Accessories - ***1/2
There's a ton of accessories, which is a must for any military based figure. Working with them was excruciatingly frustrating
though, and I spent a lot of time just putting things back in place or back together.
Let's start with the helmet. There's the outer helmet and inner lid, but these are glued together so don't attempt to
separate them. As I mentioned earlier, I couldn't get the helmet on over even the flatter hair, so I just went without any top
half of the head. The helmet looks great for the most part, and I think the did an excellent job with the print work on the
inscription on the side, right from the film - "When I die, bury me upside down so the world can kiss my ass". There's also
the stick woven into the band on one side, but this didn't want to stay put. In fact, I spent more time putting it back in
place than attaching the other accessories. If I needed another reason not to use the helmet for my display, this was it. Glue
is definitely an option.
There's a number of necklaces - his dog tags, the ankh, and a couple red strings. One is for his neck, but I wasn't quite
sure what to do with the shorter one. As usual, better instructions included with the figure would have been a good idea. He
also has his gold band on the left wrist. It can fall off when you're swapping hands, so be sure to keep an eye on it.
I put the various items where they best fit, not necessarily where they were on screen. There are two large pouches, which I
attached on the front of the belt, plus two canteens which I put around back. There's a smaller pouch that I put up on the
shoulder harness, and of course, there's the extremely well made (and fully padded) backpack that fits tightly on his
shoulders. While you can certainly adjust the straps, I found that it fit great just where they were right out of the box.
To the pack I attached the bag for the shovel (and inserted the shovel), as well as the machete. I placed one on either side,
since these were the eyelets that were best suited for the metal attachments.
The shovel looks great, and has either a pick end or shovel end. Both of these fold down out of the way and the shovel slides
into its bag. I couldn't quite get the small button to snap shut at the top though once it was in place.
The machete is bizarre, at least for a Hot Toys accessory. It's practically paper thin, and flaps in the breeze like a cheap
flag. I've never seen such a thing from this company, and was quite surprised.
It does fit in its sheath well though, and this sheath can attach to the other side of the pack. Again, this was a case where
the small pin that holds the sheath to the metal clip constantly fell out, and I was struggling to keep it together. This is a
very tin pin too, so losing it is a real possibility.
There are three grenades - two apples and one canister. I popped these on his rigging any where they'd fit.
Speaking of the rigging, it's fairly simple to unhook it at the front and remove the belt and harness entirely. I'd recommend
doing this to attach the various bags.
Attaching these bags requires using a new sort of clip. There are small metal hooks on the back of each bag, and this go over
the top and bottom of the belt. Then a small metal pin slips through the top of the clip and into the bottom. Pushing inward
on the pin slightly makes it easier to pull out and also to fit into the bottom. It's a bit tricky to do this at first (and
again, better instructions would have helped), but after the first couple you'll get the hang of it, and they are definitely
sturdy.
I almost forgot his knife, which is much better quality than the machete. It fits in its sheath tightly, and I attached this
to the side of the shovel bag. Again, this was mostly due to the lack of not too many other places to put it.
Along with the grenades, he also comes with a mine. The mine includes a sculpted roll of wire and a detonator. All of it can
fit inside a bag, which has fold out instructions sewn in for the soldier to refresh himself on the use and deployment. I did
have to pop the small articulated sensors off the bottom to get the mine to fit in the bag, and I'm not sure you're really
supposed to do that, so take care.
Taylor has a couple weapons in his arsenal as well. There's the expected machine gun, with removable clip of course. It's
properly scaled and looks great in just about any pose. They included some brown tape as well, so that you can cut a couple
small pieces and wrap them around the gun to get that screen accurate look.
There's also the portable rocket launcher and one rocket. The launcher can be opened at both ends, and the rocket can be
inserted. The sights flip up as well, or he can just wear the whole thing on his back.
That's a whole lot of goodies, but if you've bought military figures in the past from companies like DiD, 21st Century, or
others, you'll be expecting a ton of extras. The quality is great, but as I said at the start, I ended up very frustrated by
the time I had everything in place.
I already mentioned the extra wrist pegs, and there's the usual display stand. There are also three additional hands designed
to work with the various items.
