Friday, July 30, 2010

Hot Toys 1:6 USAF Pararescue Jumper Boxed Set

The photo below shows Pararescuemen from the 304th Rescue Squadron being hoisted up to an HH-60G Pavehawk during Operation Iraqi Freedom in April 2003 at Tallil Air Base, Iraq (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt Shane A Cuomo from MilitarySpot)


And this is the Hot Toys US Air Force Pararescue Jumper (with M203 Grenade Fire Support) boxed set from 2004. Seeing the poorly executed Wild Work USAF PJ (previewed in a earlier post HERE) made me take out this boxed set and admire its contents.

Surprisingly this 1:6 military figure is still in its box,which is pretty rare for me but there are just so many good figures that I haven't been able to open all of them. Sometimes there would be multiple buys and upon reaching home, other events occur which require my attention and some of the openings are put off till a later date. This was one of those times.



I had bought this in 2004 (I think) when it was first released by Hot Toys. Back then, Hot Toys was very much into the 1:6 scale 12-inch military series and this was just one of their many releases. You can see the two rows of military figures released by Hot Toys featured on the back of the packaging box (click on the picture below for a enlarged and better view), starting with the 1:6 F-14 Tomcat Pilot (Tom Cruise as LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in "Top Gun", the 1986 movie that shot him to fame) and 12-inch F-18 Hornet Pilot (Will Smith as CPT Steven Hiller in the 1996 movie "Independence Day" which also put him into orbit). I've pretty much bought most of the figures featured and have posted quite a few entries on them :)


And here are the contents: main tray with 12-inch figure (I'd switched headsculpts as the 1:6 head sculpt on this figure looked very much like the Australian actor Colin Farrell which I used for Hot Toys SWAT version 2.0 figure since Colin Farrell was in the 2003 "SWAT" movie as LAPD Officer Jim Street.

Hot Toys always try to re-invent the wheel and produce new products, rather than rehash old ones, mix them up and resell them as new. The Hot Toys 1:6 USAF Pararescue Jumper Boxed Set came with SF HALO helmet with ski-boot NVG Mount and Night Vision, strobe light, sunglasses, SPEAR ELCS (Equipment Load Carrying System), AN/PRC 126 Radio in pouch with handset, SDU-5E strobe light and pouch, and patrol pack. The 1:6 12-inch figure is wearing the Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU) "coffee stain camouflage" featuring the three-color desert camouflage pattern of light tan, pale green and brown. He also has body armor, harness, knee pads, gloves and boots. He also has on him the CQB/Rescue Rigger Belt, drop-down holster and Tactical Rapelling Harness.


And in the accessories tray: Multi-Purpose Knife, Figure 8 Rapelling Descenders, water canteen with carrier, utility pouch, two smoke grenades, a signaling flare, two cyalume light sticks, two carabiners, pistol with tactical light and lanyard, pistol magazine, twelve M203 40mm grenade rounds, rapeling gloves, M4 M203 with ACOG sight, tactical light, AN/PEQ-2 Target Pointer/Illuminator/Aiming Light (TPIAL), three M16 30-round magazines, pouches for magazines and 40mm grenades including a drop-leg load bearing panel, frag and multi-purpose pouch, AND patches


Man, I miss those days when Hot Toys was king of 1:6 military gear too. Thankfully, now there's Playhouse, Soldier Story and DiD (for WWII) to fill that gap.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heard that HT, for each project, has a specialist in designing the accessories including weapons. This cannot happen in other small producers.

actfigman said...

...sigh...i miss HT 1/6 military figures...

alex teo said...

hey actfigman, with HT going into war-related movie merchadise, there's a good chance we'll still be getting HT 1/6 military figures e.g. Inglorious Basterds & Platoon :)