Army building as a kid

[The Kraken Wakes]

Hi

Ive been thinking about this recently while sorting out my collection. I know some people like to army build (whether its a few or lots of a particular figure / vehicle) but wondering if anyone ever did this as a kid?

When I was younger I always liked the idea of lots of Red Shadow / Cobra forces but never AF vehicles. They always seemed more of a one off kind of thing until I started reading the Hasbro comics and I saw multiple Skystrikers or Tomahawks around.

I don't think my parents would ever have allowed it and if ever I had money to buy my own stuff there was always a figure or vehicle I didn't have rather than buy a duplicate. The closest I came was one Christmas when I peeked on top of the wardrobe and saw two Water Moccasins in separate Woolworths bags. At first I thought it was weird but grew to like the idea, two of them zooming around the living room carpet. I think my parents realised before Christmas though as come present opening time only one appeared.

cheers

[wolforrest]

As a kid I always wanted legions of Star Wars Stormtroopers but as you say come pocket money day it was always a new figure purchased. I was only five when Action Force came out and although I had loads of figures and the cardboard headquarters I was too young to bother about factions, just who were the baddies and who were the goodies. I do remember using Space Force Troopers as baddies though as they looked like Robots to me.

[paul463]

Not as a kid, we didn't have the money for army building. It was paulitoy that got me on to army building when I signed up here!!!!!!

[Graham_UK]

Oh Christ no! 1 Imperial Stormtrooper & I think I was lucky enough to have two cobra officers and 1 trooper meh, they're all blue! Them's guys died/got blown up/thrown across the garden countless times! A moment's thought's for those poor bastards

[Hopper]

I'm with you guys - always wanted a vast army of Red Shadows, but only ever had two - not even sure where the second one came from, either.
There was always a distinction, at least in my head, between the 'characters' and the 'soldiers' too, so I would never have wanted more than one , but would have happily had thousands of

Here's a thought... who was the intermediary between Black Major and the humble Red Shadow footsoldiers?

Surely he was second in command, but cannot be expected to personally supervise the Shadow horde? There must have been a chain of command, or some sort of structure. Is there any evidence of rank among the rank and file Red Shadows - a captain, sergeant, squad leader? Anyone remember?

[Chopper]

Same here. Couldn't buy them in NZ anyway so I had to scrounge off mates with pommy relo's and substitute joes. AF only requires one of everything and the bad guys should be in hoards.

[DAMartin]

Since we were three, army builñding wasn't an option or we wouldn't know which figure was whose. We used imgenuity to sidestep the issue: the single trooper was killed, and then the other walked into the scene, represented by the same figure.

[Chopper]

I used to do that, DA. Maybe that is how they got the disappearing bodies idea in Goldeneye.