Soldier Story FCS TF Version
In this case, we have a guy who looks both mean and serious, with his shaved head, furrowed brow, cage fighter goatee, and ferocious facial scar. It has been pointed out that the figure bears a resemblance to actor Til Schweiger in his “Cedric” role from 2004′s King Arthur. After seeing the comparison pics, I would agree. The sculpt is crisply detailed, and well painted – right down the subtle ruddy variations in the skin tone.
Despite this, the head ( at first at least ) appears to be on the small side. There has been discussion regarding the size and proportion of Soldier Story head-sculpts in the past – and I noticed it myself with the first FCS Multicam figure ( Josh Duhamel likeness ). I also noticed that the figure looked bottom heavy due to the bagginess of the Crye Precision Combat pants, which made me wonder if the former was made worse by the latter. I decided to compare the FCS TF head to heads from DML, BBI, and HT. It was actually within what I would categorize as acceptable limits. So this leads me back to the pants, which are the same Crye Combat version with both the FCS Multicam and FCS TF figures. I am beginning to think that these pants are cut too wide, and could benefit from a little tailoring. Soldier Story – you guys might want to have a product development sit down about this back at your H.Q.
The figure comes with two sets of hands – a bare flesh pair, and a molded pair that come with a third hand that is formed into a fist, or tight grip pose. The bare flesh pair are the same that we saw with the DEVGRU Gold Team figure among others. The gloved pair however, are new. This marks Soldier Story’s first foree into molded gloved hands, and I feel that they hit the ground running ( a funny, and ham handed turn of phrase to use when describing gloves ). The gloves look like most Mechanix sytle gloves you would expect to see in use in the military these days… lots of padding, a thin tactile palm, and a sleek, high tech finish. I really like them, but I have to say that the color is odd. They are black with electric blue highlights. Maybe not an odd color palette for the garage or work shop, but certainly not the norm for the field. They would have looked better had they been rendered in a subdued field appropriate hue that more closely coincided with the tones and hues of the Multicam uni and gear.
The base body is the Soldier Story S2, and it is a decent base body in my opinion.
Special note: I received two FCS TF figures – one to review and modify, and one to keep for myself. The one that I photographed and worked on for the review was fine, the one that I kept for myself was broken in two at the waist. Interesting… Both figures were shipped to me in the same parcel, so there was a 50/50 chance that I could have selected the box with the broken figure to open and use for the review. Had that been the case, the score in this category would have been very low despite the cool sculpt. In fact, the only reason I even opened my figure was to look to see if it too was missing the velcro unit patches that were supposed to come with the figure. And that is an issue to be discussed in the uniform category.
Lastly, you get a a pair of uniuqly interesting leg muscle add on sleeves. I simply cannot describe how bizarre they look when you take them out of the box and lay them on the counter in the bathroom for someone to stumble upon with no note of explanation… “Hey Mike, I found your………… I found some… I found something disturbing in the bathroom….”
So, let’s get to the score… I like the sculpt, I like the body ( although I am vexed about the breakage issues with the other figure ), I like the gloves as well. I therefore will go with a high score ( not letting the broken figure in my set influence things ). I feel that 4 out of 5 stars is in order in this category. Had the gloves been a different color the score would have been higher.
Uniform/wardrobe…
With the FCS TF we get the venerable Crye Precision Combat shirt and pants. We also get a belt, a tee shirt in a nice dark greenish brown color, a tan shemagh, a doo rag in Multicam, and a pair of cloth Oakley SI Assault boots. All of the uniform elements are top shelf – with high quality, and attention to detail throughout. The materials are an appropriate weight, the stitching is clean, and the fuction/detail is astounding.
I also have to mention something that I found refreshing about the finishing on the shirt and pants – the cuffs tabs on both the shirt sleeves and pant legs are sewn shut. Why do I mention this? In the past we have had both large and small scale velcro used to fasten cuff tabs shut. And while velcro can certainly do a decent enough job, it just doesn’t seem to work all that well on 1/6 scale cuff tabs. Maybe it is the small amount of velco used – maybe there just aren’t enough velcro hooks and loops in such a small swatch to achieve a secure bond. Whatever the case may be the result is much futzing with the tabs to keep them fastened. In the case of the sewn tabs that isn’t an issue, so you don’t have to worry about the tabs unfastening when posing the figure’s arms or legs. Good stuff.
Now let’s get to the score… I mentioned the oversized cut of the legs on the Crye Combat pants, but that becomes less of an issue once the figure is fully kitted up. Hopefully if we see these pants on future Soldier Story figures, they will have an updated, more tailored fit. Despite the baggy legged pants, I have to go with a high score here – a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Gear: ( soft lines – or web and cloth gear )…
First off in this category is the Crye Precision Range vest. I am not a huge fan of this vest – it looks more to me like a bird watcher’s vest or something you would see a photo safariast wearing on the Savanna. It is however, a nice piece of 1/6 tailoring. We have all of the bells and whistles mentioned in the previous category by way of detailing and finish. Add to this a decent fit, and functionality that you would expect to find in the 1/1 scale version, and you have a decent vest – even if I do find it to be a bit pedestrian. We also get a whole slew of pouches which feature the web tab and loop securing system ( molle ). I am keeping an eye out for multiples to be had as a loose parts purchase for the Soldier Story FCS Multicam Armor Chassis that I will some day purchase.
We also get a Crye blast belt, a SoTech GoBag, and a CAT ( Combat Application Tourniquet ). I love the CAT – such a nice addition to 1/6 scale – and the GoBag is tres’ chic. Between the previously issued and current Multicam FCS gears and uni, we have almost all of the necessary ingredients for a screen accurate “Lennox” bash.
The quality and functionality of the soft line gear is such that I feel a full 5 out of 5 stars is in order in this category.
Gear: ( hard lines – or sundry parts )…
The highlight for me of the hard line gear are the ITW Fast Mag cells ( I choose to call them “cells” as pouches seems somehow inappropriate for something that is made from high impact polymer ). I just love these things, and again, this is some FCS TF schwag that I will be on the lookout for as a loose parts purchase.
In addition to the ultra sexy Fast Mag cells, we get a pair of M67 fragmentation grenades, a pair of Mk18 smoke canister grenades, a quartet of 40mm grenade for the M4203, a SureFire HL1C LED light gizmo, a Tag Huer looking watch, and a pair of debutaunte-esque shades – which many folks have voiced outrage at, but once you get them on the figure I don’t think they look all that bad.
Despite the limited amount of gear in this category, what we do get is decent. I feel that the addition of a radio, and knife would have been a good call, but alas, this is beyond my control. I can however, award what I feel is an appropriate penalty to the score for what I consider to be a glaring omission in not including at the very least an ICom sytle radio. Soldier Story certainly has a decent range of 1/6 comms in their arsenal, so the absence of even a basic unit here is odd. I am awarding a 4 out of 5 stars in this category.
Weapons…
Let’s start this category off with the M4 with 203. Soldier Story M4′s have grown on me… I really like the functioning bolt, and easy to break down engineering ( great for weapon modding ). In this case we get the usual M4 goodness, and the nifty, partially metal 203 40mm grenade launcher. We also get an EoTech sight, a SureFire tac light, an AN-PEQ, a suppressor, and a black bungee sling. For ammo, we get four standard M4 magazines with Magpul Ranger Plates, and four of the shorty 20 round Magpul P mags with Ranger Plates. Not too shabby.
Now, let’s touch on the paint scheme used for the M4. It’s an odd color isn’t it? A sort of cross between a stick of Rigley’s spearmint chewing gum, and a raw oyster. I am not sure what color this is meant to represent, but I have to say that I actually kind of like it. It is enhanced by an over-spray break-up effect that was no doubt achieved by using a swatch of mesh fabric as a stencil. Looks good, if not a little minty or anemic.
The other item in the weapon category is the railed M1911. By now almost everyone knows that Soldier Story makes a mean M1911. You get crisp detail, decent paint, and some very tiny moving pieces, which include a pivoting slide release and safety switch. In the case of the FCS TF M1911, we also get a removable taclight with a clever switch set up. I have to give Soldier Story props for the way they engineered the switch assembly. Along with the M1911, we get a total of four magazines – one for the magwell, three for the double mag belt pouch. Double good. Also worthy of mention is the holster that comes with the M1911… It is of the hardsell variety, and is a somewhat new-looking configuration. The holster itself mounts to the thigh platform via three pins, and this is a point of interest in that a resourcful/bold customizer might want to consider convertingthe holster and platform into a southpaw rig. It is possible by my estimation, but would be a major overhaul, and would no doubt involve some cutting and a repaint.
I also want to touch on something that I found really neat about the leg straps on the thigh rig. They are an elastic material that is more akin to a fabric type of elastic as opposed to a webbed or variegated type of elastic ( imagine the elastic slings that came with early DML rifles and sub guns ). This webbed type of elastic has, in my opinion, always been plagued with issues of unravelling, and not being particularly easy to work with – even too thick for the scale in some instances… This fabric type is much thinnner, and seams to be more scale appropriate with it’s finely woven surface and light gauge. It is similar if not identical to the elastic material used on the magazine pouches that come in this set – as well as to the material Soldier Story has used for the securing straps on their recent goggles. Great stuff – I wish I had a ton of it in my customizing kit, along with a few thousand yards of small scale grossgrain and “0″ scale zippers.
To wrap the weapon category up, I am going to award a full 5 out of 5 stars for the crisp clean details, and well thought out engineering that went into each of the pieces.
Price/value…
For the most part I have intentionally left price out of the picture with respect to my reviews for several reasons…
1. I didn’t want to completely rip off other reviewers who have included a price/value section in their reviews. Instead, I just ripped off most of the rest of their review template.
2. The figures in the reviews are customer figures – so I do not purchase or keep them. They are sent to me for review, and are afterward customized to some degree or another, and are then returned to the sender.
3. I will never be able to honestly say that any action figure over the price of $25.00 is a good deal.
So how would I score this one? I give it a score of “true” as I have no influence on pricing, and get a little discouraged every time I think about how much figures cost.
Things to consider…
If you have an eye on this figure, be mindful that you may have to add some things here and there to round it out – a radio for instance. Cost wise, he is right up there with all the of the rest, so you are looking at around $110.00 on average. The head-sculpt and most of the gear are appropriate to mix and match with other modern era pieces for kit-bashing purposes – just be aware that not all 1/6 scale Multicam is created equal.
I posted a thread at OSW with respect to the breakage issue I had with my figure ( not the one in this review, or in the accompanying pics ). The responses thus far have indicated that I am not the only one who has experienced this issue. Further more, a surprising number of respondents experienced the problem with an FCS TF figure. Perhaps Soldier Story should look into this. There is also the issue of the missing patches. I have not heard if this is a product wide omission, or relegated to a portion of the figures.
Score recap…
Head-sculpt base body: 4 out of 5 stars
Uniform: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Gear ( soft lines ): 5 out of 5 stars
Gear ( hard lines ): 4 out of 5 stars
Weapons: 5 out of 5 stars
Price/Value: N/A
Grand Total: 4.5 out of 5 stars
What I changed and/or added…
I went a little heavier with the weathering on the uniform and weapons as it is harder to weather Multicam that other patterns or solids. I also went a little more into the weathering on the M4 to help offset the mint green look. I added some pastels to the head-sculpt to tone down the sun chapped look, and to better match the skin-tone of the head to the skin-tone of the neck. I didn’t get as close as I would have liked, but that would have meant a repaint to either the head or the neck, and either would have been more of a detraction than an improvement.
With the M4, I decided to drill out the inner wall of the suppressor so as to allow it to fit further down onto the barrel. I really like the look of the suppressor being more snug to the fore grip area, and not hung out on the end of the barrel near the flash hider. Just a personal preference thing with me. Lastly, I used some acrylics to weather the side soles of the Oakley SI boots. The differences can be seen in the series of pics marked “CUSTOM”. The out of box pics are marked “STOCK”.
