Wednesday 25 January 2012

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!

31 comments:

  1. That is an excellent set of minis. Very nice paintjobs as usual. I really like the Hightower model, best. Before I even started to read I thought "Hightower". I am going to need more policeman officers, soon. I think I know which ones to get. Thanks. These reviews you do are very helpful. That's pretty cool about owning all of the Street Violence range. You must have an awesome collection. And painted at that. Do you have any unpainted minis?

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    1. Thanks for the kind comments, Joe.I do have a MASSIVE collection of 28mm scale contemporary figures. I've been collecting for over 30 years now. As for unpainted figures - I have far too many! I have over 100 zombies waiting to get painted and as for the rest, they're too numerous to count! Sigh, so much to do and just not enough hours in the day!

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  2. Unfortunately, Foundry recently stopped selling many of these figures- especially the Police Academy-esque ones. They've reorganised their Street Violence cop bliser packs accordingly.

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    1. That's interesting to hear, Brian, because I just checked out the Foundry website this morning and this set is still listed as being available.

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    2. Yes, but the figure you received as a bonus (the one that looks like mahoney) used to be part of the pack. Now you get Willy instead (if I remember correctly.

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  3. Very nice Bryan. I do like these cops they have alot of character. I have both the Copplestone ones but haven't started at all yet

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    1. These would fit in well with your Copplestone and Hasslefree cops, Simon, especially the Hasslefree cops.

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    2. I'm not sure about the copplestone ones at the minute they are grat figures but I'm unsure if thet will fit as they are a bit too modern.

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    3. Personally, I think the Copplestone cops work best in a near future setting as their weaponry and uniforms don't tie in with any known contemporary police force. I used them a lot when I ran my Cyberpunk campaign set in the year 2020 way back in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

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    4. I agree they look more futuristic types. I'm gonna pick up some more standard cops I think

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  4. "Yes, I do own them all, and yes, they are all painted!"

    Sir, you have all my envy and my respect!

    Beautiful set, I plan to paint copplestone cop soon, what's difference between NYPD and LAPD?

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    1. Thank you, Zerloon. The differences between NYPD cops and LAPD cops is kind of subtle. NYPD cops have cloth badges on their upper arms. LAPD cops have none. NYPD cops have gold cap badges, whilst LAPD cops have silver cap badges. The shape of their left breast shield badges are different. It's nothing major, but the differences are there. I usually work on the premise that if a figure is wearing a shirt, as these are, they belong to the LAPD. If a figure is wearing a coat, like the Weat Wind street cops, for example, then he's a NYPD cop. The Copplestone cops are all wearing coats, so I'd paint them up as NYPD cops. I hope that helps you.

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  5. I have all these, some of my favourites especially old Coronary Bob, great work my friend.....

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    1. You just have to love Coronary Bob, don't you?

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  6. Excellent set of figures and as usual a great paint job on them, never occurred to me to equate these with the Police Acadamey films. Due to a mix up with foundry I actually have two of this set and I'm still undecided as to what to do with the second set, though Bob2 may get a weapon in his burger hand !
    Like, Lucky Joe I find your figure reviews really enlightening as to which figures are African-American and to a lesser extent differentiating women, bioth tricky at times with my eyesight !

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    1. Thanks, Joe. It's nice to get comments like this, that appreciate the work I do. Say, do let me know if you got the bonus figure?

      Regarding your swaps, the first four figures in my photos shouldn't be too hard to convert with simple arm twists or in the case of Sgt. Storm and Coronary Bob, giving them weapons. For the last two, the easiest way to convert them would be to give them different skin colours.

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  7. A great collection, you just gotta love Hightower, look at the bloody size of him!!

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  8. I just finished these several weeks ago myself. Great job on them as always!

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    1. Good on you, WarRaptor. Thanks for commenting.

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  9. I need more cops..... Oh wait...I need more money so I can buy more cops!!!

    These look great! And as an old fan of the Police Academy (1-2-3 it stops there!!!) These are almost essential. Sigh....

    Yet another project...

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    1. Aha, so you too stopped at PA3. Good man, Johnny! I've had the opportunity to watch 4 and 5 on a few occasions but somehow I've always found something better to do!

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    2. Oh I have seen 4 and 5.... But to me Police Academy is a trilogy!!!!

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    3. I bet you're wishing you hadn't seen 4 and 5, LOL!

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  10. nice i need to get these sets, they look nice, i love the guy with the fast food, typical cop lol

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    1. Yes, Coronary Bob is quite a character, although I'm sure he wouldn't like being called a "typical cop!" Hey, his bag could be full of doughnuts!

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  11. Fantastic Bryan, Coronary Bob is definitely my fave!

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    1. Heh, heh, so many people like Coronary Bob, Adam.

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  12. I took delivery of these a week ago and just got round to cleaning them up. It's a right pain! I don't suppose you remember what condition yours were in? I really like the street violence range but I'd consider my options if they're all like this.

    I don't mind the cleaning up of miniatures. I actually quite enjoy it in therapeutic kind of way but I'm pretty unhappy about the state of a couple of these. Not really enough to bother complaining mind!

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    1. Actually mine arrived in pretty good condition. Very little clean up work required for me.

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    2. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I've stopped throwing my hissy fit now! It's actually only two of them in a bad way. Think I'm going to have to re sculpt hightower's left hand and fill some bits. And Bob will need a bit of green stuff too :(

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