The "Less Than High Speed" 1/6th Military Product Archive

[MeatHookGekko]

Closer view of that NATO weapons set.

If you wanted to do a Hitman Blood Money custom, well this was it for you.

3.00. Can you imagine that. Many of the last TUS sets came out and ended up almost immediately in clearance at big box stores. What can you get for three bucks in the hobby today?

 

[MeatHookGekko]

This was the infamous "hands" set. The most common shelf warmer from TUS. I'm not exactly sure what they were thinking with this one. The "left" trigger hand however was pretty useful at times. If you wanted a port sider in your squad building. But this may have been the precursor to HT MMS where we routinely get a bevy of hand types.

For the love of God, TUS should have put some guns in this set.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

This was the first TUS carded set I ever bought. In late 1998. It was 7.99. I couldn't believe it. I got it at a small local comic book shop. (They were able to get it several months before TRUs, Targets and KayBees had their contracts filled with 21st Century Toys) Since there was no price on it at the store, I asked how much it was and expected it to be like 30-35 bucks or more. Since the only frame of reference I had was Cotswold catalogs for stuff like this. I was so excited to get this set in my hands. I just off from a graveyard shift that was a rollover from what would be a double shift. So I was pretty tired that morning. But I stayed calm in the store, I thought to myself "There must be a mistake, this person here must have mispriced it or something" So I bought quickly and before I got out the door, the person at the counter said, "They are making more" I said, "What more?" I was tired and confused. They said, "This company is going to make more of that stuff, if you like it, it's all coming soon"

Didn't think then that it would turn into all this.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Last one for today. Fun stuff. It's a 1/6th hair cutting and grooming kit. The straight razor here, I don't think it folds out. The clippers are pretty cool though, I don't think anyone else has made one. Don't know the back story to these at all.

And, while it's not "low speed", here's a 1/6th T shirt from a Dam Toys Operation Red Wing figure ( which was made in tribute to the film, book and personal account of "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell) with a quote from Danny Dietz (RIP)

It's a good indicator of how far the hobby has come, that it can fit that much legible print at that scale on a t shirt. But also it's good advice.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

The infamous Matt and Jeff DML Black Hawk Down two pack. Designed to model after Ridley Scott's film, Black Hawk Down, which was based on real life accounts done in a book and a series of articles from Mark Bowden about Operation Gothic Serpent.

The M21 is a camo paint job of DML 10 Mountain Ryan's M21 rifle. The CAR-15 for Jeff was the only one made quite like that. The proper attachment rail for the carry handle , to simulate what was shown in the film, was in a DML British set for figure named Colin.

The "Matt" here is a complete repackage from the single Matt boxed set. He is based off of Josh Hartnett's character in the film and the real life Ranger, Matt Eversmann.

The "half cut" Protec helmet in this set was the most coveted piece in the modern side of the hobby for maybe a year or so. One went on Ebay loose for like 50 bucks. The Jeff boots were a new design and IIRC, way too small.

What you did back then was take a flathead jewelers screwdriver, or something close to that, and gently lift off the scope attachment on Colin's carry handle. It was a male/female connector system, the top end was male, and the bottom end has a female end "cap" DML secured it with a little bit of glue as well. All DML M16A2s and CAR15s had a tiny hole drilled into the top of the carry handles, so they could accommodate a scope mount.

You could transfer Colin's Aimpoint and mount to the Jeff CAR15. Then rig a light to it to simulate what you saw in the movie. To do Gary Gordon's custom CAR15, you'd cut the muzzle off of Jeff's CAR15, add in Colin's suppressor, then paint the whole thing.

Here is the DAM Toys version of Gary Gordon's CAR15 that came later. Jeff's had a A2 rear sight system, but the screen accurate version from the film had IIRC, an A1 rear sight system on the carry handle.

I am almost completely sure that DML released the Colin set to try to entice people to buy it to complete a Gary Gordon custom.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

DML released Colonel Danny McKnight. Not based on Tom Sizemore in the film, but the real McKnight. He was a guest of DML's at a couple of Weekend Of Heroes and did some speaking engagements there. One year, he was there with Ranger Todd Blackburn ( played by Orlando Bloom)

This release came around the time DML was doing RTV ( Road To Victory) cloth upgrades for WW2, so there was a switch from molded plastic to cloth based LC2 gear. This was cutting edge at the time. And honestly, IMHO, it still holds up even today pretty well. Slightly controversial a bit at the time was the "blood splatter" on McKnights uniform here.

But DML revamped everything - the ammo pouches, the canteens, the buttpack, the RBA ( Ranger Body Armor) the bdus, etc, etc.

I shook Colonel McKnight's hand at a Weekend Of Heroes and thanked him for his service. It was a great honor to do so.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

With McKnight's release, DML paired him with a tribute figure for Gary Gordon. The weapon is not accurate to the film and it has a few elements that didn't exist at the time. But Gordon here had the updated 3 color desert BDUs that McKnight had, but with "shoulder pockets" What happened back then IIRC was that soldiers would sew on shoulder pockets onto their BDU jacket tops. This was before that feature was common on most BDU types. By releasing a pair, DML could try to maximize the tooling/molding cost here, etc, etc. But you can see that DML simply reused the Colin scope mount formally here on top of the carry handle.

Introduction here for DML's first modern cloth drop down holster.

So some backstory, according to rumor back then, the Gordon figure was supposed to be paired with a Randy Shughart tribute figure. But, as the story goes, Hasbro intervened, and told Shughart's widow that they wanted to make a tribute figure for him at some point. In the end, the rights were not secured and the McKnight figure was produced instead to create the pair. That kind of stuff can get complicated, and, of course, Shughart's estate and family and their wishes should be respected. But it would have been nice to see Shughart figure back then as well.

Like the McKnight figure, the headsculpt is based on the real life person's likeness, and not the actor in the film.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

The bottom set, was on clearance for less than the 8 bucks of standard MSRP. I can't read that tag, so this was a huge bargain for someone. So this set was interesting, I saw it on the shelves maybe 4-5 times in different places, and in each place, the big fuel/gas tanks and torch were ripped out of the package. I guess it was a popular diorama kind of item. Don't know. But I've never seen that torch/tank set up close before.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Last one for today. Fun stuff.

It's a bomb with a timer and remote. Only knock off brands really made that kind of stuff.

It's a GI Joe big computer system, with a CD drive and a floppy drive apparently. I wonder if it also had a Zip drive.

And a Mecha Hulk here, with Jack Hammer arms and it seems to be controlled by a button on his nipple. That's just hilarious. It's not 1/6th scale and it's not military oriented, but I just find it funny on all kinds of levels.

He won't comply! Then try touching his .... nipple...why don't you? Hehe.

 

[Jimmy C]

Formative Soldiers of the World

 

[Jimmy C]

WW I set from Formative Soldiers of the World

 

[Jimmy C]

GI Joe WW II Russian

 

[Jimmy C]

Not terribly familiar with this company

 

[MeatHookGekko]

WW I set from Formative Soldiers of the World

Hey Jimmy C, thanks for contributing to the thread. I remember seeing this SOTW set pretty often back in the old days. They were good at covering WWI, which most other brands avoided.

The above carded set you can't identify is a brand called Yellow Submarine. They made carded sets right around the time DML started producing 1/6th.

Monkey Depot - Carded Set: Yellow Submarine MP-41 Machine Pistol Set (20015)

^ Here is an example from Monkey Depot's online store.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

I'm going to start today with DML's first releases into the modern figure category.

It was their Hong Kong SDU ( Special Duties Unit). Essentially their version of our SWAT teams. "Cheong" was not the first, but he has the clearest pictures of the common gear, so I'll start with him first. These sets could be found for 25-30 dollars to start. There were very few places that had them early on.

I bought my first DML figure online, from a place called Reasonable Collectibles. This was basically the kind of site you'd see in the early 2000s. Simple HTML. Simple frames. And to pay, you needed to mail in a money order. The idea of PayPal and credit card processing as normal for online purchasing was not viable/common them. Since there was no such thing as "feedback" system, common today, I was asked via email if I could write a "testimonial" about my good customer experience, because apparently, many people emailed them and were not sure if it was a legitimate site and could be trusted.

I actually took it on faith that I would get my package. I mean I sent a money order. No law enforcement agency had a cyber crimes division back then. The entire internet was basically the wild west.

I did not order Cheong to start, I ordered the first true DML SDU release - Michael Chan.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

This was cutting edge in the early 2000s. The MP5 still holds up today as a very high quality weapon in terms of scale, finish and detail. You can see how rudimentary everything was back then - More molded parts. More things lacked "function" Far fewer accessories. Very simplistic head sculpts. Molded gloved hands. No spare hands. Molded boots as the standard. But consider this easily two generations upscale from common TUS releases you'd find at brick and mortar stores at the time. That Browning Hi Power was the first of it's kind in our hobby.

It's unclear to me if you were supposed to cut out those "bad guy silhouettes" behind Cheong's body or not.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

 

[MeatHookGekko]

This is the very first Dragon modern figure. Michael Chan SDU. You can see the crossover in most of the gear with Cheong. Back then, it was simply good business to keep releasing the same tooling and then add in one or two "anchor" pieces. Something new to the hobby that would drive the sale of the whole set.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

This was DML's second release. SDU Ray.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

The design of DML's HK SDU was to build a "team". The anchors here were the gas mask, gas mask bag, shield and the MP5 is now the suppressed MP5SD variant. But you can see it is fundamentally the same as Michael Chan SDU, just with a different headsculpt.