COBI M41A3 Walker Bulldog Limited Edition Set 2237

COBI's M41A3 Walker Bulldog Limited Edition is built from 702 blocks, with working tracks, moving wheels, opening hatches, access to a brick engine, a rotating turret and the type's distinctive long barrel. Five figures are included: two standard American soldiers plus three exclusive to this edition — an American soldier, a Soviet officer advising the Viet Cong, and a Viet Cong fighter with an anti-tank launcher. A jungle outpost with a Vietnamese flag and a radio set is included, along with a numbered laser-engraved plate and a certificate signed by hand by COBI's president. No stickers.

Built for the wrong enemy

The M41 was designed in the late 1940s to fight Soviet tanks in Europe: fast, well armoured for its weight, with a 76 mm gun and good optics. It entered service in 1951.

It went to Vietnam, where there were very few tanks to fight. Its actual opponent is the third figure in this box — a man on foot with a rocket launcher, at fifty metres, in vegetation.

Against that, the M41's virtues were irrelevant and its faults were not. The engine drank fuel at a rate that limited how far from a supply point it could operate. And the tracks were loud enough to be heard well before the vehicle arrived, which in a war fought from ambush is close to the worst possible characteristic: an M41 announced itself, and whoever was waiting had time to decide what to do.

The United States sold its M41s to South Vietnam and other buyers in 1965. Around 5,500 were built, and their first combat use was not in Vietnam at all but in the Bay of Pigs landing in Cuba in April 1961.

The figures

The Soviet officer is historically grounded. The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with weapons, air defences and advisers throughout the war, in a role both governments were careful not to discuss publicly.

In the COBI range

Sets 2038 and 2047 are the Vietnam War figure sets, and 2543 the M24 Chaffee the M41 replaced.

Specifications

Pieces: 702 · Figures: 5, three exclusive to this edition · Jungle outpost, numbered plate, signed certificate · No stickers