This book arrived in the mails the other day, and I have to say it is a subject about which I was totally unfamiliar. However, it is not to hundreds of thousands of Europeans and Mexicans who grew up with these figures as a child. They were designed to 1/11 scale and featured all sorts of different types from astronauts to pirates.

Not only were there figures, but a wide array of accessories were part of the package. One could have things as simple as a folding chair up to jeeps and helicopters. There were also several sets of varying degrees of complexity that came with a number of similar scaled accessories.

Typical of the genre, they are now highly collectible and while the original company was only in business from 1968 to 1983, the name has been bought and new figures are currently being produced.

The original figures were produced in what the author calls two stages. The first being the original figure set that ran until around 1976 when the product line was overhauled with the second stage of figures being produced until the last new items were made in 1982.

The author, Pedro Andrea has been collecting these figures for probably longer than anyone else and has amassed what is considered to be the most complete collection of these figures. So it was natural that his collection be used to produce this compete guide. Inside the 111 pages are images of every figure produced by Madelman during its life span and most of the various accessories. There are so many accessories that it would be difficult to put them all in a reasonably sized book so what you have are representations of some of the later sets.

In the book, each of the figures is posed along with some of the accessories available and on some pages, there are full diorama settings with multiple figures. Each figure is shown with those items that would normally be included. There are also sections with the 'special sets' and all of those pieces are shown and illustrated. This full color guide makes for interesting reading on its own and is a must for those who are intent on collecting these items

August 2007

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