ToysCity US Navy NSW Marksman

This is the soon-to-be-released Toys City 1/6 scale US Navy NSW Marksman (Overwatch Operation) 12-inch military action figure. The United States Naval Special Warfare Command (NAVSPECWARCOM, NAVSOC or NSWC) was commissioned on April 16, 1987, at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in San Diego, California. As the Naval component to the United States Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, Naval Special Warfare Command provides vision, leadership, doctrinal guidance, resources and oversight to ensure component maritime special operations forces are ready to meet the operational requirements of combatant commanders.

NSW is committed to combating the global terrorist threats. In addition to being experts in special reconnaissance and direct action missions, the skill sets needed to combat terrorism; NSW is postured to fight a dispersed enemy on their turf. NSW forces can operate from forward-deployed Navy ships, submarines and aviation mobility platforms as well as overseas bases and its own overseas units.
[ source: wiki ]

Naval Special Warfare has played a significant role in Operation Iraqi Freedom, employing the largest number of SEALs and SWCC in its history.


NSW forces were instrumental in numerous special reconnaissance and direct action missions including the securing of the southern oil infrastructures of the Al Faw peninsula and the off-shore gas and oil terminals; the clearing of the Khawr Abd Allah and Khawr Az Zubayr waterways that enabled humanitarian aid to be delivered to the vital port city of Umm Qasr; reconnaissance of the Shatt al-Arab waterway; capture of high value targets, raids on suspected chemical, biological and radiological sites; and the first POW rescue since WWII. Additionally, NSW is also fighting the war on terrorism in other global hot spots including the Philippines and the Horn of Africa.

The Toys City 1/6 scale US Navy NSW Marksman (Overwatch Operation) 12-inch military action figure will come with: Real-like head sculpt, T2.0 body, DIGI2 AOR2 woodland Gen2 AC combat shirt navy cut, DIGI2 AOR2 woodland Gen2 AC combat pants navy cut, Detachable Gen 3 kneepad, DIGI2 AOR1 desert 0612F riggers belt, Multicam 6094A slick Gen II plate carrier, DIGI2 AOR1 desert 1961K 7.62mm load bearing chest rig, DIGI2 AOR1 desert 6061A enhanced radio pouch, DIGI2 AOR1 desert MLCS M60 ammo pouch, DIGI2 AOR1 desert CP zippered utility pouch (medium size), DIGI2 AOR1 desert CP hand grenade pouch x 2, DIGI2 AOR1 desert magazine dump pouch, Black double 9mm pistol magazine pouch x 2, Black P226 CQC holster, Black tactical platform, DIGI2 AOR1 desert 2649E hydra pack, Multicam breacher slap charge pouch, TNT explosive charge x 2, MK11 Mod1 sniper rifle, MK11 magazine x 4, PEQ-15 laser indicator, DIGI2 AOR1 desert long-gun sling, P226 pistol, Pistol magazine x 3, MPK tactical combat knife, Multicam FAST bump helmet, NVG shroud, NVG mount, Helmet rail connector, PVS-15 night vision goggles, SF helmet light, NVG counterweight pouch, Moran hiking boots, 4.0 heavy duty gloves, SODIN headset & PTT, PRC-148 radio, VIP strobe light, MK141 grenade x 2, Personal GPS, D-ring x 2, Tactical medic scissors, Light stick x5, Light stick panel, Patches, DIGI2 AOR1 desert military tape

Scroll down & enjoy the pictures :)

Very Hot 1:6 Sniper in Jungle

Hot on the heels of Zy Toys is Very Hot, trying to play catch up. This is their next release, which is also a sniper, but Very Hot is calling it "Sniper in Jungle" which actually isn't correct at all!

This figure is much more accurate as a USMC Sniper in Iraq circa 2003. In fact, Very Hot practically copied Hot Toys design and released it as their own.

Hot Toys had released a USMC sniper from the 23rd Marine Regiment with Dominic Purcell head sculpt (see picture below). The set came with NBC Suit (Woodland), Frog Chest Rig (Coyote), BDU Pants (3C Desert), Personal Body Armor, Gas Mask Bag (OD), Shooters Rifle Stock Pack with Bullets, Tactical Drop Leg Holster, T-Shirt, Pistol Belt, and Real like Gloves. Accessories included F3 Radio with Soldier Intercom Headset, USMC ISR Radio, Binoculars, Goggles with OD Cover, PASGT Helmet with Cover, PVS-14 NVG Mount, Sunglasses, Watch, Elbow Pads, Knee Pads, and Tactical Boots. Weapons: M40A3 with AN/PVS-10 & MST-100 Rifle Scope, Multi-Purpose Bayonet, M4/M203 Grenade Launcher, and M9 Pistol with Tactical Retention Lanyard.

The 2003 war fought by the USMC in Iraq was made into a television miniseries (now out on DVD) by HBO titled "Generation Kill". It was based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright about his experience as an embedded reporter with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion‎ of the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Due to the concern that Saddam Hussein might unleash chemical weapons against allied troops, the Marines wore Woodland camouflaged MOPP-4 (Mission-Oriented Protective Posture response level 4) gear over their desert BDUs. Most Marine units were only issued with Woodland camouflage MOPP suits because they just didn't have enough of them in Desert camouflage!

So, as you can see, this Very Hot 1:6 Sniper in Jungle is actually not wearing Woodland BDUs for jungle warfare but Woodland NBC overgarments for battle in the Iraqi desert in preparation for a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) strike. The Overgarments — Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology (JSLIST) were specially designed clothing to be worn over the normal uniform. These garments are designed to allow maximum airflow for cooling while keeping chemical and biological agents from reaching the skin of the wearer. Some are equipped with a charcoal lining to neutralize some agents. Military personnel often equip over garments with strips of M9 Detector Paper to identify chemical agents on the battlefield they might come in contact with.

The VeryHot 1:6 Sniper in Iraq Uniform set includes a woodland camo "goretex" hooded jacket and pants, "frog" style chest rig (in DCU camouflage pattern), tan soft body armor, helmet in DCU camouflage pattern cover. He is armed with a pistol and drop down holster and M4 carbine with grenade launcher, but being he's a Sniper (and looking like a USMC Scout Sniper at that), he's carrying the M40 Sniper Rifle. Other items in the set include binoculars, gas mask sub-load, nomex gloves, smoke grenades, desert boots, dust goggles, radio with handset, pistol belt and knee pads.

At least this is a more complete figure than the Zy Toys sniper outfit set (no weapons, no accessories, no boots) and it'll be GREAT if you intend to recreate a scene on the 2003 invasion of Iraq or a Generation Kill kitbash.

Veryhot: 1/6 scale Sniper version 3.0

VeryHot is really working up quite a bit of sweat in the shops. They have just released pictures of their third Sniper uniform / outfit set they intend to release. This will be the Veryhot: Sniper version 3.0. It's going to be a sniper in MultiCam. From the pictures they released (see pictures below), it looks really good. The photography makes the figure looks 1:1 scale - because of the camouflage covering the face, the figure look so realistic! Just goes to show what good photography can do :)

MultiCam is a single camouflage pattern designed to help the wearer hide in varied environments, seasons, elevations, and light conditions. It is a 7-color, multi-environment camouflage pattern developed by Crye Associates in conjunction with U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center.

The pattern was on the race to replace the 3-color desert and Woodland patterns, and originally lost to the Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) in 2004, seen in the Army Combat Uniform (ACU). However, it has been newly commissioned in 2010 and will be replacing the UCP pattern over time for use by US Army Units serving in Afghanistan, Under the Designation OCP or Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern.

It is already used by some American Special Operations units and law enforcement agencies. The US Army has recently approved the use of MultiCam for the 173rd Airborne Brigade deployed to Afghanistan.

VeryHot MultiCam looks to be a whole lot greener than other MultiCam uniform sets in the market so it's okay if you're only using the VeryHot set but not if you want to mix and match MultiCam BDUs. I find that this VeryHot MultiCam color and pattern looks more like Woodlands camouflage than MultiCam. MultiCam tends to look more brown than green.

MultiCam has background colors of a brown to light-tan gradient and lime green blending in between, the main part consist of green to yellowish green gradient and finally dark brown and light pinkish blotches spread throughout the pattern. This allows for the overall appearance to change from greenish to brownish in different areas of the fabric, while having smaller blotches to break up the bigger background areas.

MultiCam hides volume and form by tricking the human eye's perception of color. MultiCam allows the object it covers to blend into the background with the camo pattern.

As usual, the boots issued by VeryHot leaves much to be desired :( It's okay when your figure is in the bushes / grass and his footwear is obscured from view but one-color molded boots should be a thing of the past.

Do note that this VeryHot: 1/6 scale Sniper version 3.0 outfit set does not include the 12-inch figure, only the BDUs (sniper outfit) and some accessories. Main weapon (sniper rifle) and sidearm are also included, along with the binoculars.

For most of us, the word "sniper" evokes some unsettling imagery -- a lone gunman, undetectable, on the hunt. And while military snipers are indeed elite shooters who hide, line up a target in their sights and pull the trigger, there is a lot more to it than that.

These highly skilled marksmen are often perceived as lone assassins racking up "confirmed kills." In reality, true snipers work for the military and law enforcement agencies and are far more concerned with the number of lives they save than with the ones they take.

Because of the nature of their missions, snipers travel with very little gear, patiently moving under the cover of brush or night. But they never travel alone. Snipers teams often have to stay completely still for hours or days at a time to avoid detection, waiting for the right moment to take the shot.

A sniper team consists of a sniper and a spotter. The two-man team offers many advantages over the deployment of a lone sniper in the field. The spotter carries his own special scope that is much more powerful than the scope on a sniper rifle. The spotter uses his scope to help the sniper observe objectives and set up the shot. The two soldiers work together to get to the objective safely and discreetly and then set up a position.

Isn't it time some 1/6 manufacturer release sniper sets with the spotter scope as well so that a proper two-man sniper team can be produced? In so many shows we see and books we read, the sniper rarely works ALONE! So let's make this right. Give us the spotter too.

Snipers are what military strategists refer to as force multipliers. Simply put, a force multiplier is an individual or small team that, through the use of special tactics, can do the damage of a much larger force. What's amazing about snipers is that they are capable of force multiplication without ever directly engaging the enemy.

DAM 1/6 Grenadier 75th Ranger, Operation Gothic Serpent SOMALIA 1993

These 1:6 scale 12-inch military figures might have been based on the real Rangers who were stationed in Somalia from August to October 1993 when Operation Gothic Serpent took place but the head sculpts are based on the actors who played the Rangers in the film "BLACK HAWK DOWN", released in 2001 and directed by Ridley Scott.Based on actor Josh Hartnett whose role as SSG Matt Eversmann was based on Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann, US Army Ranger, leader of Chalk 4.

This 1/6 scale 75th Ranger Regiment Grenadier from Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion is based on actor Ewan McGregor's role as SPC John "Grimesey" Grimes, a combat hungry desk clerk, role based on John Stebbins. Ewan McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting (1996), young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), and poet Christian in the musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001).

This DAM 1/6 Grenadier 75th Ranger, Operation Gothic Serpent SOMALIA 1993 12-inch military figure will come with real-like head sculpt and 12-inch male body, OD (Olive Drab) GI (General Issue) T-shirt, 3-color desert camouflage battle dress uniform (DCU), US flag patch, Ranger Body Armor RBA (Woodland camouflage), PASGT (Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops) helmet with 6-color desert camouflage cloth cover and identify band, Sun, Wind, and Dust Goggles (SWDG), Nomex Flight Gloves, Military watch, GI Rappelling Gloves, ALTA knee pads and Altama desert boots.

Ranger Grenadier SPC Grimes has on him the ALICE (All Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment) system comprising belt and Y-webbing / suspender, M16 ammunition pouch x 2, compass / first aid case, canteen and canteen cover, buttpack and M79 grenadier vest.

He is armed with the M16A2 Assault rifle with M203 Grenade launcher, 40mm M676 Coverage smoke grenade X 4, 40mm M443I High Explosive grenade X 20, M26A1 Fragmentationgrenade X 3, M16 magazine X 6 and M9 Bayonet in scabbard.

Black Hawk Down is a 2001 American war-drama film depicting the Battle of Mogadishu, a raid integral to the United States' effort to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. It is based on the book of the same name by Mark Bowden, which chronicles the events of the battle. The film is co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott, director of Gladiator. The film stars a largely ensemble cast, starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Jason Isaacs, Eric Bana, William Fichtner and Sam Shepard. The film won Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound at the 74th Academy Awards.

The Battle of Mogadishu (also referred to as Black Hawk Down in popular culture) or for Somalis: the Day of the Rangers (Somali: Maalintii Rangers) was part of Operation Gothic Serpent and was fought on October 3 and 4, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, between forces of the United States supported by UNOSOM II and Somali militia fighters loyal to the self-proclaimed president-to-be Mohamed Farrah Aidid who had support from armed civilian fighters.

Task Force Ranger—which consisted of an assault force made up of US Army Delta Force, Ranger teams, an air element provided by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, four Navy SEAL operators from SEAL Team Six and members of the Air Force Pararescue / Air Force Combat Controllers under the command of Major General William F. Garrison executed an operation that involved traveling from their compound on the outskirts of the city to the center with the aim of capturing the leaders of the Habr Gidr clan, headed by warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

During the operation, two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by RPGs and three others were damaged. Some of the wounded survivors were able to evacuate back to the compound, but others remained near the crash sites and were isolated. An urban battle ensued throughout the night.

According to the movie, 19 US Special Operations soldiers were killed, with over 2,000 Somalis dead. Delta Snipers Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart were the first soldiers to be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. At the time, the battle was the bloodiest involving US troops since the Vietnam war and remained so until the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004.

Asus UX31 Zenbook

There's more to life than good looks. And while looking good will get you so far, if you can't do anything useful, then there's no chance you'll ever be a success. Are we talking about Laptops or people here? Well, both, frankly.

The Asus Zenbook is a truly stunning-looking piece of equipment. Taking some cues from the best notebook computers on the market, and bringing a few tricks of its own to the party. But the question is: does it deliver a well-rounded package or is it just a beautiful facade?

Design

There's no possible way anyone could call the Zenbook ugly. It's taken some important cues from Apple's MacBooks. It's solidly-built for one, and has an all-metal body, which, while not a unibody, does feel very similar to the Mac in use.

Of course, this all means that this loses all the flexibility of upgrading the SSD, RAM and battery that other PCs have. Still, you pays your money, you makes your choice. For most people, a little reduction in upgradability will be easily offset by one of the best-looking laptops we've seen.
Of course, where metal is involved, there's also extra weight. The UX31 isn't overly heavy though, we slung it into a rucksack and carried it, barely noticing it was there. It's not as light as it could be, but it's still super-portable.

Ports

One area the Macbook Air lets itself down is in ports. This is partially a space consideration, and partly Apple's determination to adopt new standards and create machines that have a long lifespan. But, it's also deeply annoying for a lot of users.
It is great then to see the Zenbook pack an impressive set of connection options. There are two USB sockets, one of both 2.0 and 3.0 speeds. You'll also find mini HDMI and mini VGA sockets. You get a VGA adaptor in the box, but there's no supplied HDMI cable.

There is also an SD card slot, which is a very welcome addition, and one of those things that we've come to rely on extensively since most camcorders and digital cameras use this format.
There is also a headphone jack and a small power socket. In side-by-side comparisons with the MacBook Air, the Asus power adaptor is nearly as compact, but Apple's MagSafe is really something we miss on other laptops. Curiously, the Windows 7 activation code is located on the power adaptor. So do be careful not to lose this, or your life will get a bit more complicated.
You may notice there is no Ethernet socket built in. That's true, but Asus includes a USB adaptor in the box to allow you to connect to a wired network. Apple does this too, but it costs £25, which is a bit steep. We're glad to see Asus throwing one in, and when we tested it, it worked fine. We doubt you'll see the same throughput as you would with a proper network card, but even so, it's likely to be more reliable than Wi-Fi.

Bing off

One thing we noticed during the Windows setup was that we had to give the Bing bar permission to check up on us and report back to Microsoft. Without this, we wouldn't be able to use Windows as it refused to let us progress.

This is unacceptable, frankly. It's one thing to force a Bing bar on customers. It is quite another thing to not only force it on them, but actually render their machine unusable if they don't agree to let it talk to Microsoft about you, behind your back.

Keyboard and trackpad

The two things you use to communicate with your computer are obviously the two most important things about a laptop. With a desktop, if you don't like your mouse, then throw it away. With a laptop, it's always possible to add external input devices, but kind of invalidates the point of buying a laptop. Sadly, this is the area with which we were least impressed by the Asus.
Firstly, the keyboard. It looks good, but the key travel is a little too shallow for us. With this laptop, that seemed to translate to a very poor success rate with typing. Often letters would go missing, and it would be because either the key isn't sensitive enough, or we hadn't quite hit it dead on. This is in stark contrast to the Apple MacBook Air, which doesn't have a lot of travel either, but still manages to be a nice typing experience - although it isn't perfect either.

Then we look at the trackpad. And it's just horrible. Visually it mimics Apple's, but in terms of usability it's a significant way behind. Many of the multi-touch gestures you'd get on the Mac are here. Three fingers swiped upward will give you the Windows Flip interface. Annoyingly, it doesn't then allow you to scroll through the windows.
Two finger scrolling works okay, but it's not sensitive enough, and tweaking it doesn't help. We also couldn't make the edge scrolling work, despite enabling it in the trackpad setup. Worst of all though was the pinch zoom. We seemed to spend all our time accidentally zooming in on webpages, well, that is until we disabled the option for it. Perhaps we're not cut out for gestures, or perhaps we've got clumsy digits, but for us, this is not a good area for the Zenbook.
But, by far the worst sin of all is the poorly-designed case on the U31. Sitting at a desk, typing, meant that the edge of the laptop was sticking into the base of our palm. Very quickly this became highly uncomfortable and really made us hate using the machine. Combine this with less than stellar keyboard and pointing device action, and you start to feel pretty cross about the UX31.
Yes, of course, you could carry a small wireless keyboard and mouse around with you, but for a laptop, that's really not the point. Out in the field, where you don't sit at a desk, the digging in of the chassis is less likely to annoy, but you'll still have to contend with a sub-optimal keyboard and mouse combination.

Video, audio and screen performance

The Asus' screen did strike us as a little washed out most of the time. It doesn't seem to have a lot of contrast, although it can be very bright if it wants. The viewing angle isn't terrific either, with further colour being lost if you look at the screen from any angle other than straight on. The 13.3-inch unit does have plenty of detail though with a 1600 x 900 pixel resolution, which is good. Certainly for day-to-day web surfing and video watching, it is more than capable.
Video quality with a 1080p clip was very good indeed. We turned the screen brightness down to minimum, and that recovered a little more contrast, and the image was still bright enough and crammed full of beautiful detail.

Audio is mostly decent. The speaker system branded by Bang and Olufsen, though how much the audio firm did, we're not sure. Certainly, audio was clear at low- and mid-volume, but get too high and it distorted unpleasantly. This probably won't be a huge problem, as there is more than enough power in the speakers to make sure you don't need them at full volume. We liked how the Asus handled downmixing DTS audio via VLC. Dialogue was crystal clear, and while bass wasn't that impressive, we did like the overall sound.

Performance

In battery saving mode the Asus really choked badly at our 1080p movie clip, delivering only a badly broken-up image. While we understand and appreciate why this is, we would like to see the PC employ a little more common sense. Either a message to tell you that it can't play video properly in this mode, or automatically switch to full-power, might be sensible. Certainly, non-technical owners might not understand why their new laptop isn't just playing video back.
In the normal mode though, the Asus is snappy as hell and a joy to use. The i7 2577M processor handles all common tasks brilliantly, and the 4GB of memory is enough to see you through all but the very most challenging of scenarios.

Battery life

Day-to-day use was impressive. We powered the laptop on at 10am, with a little less than full charge, and we were still working on it at 3pm. We'd estimate that in normal use - we used Ethernet, not Wi-Fi - you'd see 5 hours quite easily, Asus states it will give you 7 hours. This is impressive for a machine so small, and more than enough for most uses.
The Asus power-plans seem well designed too, and the battery-prediction app told us we could get a lot more life out of our charge if we made a few compromises. For word processing and web browsing, this is no problem, but if you're watching HD video, you'll have to put up with the standard battery life.

Verdict

The Asus Zenbook is like Angelina Jolie. It's hot to look at, but you know full well that a long-term relationship is going to be painful and difficult. Well, we know that, because we've tested the Zenbook and have heard lots about Angelina Jolie having her partner's blood in a container around her neck.
Its design, while sleek, wreaks havoc with our hands. The bezel is just torture to rest on for any length of time.
The trackpad is bad too. Despite its clear effort to copy Apple's system, it is slow, unresponsive and frustrating to use. The buttons are a good idea though, and we like to see the flexibility offered by both gestures and physical keys. The problem was, gestures are horrible to use. Pinch zoom is so bad, we had to turn it off and we didn't find the two finger scroll all that relibable either.
We loved the styling of the Zenbook, we think the power and battery are brilliant. We love the fact that there are a decent number of ports, and that there are included breakout adaptors for Ethernet and VGA. We also love the supplied case.
The Zenbook is a good package, but with a laptop, not being able to type comfortably and use a reliable trackpad is kind of a deal breaker. Definitely one to try before you buy.