A Pair of Passable Panther Substitutes
Close to the top of my ‘Childhood Toys I Wish I Still Owned But Can’t Quite Justify Repurchasing’ list is a Solido Panther tank the colour of butterscotch Angel Delight. The thing was diecast, heavy as a grapefruit, and sported these amazing all-metal tracks that squeaked menacingly when in motion. I loved it despite the fact that, being 1/50 scale, it looked somewhat shrunken when sharing lawn, sandpit, or carpet battlefields with my 1/32 plastic soldiers. The pleasure centres that Panther lit up forty-odd years ago, are illuminated today by titles like Gunner, HEAT, PC! and Armoured Commander II, two…