Dragon "Danny McKnight" Comdr 3rd Bn, 75th Ranger Regt

During an operation in October 1993 to capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid's foreign minister, Omar Salad Elmi, and his top political advisor, Mohamed Hassan Awale, McKnight was in charge of the HMMWV and truck convoy ordered to bring up the rear of Task Force Ranger and Delta Force to evacuate the prisoners and soldiers. After an MH-60 Black Hawk providing air support was shot down by Somali insurgents, McKnight's convoy made several attempts to reach the crash site and evacuate the casualties and soldiers who had moved to secure the crash site on foot. Due to confusing conditions on the air and ground, and heavy casualties taken by the convoy (including McKnight, who was hit in the neck by a bullet), the convoy was unable to reach the crash site and had to return to Task Force Ranger's base with the prisoners and its own wounded and killed soldiers. Another evacuation convoy was organized with support from U.N. troops of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division and the Pakistani and Malaysian armies. Eventually, the reinforced convoy reached and evacuated the elements of Task Force Ranger who had held out against Somali insurgent forces for the entire night. Once the convoy returned to the Pakistani's base, McKnight allowed treatment of his wound. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor device for his actions during the battle.

In the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down", McKnight was portrayed by actor Tom Sizemore. While McKnight and Sizemore never met personally, they had several telephone conversations during the filming and McKnight indicated that he was quite satisfied with Sizemore's performance and the movie as a whole. [source: wiki]

This is the Dragon 10th Anniversary Commemorative Edition 1/6 scale 12-inch "Danny McKnight" military figure, released in 2003 depicting the lieutenant colonel as the commanding officer of the 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, who led the "Lost Convoy" during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia on October 3, 1993. He comes with PASGT helmet with camouflage cover, combat goggles, woodlands body armor, tan t-shirt, desert BDUs, US flag insignia patch, name tape, web belt with LC-2 Y harness, compass pouch, two M16 ammunition pouches with two spare M16 magazines, two M67 fragmentation grenades, the M9 .45 Automatic Pistol in M9 holster, two water bottles with pouches, M1967 buttpack, PRC-126 radio in pouch, watch, M16A2 assault rifle, and combat boots.






Here's a close-up of Lieutenant Colonel Danny McKnight wearing 6-color "chocolate chip" desert camouflage pattern cloth cover over his helmet, the 3-color desert camouflage pattern BDUs and woodlands camouflage pattern body armor. No error on Dragon's part, simply a mix of materials due to the unavailability of parts / equipment at the point of deployment.

The issue of the first US desert camouflage clothing, a six color Desert Battle Dress Uniform (DBDU), had been originally designed in 1962. With a base pattern of light tan overlaid with broad swathes of pale olive green and wide two-tone bands of brown, the clusters of black-on-white spots scattered over it resulted in it being nicknamed the "chocolate chip" pattern. Troops deployed to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War of 1990-1991 wore the six color DBDUs during the campaign. The new Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU) was officially issued in 1993, consisting of a subtle blend of large pastel green and light tan shapes, with sparsely placed, narrow, reddish brown patches, leading the design to be unofficially nicknamed the “Coffee Stain” pattern. This remained in service for over a decade, most notably during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.





I had covered in greater detail the "Battle of Mogadishu (1993)" as depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down (2001)" in an earlier post HERE
There's also a post on the 1/6 AH-6 Little Bird attack helicopter HERE
In the previous post, I'd reviewed Dragon's Commemorative Edition 1/6 scale 12" Gary Gordon, Sniper Team Leader Delta Force - Task Force Ranger.

Dragon 1/6 Gary Gordon, Delta Force

Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon (August 30, 1960 – October 3, 1993) is a posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor. At the time of his death, he was a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) in the United States Army's premiere special operations unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force" during Operation Gothic Serpent, a joint-force assault mission to apprehend key advisers to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Together with Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions he performed during the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993. [source: wiki]

Author Mark Bowden, wrote the book "Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War", the best-selling book detailing the events of October 1993. In the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down" by Ridley Scott, Gordon was portrayed by Danish actor Nikolaj Coster Waldau. The account would generally follow that of the book.

Dragon released this Commemorative Edition 1/6 scale 12" Gary Gordon, Sniper Team Leader Delta Force - Task Force Ranger in 2003 as a 10th Anniversary figure of Task Force Ranger's engagement at the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia from 3rd to 4th October 1993.

Dragon 1/6 12" Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, US Army Delta Force Sniper Team Leader, Task Force Ranger, Mogadishu, Somalia 3-4 Oct 1993, came with Pro-Tech Helmet, Combat Goggles, Walkie Talkie radio with throat mic plus ear piece and radio pouch, tan T-Shirt, Desert DBU Jacket with US Flag Patch, Watch, Body Armor, BHI style chest harness with two spare M16 magazines, Web Belt with LC-2 "Y" suspenders with metal hooks and functional pouches (compass pouch, M16 Ammo Pouches and two canteens i.e. Water Bottle with Pouch), M67 fragmentation Grenades, M9 / 92F 9mm .45 Pistol with Eagle Style Drop-Down Holster, M4 assault rifle with Sight Scope and Silencer / flash suppressor (with Camouflage Paint), US M1967 Buttpack, Desert DBU Trousers, KneePads, Combat boots. Also has the Congressional Medal of Honor and United States Interment Flag.












M4 assault rifle with M68 Aimpoint Comp-M red dot sight and suppressor

US Internment Flag and Medal of Honor


In its hey day, 12" figures were more affordable with Dragon providing the bulk of it but alas, those days are long gone and now each figure costs at least twice what they used to be, with DiD and Soldier Story leading the way. Hot Toys seems to have dropped out to concentrate on their Movie Masterpieces.

I had covered in greater detail the "Battle of Mogadishu (1993)" as depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down (2001)" in an earlier post HERE
There's also a post on the 1/6 AH-6 Little Bird attack helicopter HERE
NEXT: Dragon 10th Anniversary Commemorative Edition 1/6 scale 12-inch "Danny McKnight" military figure

Even more 1/6 Movie Memorabilia - Middle Earth and Pirates

From Middle Earth (that's New Zealand for those of you who don't know) to sailing the seven seas, 1/6 has been there and you can bring the adventures back with you!



One of my favourite characters, Davy Jones the walking Cephalopod (Octopus lah!)



Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow brought the FUN back to pirates, from his introduction in the film "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)", to appearing in the back-to-back sequels, "Dead Man's Chest (2006)" and "At World's End (2007)", as well as in a future film, "On Stranger Tides (2011)". Far removed from his role as Edward Scissorhands.

And now for some Japanese gangsters from Tokyo Tribe 2 with Kankichi Ryotsu in the front row

More 1/6 Movie Memorabilia - ED209, USCM and Aliens

Continued from previous post

When covering 1/6 movie figures, especially from the RoboCop movies, one can't help but think of the Enforcement Droid 209 (ED-209) and Hot Toys definitely gave collectors what they wanted when they released the 1/6 scale MMS ED-209 robot figure in 2006. This was the first BIG project they took on and they certainly rose to the challenge. Check out the full review HERE.

Hot Toys followed up with the 1/6 scale Power Loader from the movie "ALIENS (1986)". After the movie's premiere, the Caterpillar construction equipment company reportedly received inquiries from people interested in buying the power loader that Ripley uses to fight the Alien Queen, who were unaware that it was fictional and didn't exist outside of the movie. More pictures HERE.

And here are some Hellboy figures, 1/6 and smaller. I enjoyed the Hellboy comics by Mike Mignola because of his art style. Mezco Toyz produced the most accurate interpretation of the Hellboy characters from the comics / graphic novels as drawn by Mike Mignola.




Alien by Mignola and Alien (Xenomorph) from the disturbing art of H.R. Giger (I don't think he sleeps very well at all)

Kane gets it in the face by a facehugger (Full review of him HERE)

United States Colonial Marines USCM Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn) by Hot Toys


Private First Class Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) with her M56 Smart Gun used in the movie "Aliens (1986)". It was based on a German MG-42 machine gun, using a heavily modified steadicam harness. The handles were taken from a Honda motorcycle. The clutch cable was used to fire the gun from the rear handle.

And let's not forget the Predator Alien from "The Predator" movie which came out in 1997