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

[MeatHookGekko]

The timeline of these releases in real time coincided with a real war.

What's interesting in this set is that the ammo pouches are non functional mold lifts of BBI modern era but with DML modern grenade side pouches on them. In an effort to likely mock DML, this set had both the lemon grenades and the baseball grenades. Uniform cut, color and pattern is very derivative of BBI generation 1 bdus.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Mold lift of the DML Vietnam era James M60.

Nothing else mattered in this set, you got it for the gun. You got it for the "Pig"

God bless SOTW for making this set. And if you saw it once, you just bought it. Didn't last on the shelves at all.

 

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Ammo belt was a mold lift of DML WW2 generation 1. Those eyelets and the male/female connectors were extremely fragile.

 

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Modern LBV that fit the Desert Storm era IIRC.

Fun set, with a laptop too. But the real prize were those binoculars. Not many modern binoculars in the hobby at the time.

 

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This was one my favorite sets. The boots were pretty nice for SOTW standards. But the BAR has a removable bipod. Which DML did not have on theirs. Which was a cool feature.

 

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I think it's good to show some SOTW generation 2, to show the huge leap in quality and loadout in Gen 3. It's unfortunate that SOTW ceased operation before Gen 4 could come to life.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Last one for today. Fun stuff. This is, IIRC, from DID. It's a 1/6 letter home. Mail was a big deal then in WW2 for troop morale. Consider that every little bit of weight was calculated for it's value to be shipped to Europe. And that U Boat attacks on convoy fleets meant that civilian ships were risking life and death for their cargo.

That's how much letter correspondence meant to the troops.

I remember reading long ago that sometimes kids in America, and only some, could get bananas one time a year during the war. Now in modern times, you can get as much fruit, in season or out, as long as you are willing to pay for it. But that parents and grandparents, from that era, would remind those kids that good men were risking their lives to bring over creature comforts and luxuries. A different time I suppose. There was no such thing as waste during WW2. Every piece of string, every piece of metal, every bottle, it all could be collected for the war effort.

That is one really great thing about our hobby. It's an opportunity to learn and share history with each other. And to be thankful for the blessings we do have.

 

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I picked up this set loose complete many years ago. Well, without the full nude ( probably to save shipping weight). I'm not typically a fan of this era, but it was included as part of a larger package deal of loose sets. I thought it was fantastic. I'm sure I still have that rifle somewhere, as it's just a really fantastic piece. I wish I could give more detail on the back history of this figure, but it's a bit out of my depth. Maybe someone else had it and is more familiar with this line and theme. I will say despite being a 2006 release, it's a really fantastic figure IMHO and many DID sets have aged very well in our hobby.

IIRC, I didn't get the whole nude, but I did get the headsculpt. So for "Dick", I still got his head. So I got Dick's h..... never mind. It made me laugh though.

I got this figure and Sean Bean sculpt, well supposed to be Sean Bean missing the sword though . I also have the Private Williams figure. I think DID released a Zulu warrior to. This is a long time ago in my collecting journey, still really nice figures though.

They go for a bit of money on eBay now.

 

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The top one was the 2nd generation M2 50 caliber machine gun.

The bottom was the Gen 1 that came out in the late 90s. Like 1999-ish

Later TUS started to use a "chalky" kind of plastic. Earlier stuff had a bit of "gloss" to it.

But 21st Century Toys was smart in the beginning. They just loaded their carded sets up. Showing value in the package to entice new collectors. They didn't have to add that M60 in that set, but they did anyway.

 

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The bottom is the somewhat rare Modern Foreign Weapons Set #3. It was a cool pistol set.

Bizarrely, TUS made one of only a handful of H&K USP pistols on the market for the past 20 years. No pistol as common has been routinely ignored from a production side in our hobby as much.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

This was generation 3, the last wave of TUS carded weapons set, right near the end of their time in our hobby.

If you wanted a Street Sweeper for less than 50 bucks, well this was about it for choices. Tragic that they didn't last just a little longer.