The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

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The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by tmanthegreat » Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:17 am

As a follow-up to the other thread on the worst 1:18 items, I thought it would be time to share what we thought were the best items released over the past decade in terms of 1:18 aircraft, armor, vehicles, artillery, and figures. Again, lets keep this strictly to 1:18 military proper. Have fun 8)

* * *

Here are my choices:

1:18 Aircraft
21c F-86/Mig-15

This was a very, very difficult choice as there are a ton of choices vying for top spot and for a variety of different reasons, plus I’m an aviation lover :wink: I chose both the 21c F-86 and Mig-15 as the two famous Korean-war adversaries are almost inseparable and both represent the pinnacle of 21c’s (and 1:18) aircraft design. They are both durable and sturdy in construction, offer a superb level of detail, and did not skimp on functionality: having everything from retractable gear to moving control surfaces to opening gun bays and airbrakes. They also had some great paint schemes with these releases as well, particularly the “Huff” F-86 and “Russian” Mig-15.

Other very close contenders for the top spot of best 1:18 aircraft, IMHO would be the 21c AH-1W Supercobra, 21c F-104, JSI F-14 (minus the spots and weak gear), 21c ME-262B Nightfighter, 21c Spitfire, 21c Avenger (despite all the QC issues), BBI Corsair… and well, my list could go on…

1:18 Armor
21c Tiger I

Again, another difficult choice to make and the rivet-counters will likely disagree with my selection. The 21c Tiger has a lot of inaccuracies, combining features of early, mid, and late production German Tiger tanks into sort of an amalgamation. Still, when one looks past that, the tank is an amazing piece of work, especially considering its age (first released in 2001). Detailed interior with seats, ammo, the 88mm gun, MG, and rucksacks, all the opening hatches with hatch details, the opening engines and radiators, rolling tracks. The fact that 21c released the tank in diecast. With all the 1:18 armor that’s come since, the Tiger is still a tough vehicle to beat!

Close runner-up for top spot would be the 21c M-41 Walker-Bulldog for many of the same reasons as the Tiger, with the full interior and all. The 21c halftracks are also excellent. Quite frankly, 21c produced some of the best 1:18 armor, period.

1:18 Vehicle
21c MB Vehicle (Willy’s Jeep)

Again, another difficult choice as there’s a bit to choose from, but I went with one of the first: the 21c Jeep. The is a small and rather simple vehicle, but its one that 21c did well. Its scaled right and can easily hold the S1 figures right of to the newest D-Day ones (in fact they fit better) and had various features that set a precedent for all future 21c vehicles of similar sort. It has an opening hood that reveals a detailed, accurate engine, removable tools, removable stowage, flip-down windshield, rotating/elevating machine gun, and room to seat figures and stick a bunch of extra accessories. 21c would continue the same spirit of detail and accuracy combined with playability and functionality with all other vehicles that came after the Jeep such as the Kubelwagen, MUTT series, the WC series, and the trucks.

1:18 Artillery
21 88mmFlak Cannon

This one was an obvious choice. It is one of the most accurate, complex, and detailed items 21c ever produced from a tooling standpoint. It is also one of the last new toolings they ever released. I’m not even sure where to begin in my description of what all this piece does, but it pretty much does everything the 88mm gun was supposed to do except fire the shell. All the little cranks turn (though they do not work to traverse/elevate the gun) the barrel recoils, breach opens to load the shells, support arms fold, gun can be attached to the limbers for transport and the list goes on. The only drawback is that the first (and only) release was in DAK tan, which sort of limits the situations/battles it can be displayed in. (I can’t display the 88 with a Panther as part of a Normandy diorama, for example without repainting the gun). The standard German gray would have been a much better choice, especially as 21c likely knew this was the only one they would get out… Still, its one heck of a model :D

1:18 Figure
21c USMC (first series)

This one was really tough. There have been dozens of figures released over the past decade and while some are certainly worse than others, there are a lot of good ones. I’ve decided to go with the 21c USMC figures – and not just because I won the photo contest in 2005 :wink: These could certainly be debatable as the BBI WWII and modern figures really have better tooling and the later 21c figures have better articulation. Still, there was just something at the time that set the 21c USMC figures apart from what came before them and in some respects what came after. They were highly stylized and each of the 7 figures is sculpted individually and has its own character. The detailing and tooling on the body is first-rate, even for 21c. They came with a lot of accessories (helmet, weapon, pack, shovel, pouches, etc) and really were fun. Sgt. Digger McHugh (holding the Japanese flag) is perhaps my favorite of the bunch – the figure with cigarette and bayoneted rifle in hand just screams classic US Marine and with that flag, it has a touch of political incorrectness that was classic to 21c.


So, those are all my choices... Now that I look over my list, I find it interesting that all my picks were 21c items.
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Snake Man » Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:15 am

As for me, I'm an airplane guy. My votes are for the BF109G-6, and the Mig 15 for all around best items. I don't own any armor, and figures are not my thing, so I can't comment on them.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Jnewboy » Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:50 am

The over all best item had to be the 88mm Flak Gun

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by MCalamari » Sat Feb 26, 2011 12:23 pm

Jnewboy wrote:The over all best item had to be the 88mm Flak Gun
Seconded!

Aircraft
Admiral's CL-13. It has a great paint job, it is sturdy and well balanced. Second place would be 21c's Stuka (I'm partial to the Winter paint job), despite the fact that the wings are a pain (if not impossible) to take apart, it too is sturdy and pleasing too look at.

Armor
I agree that the 21c Tiger is tops. The pull out turret is the clincher. Though I do want to give a second place to the Millennium Toys (21c) Panzer IV R/C tank which had a great original price point, and still today is a gateway into the 1/16 R/C tanks.

Vehicle
21c Dodge WC63 1.5 ton truck. I was hoping that JSI would put more of these out.

Figure
21c Mike "One Way" Harras (I think it is S3 that came with the Quad Trailer).

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by killer 88s » Sat Feb 26, 2011 4:06 pm

Best aircraft is the cobra.

Best armor is the 21st Tiger I.
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by NightVyper » Sat Feb 26, 2011 4:21 pm

my favorites... hmm.

Plane:
BBI F-16
Runner Up: BBI F-18

Helicopter:
BBI Apache
Runner UP: my modified Recon Little Birds with mini guns

Armor
21st Bradley
Runner Up: BBI LAV

Vehicle
BBI Desert Patrol Buggy
Runner Up: BBI Super Humvee

Figure
BBI Delta Force Night Ops
Runner Up: CIA paramilitary
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by NWarty » Sat Feb 26, 2011 5:42 pm

I know Tman will disagree with me on this one :wink:

Plane: 21C Me-262A. Absolutely incredible all around (if you got one that had no QA flaws like mine). The gear, pilot, cockpit, opening gun bays, slats, movable control surfaces and color scheme, the pinnacle of 21C's aircraft design. Again, like I said, many had 262's with QA flaws. Mine was perfect out of the box.

This choice was a tough one; the F-86 "Huff" runs an extremely close second. The only two factors were pilot design (not as good as the 262 pilot) and weaker gear in the Sabre. But 21C's decision to go with "The Huff" scheme was hands-down, one of the better decisions they made regarding the company.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by B17Fortress » Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:05 pm

Thanks Tman for creating this forum- I was going to make one as a follow up to my other one, but you saved me the trouble.

I am a German person (both literally and figuratively), so my choices were somewhat easy:

Plane-
Never owned any in 1:18

Tank-
Panther "Red 332". In my experience, this tank has the most free rolling treads.

Vehicle-
Sdk.fz 251/1 Pioneerpanzerwagen. My first 1 18 piece, it looks so awesome and all the figures look good and work well with it.

Figure-
All of my favourite figures are ones that I made out of swapping pieces, but for out-of-the-box figure I would choose Pvt. Fritzen Osternoh (I think that's the spelling) with the tan skin, not the red version. His face is one of the best sculpts, and can be posed with any weapon. And with the peaked cap from a commander figure, he is my Dr. Richtofen in my World At War nazi zombie dioramas.
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by snake » Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:29 pm

Just planes for me in 1/18.

First BBI F-16

Second BBI F-18

Third BBI F-4U Corsair.

Honorable mention to 21C P-38 Haleakalla, and California Cutie.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Airacobra » Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:38 pm

I only do planes so here is my list of favorites. They may change a bit over time, but these four are the strongest in my opinion.

1. 21st P-39 Airacobra. (Oh that's right, nobody has a set large enough to step up and make one.)

2. BBI Corsair

3. 21st Avenger

4. 21st F-104
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by 812boys » Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:00 pm

Out of the ones I own I would have to say

Aircraft- a tie between the stuka and the P-38 the P-38 maybe with a slight upset because of more detailing.

Vehicle- Pioneer panzer wagen I just got my first one from a link on here last week and it is just for lack of a better word sweet.

Figure- The first series of Marines I ordered two sets of the third series a year ago and just picked up 2 sets of the 1st ones from small joes they are a lot better.

I will even go one step farther that you guys have not metioned

Weapons- would have to be Dragon's along with the mg-42 from bravo team
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by tko211 » Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:31 pm

3. JSI F-14 NOW, I know it has issues and it isn't cool at all that it came with spots. Most of the issues I was able to fix and deal with. It's way too much money to not be fantastic. BUT- It's just so cool! Takes some serious courage to make this kind of plane in 1:18 and all I keep thinking is: imagine if 21C had made that darn Phantom!
Painted and fixed- this is one of my all time favorites.

2. 21C F-86. It's easily the better of the 2 F-86's offerings in my book... Better landing gear, (LOVE the proper folding front door) deep intake, (vs. shallow intake on AT's) removable access panels, speed brakes, decent pilot! REALLY- this is a cool plane that was well built and designed by 21C. Also- it's the F model... The true MiG Killer!

1. 21C Me-262. Again another admiral match up... 21C just did it better again. Though- I would also say the BF-109G-6 from 21C is also another good 1st place choice.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Black_Dragon_One » Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:34 pm

tko211 wrote:3. JSI F-14 NOW, I know it has issues and it isn't cool at all that it came with spots. Most of the issues I was able to fix and deal with. It's way too much money to not be fantastic. BUT- It's just so cool! Takes some serious courage to make this kind of plane in 1:18 and all I keep thinking is: imagine if 21C had made that darn Phantom!
Painted and fixed- this is one of my all time favorites.

2. 21C F-86. It's easily the better of the 2 F-86's offerings in my book... Better landing gear, (LOVE the proper folding front door) deep intake, (vs. shallow intake on AT's) removable access panels, speed brakes, decent pilot! REALLY- this is a cool plane that was well built and designed by 21C. Also- it's the F model... The true MiG Killer!

1. 21C Me-262. Again another admiral match up... 21C just did it better again. Though- I would also say the BF-109G-6 from 21C is also another good 1st place choice.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by trigger1 » Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:04 pm

Aircraft- My 2 favorites are the BBI Daisy June Corsair and the Bf-109. Great detail on both.

Armor- BBI Sherman or 21C Tiger

Vehicles- Minichamps Kubelwagen

Figure- Dragon 101st Airborne figures. What they lack in articulation they make up for in equipment, paintjobs, and headsculpts. The Action 18 line gave us the best 1:18 WWII weapons PERIOD.
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Threetoughtrucks » Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:34 pm

My favorites, regardless of accuracy -

Aircraft -

Stuka (Snake version) followed by Me-262

Armor -

M-41 Walker Bulldog followed by any Sherman and followed by Pickel's 75mm Tank Destroyer

Vehicle -

Hands down, WC-57 Command Car

Figures -

None in 1/18. Too many visible joints and the painted on uniforms turn me off.... I'm spoiled with 1/6 figs and new super head sculpts and cloth and "leather" cloths.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by pickelhaube » Sun Feb 27, 2011 7:00 am

Aircraft.
The BBI desert 109

Armor

Panther and it I would have bought it, the $1,500 + Tiger II

Vehical

Although I do not have have one for myself. My Sdkfz 222

That vehical is sooo cool it should hvae been produced by one of the big guys.
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Tinman » Sun Feb 27, 2011 10:09 am

My opinions have varied over time, but my current, quick take would be:


21C Soviet Mig-15 as best plane. For all the reasons tman mentioned. Too bad a cat walked across mine and destroyed the landing gear (but it displays very nicely with gear up!). F-86 as a very close second.

21C M41 Walker Bulldog as best armor. Again, I think tman covered the reasons. I use it in my Vietnam scenes, even if I'm walking the thin line of blasphemy from a historical perspective. 21C Tiger I as a very close second.

21C S1 Halftrack as best vehicle. I know it's probably considered armor, but I think of it as a vehicle. Anyway, it's highly-detailed yet sturdy, and came with lots of accessories (if I recall correctly - got it ten or eleven years ago).

Figures are a tougher call for me. I really like the 21C S1 Vietnam figures, despite their many shortcomings. But again, credit to tman because I think the S1 Marines are probably the best in terms of sculpt. They just look really gritty and kick-ass standing there.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Jesse James » Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:53 am

For me...

-Best Figures... Tough choice but I'm leaning towards a tie between Battle of the Bulge (Series 2) from 21st Cent. Toys, and Forces of Valor's German Infantry guys... BotB were my favorite US and German series though so they probably win out overall with me. Love the coats, love the headsculpts, the gear... It's all great to me. I liked Series 1, but Series 2 delivered the trench coats and I ate them up! FOV Germans came with the gear you wished all the 21st figuers had though. Maps, ammo crates, etc. They really had some awesome stuff, even extra jerry cans.

-Best Plane... For me, I really am not a plane guy, but my favorites are the BBI P-51, 21st's Avenger, and the P-38... I think I like the P38 and P51 because I just like those planes in general, but the Avenger... man, it's so big. It's a hulk really. I had no intention to buy one, got one for $35 that had never even gone on the floor for full price. I can't part with it... It's just such a big piece of machinery hanging from my ceiling and it looks incredible. It's why, every time I look at any plane I have (good or bad), they all make me wish Star Wars did ships this nice. They never have come close, even with their best work in vehicles.

-Best Armor... I'm at a tie here with BBI's Sherman and 21st's Tiger-I... The BBI Sherman is outstanding in detail and it's a favorite of mine. I love me some Shermans. 21st's Tiger-I is a monster though, and the metal variation is my favorite. It's insanely heavy, the interior is detailed... It looks great with a crew displayed around it. I jsut wish it were camo instead of grey. Grey's ok to me though.

-Best support vehicle (trucks/halftracks/etc.)... I lean towards the 21st Bradley on this, but it's a tough call and I prefer WW2 so I'm probably with 21st's U.S. halftrack... The quad .50 is cool but was never designed to accomodate the gun in the back. The original halftrack is pretty perfect though, and had tons of stuff it came with. Love it! All the German halftracks are great though, love the Jeep, love the Kubel, love Dodge CC, Weapons Carrier, etc. They're all great to me. This category's like picking a favorite kid.

-Best Playset... Farmhouse... The bridge, if it had been made, but the farmhouse wins by default to me since the bridge didn't happen.

-Best Artillery/Gun... There's only the Pak-40, 88, and Quad trailer, so it's slim pickin's here unless you count the resin kits guys like PH and Grunt are doing (which, to me, it's not fair to those guys to count them since they work so hard on theirs to do short-run kits and things). I can't pick one of those 21st items then really, other than to say the Quad trailer is the lesser of the 3... The 88 probably gets my vote but it was never made in the grey most people wanted. The PAK-40 is a great piece though. I got a pile of them, and love each one. They packed a lot into such a small piece of hardware. It makes me wonder what 21st could've done with some US artillery or other German pieces.

-Best Single Accessory... We hardly knew ya, but I lean towards the .30 with the tripod and ammo belt... I really thought that was a nice and much-needed piece. We got it, and like a fart in the wind the line died.
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by grockwood » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:19 pm

I don't know much about aircraft, but I like my BBI F16 so that would be my choice. My 21st XD ME262 is a very close second.

As for anything else, the 21st XD 88MM Flak gun is superior to any tank or vehicle released in 1/18.

As for figures the German Paratroopers are tops.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by digger » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:28 pm

21C S1 Halftrack as best vehicle. I know it's probably considered armor, but I think of it as a vehicle. Anyway, it's highly-detailed yet sturdy, and came with lots of accessories (if I recall correctly - got it ten or eleven years ago).
Gotta agree here - the S1 US halftrack is crown jewel - about a dozen moving parts, engine detail, stowage, accessories galore, to scale, detailed - a couple of mistakes but overall the best.

Do love me the Cobra, and the German Starfighter is up there for me too.

Figures would have to be the bbi SPR wave 1 guys. Heads, weapons, helmets, paint, articulation...awesome.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Jnewboy » Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:50 pm

The best thing ever in 1/18 will be Pickel's Ho 229

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by snake » Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:14 am

Jnewboy wrote:The best thing ever in 1/18 will be Pickel's Ho 229
Great point! :D

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by Jesse James » Tue Mar 01, 2011 2:14 am

digger wrote:Figures would have to be the bbi SPR wave 1 guys. Heads, weapons, helmets, paint, articulation...awesome.
I love BBI's stuff, and I think for sharpness it was probably the best sculpted stuff, short of perhaps Dragon.

My only gripe, and it was a big one with a lot of BBI stuff, was the molded-on gear... I never could get beyond it. I love the figures, they mix well with 21st, but without 21st the gear would always bother me... The packs that you could take off but they left gaping holes and mysterious hanging shoulder straps, etc.

I just preferred 21st's look over it... BBI's sculpts were by far the best, rivaled only by Forces of Valor really as inexpensive articulated figures. 21st's joints were far more visible generally. BBI hid theirs the best with FOV 2nd and 21st coming in 3rd (assuming Dragon's not even in contention here for this category, haha).

Dragon was tops in sculpt to me, but their figure format of interchangeable limbs blew. They're really just statues. They look cool around a PAK 40 loading it though.

It's funny how each line had its pro's and con's though...

-BBI... Amazing sculpts, innovative articulation. Some of the helmets were goofy small, the gear was kind of dedicated on many of the figures, and in the case of some of their modern guys they lacked the articulation they should've had (especially some of the later figures like the Spec. Forces guy without good elbo joints, etc.).

-FOrces of Valor... Their US figures seemed to just be a hair off, they were delicate in that they broke pretty easily at stuck joints if you weren't careful, and they never did more than their single WW2 series. Their paintjobs were all over the place in quality. They had innovative accessories though, pretty sharp sculpts, not the highest articulation quality but definitely good, and cool accessories.

-21st... They were the most diverse obviously, and after S1 & Nam they got articulation pretty well nailed. Their sculpts were questionable at times and their headsculpts were always hit/miss... A wave could be mired with tons of freaky screaming faces or none. Their paintjobs were also questionable, often. Figures from the Jersey Shore would be less tan in a lot of cases, but they had good accessories generally, and removable gear almost always.

-Dragon... Their accessories were a work of art, and in some cases so were the sculpts of their figures. Articulation was non-existant though, and action figures kind of need it to earn the name. Otherwise they're just like little green army men with better decoration. Their gear though, no company was as detailed at this scale.

-In Toyz... There was promise but they were doomed from the start, limited to specialty shops it seemed, and featuring sculpts people considered odd even when pickings were slim. The gear was pretty neat though and just about everything was removable. They were the only company to do cloth gear too which is a neat direction to go. The sculpts were dismal though. I truly think they hold the title for smallest accessory still though, with those German grenades.

-Our War... New, and so far only one wave to digest. I'm intrigued. I'm starved for stuff, so anything legitimate sort of gets my collecting juices flowing, but those Germans I'd posted really have me anxious. They're clearly a warmer weather N. Europe/Italy/Russian Offensive type feel though. I dig that, that they're different, and that they're innovating the articulation a bit by adopting some GI Joe style joints. I'm not a huge GI Joe articulation fan, just somewhat, so I really don't want to see the GI Joe style torso articulation adopted. I'd like to keep that near the belt-line because it hides so much better.
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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by CW4USARMY » Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:07 am

One of my best 1:18 military items is my German motorcycle with side car that Pickelhaube made and painted! :D
Mass produced items would probably be f-16, just for the sheer coolness of it as well as the F-14, after TKO painted it. Spitfire is awesome as well. For armour, love the tiger and the modern softop 4 seated hummer.

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Re: The Best 1:18 Items Ever Made

Post by MCalamari » Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:48 pm

Jesse James wrote: -Dragon... Their accessories were a work of art, and in some cases so were the sculpts of their figures. Articulation was non-existant though, and action figures kind of need it to earn the name. Otherwise they're just like little green army men with better decoration. Their gear though, no company was as detailed at this scale.
Two thoughts:
PTE was absent, but the selling point for PTE has been cheap functional playsets.

Dragon should have (maybe did) make non-US, non-German, non-Japanese WWII figures. Specifically I've been wanting to see some North Africa British troops or Belgian / French troops.

-M

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