Foundry U.S. Street Cops 02

This review is tied in to my last one, which looked at Foundry's first set of street cops from their 28mm scale Street Violence range. This time I'm looking at set SV065 Shot Gun Cops. Each of these figures is a conversion of the cops found in set SV031 Street Cops. Note, that once again, I received a bonus figure with this set, but I'm sorry to say, he's no longer available. The first five figures from left to right are the ones you get with this set.

I have painted these figures up in the uniform of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), just as I did with the last set.

The only thing that I don't like about the cop at the far left of my two photos above is the horrible name that the Foundry crew gave her - Bella Oxmix. Yuk! I haven't come up with an alternative name but I can assure you that she won't be called Bella Oxmix in my games. Okay, so a name change is dead easy but it doesn't detract from how well sculpted she is. She is sculpted in a relaxed pose, resting her shotgun on her right hip.
Next up is "Pizza Pete," a figure that almost surpasses Coronary Bob from the previous set for its humour and sheer awesomeness. Don't get me wrong, I think Pete is an excellent figure but I feel that Bob only just shades him. As his nickname indicates, Pete is very fond of pizzas and he has been depicted taking a bite out of a slice of his favourite snack. You just have to admire the humour and originality that have gone into this figure and Coronary Bob.
I haven't mentioned the Police Academy films yet, as so many of the Foundry street cops seem to be based upon characters from that series. That is certainly the case with the third figure in line, who passes a very close resemblance to the overly gung-ho Eugene Tackleberry. To be honest, he is too tall for an accurate representation of Tackleberry, so maybe you'd be better of using the name given to him by Foundry - Baker. The addition of the sunglasses is a nice touch.
Staying with the Police Academy connection, next up is Foundry's version of the unassertive, soft-spoken cop with the high-pitched voice, Laverne Hooks. She does become authorative and aggressive if she gets frustrated or pushed to the limit. Foundry named her Cully, another name that I don't like.
The fifth figure in this set is Taffy, holding his shotgun at the ready in a two-handed grip. He is a rather unremarkable figure. He's not badly sculpted but he doesn't really stand out from the crowd.
The sixth figure in line is the bonus figure that I was sent. Sadly, it would seem that he's no longer available, which is a shame, as I like the pose he's in. He's the only figure in this set who looks like he's about to fire his shotgun.
This set complements the original set extremely well. I don't mind that all of these figures are conversions of the ones found in the original set. By giving them shotguns instead of pistols their profiles have changed enough to make them seem like original figures. They are well-sculpted and not too big. On the whole, they will work okay if you add them to cop figures from other companies. For example, Hasslefree's Ken, with his choice of pistol or shotgun, would make for a great companion to either or both  of the two Foundry street cop sets.
As with most Foundry Street Violence sets, this set of five figures costs £10.00 from Foundry's webstore. C'mon, cops with shotguns - what's not to like?

Foundry U.S. Street Cops 01

Here's a blast from the past as I review set SV031 Street Cops from the Foundry Street Violence range of figures. I've had these figures for years now but it's taking me time to show off my complete collection of this range. Bear with me and I will get round to reviewing every figure in the range. Yes, I do own them all, and yes, they are all painted!

I usually paint my U.S. street cops in the colour scheme of the NYPD but these are painted up as LAPD cops. Is there a difference? Oh, yes.

Starting at the far left of my two photos shown above is Sergeant Storm. I'm going to use the names provided for the figures by the guys at Foundry. It has been noted by quite few people that some of these figures bear more than a passing resemblence to a few of the cast from the Police Academy films. That being the case, then Storm is a dead ringer for Sergeant Debbie Callahan. Her pose and stern demeanour on her face suggests that she is a tough, no-nonsense cop.
Next up, is my all-time favourite cop figure, Coronary Bob. Kudos to Foundry for giving him such a great nickname! He is nonchantly walking along, having just popped into a KFC restaurant for a takeaway meal. He has his large drink in his right hand and his bag of food in the other. To be honest, he could have been to any fast food restaurant or food store but I painted the KFC logo on his bag and cup, simply because it's my favourite fast food establishment. This figure just oozes character and I love him!
We return to the Police Academy theme with the extremely tall and aptly named Moses Hightower, although Foundry have christened him J.J. A lot of the Foundry Street Violence sets feature one over-sized figure and for this set this is him. Moses is the very definition of the term "a gentle giant." He may have immense strength but he is mild-mannered and soft-spoken.
Fourth in line is Betty. Now if I'd painted her with brown flesh she could have been  the timid Laverne Hooks from Police Academy, but there is a much better version of Hooks in the shotgun armed street cops set. You'll notice that three of these cops have their pistols pointed skywards, but are still ready for action. I guess Betty is just assessing the situation to see if an armed response is necessary.
The fifth figure in this group is the mustaschioed Willy. I couldn't find an equivalent for him in the Police Academy films but I haven't seen all of them. I stopped watching them after Police Academy 3. He also carries his pistol pointing to the heavens but he holds it in a two-handed grip. He's a good generic cop.
Now that should have been the end of this review as those are the five figures shown on the Foundry website for this set. However, when I received my blister pack, I found an extra figure included. This was about fifteen years ago, so I have no idea if Foundry still offer this bonus figure. Anyway, he does look very similar to Steve Guttenberg's character, Carey Mahoney, the star of the Police Academy series. He is also holding his pistol in a two-handed grip but this time, he's pointing it at the ground.
Okay, I know I've made numerous references to Police Academy, but seriously, these are a great bunch of bog-standard street cops. If you team these up with their shotgun-toting colleagues, which I'll be reviewing next time, you'll have a nice force of cops to use in your games. This set of five figures (or maybe six) costs £10.00 from Foundry's webstore. With the exception of J.J. they are not over-sized and will fit in well with cops from other ranges, like Hasslefree or West Wind. I have to say that this set is worth buying for the Coronary Bob figure alone. He is an absolute gem!

Underworld: Awakening 3D

I'm a very happy bunny! My favourite on-screen vampire, Selene the Death Dealer, has returned in the fourth film in the Underworld series. I saw this just two days ago, when it first screened at the cinema without reading any reviews of it. To be honest, I would have still gone to see it even if every film critic slated it because I am a Selene fanboy. As it happens a lot of the film critics did slam the film, but as I always say, the only critic who counts is yourself. Once again, Kate Beckinsale, who plays Selene, dons her iconic black leather skintight costume (how cool does she look in that film poster to the left?) and does what she does best, blows away anyone who stands in her way... only this time in glorious 3D!
THE PLOT. Six months after the events of Underworld: Evolution, Selene and her lover, Michael Corvin, are captured by human troops during a puge of all vampires and Lycans (werewolves) when humanity finally learns of their existance. Selene and Michael are special as they share the blood of Corvinus, the first vampire. Selene the vampire and Michael the Lycan both gain additional powers that make them unique, so naturally they become test specimens to be experimented on. For twelve years, Selene is kept in a cryogenic coma at the Antigen facility, a government sponsored research facility run by Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea). Another captive at the facility, known as Subject Two, helps Selene to escape. At first Selene thinks that Subject Two is Michael, because she can see events through his eyes. But when another vampire, David (Theo James) comes to Selene's aid, they discover that Subject Two is a young girl called Eve (India Easley). They head off in a van for David's lair but are attacked by a trio of Lycans on the way. Eve is bitten by one of the Lycans and retaliates by ripping its head in half. Selene and David kill the Lycan trio and arrive at David's underground lair. David is the son of an elder vampire, Thomas (Charles Dance) who doesn't take too kindly to their arrival. Selene uses her blood to help heal Eve and she learns that the young vampire hybrid is actually her daughter. Hmm, now there's a turn up for the books!

India Easley as Eve, the hybrid vampire daughter of Selene.

Things take a turn for the worse when the vampires' lair is discovered and infiltrated by a pack of Lycans. This is odd as all Lycans were supposedly eradicated during "The Purge." Looks like someone has been telling lies. The Lycans are only after one thing, Eve. Selene promises to protect her but fails in her duty when she is beaten by the largest Lycan ever seen (Kris Holden-Ried). This beast is about twelve feet tall and a real bad ass! David is killed in the fight and Selene knocked out but she makes amends to Thomas by bringing David back to unlife with her unique blood.

She leaves the coven and enlists the help of an FBI detective, Sebastian (Michael Ealy) to gain access to the Antigen facility, where Eve has been returned. Dr. Lane is revealed as a Lycan and he has been using Selene's DNA to create a race of super Lycans who are immune to silver. That huge bad ass Lycan I mentioned earlier is Quint, Dr. Lane's son. The film climaxes in a bloody fight to the death with no prizes awarded for guessing who emerges victorious.

THE FILM. This time the film had two directors, Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, both from Sweden. The series creator and original director, Len Wiseman, (husband of Kate Beckinsale) wrote the screenplay and was one of the film's producers. With a running time of just 90 minutes this packed in a lot of fight scenes, which were very gory. The 3D aspect was supposed to help kickstart the franchise but to be honest didn't add a lot to the film.

Kate Beckinsale as Selene in action. Do not mess with this lady!

THE VERDICT. For one and a half hours I just switched my brain off and was immersed in a fast-paced, action-packed bloodfest and I came out of the cinema with a huge smile on my face. I was entertained and the sight of Kate in her skintight costume kicking butt was enough for me to give this film a huge thumbs up. There are holes you can pick in the plot and no one is going to win any acting awards for this film, but that kind of misses the point. It's an action and adventure film, pure and simple with no pretensions of being high art. Sometimes we need our fix of mindless mayhem and bloody violence as an escape mechanism from the rigours of real life. Believe me, I've seen a lot worse than this offering. As a result I'll happily award this an 8 out of 10 rating. I'd have rated it higher if we'd seen more of Michael and Selene together, but Scott Speedman, who played Michael in the first two Underworld films did not want to appear in part four, which was a shame. Since I've seen the film, I've read numerous reviews of it and it certainly has not gone down well with the film critics. So is it a one to avoid? I guess a lot depends on what you thought of the previous films in the series. These are my favourite vampire films of all time, so it was pretty much a given that I'd enjoy Underworld: Awakening. If you don't think much of the previous offerings or haven't seen them you may want to avoid this one. I'm now looking forward to the DVD release and if there is an Underworld 5, I'll go and see it and no doubt enjoy it.

Recreational Conflict Civilians 02 and Survivors 01

Recreational Conflict have two sets of eight 28mm scale figures in their Lead Bones horror range called Civics Class or if you want all 16 figures there is a set called Gearing Up. I said in my last post that these were the best figures made by Recreational Conflict and I'd go even further to say that these are amongst the best civilian and survivor figures available anywhere. What I particular like about them is that each figure comes with a choice of arms, allowing you to make an unarmed civilian version of the figure and an armed survivor type. What a fantastic concept! The range is made up of four pairs of males and four pairs of females and covers a wide range of ethnic types, which is another reason why I like these so much.

Set 1 contains the four African-American figures shown in the two photos directly above and below. I got to use a lot of my Foundry flesh paints on these figures. For the two figures on the left I used African Flesh 126 and for the two on the right I used North African Flesh 124, which isn't as dark. The civilian at the far left is a basket ball player and as befits his profession, he is quite a tall figure. Note how taller is than the other male alongside him. Be aware that these figures vary in height, with the females being a few millimetres shorter than the males. This is not a bad thing and quite frankly, reflects real life very well. As well as the basketball, which he's holding under his right arm, he also carries a bottle of some kind of energy drink. His armed version totes an Ingram MAC-10 Sub-Machine Gun.

The civilian on the right is another sporty type but he has taken up skateboarding rather than basketball. Incidentally, the logo on his skateboard reads "Flip." I did a Google search of skateboards and skateboarders to get an accurate representation for the colour scheme for his board and for his clothing. The survivor version of him is armed with a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun.

 

The females in set 1 are made up of a shopper and a businesswoman. The shopper could be described as a Chav if she was a U.K. resident, but I'm going with the sports mum look for her, because she's a U.S. citizen and I think that label is more appropriate. The civilian version of this figure is carrying a pair of shopping bags, so she's probably only just started her shopping spree. The survivor type has swapped her shopping bags for a pair of pistols. I wonder if she's ambidextrous? I used the standard Foundry Flesh 5 for her skin tones.

The businesswoman was clearly an oriental, so her flesh tones were painted using Foundry Oriental Flesh 122. She is speaking on her mobile phone and in her left hand she holds another small electronic device, perhaps a pager. The survivor version of this figure carries a pump-action shotgun.

The males in set 2 are made up of a cameraman and a businessman. I wanted the cameraman to look like he spent a lot of time outdoors, because of his clothing. So I decided to give him tanned flesh, and for this I used Native American Flesh 120. I really love the Foundry Flesh paints! I guess that spending so much time looking through a lens, it was a logical choice for the survivor version to be armed with a sniper rifle, in this case the awesome Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle.

The business man, seen talking on his mobile phone and carrying a small briefcase in his other hand is obviously another African American. This time I painted his flesh tones using Dusky Flesh 6. The survivor version sees him armed with a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun and a baseball bat. He must be skilled enough in the use of his SMG to be able to fire it single-handed.

The two pairs of females in set 2 consist of a tourist and a waitress. The tourist, seen reading a guide book, could be of any etnicity but I decided to paint her as a Hispanic lady and so used Tan 14 for her flesh tones. I also decided to make her a more mature woman and so painted her with grey hair. I do like that she is overweight. With so many people being overweight, fat or obese it's nice to see this being reflected in at least one of these minis. The survivor version carries a bolt-action sniper's rifle.

The final figure combo in the set are the waitress ladies. She had to be a Caucasian female and therefore I painted her flesh bits with the standard Flesh 5 paint. Only she and the shopper were painted with identical flesh colours. I must admit that I'm not happy about how I painted the civilian's face. She looks very stern and harsh. The civilian carries an empty tray and has a cloth draped over her right arm. The survivor has ditched them for a Big Ass Magnum Revolver.
I could have painted all 16 figures differently and I did think about that as that would have given me 16 unique figures. But I was put off by having to come up with an extra 8 colour schemes and I thought it would make more sense to tie the two versions together by painting them both identically.
Let me list the reasons why I rate these figures so highly.
1. The concept of combining civilians and survivors is one that I wish other companies would copy. I love this idea of a before and after character.
2. There is a wide range of ethnic types amongst these figures. Full marks to sculptor Brian Cooke for not making them all Caucasian.
3. The heights of the figures vary, as they would in real life. The basketball player is the tallest in the range, and so he should be. The females are smaller than the males, and again, so they should be. If they were all the same height it would look unrealistic.
4. There is a lot of character in these figures. Each one looks as if he or she could tell a story. I like to see that in my figures.
5. They have been beautifully sculpted in 28mm scale. The proportions of the figures look right and they'll fit in very well with most other ranges of 28mm scale figures, despite their slight variations in height.
I do have one minor criticism of them and that is that I had to refer to the pictures of them on the Recreational Conflict website to ensure that the right combination of arms went with the right figures. Once that was sorted I must admit that the arms attached to the bodies very well.
There is one thing that I think could make this range even better and that is to release a second set of them showing them as zombies and corpses. Civilian, survivor, zombie and corpse - what a winning combination that would be! I mentioned this to RC's head honcho, Richard Brooks but sadly from the response I got back I don't think it'll happen but a man can dream, can't he?
Set 1 and 2 cost $18.00 each or you can buy both sets together for $36.00. Each figure is available to purchase for the price of $2.50. I've had these figures for quite a few months but have only just gotten round to painting them. My bad, as I had a lot of fun painting them. These figures would make the basis of a great starting group of characters thrown together when the zombie apocalypse kicks off. I'd be quite happy to use any and all of them in my own ATZ campaign.

Recreational Conflict Civilians 01

For my second review of civilian figures I'm taking a look at the Recreational Conflict 28mm scale Clerks set. When I first saw the greens for this set of figures last year, I couldn't believe my eyes. Here were three of the four figures instantly recognisable as the main characters from the classic English comedy series, Open All Hours, being made by an American figure company. I find the fact that an American firm has made figures from a series so quintessentially English quite amazing. I'm guessing Richard Brooks must be a big fan of the show.

At the far left of my two photos is the irascible miser,  Albert Arkwright, as played by the great Ronnie Barker. Sculptor Brian Cooke has achieved a perfect likeness of the wily old, stammering storekeeper. He has a broad smile on his face as he stands with his hands in his coat pockets, no doubt thinking of his latest scam to fleece his customers of their cash. Recreational Conflict have named him Mr. Wainwright, which is a good alternative name that helps get round any copyright problems.

Forever by his side, and often under his feet, is the much put upon Granville, as played by a very young-looking Sir David Jason. Granville is the errand boy whose ambition for something more out of life, like a steady girlfriend, is inevitably thwarted by Arkwright. Poor lad! He's called Trevor in the Recreational Conflict catalogue.

Next up is Nurse Gladys Emmanuel, as played by Lynda Baron, she of the ample bosom and the only person who can wrap the lovelorn Arkwright around her little finger. Nurse Gladys is a typical northern woman, who is not to be messed with, especially by any male with salacious thoughts and wandering hands. She has been given the name of Mavis (same name as my mum) by Recreational Conflict.

The fourth figure in this set, is not based upon any of the characters from Open All Hours but is, I believe, Richard's father. He is depicted as a chemist. I think that it's a marvellous gesture of Richard to have his father immortalised in white metal. Much respect, sir! He's called Joseph on the Recreational Conflict website.

This was a set that I had to buy as soon as it was released, as I am a big fan of Open All Hours. Civilians are like zombies - you can never have too many of them. Whether I'll use these in my ATZ campaign remains to be seen. I'm sure that if was to avoid calling them by their TV character names I'd be able to find a place for them in Mayhem City. For anyone who is setting a game in the U.K. then these are an essential buy. I'll be honest, I never envisaged the day that I'd own a set of 28mm scale Open All Hours figures, and even more so if they were sculpted by a non-Brit. And yet, here I am with them. 

This set retails for $10.00, a fair price in my opinion. If you wish, you can buy each figure individually for $2.50.

Next time I'm going to review some more Recreational Conflict figures and they are, in my opinion, the best figures they've made. Pure awesomeness abounds next Wednesday!