COBI Great War Set 2056

COBI's Great War set is built from 35 blocks and contains three figures from the Western Front: a Frenchman in a blue uniform with a Lebel Mle 1886 rifle and detachable bayonet, a British soldier with a Lee-Enfield, and a German with a Mauser and a Pickelhaube. A section of barbed wire is included. All uniforms are printed.

Two of these three men are wearing something that got people killed

The German figure wears a Pickelhaube — the spiked helmet. It is made of boiled leather. It was designed in the 1840s to deflect a sabre cut, and against shrapnel and shell splinters it did nothing at all. Head wounds were killing German soldiers in numbers nobody had anticipated, and the Pickelhaube was replaced by the steel Stahlhelm from 1916.

The Frenchman's blue uniform is the second version. France went to war in 1914 in dark blue coats and bright red trousers, because a proposal to change them had been rejected in parliament in 1911 — one deputy declared that red trousers were France itself. French infantry advanced across open fields in them against machine guns, and the casualties in the first months were catastrophic. The horizon-blue uniform on this figure was introduced in 1915.

The British had learned this lesson earlier, in South Africa, and went to war in khaki.

In the COBI range

Part of the Historical Collection figure sets, all at the same scale and designed to combine. Set 2051 is a second Great War figure set. The Great War vehicles include the Mark V (2995), the A7V (3094) and the Rolls-Royce armoured car (2988).

Specifications

Pieces: 35 · Figures: 3 with accessories · Scale: 1:35 · Barbed wire section included