Heroclix SWAT Troopers

I was going to review some West Wind SWAT troopers today but I've decided to keep them for a later date (although not too late) and instead have a look at my Heroclix 35mm scale SWAT troopers. Way back in the past when Heroclix was in its infancy their sets contained superheroes, supervillains and non-super types, like cops, criminals, ninjas, etc. The figures I'm reviewing today come from the first couple of Heroclix sets that were released.

Only one of these figures is not a conversion, and he's the trooper at the far left of my two photos above. He is dramatically posed, leaning back as he fires his 5.56mm Colt M16A2 Assault Rifle from the shoulder. This rifle is standard issue with the Washington DC Emergency Response Team (ERT). In addition to normal SWAT operations, the ERT assists U.S. Secret Service with presidential and VIP functions and transportation, including crowd control. Assuming he is an ERT operative, his pistol would be a 9mm SIG-Sauer P226.

Trooper 2 has had a leg and body swap with trooper 5. In every other respect he is identical to Trooper 1, although I have painted him as an African-American.

Trooper 3 was originally armed with a Big Ass Pistol in his left hand. I decided to cut it off and give him a large entry shield, which are much bigger and more robust than riot shields. I remodelled his left arm with Milliput modelling putty. His entry shield is a spare one that I got from Foundry Figures. Foundry always include spare small items with their Street Violence blister packs, like guns, shields, traffic cones, chainsaws, etc. With the amount of Street Violence packs that I bought, I soon amassed a nice collection of parts for my bits box. Every modeller needs at least one bits box! The grenade that this trooper is about to throw could be a Flash-Bang Grenade, Smoke Grenade or a Tear Gas Grenade. It most definitely won't be a High Explosive Grenade!

Trooper 4 utilises the legs from Trooper 1 and the body from Trooper 5. The sculptor had given him a riot shield, which I did not like, so I replaced it with one of my Foundry entry shields. This means that all of my shield carrying SWAT Troopers are identically equipped.  He is wielding his baton aggressively over his head. I also painted him as an African-American to further distinguish him from Trooper 5. Note that because of the leg swap, I was unable to save his sniper's rifle, slung across his back, so that got cut off.

The only conversion that I made to Trooper 5 was to replace his riot shield with a Foundry entry shield. His sniper's rifle is the 7.62mm Remington 700 and you can see it slung across his back, out of the way, as he wades in with baton and shield.

These are quite dramatically posed. They certainly are heroically scaled, (they stand about 33mm tall measuring from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads) which will put some of you off them. However, scale-wise, they do fit in well with the RAFM SWAT Team and with the Foundry SWAT Teams. I like tham a lot and I do like the idea of having enough troopers to form a four man team of shield carrying troopers. The fourth person in this team appears in the Foundry SWAT Team Suppression set (Trooper Harris). 

Sadly, these figures are now long out of production but they may crop on the likes of e-Bay or other online auction sites. Good luck on hunting them down if you really want them.