Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Hollywood Germans

continued from an earlier post of Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine and Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa from "Inglourious Basterds"...

There have been quite a number of Germans portrayed in World War II films produced by Hollywood. Here are three of them in 1/6 scale - Ed Harris as German Major Erwin König by Hot Toys, the recently released Hot Toys 12-inch Col. Hans Landa Collectible Figure with Christoph Waltz likeness from the "Inglourious Basterds" movie and Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg from "Valkyrie (2008)" by DID.



The film "Enemy at the Gates (2001)" is mostly about the stand-off between Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev (played by Jude Law) and a German sniper Major Erwin König (Ed Harris) during the Battle of Stalingrad.

This is the Hot Toys 1:6 scale 12-inch WWII German Wehrmacht Officer figure released in 2001, the same year "Enemy at the Gates" was released in theatres. This was only one of two World War II 1:6 scale 12-inch military figures released by Hot Toys, the other was another German - Desert Fox Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel.

This WWII German Wehrmacht Officer comes fully decorated with medals. He wears the German Tunic (Feldbluse) with Iron Cross, Silver Knight’s Cross (War Merit Cross), Wound Badge, Officer’s belt with leather holster for his Luger service pistol with extra magazine, Breeches (trousers), and jackboots.  He also has the 6x30 binoculars, in 1/6 scale of course!


This was early days for Hot Toys and way before their super successful venture into movie-licensed figures. And this was their attempt at a 1:6 scale Ed Harris head sculpt. But check out the WW2 German Officer's peak cap - a fully hand-weaved Schirmmutze with nice details. For the full review, check out my post HERE.


We have already seen quite a lot of Hot Toys MMS134 (Movie Masterpiece Series) 1/6th scale Col. Hans Landa (with Christoph Waltz likeness) Collectible Figure from the "Inglourious Basterds" movie in the previous posts.


Standartenführer (Colonel) Hans Landa is a cruel and ruthless, but charming, courteous, polyglot and diabolically intelligent German SS officer in the Sicherheitsdienst (English: Security Service, or SD, primarily the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany). Col. Hans Landa is nicknamed "The Jew Hunter" in reference to his keen ability to locate Jews hiding throughout France. [source: wiki]


"Valkyrie" is a 2008 American historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country.

The film stars Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key plotters. Since von Stauffenberg lost his left eye, right hand and two fingers on his left hand in an Allied attack in Tunisia, Cruise affected the same disabilities to practice dressing, moving items and writing. Cruise initially found the eyepatch difficult to work with but acknowledged that von Stauffenberg had to live with this discomfort.


Cruise's casting caused controversy among German politicians and members of the von Stauffenberg family because of the actor's practice of Scientology, which is viewed with suspicion in the country. Because of this, the film makers initially had difficulty setting up filming locations in Germany, but they were later given access to film in locations pertaining to the film's story, such as Berlin's historic Bendlerblock. German newspapers and filmmakers supported the film and its attempt to spread global awareness of von Stauffenberg's plot. [source: wiki]

Check out the full review of the DiD 1/6 scale 12-inch Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg figure HERE (before battle injuries) and HERE (after pictures)


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It witnesses the improvement of HT's craftmanship in both costume and headsculpt. BTW, DID's peaked caps are always too big !