Airfix Multipose

These are 1/32 ww2 figures produced originally to much acclaim by Airfix back in the 80s, I think. They now have been rereleased, and come in all the usual ww2 variants - US Marines, Japs, Germans, British, 8th Army, Afrika Korps and US infantry in Europe - and you get 6 figures per box. They come with separate arms, trunks, lower sections, heads, equipment, weapons, helmets and hats. This obviously leads to an endless variety of poses. You even get decals for shoulder badges and so on. Proportions are correct and the equipment accurately enough sculpted. When assembled with the equipment stuck on they look very lifelike and are essentially unique enabling character and personal items to be added making them ideal for skirmish wargaming.
For wargames the downsides are that once assembled they are very top heavy on the bases making them prone to knocking over and damaged. Also you don't really get enough of anything to really vary them - in the Afrika Korps set for example you get one pith helmet - fine but why not provide 6? You cannot for example have all your Japanese in helmets as they provide only three so you're forced to have the set-up given of three in hats three in helmets. Because of the technical problems of making soft headgear out of hard plastic the hats tend to look like they sit too high on the head and some trimming is necessary.
Another disadvantage is the scale; there is not a lot of stuff out there in 1/32 scale or 54mm. Airfix was pretty big on 1/32 but other manufacturers went a different way. Most of the bigger vehicle kits are in the smaller 1/35th so you can't tap into the array of great kits in that scale. What there is in that scale are largely diecast prepainted tanks which though robust are pretty expensive and limited in terms of paint schemes. 21st Century Toys are an example - Forces of Valor are another. CTS have reissued all the Airfix soft plastic figures and vehicles. These are available as are the 21st Century Toys vehicles from Steve Weston's Toy Soldiers