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Monday, July 14, 2008

Sideshow Toy Platoon

My favourite Vietnam war movie ever.
It was written and directed by Oliver Stone.
The movie centres around Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) who is a young American who has abandoned college for combat duty in Vietnam.
He soon realizes he is fighting two battles, the conflict with the enemy and the conflict between the men within his platoon.

The platoon has two sergeants, Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sergeant Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe). The attitude towards the war of the two sergeants are vastly different, Staff Sergeant Barnes will stop at nothing to get the job done while Sergeant Elias is more caring and righteous. This causes the divide in the platoon.

Sideshow has done the 12" figures based on this movie. I managed to get my hands on Taylor and Elias but was disappointed that I could not get Barnes (from the photos Barnes has the best head sculpt)

The sculpt for Taylor and Elias is not perfect and you can certainly find some fault with it. However anyone who watched the movie will certainly be able to recognize them.

What's great about these figures are the accessories that come with them. There are certain items that are shared between the figures like the canteens, solid plastic pouches, hand grenades, belt and rigging. However each figure also has items that are unique to them as seen in the movie. Taylor has his cloth bag which contains his claymore equipments (in his first patrol and final battle scene he was the one that set off the claymore). Taylor also has his helmet with the inscription "when I die, bury me upside down so the world can kiss my ass" - freaking cool!
Elias has his large brass wrist band, knife and sheath, flashlight, and canister grenade. He does not come with a helmet as in the movie he is seldom seen wearing one. Both Taylor and Elias's main rifle is different. Elias has a CAR-15: carbine- M-16 rifle with a telescopic butt and short barrel. Taylor has a M-16: the standard U.S. military rifle used in Vietnam from 1966 on. I did not realised they held different rifles in the movie.

I think I got my figures for about S$70 plus shipping. This is considered rather cheap especially for movie related 12" figures. Love the movie, love the figures! Sideshow also did the other characters from the movie like Pte King and Cpl O'Neill. They are in hot demand and will not come cheap. Maybe one day I will get them......hopefully.

Private Taylor












The cool inscription on Taylor's helmet


Sergeant Elias






A fatter Willem Dafoe?




Elias's large brass wrist band






Don't you just hate those days!

4 comments:

Shaun said...

these are quite nice figures. are you intending to update their bodies?

Little Plastic Man said...

I am just a 12" novice. Don't think I will update their bodies.:P

Anonymous said...

Wao!! these had been released out quite some time ago, where did you find them??

Little Plastic Man said...

On Ebay! When my friends go to the US on business or holiday, I will quickly search Ebay for toys I always wanted but unable to get it here or unwilling to pay the high postage to ship back to Singapore!:P

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