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Manufacturer Information:
M & C Toy Centre LTD.
Unit 813
8th Floor
Peninsula Centre
67 Mody Road
Tsim Sha Tsui East
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Website
The Package:
This soldier comes in a colorful, camouflage-motif, windowed box (13 inches high x 9 1/4 inches wide x 2 3/4 inches deep) that gives you a good view of the contents. The back of the package shows photos of other figures and vehicles that are available. The box is taped shut, which a single pull from a knife easily rectifies. The figure and his HFC 85 Carbine are secured to the interior plastic tray with two twisty ties. Most of the accessories just pop out of the tray, but a few are taped to secure them. You could put everything back in the box with relative ease, which makes them pretty collector friendly. And, as the basic shape of the box is rectangular, they're easy to store for those that like to keep their toys unopened.
The Soldier:
Head sculpts and ethnicity vary for these Power Team figures, so the one you get might look much different than mine. The one I bought is Caucasian. He has short, dark brown hair (which is accented with a lighter-colored paint wash to bring out the detail in the sculpted locks) and brown eyes. The black gloves are permanently sculpted on and have a fair amount of detail such as a textured surface and seams. He has the usual impressive M & C Toy 3rd-Generation body articulation: Ball-jointed neck, shoulders, chest, waist, and hips; triple-jointed knees and elbows; cut joints in the biceps, thighs, and wrists, and pivot ankles. The cut joints on these figures have a tendency towards looseness, which can make posing somewhat problematic.
Accessories:
This Military Special Force figures comes with a nice variety of gear, even if the selection does seem a little random. You get:
- A black HFC 85 Carbine. The sculpting on this is rather lacking in my opinion, which makes it come across as too toy-like; I know M & C Toy can do better. An elastic band is attached via two metal ring and allows your soldier to carry his weapon over his shoulder/back. Due to the bullpup design of this weapon, and the figure's limited hand articulation, it can be difficult to get the soldier to grip the gun, but it's do-able.
- Two olive, cylindrical grenades with black tops (one has a flat top, the other a handle/pull ring).
- A black M1911 pistol. It fits snugly in his leg holster.
- A black grappling hook. The top rotates around. A length of string is tied to the bottom of the shaft that's only about 23 inches long though, which is rather short for a sixth scale figure. I think it should have been at least 2-3 times longer (string is cheap). Yeah, yeah, I know it'd be easy for me to add a new, longer length of string, but I'll complain if I want to, it's my review. Most importantly, the device is strong enough to support the figure's weight.
- A silver clasp/eye-hole thingy. I believe this is intended for use with the grappling hook for rappeling or whatever; I hooked it onto his vest. It comes packaged as two separate pieces, but I'm counting it as one accessory. This probably should have been done in metal rather than plastic, as it looks and feels like it'd break easily.
- An olive canister with elastic straps. It doesn't open, which is too bad, as it'd be a great place to stash gear. M & C Toy's photo for this figure shows him carrying it over his shoulder, so that's where I put it on my soldier too.
- Another, smaller, olive container. This one has a slot on the back so you can attach it to a belt or strap. Unfortunately, if you have the vest on, it covers up the belt which prevents you from sticking it there. I've been hanging it from one of the thigh pockets instead.
- A perforated, black helmet. A rotating slot on the top holds the red lamp. There are three styrofoam pads glued inside to help it stay in place, which work pretty well.
- A small, red lamp. It has black and silver details painted on it and a sticker label with tiny text. I got out the magnifying glass:
SDU 5E
Light Maker
NO. DLA 200-91 T
NSN 6330 00 6/5
N.Y. 1002 U.S.
I don't know if that's real numbers/data or just some gobbledy-gook that M & C Toy made up. If anybody knows about that kind of thing, feel free to drop me an e-mail and explain.
- A red, cylindrical flare/smoke signal. Like the lamp, this has a label with super tiny text on it, along with two equally small diagrams showing how to operate the device. Squinting painfully through the magnifying glass reveals:
SIGNAL SMOKE AND ILLUMINATION
MARINE MK. 13 MOD O
U.S. PATENT 2455 342
KIL GORE CORPORATION TOONE, TENN.
LOT K-C 19 MFG. DATE 07/01
TO IGNITE SIGNAL
1. REMOVE CAP FROM END TO BE IGNITED
2. FLIP RING OVER SIGNAL RIM
3. PUSH RING DOWN TO BREAK SEAL
4. IF SEAL DOESN'T BREAK, PUSH RING UNTIL IT ENDS AGAINST CASE
5. FLIP RING BACK TO ORIGINAL POSITION AND USE AS LEVER TO BREAK SEAL
6. IGNITE SIGNAL BY QUICK PULL OF RING
7. HOLD AT ARM LENGTH 45o FROM HORIZONTAL
8. IF SMOKE SIGNAL FLAMES, DOUSE MOMENTARILY IN WATER
9. AFTER USING ONE END, DOUSE SIGNAL IN WATER TO COOL. SAVE FOR USE OF OTHER END IF ENDED
NOTE: RAISED BENDS IDENTIFY FLAME END (this runs around the left side of the instructions in white letters)
IGNITE THIS END FOR DAY USE (this runs around the right side of the instructions in black letters)
Gah, my eyes!!! Well, that was educational, now wasn't it? At least the instructions/data make more sense to me than the lamp's did. I did edit some misspellings (the text had 'flames' as 'frames' for example), but other than that, it's word-for-word.
- A rubbery, combat vest. This item is well sculpted with (non working) pockets, buckles, shotgun shells, seams, and a material-like, micro-textured surface. Both sides have three flaps that unhook beneath the arm openings; these facilitate taking it off/putting in on. There are three adjustable belt straps on the back that let you secure an item (it looks like it's designed for a shotgun to me). A slot on the back of his vest, behind his left shoulder, accommodates his walkie-talkie, and a notch on the front gives you a place to clip another part of the communication system. The eight shotgun shells on the left breast are painted bright red, but other than that, the vest is just the black color it was molded in.
- An earphone/radio communication assembly. The earphone plugs into a hole in his left ear, a cord from this connects to an elastic ring that goes around his neck, and more wire leads to a small box (which has a small clip so you can attach it to a pocket or something else), and then, finally, to the radio itself.
- Metal dog tags. One has "Power Team" stamped into it, the other "World Peacekeepers". These hang around his neck on a metal ball chain. Scale is good.
- A camouflage jacket. The colors are various shades of light blue/gray, green and tan. The jacket opens and closes in the front via a strip of velcro; this is the only piece of World Peacekeepers clothing I've gotten so far that has velcro, which makes it something of an oddity. It has four working pockets (two breast and two shoulders). It's too bad these pockets are so small that they can't hold anything but the tiniest of his accessories.
- Camouflage pants. Same camo design as the jacket. They open and close via two snaps at the crotch. There are two working thigh pockets. The legs are long enough that they'll stay in the boots, even with the knees bent.
- An olive and black web belt that's made out of rubbery material. It opens and closes via a triangular buckle on the front. The smaller olive container is meant to go on this, but as I mentioned earlier, if you've got the vest on too, that isn't going to be an option.
- A black plastic holster. This is for the pistol. The horizontal strap goes around a thigh, and the vertical strap goes around the belt (which is how he's packaged wearing it on his right leg).
- Three, black, rubbery gun clips. This is one sculpted piece and the clips aren't removable. Two straps allow you to secure it where you wish (he comes packaged wearing it on his left thigh).
- Black, rubbery boots. Nice sculpt on these with such details as laces, treads, stitching, etc. There's a bit of paint applied to the front to give them a dirty look.
Cost:
I really can't complain here. I paid $7.99 + tax for him which is quite a bargain in today's largely overpriced toy market. You can easily pay that much, or more, for a figure half his size. Sure, these World Peacekeeper figures aren't as good as the higher-end, and considerably more expensive, figures other manufacturers make, but for the price, they can't be beat.
Final Analysis:
PROS:
- Excellent value. You get a good quality 1:6-scale figure with a large and varied assortment of gear for a mere $8! There's lots of fun and play value here for little money.
- Grappling hook and rope add an additional 'climbing' play dimension. It's fun to pose him climbing or hanging from various structures.
- Highly articulated figure.
- Very good quality clothing.
- Nice, inexpensive fodder for 1:6-scale kitbashers/customizers.
- This was kind of a love/hate figure for me. I thought he was great when I first saw him in the store, but then I wasn't very impressed with the end result when I got him home, opened, and geared up. However, I ended up liking him again after a few days of playing around with him and taking photographs.
CONS:
- It can be somewhat tricky to place all of the gear on this guy at once while still getting it to look half decent (largely because his vest covers his belt and the holster/clips interfere with the use of his thigh pockets); you'll probably end up sticking some of it in weird/awkward places like I did. I think some more though should have went into what equipment he was given and where it would go.
- Jacket has velcro closure, instead of the usual snaps. Pockets on jacket are smaller than usual as well.
- Grappling hook should have come with a longer length of string.
- Loose cut joints can make posing troublesome.
- Overall quality is relatively lacking compared to more expensive 1:6-scale military figures made by other manufacturers. However, the price does much to compensate for this.
Where to Buy:
I've only seen them at our local Big! Lots, but M & C Toy's official website (see link at the beginning of the review) has an international list of stores that are supposed to carry these, so you'll want to check that out if you're having trouble locating some in your area.
In addition to these 1:6 scale figures and vehicles, M & C Toy also makes 1:18th-scale military figures/vehicles/playsets which may be of particular interest to 3-3/4 inch G.I.JOE: Real American Hero fans.
For Parents:
M & C Toy recommends this set for ages three and up.
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(Above photo is from package)
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