Since the inception of the Bundeswehr in the mid 1950s it had been accepted that West Germany's constitution prohibited deployment of her armed forces outside the NATO area, but with the end of the Cold War and other changes in the World, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 1994 that such deployment was permissible under certain circumstances. Three years later Revell produced this, the first of their small range of 'modern' figures (which of course are now over 20 years old), the majority of which are of German subjects.
The Revell standard of 12 poses are a fair bunch, though nothing special. They do at least utilise a good range of weapons, and these are being correctly handled. The majority hold the then-new Heckler & Koch G-36 assault rifle, including the men standing and firing, a pose we are not too keen on for modern soldiers, though of course this pose is not actually wrong. The first man in the second row is carrying a Panzerfaust 3, and the third in that row is firing one. The last man on the middle row is using a Milan 3 missile launcher on a tripod-ground-mount, and the man below him carries another tube for it. We would expect the machine gun in the second row to be the MG3, the standard squad support weapon of the day, but while it lacks most of its detail, the basic shape does not suggest this weapon. The kneeling man in the bottom row is using the Granatpistole 40 mm with sight raised, and he has a holster for this weapon on his right side. All these weapons are appropriate for the late 1990s.
The men all wear what might be considered an international uniform of flak jacket and helmet, like those seen in the Paratroops set. All the clothing and weaponry are correctly sculpted and appropriate.
As usual the sculpting is fine, with good detail and well proportioned figures. The only multi-part pose is the prone man with the Milan, and this has been put together quite well. The prone figure with the light machine gun has been cast from above, so most of the detail on his weapon is lost, but in general there are few compromises of this nature. The initial production of this set was very clean, with virtually no flash, but later examples had a good deal more flash unfortunately. One or two figures are quite two-dimensional (such as the last figure on the bottom row), but this is a generally good set, though the lack of any real opposition for them to face is an unavoidable limitation on their appeal.