass as Japanese but I did not have a lot of these.
The most attractive thing about the figures is the slouch hat. Other than that they were pretty much the same as British troops. The bren gun is a nice touch. Three series of Timpo heads can be seen in the figures.
I decided to create a post based on nostalgia for my childhood; Timpo swoppets were a major part of my childhood collection and wargames with marbles, sand bombs, elastic bands, matchstick firing cannons and other fiendish devices.
So which soldiers to start with? Currently I'm reading the new book on Sandakan by Michelle Cunningham, Hell on Earth or Sandakan Australia's Greatest War Tragedy. I bought the book for my father but decided to read it first! The forced march from Sandakan to Ranau resulted n the deaths of most of the British and Australians POWS. My grandfather, engineer, Jim O'Connell was one of those who died. The movement of starving and ill men was necessitated by the encroaching allied forces but the cruelty of Japanese commanders and guards, involving confining ill men to cages and beating and kicking men to death happened before the march. Limits of a small bowl of watery rice each day became the norm. A tribute to the Aussies seemed the way to start.
Timpo never made the Japanese, which is a shame, although, as with the Germans, there would have been an argument about who had to be the 'bad guys'. Timpo French Foreign Legion could pass as Japanese but I did not have a lot of these.
The most attractive thing about the figures is the slouch hat. Other than that they were pretty much the same as British troops. The bren gun is a nice touch. Three series of Timpo heads can be seen in the figures.
BRITISH
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