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« on: September 2, 2004, 02:07 AM »
Well, tonight I opened the modern military figures set that was a SDCC exclusive.
The set includes:
-1 Royal Marine
-1 U.S. Special Forces Soldier
-1 "Eastern Warrior" with RPG
-1 "Eastern Warrior" with what I think is a Dragunov Machine Gun (The U.S.'s .60 Cal. equivalent?)
Anyway...
-The Eastern Warriors are BOTH surprisingly better than they were given credit for. The one in blue with a Turban and the RPG is actually nicely sculpted, though I hate his "screaming" face sculpt. It's horrible. The articulation at his legs is limited in that he has no shoe-top articulation like 99% of the line has. For some reason 21st is all over the board on these modern figures as far as articulation goes. They dropped the ball.
The 2nd Eastern Warrior with the Machine Gun has a bandoleir of bullets, a clip-on ammo can to his gun, a removable hat... Very cool. His outfit required a molded skirt-piece as well extending his camo jacket and ethnic garb. His hat is the classic Pakistani/Afghanistan hat... It's like a bowl with no brim. His head sculpt's much better.
Neither figure has movable shoes/feet unfortunately, and the guy with the hat has a weird sculpt on his legs where they're shorter than they should be, so his knee almost seems lower than it should be. It actually works out, but this same feature is a flaw on the U.S. Spec. Forces guy.
By and by, these 2 are nice. I'd actually take head variants of them to tell you the truth. More neutral heads would be nice. And one other thing... RUBBERY WEAPONS SUCK. 21st went cheapo like Hasbro on their weapons. I'm having a bitch of a time straightening the Dragunov and RPG out, which were horribly bent several directions.
Crappy 21st, crappy.
-The U.S. Spec. Forces guy sucks... He's so bad I didn't even open him since I had one that came with the Humvee. His legs have that stubbiness to them, but to a much worse extent and they're VERY noticeable. His foot articulation's nixed as well, and again his weapon's very flimsy.
The Spec. Forces guy has one redeeming feature, his removable stocking cap which is neat. If he had a better lower half, he'd be quite decent really, though his headsculpt is pretty ****-tacular in comparison to the rest of the modern 4-pack figures really.
-The Royal Marine takes the cake as crappiest of the lot. Boy did my opinion do a 180 on this one from its in the package perspective, and this is exactly why you should hold final judgment till you get it in your hands.
Crappiest of 21st's efforts to date, short of the mini figures with the vehicles actually.
Beyond his SAW being bent horribly, and his feet being terribly awkwardly posed for no reason, and his skirt piece for his jacket being so rigid you can't move the legs, 21st removed one of the most important aspects of their figures, the articulation at his bicept that actually allows a figure to hold a rifle.
Yes, 21st, the king of articulation, cut articulation at the bicep on this figure so he basically can't even hold his heavy support weapon. A weapon nobody could fire one-handed even if they were Rambo... Well, Rambo could but nobody could do it accurately, ever, even old Sly Stallone.
I mean, what an utter crock of ****.
The Marine des have a nice sculpt... Probably the nicest of the bunch, and a great deco too. Give me this guy with proper articulation and a pliable skirt piece and a rigid weapon, and I'd buy a dozen to make a squad and do some headswaps. They're not bad really overall other than that damn bicep articulation.
So, my overall opinion...
Well, first I gotta thank Matt (JediMAC) again for nabbing them for me, but as far as how I feel... I like the Eastern guys, and gimme maybe a handful more because they're neat enemies even though 21st is marketing them as CIA trained allies (Shrewd move 21st, but smart). The other two guys suck though unfortunately.
The 5th Modern figure, if you're wondering, is the current pack-in pilot with the choppers out there... He's in the versions of the cobra helicopter floating around Wal-Mart stores, which are easy to find here so they're likely easy to find everywhere.
He's a CIA operative in a ballcap with sunglasses. I do not have him as I don't own a chopper (odd pack-in figure considering he's not a pilot but whatever), but I've heard nothing good on him.
Weird that 21st goes balls to the wall on what, for all intents and purposes, is supposed to be a hated enemy for your guys, and the Coalition troops flat out blow.
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