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Packaging - ***1/2
With HT military figures you know what you’re going to get, there’s no
messing about, no clever-clever details, just a nice solid box, clean
unfussy design showing the figure and the configuration of its
accessories (thank the lord, because you won’t find any instructions).
It’s the classic 5 panel flap fronted box, the inside front panel has a
clear plastic tray attached (easily removable so you don’t have to lay
waste to the packaging), opposite is the deeper plastic tray housing
the figure held down by five twisties surrounded by the bigger
accessories not in the other tray.
Though unfussy these are still two very attractive boxes with nice
weathered backgrounds and plenty of strong graphics and a host of
images, so they both meet their brief more than adequately.
Sculpting - ****
These are two generic
characters, not based on anyone specific though some have said they see
James McAvoy in the male agent and Keira Knightly in the female, I
admit I can see a ‘little’ of both, but certainly not enough for it to
be them.
They both have strong
personalities coming through, if that makes any sense? What I mean is
that ‘generic’ sculpts can often end up being bland and lifeless where
as both these are very far from bland… or lifeless.
The male has beautifully
sculpted hair and a strong determined expression, the eyebrows are
slightly arched and the eyes looking off slightly to the right. The
female is slightly more pouty, but still deadly-serious with eyes
straight forward, she’s beautifully sculpted, but beautiful as
well.

If she were flesh and blood
she’d be a super model, I’m getting a little Natasha
Kinski coming through, but at the end of the day I think
Yulli just wanted to give us a ‘hot’ girl that’s an amalgamation of
many of the ‘hot’ actress’ du jour, be that Jolie, Knightly or Portman.
Now for the surprise, she comes
with rooted hair instead of sculpted, (as will The Spirit Silken
Floss figure) it’s a thing that polarises 1/6
collectors, though I have to admit I like both for different reasons. I
still have many Takara fem figures and a couple of ZC Girls, I like
them a lot but the aesthetic of the face sculpts is much more ‘doll’
like, meaning the rooted hair can make some feel they swerve too
closely to the Barbie camp, this face sculpt however is very far from
Barbie like.
As I said, pouty but deadly in a
good way, her mouth is slightly open, her nose rounded but well formed,
her eyes are quite far apart making me think of yet another ‘beauty’
Uma Thurman (see, I said… they’re all in there!) whilst her hair sweeps
across her face from a left side parting. The ears are fully sculpted
but mostly covered by the hair. It’s often difficult to get the
hairline right on rooted figures but HT have created an invisible
‘step’ so the hair is in effect counter sunk, a simple idea that works
pretty well. The hair colour is one of the sticking points for some
‘military’ collectors as well, it’s an unusual tone. It looks like
someone with mid brown hair has given it a plum rinse, it’s striking,
there’s no two ways about it, but would a Secret Service agent
necessarily want ‘striking’ hair ‘if’, like Marcus Brody they are
required to blend in… disappear!
You may notice in some of the pics I decided to tie the hair back, I
just used some fine string and I feel it was appropriate for a female
officer in the field to do this, and what ever you think of the choice
of colour it still can’t detract from the fact these two are sculpted
beautifully, and if you go for the Sideshow version she’ll be blonde
anyway… do they let blondes in the secret service?
Paint - ****
Apart from a few flourishes here and there on the accessories all the
major work is on the heads. Both have subtle skin tones with the guy
being slightly darker and having the airbrushed stubble growth. The
eyes are super glossy and well picked out, as are the mouths, the girls
being glossy as well meaning the sculpted details catch the light even
better. They haven’t fallen into the trap of making the girls eyelashes
too glam, it’s kept simple making her look far more like a woman on a
mission rather than a date, so like the sculpting it’s all flawless,
top marks.
Articulation - Him **** Her ***1/2
Well he comes on the standard True-Type
(TT) so apart from any restrictions from the outfit (and
that’s really only from the jacket) he’s very poseable.
She comes on the newly developed
female
body, not quite as articulated as the male TT as it lacks the
same range at the shoulders, and has no double knees, but the thigh is
sculpted in such a way that the knee is in effect covered. I’m sure HT
can and will eventually improve on this, but the aesthetic works very
well. The torso is covered in a rubber material with a solid armature
beneath, so although at first glance you’d think it is totally
immobile, there is actually tons of movement in both her abdomen and
neck. The hips move freely on universal joints, there are cut thighs
and pinned and rocking ankles, her double-elbows can bend back on
themselves completely and the hands (sadly only gloved) are on cut-ball
joints with pins.

Accessories - *** 3/4
HT military figures always come with a decent selection of goodies.
Some have more than others but they’re never what you could call
lacking.
I’ve said before I’m no expert
on firearms, in fact I’m very far from it, and I have to say the P90
that the female operative comes with looks more like a sci-fi fantasy
firearm, but it’s a real world weapon, and the G36C
that the guy has feels like real world Pulse Rifle… which is a good
thing, to me anyway.

All the weapons have articulated elements the P90 is literally covered
in gizmos, torches, a transparent top loaded magazine,
scopes etc (the scope and mag-light style torch even have flip
up dust covers) I also found that by twisting the suppressor,
it can come off leaving the snub nosed version of the weapon.
The male officers G36 has a folding stock, removable magazine, the bar
running along the top has a handle that flips sideways for cocking, the
top section and front can all be stripped down, hell even the safety
catch works!

Both the P9‘s have
removable magazines and cocking mechanisms, all top sculpted stuff and
very well put together. Here’s a more concise list of exactly what they
get:
She has-
Handmic
Radio & Pouch
Tactical Gloves
Flashlight w/ Pouch
Pistol Magazine Pouch
2 x P90 magazines
Gas Mask Pouch
Sunglasses
Patch
P90
M9 Pistol w/ Holster
Ankle Knife
He has-+ Unifo
Low Profile Headset w/ Radio
Assault Gloves
Watch
Carbiner
Handcuff
Flashlight w/ Pouch
Pistol Magazine Pouch
Gas Mask Pouch
Utility Pouch
Goggles
G36C
M9 Pistol w/ Holster
Ankle Knife
The only things that are sorely missed are some un-gloved hands!
Neither figure has any, but in fairness HT never said they
would!
There are plenty of male hands
floating around out there and as most HT figures come with a good
selection you wont be found wanting for the guy. However, unless you
have the POTC Liz Swann (and are willing to remove her hands) you are
going to find it difficult finding bare hands for the female, another
set would have been cool, especially as I think this is gonna be many a
kit-bashers wet dream come true, making this the only factor keeping
them from a full score!
Outfit - ****
Like in accessories they share a lot of common elements (though
obviously tailored differently) but have differing vests and main
weapons, I shall ‘*’ the unique items-
She has
Tactical Jacket
Body Armour
Tactical Vest*
Police BDU (combat shirt and pants)
Tactical Belt
Cap
Assault Boots (mixed media)
He comes with
Tactical Jacket
Body Armour
Secret Service Vest *
Police BDU (combat shirt and pants)
Face Mask * (elasticised collar style)
Duty Belt
Cap
Assault Boots (mixed media)
I found that the body armour bulked up the female figure too much when
I put her vest on, so I decided to leave it out, its more of an either
or situation. But apart from that all the rest of the outfit fitted
fine. Well I say fine, the bulky coats restrict quite a bit of the
articulation and cover up so much of the cool kit I prefer both without
them on, but they’re ideal for other kit-bashes, and although the cap
fits the male well, the females silky hair means it struggles to get a
good purchase, you’ll find plenty of positions where it sits well, but
only for posing and photography, if you move her around too much it can
easily get displaced.
Like other military figures you will have to do quite a bit of kitting
up. The fiddliest bit on these is getting all the pouches on the belts,
but although fiddley it’s all pretty straight forward. The vests are
distinctly different, hers is similar to the one pictured
here with a zip ‘n’ clip front and lace up back, it has no
wording on it, but comes with a Velcro US flag patch.
Where as his is a plain zip
front with larger pockets and pouches on the back. It also has some
white-out writing front and back saying WHITE HOUSE DIV, SECRET SERVICE
and a printed Secret Service badge on the left hand side chest pocket.

The jackets, vests and BDU’s
have working pockets throughout, I was very impressed by the jackets as
they bear no less than eight zip up pockets (actually I just discovered
a couple of pockets are non-working) plus two inside pockets, a zip
front, two zip side panels and a drawstring bottom.
The boots are cool too, as both
are wearing properly constructed mixed media footwear, they have rubber
soles, leatherette uppers and working laces. I think this is the first
HT figure I’ve had with fully realised footwear. I love the fact that
this makes the ankle articulation so much better, and in this case they
actually look pretty convincing too.
Fun
Factor - ***1/2
These are good solid stand-alone figures but as I mentioned above they
also make for a great security detail for your ‘political’ or
‘important’ figures.
But because of the cool weapons and kit a lot of these will undoubtedly
be parted out and end up in the hands of many kit-bashers. He’d make a
great starting point for a black ops SWAT figure or even an early
attempt at a Terminator Salvation John
Connor where as the base female figure will become a thousand
different ‘bashed’ women warriors be they modern or fantasy, as quite
frankly she’s the best female figure I’ve seen in a long time, well
since Machiko, but she wasn’t any where near as versatile because of
her armour sculpted shins, feet and ‘unusual’ braided hair.
Value
- ***1/2
I’ve said before that for those of us used to paying for ‘licensed’
figures the saving of $30 (or over) for figures that come with as many
if not more accessories seems like quite the deal. I certainly feel
these two are loaded with enough extras to make the price seem very
fair, and I can see them both being handy for lots of background shots
in my future reviews so I’m a very happy bunny!
Overall
- ***1/2
I toyed with a full score, but the lack of un-gloved hands, her lack of
double knees and the fact the jackets are a tad too bulky held me back.
I have to admit as soon as I saw these I knew I wouldn’t be using the
jackets anyway, but I guess that’s not the point.
However apart from those few points I’m very happy with them, I love
the weapons, mixed media boots and vests, plus they pose like a dream.
So considering the price is in the ‘more reasonable’ bracket they
deserve to be close to a full mark!
Where
to Buy -
Sideshow have the female officer as a blonde special
edition for $119.99, it’s up to you to see if
‘blondes have more fun’,
and you can also find this blonde version at a couple of Michaels
sponsors below:
Alter
Ego- pre-order $107.99
Corner
Store- pre-order $107.99.
Or you can hit
eBay.

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