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New Line Miniatures
German High Top Jump Boots

Last week I reviewed Sarah Connor from Sideshow Collectibles, and one of my big complaints were her boots.  Cheap looking, made from rubber, with a very soft sculpt, they simply didn't live up to the standard you've expected from Sideshow in the outfit department.

Ah, but there are solutions out there.  New Line Miniatures makes all kinds of very accurate, very detailed, very high quality sixth scale accessories, and their specialty is foot wear.  I picked up a set of the German Jump Boots to replace Sarah's, and I was so impressed with them that I thought it was well worth a review.

You can buy these directly from New Line's website, but they aren't cheap.  I paid $17.50 for the boots, plus about four bucks for shipping.  Check out there site for other cool goodies for your sixth scale customizing needs!  Now, let's check out the boots...




Packaging - *
Don't get nervous - this score won't mean jack in my overall.  The boots come in a small plastic bag, shipped in a USPS box.  Nothing special, but that's no surprise and I actually think a very wise decision for a small manufacturer selling direct.

Design - ****
The boots look very much like the usual high top military boots worn by lots of branches of the service for all kinds of countries.  Hey, they even look like black versions of your dad's old work boots.  They can be used with a wide variety of figures, from WWII to modern SWAT.

The are designed to look exactly like real boots, with metal grommets, leather soles with metal studs, and itty bitty stitching.  

They come with the long laces wrapped around the uppers (as you can see in the first two photos), but unwrap the laces and you'll see your work is cut out for you.  I'd lace them up as far as you possibly can before putting them on the foot, because once you do, lacing them gets that much harder.

I'd also suggest holding the grommet in front of a very bright light source to make it easier to see exactly where to thread the lace.  It took me a half hour to lace the boots up, and you can see my final version was a tad sloppy on the right foot.  I'm a notoriously impatient person though, so you may find it less frustrating than I did.

These are scaled for a sixth scale male figure, and a large one at that.  Put them on a Dragon, Hot Toys or bbi male, and they'd be just about right, but if you're buying them for Sarah, like I did, I have to warn you - they're too big.  Oh, they're about a million times nicer in quality than the awful boots she comes from (and I've included a comparison photo of the two), but they look pretty clunky on her.  You can hide it with certain poses, and the slightly big head sort of offsets the slightly big feet, kind of like an Irish Setter puppy.  But it's not a perfect fit by any stretch of the imagination.

Quality - ****
These are some of the nicest boots I've ever seen.  The quality is through the roof, from the leather uppers and tongue, to the metal studs in the leather soles.  The uppers are tightly glued to the leather soles, and the stitching on the boots showed no signs of giving way, even when I was forcing the boot over the foot and pants.

Because they're too big for Sarah, she actually has more trouble standing up in these than she does in her smaller, cheaper boots.  It's a tad annoying, especially since once you get these babies on and all laced up, you ain't taking them off.

But if a larger male foot was stuffed in there, there would be less trouble.  I bought this for a smaller female, but I'm not deducting points since that's not who it was designed for. 

Value - **
Nope, these aren't cheap.  They're mighty expensive, actually.  Then again, these are amazing quality, so while they are high, you won't feel ripped off when you see them in person.

Things to Watch Out For - 
Take your time lacing them up (and have a little more patience than me), and you'll get an excellent result.  I used a small clear rubber band on each pant leg, and looped it around the bottom of the foot to keep it in place as I put the boot on.  It also kept the boot from getting too pushed out at the top by a bunched up pant leg.

Overall - ***1/2
If I were grading this on it's applicability with Sarah, it would lose another star. The boots are too big for her, even though the quality is just amazing.

But the boots weren't designed for Sarah, but rather for folks looking to customize and improve male sixth scale figures.  For that purpose, they're outstanding.  Oh, they'll hit the wallet hard, but you're getting some amazing quality for the scratch.

Score Recap:
Packaging - *
Design -  ****
Quality - ****
Value -  **
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy -
Hit the New Line site to pick them up!

Related Links -
Since I picked these up for Sarah, you might want to check out her review to see more of the before boots.


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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