The latter would be true of his unusual re-release from Dragon. "Vladimir" is a Soviet infantry rifleman circa 1941-45. The box claims he is part of the Eastern Front 1943, but what really makes him stand out is his Mosin-Nagant rifle modified with an unusal and (I assume) not very common VIM 210 mine detector and mine probe! Good luck finding much about this facinating piece of WWII military gear--although there were no doubt sappers assigned to fight along side regular infantry rifleman, I had a hard time finding anything about these guys in my limited research. Kudos to the team at Dragon for finding any reference material on this subject!
Back to the figure itself, Vladimir uses the latest 3.5 Dragon figure body, and sports an updated headsculpt featuring newer, more subtle paint techniques. I think Dragon did a nice job on this one as their paint application goes very well with the pale tones of a young Russian fighting on the Eastern Front.
The outfit and gear are very simple in this set, with just a belt with a couple of pouches, cap, and backpack designed to hold the mine detection unit. The Mosin-Nagant is typical Dragon with solid constuction and working metal parts. The mine probe is a bit tricky to assemble since it just kind of sits on the end of the rifle barrel with no real way to secure it other than friction and gravity, but it's pretty cool.
At around $80 MSRP, this is not much of a value, and overall, I would say the only real draw would be the rifle and mine detector. I would only recommend this set to those with an affinity for WWII Russian themes or those who appreciate interesting WWII relics.
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