The United States Marine Corps had been providing a small number of military advisors to South Vietnam since the 1950s, but when large numbers of US troops were first deployed in 1965, the Marines were at the forefront. In time more than half a million Marines would serve in the country, and since this period of engagement was from 1965 to 1971, we will treat the ‘late war’ label on the box to mean 1970 and 1971. At its peak, Marine presence in South Vietnam had reached 85,000, but by the start of 1970 this had dropped to 55,000 as the US Government gradually withdrew its forces. By the end of 1971 there were no more than around 500 Marines still in-country, mostly acting as embassy guards or in administration roles, and the last of these were evacuated with the fall of Saigon in 1975.

By 1970 the Marine uniform was the Tropical Combat Uniform, either in an olive green or in ERDL camouflage. This consisted of a shirt worn outside of the trousers, and those trousers had four pockets at the hips and two cargo pockets on the legs. This appears to be what these men are wearing, although the shirt is almost completely hidden by the kit they carry, and one man has made his trousers into shorts. The only clues we have as to body clothing are at the shoulders, and these suggest that seven of the poses wear the shirt with sleeves rolled up, three have short sleeves (might be cut off sleeves, or just the undershirt), and the last three have no sleeves, suggesting they are wearing no shirt at all. This is fine, and as far as we can tell, all poses wear a flak jacket, but impossible to say which style, though they look good to us. Most of the poses have a cover (the Marines called any headgear a ‘cover’), mostly the usual M1 helmet, but three have the soft boonie hat instead, which was also popular. No one wears the ‘utility cover’, which would also have been appropriate here, but one and possibly both of the men without any headgear wear a sweat band instead. All the helmets have a cover and also a band round the crown into which various items are lodged. This was issued by the Army but not the Marines, but the practice was widely copied by the Marines, who improvised using an inner tube or anything else that came to hand, so is fine here. In all respects therefore, the uniform looks perfect for the late war period.

The kit that you might find being carried by a Marine in the field by this date was extremely varied. As well as issue items, some men made use of favoured Army items, locally produced kit and even captures from the enemy. As a result there was no standard look, but it was normal for Marines to be heavily encumbered, especially if on a long patrol, as their area of operation, often in the far north of the country, meant logistical support was often difficult. These figures carry a wide range of bags, water bottles, extra pouches, bandoliers and unboxed ammunition belts. One man even has a guitar on his back, and most have several visible grenades of various types attached to their webbing, although this was not always the safest way to carry such things. Those with particular weapons have the correct equipment for them, and a few also have a visible machete. All of this seems plausible, and all looks to be of the correct design, given that there is such a wide range of possibilities. We were pleased to see several with two canteens, and a couple with three, but the overall mix is very pleasing and looks entirely authentic.

Since this is the early 1970s, the only rifle on show here is the relatively new M16, and eight of these poses carry one – two with an M203 grenade launcher underneath. Two more carry the M60 machine gun, and both they and a couple of others have ammunition belts draped around their body. Both should also have a pistol, but only one seems to have this. None of the figures in our final row have any visible weapon. While other weapons could have been included here, those we actually have are a good selection in our view, and a strength of the set as a whole.

The riflemen and machine-gunners represent the ordinary fighting troops in this set, but there are also three very interesting one-copy poses too. The first is a kneeling man holding something in each hand which we could not identify. We suspect the long thing in his right hand is an intravenous drip, and this man is a medic administering to the downed man beside him. The patient himself is a really nice piece. He has had all his kit removed, and his shirt is open as he lies on the ground with his head resting on a rolled item – perhaps a wet-weather poncho. The last man is particularly unusual, and yet very appropriate for this conflict. He is perhaps a journalist or more likely a Marine combat photographer, as he wears standard Marine clothing and gear. He holds a camera to his face, and is a nice reminder of just how much recording of the war was done using both stills and film.

The poses strongly suggest to us that these men are on patrol rather than in any sort of action. Only one man has his weapon in an obvious firing position, and most have theirs slung at the ready or simply over a shoulder. Almost all seem to be on the move, but there is no sense of urgency about any of them. As such, these depict the men in their most common activity when on duty – patrolling and trying to find the enemy, while always being alert to the possibility of ambush. Some may bemoan the lack of actual battle poses, but we thought every one here is in a credible position, and look very lifelike. The medic with casualty is an interesting touch, though it does not match well with the walking men, and the photographer was a great idea very well realised.

As with some other recent Orion sets, this one seems to have been very well sculpted, but has suffered from some problems when the masters are used to create the mould. In general the sculpting is very good, with plenty of decent detail such as on weapons, but sometimes smaller details just disappear. This is most obvious with the helmet bands, most of which are only present in parts, which in some cases leaves the items tucked under this as completely open, hanging on to the side of the helmet by themselves. Another curious feature is with some of the feet, which show a thick bar joining them to the leg. We speculate that this is where the original frame on which the figure was sculpted has come through the material, which looks terrible and is certainly down to the original sculpt. In addition, the casualty is lying on his back, but both legs are suspended somewhat in mid air, which means you will have to build up the ground underneath his legs to avoid making this figure look silly. While the guitar on one Marine’s back is a cute idea, it is also really badly sculpted, partly because it would be too long if fully sculpted, so this seems to be a case of a good idea that was not so good in execution. On some figures there is a great deal of flash, and in places the plastic does not seem to have filled the mould properly, but this is worst on the three ‘speciality’ figures, and the ordinary soldiers suffer less in this regard. Nevertheless, this is quite a messy set that some will want to spend much time improving.

This set seems to have had some late changes to the design, as some of the figures shown on the back of the box do not appear in the actual set. However, the accuracy all looks good, and while the lack of fighting poses may disappoint some, we thought they were all appropriate for the subject, and adding a medical group and a combat photographer certainly adds interest to the poses. The sculpting is generally very good, but problems with mould-making do damage these figures to a degree, so this is a nice set, but one that has more rough edges than we would have liked.