When Airfix came to add an American set to their small but growing range of figures, it is interesting that they choose US Marines rather than the GIs in North-West Europe with whom so many people in Britain were already familiar. Clearly everyone was aware of the US Marines and their exploits in the Pacific, enhanced by such popular films as The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), so it is easy to imagine that such films were the inspiration for both this set and the excellent blue-box artwork. The Marines themselves need no introduction of course, and make the perfect figures to place against the Airfix set of Japanese infantry that appeared soon after this first type set.

When Airfix came to add an American set to their small but growing range of figures, it is interesting that they choose US Marines rather than the GIs in North-West Europe with whom so many people in Britain were already familiar. Clearly everyone was aware of the US Marines and their exploits in the Pacific, enhanced by such popular films as The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), so it is easy to imagine that such films were the inspiration for both this set and the excellent blue-box artwork. The Marines themselves need no introduction of course, and make the perfect figures to place against the Airfix set of Japanese infantry that appeared soon after this first type set.

As the above scans show, Airfix certainly used to provide a great many poses in their sets. It certainly contrasts with some of their last sets when they managed just seven different figures. Still it is far from clear what some of the poses are doing, and many are of little real worth to anyone. Several are without weapons such as the last figure on the third and fourth rows above, and it is difficult to see what the sculptor was trying to achieve. The second figure in the second row is more of a Napoleonic stance than a 20th century one. Several poses are familiar favourites of Airfix at this time. For example, the man holding his rifle high in the air appears in many sets, though once again this seems like an unlikely pose given the subject. Still, some are useful, and at least the bazooka in this set has someone loading the weapon.

The addition of an LCR(S) (Landing Craft, Rubber (Small)) in the set is a nice touch, and suggests something of the landings on many Pacific islands that the Marines undertook from 1942. Of course such a small craft could not be used to ferry serious numbers ashore, and in fact this model is rather smaller than even the smallest of these items, which originally measured a little under 4 metres in length and could hold seven men. It is also rounded at both ends, whereas in reality they had a definite point at the bow to aid control.

Though children of the day may not have noticed, the definition on these figures is very poor. Faces and hands are featureless blobs and equipment and rifles are almost without any detail at all. Whatever the reason, this is nowhere near today's minimum standards, so the sculpting really shows its age. However flash is at very low levels, at least on examples we have seen, and the dinghy clips together nicely too.

The wide range of poses cannot rescue this set from the poor sculpting and some strange choice of poses, so there is nothing much to recommend this one today, which is as well as it has been out of production since the 1970s. At that time Airfix came to realise that the quality of this set was not good enough, and completely retooled it to create the much superior type 2 set, leaving this one to rest in retirement.