DAM Operation Gothic Serpent 75th Ranger Chalk Leader

DAM Toys takes on the movie Black Hawk Down and Chalk Leader Matt Eversman is the first soldier to be released as part of this new action figure line.

Starting with a well done headsculpt with solid paint apps and a great likeness to actor Josh Hartnett, DAM provides a near movie-accurate set with nice gear and accessories appropriate to 1990s Delta Force operators.  I found the quality of the accessories to be good overall, although the canteen pouch snaps on one of my sets (I ended up with two) were missing.

The body is good as well.  It holds poses very well with tight joints and is capable of a wide range of realistic motions.

Overall, I think DAM has hit a home run with their Operation Gothic Serpent movie soldiers and I'm excited about the rest of the figures they've announced.

Looks like Josh Harnett as he appeared in Black Hawk Down to me.

I like the quality of the gear.

It's a bit of a challenge to work with the alice harness and those tiny clips, but the results are great.

Very cool soldier.

Soldier Story US Navy EODMU-11

I recently received the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Mobile Unit Eleven figure from Soldier Story and finally had some time to put it together this weekend.  Well, most of it anyway.

EODMU-11 operates out of Washington state. The Navy has a number of EOD mobile units.  Why Soldier Story picked 11 specifically is unknown to me.  According to the EODMU-11 official Facebook page, this figure was never even sanctioned by them.  About all I can assume is that the 11 group had the most Internet photos.

In any case, what we have here is a pretty well-researched bomb disposal guy in tan flight suit, complete with breathing apparatus. 

While the rebreather is probably the standout set of gear in this set, unfortunately, it has some problems to it, despite a pretty good design.  One of the issues I had was with the mask--it has a lot of straps on it that are difficult to work with.  In addition, the lenses are not clear, but a speckled translucent.  It kind of wastes the headsculpt, which is nice and well done.

Another big issue I had was with the hose that runs from the mask to the air filtration device.  The type of plastic tubing they used is really too stiff.  It comes out of the box straight, but needs to be coiled in a way that bends around from the front of the face back around to the soldier's back.  I tried heating and freezing, but there's no way to get the hose to keep it's shape without either running a metal wire in the tube itself, or just taping/strapping the tube in the shape you want it.

Overall, however, it's a solid figure with a slightly different theme than the norm, so I think this set might be worth a look for experienced collectors.

Nice, colorful boxart.  I think they lifted the background image from the Internet though.

This is the only reference SS provides on how to gear him up.

I'm not sure if this guy is supposed to resemble anyone famous.  He doesn't, to me.

It looks pretty good to me.  I didn't add some bits, but maybe later...

The whole breathing device is a total pain in the ass to put together.