Willys Jeep, World War II

Willys-Overland Motors Inc. produced over 360,000 Jeeps and Ford Motor Company produced another 280,000 from 1941 to 1945. This was the iconic jeep of World War II and continued to be in service for a very long time after that. It provided heavy arms support when mounted with a .30 caliber machine gun. It could climb and descend slopes of over 50 degrees. It could even be mounted with the 106mm recoiless rifle and was a very versatile machine.

Hasbro produced this 1/6 Willys jeep in 2001. It was mounted with the .30 caliber machine gun.

It has removable working tools - spade and axe


It also has the fold-down windshield


Jeep Occupants

Scott from Dragon

Bruce with attire from Takara Combat Joe

"Steiner" from Dragon with Cotswold outfit



The jeep was small and compact, its quarter-ton 4x4 powered by 4-cylinder "Go-Devil" engine delivering 60bhp.

It has a spare jerry can of fuel and spare tyre



Harley-Davidson motorcycles were also used in World War II as well.

1st Special Service Forceman with Bazooka

BBI produced this figure in 2004. He's "Lefty" McGill, a bazooka man from the 1st Special Service Force in Italy, September 1944. He wears his 1st pattern parka over his wool sweater and scarf.

He has his M1943 jungle pack, M1910 T-handle entrenching tool with cover, M1942 bayonet in scabbard, two smoke grenades and his M1 Garand rifle.

He also carries his M1911A1 .45 pistol in holster

He is armed with the M9A1 rocket launcher, most popularly known as the bazooka

Watch out for the back blast!!

Close-up of "Lefty"

The bazooka with three 3.4lb rockets which came in cardboard containers

Lefty looks very much like "Leonardo DiCaprio"

The 1st Special Service Force, World War II

The 1st Special Service Force was activated on 20 July 1942 for hit-and-run raids behind enemy lines, with an emphasis on winter mobility. Personnel were trained as paratroopers, amphibious commandos, mountain and ski troops. The Forcemen became experts on demolition and sabotage. They fought with distinction in Italy from 1943.

Dragon produced this 1st Special Service Force Platoon Leader in 2002.


Dragon gave names to all their figures, this one's "Nick"

Nick has his SCR-536 "handie-talkie" radio

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Tagline: "Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Nazis!" One of the most famous war films of all time, it starred Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson and Donald Sutherland, among others. It's about training a dozen American convicts into a cohesive unit to conduct a suicide mission behind enemy lines: to infiltrate a château near Rennes, used as a retreat for senior Wehrmacht officers, on the eve of the D-Day invasion. This would ideally disrupt the German chain of command, since there is a constant rotation of senior staff officers through the facility.

Lee Marvin starred as Major John Reisman, the unit commander. He selects, trains the men and leads them in their mission. Dragon released this WWII ETO (European Theatre of Operations) US Army Special Mission Commander, "Major Lee" in 2001.


Major Reisman managed to get his dirty dozen to remember their mission by reciting it like a poem in a operational count-off: "One: down to the road block, we've just begun; Two: the guards are through; Three: the Major's men are on a spree; Four: Major and Wladislaw go through the door; Five: Pinkley stays out in the drive; Six: the Major gives the rope a fix; Seven: Wladislaw throws the hook to heaven; Eight: Jiménez has got a date; Nine: the other guys go up the line; Ten: Sawyer and Gilpin are in the pen; Eleven: Posey guards points five and seven; Twelve: Wladislaw and the Major go down to delve; Thirteen: Franko goes up without being seen; Fourteen: Zero-hour, Jiménez cuts the cable, Franko cuts the phone; Fifteen: Franko goes in where the others have been; Sixteen: we all come out like it's Halloween."

Dragon's "Major Lee" is armed with the M3A1 .45 Sub-machine Gun, nicknamed "Grease Gun".

Lee Marvin's likeness very well captured.

Lee Marvin would also star in "Big Red One (1980)", a WWII movie about the fighting men of the 1st Infantry Division together with Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker of Star Wars fame).

The Great Escape (1963)

This is one of the classics. Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, James Coburn, Charles Bronson all starred in this movie based on a true story about Allied prisoners of war with a record for escaping from German prisoner-of-war camps. The Luftwaffe placed them in a new more secure camp, Stalag Luft III, from which they promptly formed a plan to break out 250 men.

Toys McCoy produced this figure in 1995 and at that time, it was considered an excellent figure. They would go on to produce the ultimate Indiana Jones figure. Perhaps when the new Indiana Jones movie comes out this year, we will be able to see even better figures (one can only hope).

Back to Steve McQueen. Came in a nice box with "prison bars" on the flap.

The back of the box shows the poseability of the figure, baseball and glove as well as the fine stitching plus some screen shots.

The Cooler King, CAPT Virgil Hilts, USAAF. So called because he spent the most time in the cooler (solitary confinement). Hilts is so good at escaping that he is persuaded to reconnoiter the immediate vicinity of the PoW camp during one of his escapes, then allow himself to be recaptured so that the cartographers can create guide maps out of German territory.

Batter up! Steve McQueen as Virgil Hilts with his trademark baseball and glove. When in the cooler, he would throw the baseball against the wall and catch it with his glove to pass the time. In the first Charlie's Angels movie, Bosley (played by Bill Murray) did the same thing while being held hostage by the bad guys.

Steve McQueen came with customised hands, one for gripping the baseball and the other for holding the glove.


Very good likeness of Steve McQueen

Close-up of hands

Close-up of baseball and glove

In 1981, Sylvester Stallone starred alongside British veteran Michael Caine, Bobby Moore and football legend Pelé in Escape to Victory, a sports drama in which he plays a prisoner of war involved in a Nazi propaganda football tournament. The film was inspired by the true story of Dynamo Kiev's players, who defeated Nazi soldiers while Ukraine was occupied by Nazi troops in World War II.

Wasabi (2001)

Written and produced by Luc Besson, the film stars Jean Reno as Hubert Fiorentini, a crass French police officer who goes to Japan upon receiving news of Miko's (his one true love) death for the reading of her will. In Japan, he discovers he has a daughter, Yumi (played by Ryoko Hirosue) and that Miko was a victim of foul play. He sets out to investigate Miko's death and avenge her by bringing her killers to justice. His sidekick, Momo (played by Michel Muller) is a joy to watch.


Jean Reno as Hubert Fiorentini

Colt Python which fires the .357 Magnum round

Jean Reno as Leon, the Professional.

Check out this post: A case of two Léons and one Wasabi with 1:6 scale food stuff provided by Rement

Leon The Professional (1994)

Written and directed by Luc Besson (Nikita, Fifth Element), this action movie starred Jean Reno as Leon, The Cleaner with Natalie Portman in her first starring role as Mathilda and Gary Oldman as Norman "Stan" Stansfield, the corrupt DEA agent. (Gary Oldman also played Zorg, the villian in Fifth Element where we meet Leeloo, played by a young Milla Jovovich).

Leon with his coat for concealing weapons



Close-up of Leon/Jean Reno

Updated Leon with pictures of his AR-7 sniper rifle

Air Force One (1997)

Air Force One is the call sign of any aircraft that is carrying the US President. Since 1990, the presidential fleet has consisted of two specifically configured, highly customised Boeing 747-200B series aircraft. In the movie, Kazakhstan terrorists led by Egor Korshunov (played by Gary Oldman) storm Air Force One and take it hostage to negotiate the release of their captured leader, General Ivan Radek (played by Jürgen Prochnow, who played the submarine captain in "Das Boot"). US President James Marshall (played by Harrison Ford) fights to save the people on the plane and his family.

Harrison Ford as the US President

U-boat Crew

Dragon also released this Kriegsmarine Warrant Officer "Georg" in 2002

Das Boot (1981)

Das Boot, German for The Boat was a 1981 feature film directed by Wolfgang Petersen (In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy). It was about the Unterseeboot (undersea boat or U-boat/submarine) U-96 of World War II. The director's meticulous attention to detail resulted in an extremely realistic and historically accurate movie which won much critical acclaim.

Dragon released this U-boat Kapitänleutnant "Herbert" of the Kriegsmarine (German War Navy) in 2001 wearing his double-breated deck and bridge leather jacket over his U-boat crew uniform.

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)

Rushed into service because of the Cold War arms race, the Russian nuclear submarine K-19 was on patrol when its cooling system malfunctioned. This caused the reactor core to gradually heat up to dangerous levels. If the overheating core was not cooled, it could cause a nuclear meltdown. The only way to repair the sub's cooling system was to open and enter the sealed reactor compartment, though doing so would expose the ship and its crew to deadly radiation. Faced with a horrible choice, the submariners sacrificed themselves to do their duty and repair the cooling system.

The disaster was averted on July 4, 1961 but was only made into a movie in 2002 by National Geographic. The film starred Harrison Ford as Captain Alexei Vostrikov and Liam Neeson as Captain Mikhail Polenin.

Dragon released this promotional figure in 2002 when the movie came out. The box came with a slip case.

Box Packaging

Captain Alexei Vostrikov in his overcoat

Captain Alexei Vostrikov in his uniform


Close-up of Harrison Ford