Paratroopers usually have a reputation for taking on the most difficult jobs, and for being the most reliable of soldiers with a strong professional approach. Even if they are rarely if ever asked to actually parachute into enemy territory, their high levels of training, equipment and motivation make them an elite in any army. However these paras from Atlantic fail to convey anything of that dash.
As with the rest of the 'modern' range, these figures are thin, poorly designed and with a minimum of detail. They also have the usual Atlantic mould marks, though this time they are often right on the front of the figure, thus ensuring the damage to their look is maximised. On our review examples this mark was more like a large lump of excess plastic, and there was a good deal of flash as well, so much work would be required to obtain the clean figures actually intended.
Surprisingly, the poses are mostly quite good, at least in intent. The man wielding a knife is quite unusual (more likely to be cutting his lines as threatening an enemy), as is the man about to throw a grappling hook. The soldier pulling in his very small parachute serves no particular purpose other than to reinforce the notion that these are indeed paratroops, but the figure jumping over some greenery is actually quite well done, and certainly not a pose we have seen elsewhere. However the actual poses have quite a toy-like property, as do many Atlantic figures, including several looking 'at the camera' rather than at what they are doing, or where their weapon is pointing.
On the subject of accuracy we cannot really comment. The figures bear little resemblance to the illustration on the box, which looks very much like US paratroops of World War II vintage, but assuming the figures are supposed to be Italian (or more likely generic US/Western European)) we could not obtain sufficient information on this era to form an opinion. Many of the men seem to have their still-packed reserve parachute on their chests despite being in combat - not a very likely scenario as it would impede their actions. Overall these figures are of passing interest only, and are far too toy-like to provide much for the serious modeller today.