This guy's head is just...retarded. Now I could see how it could have been a good headsculpt if they made him just a little meaner looking, but the expression on his face makes him look like a sissie. He's got this goofy little smile. The choice of lip color is also a mystery to me. It's sort of a dark pinkish purple, quite similar to a shade you'd see in woman's lipstick. Not good at all. The rest of the face isn't too bad but the lips just ruin everything. However, if you look at him at the right angle he actually looks alright...but we shouldn't have to do that. Conclusion: A bad headsculpt.
This uniform was a welcome addition to my collection just because each article has never been offered by 21st Century until now (except for the boots, belt, and harness, but I'm including those in Accessories). The pants are an Italian camo pattern I believe and are quite baggy. They are so baggy that you could probably use them on some hip-hop custom figure if you wanted to. But seriously, there is a lot of room and you can remove his pants without taking his boots off. Overall, pretty cool pants that will help your Germans look more diversified. His tunic is an SS tunic and in my opinion it isn't that good. The collar detail is just okay with only two black boxes on each so he must be a normal private. The collar is also very loose like the normal German infantry tunic. Now I don't know about you, but I hate the way these collars are so loose. The German NCO tunics tend to have nice and tight collars and the silver buttons go all the way to the top unlike this tunic which is missing the top button. Since you don't see the tunic except for the collar I guess it's not too bad...but it would have been nice if 21st just went that extra mile. Next we have the green-brown leaf pattern smock. It doesn't have a ton of detail and accuracy like a Dragon smock but it does the job. Its got a nice string to close up the chest and collar area and fits nicely. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is hard to put on and take off. The elastic is super tight around the waist making it a chore to get the smock over his shoulders. Conclusion: The outfit is decent and a nice variation for your German collection.
This guy is fully equiped! Well, a belt of bullets would have been nice but other than that, the accessories are where this figure is at! He comes with the requisite German breadbag, canteen, mess kit, y-harness, belt (green buckle), gas mask canister, bayonette with sheath, and entrenching tool with cover. Some of these item have been improved like the mess kit whose strap is now made of harder plastic so it doesn't fall off your breadbag every time you touch it. The breadbag has plastic straps also (if you have the boxed NCO you'll see that they're pretty much the same). The bayonette sheath now has a faux leather strap which makes it somewhat easier to do the shovel-bayonette combo. Unfortunately, 21st still insists on using plastic D-rings on the y-harness and the breadbag, so even though they improved the mess kit, it will still fall off because the darn D-ring is just too weak to support it (I've replaced mine with metal D-rings I made from a small paper clip). Besides all of this, you get the MG-34 machine gun (of course) which has folding legs, and a working loading mechanism lever. You also get two ammo drums, a carrying case for the ammo drums, an ammo box for ammo belts (which they didn't make), a pistol and a holster to put it in, a pack which I believe is the MG-34 cleaning kit, and a rolled up piece of cloth (not sure what this is). Oh yeah and you get a camo covered helmet, and if you're lucky it won't be squished and warped like mine is. Overall cool accessories.
Conclusion
This was a figure I loved at first sight, then hated when I opened it, then grew to like it again. It's not a bad figure, it just could have been a better figure. 21st Century has come a long way since they first began, and if they keep working at it, they may just get up to that "Dragon" level of detail--I just don't see it happening anytime soon.
