From the day that the country was created in 1955, the USA had supported the South Vietnamese government, which it saw as a bulwark to the communist government of the North. In time this included thousands of American individuals, including many service personnel as military advisors, but a major escalation came on 8th March 1965, when the first US combat troops were landed with the task of defending the base at Da Nang, and in June of the same year they were authorised to engage in ‘offensive patrolling’, meaning to seek out and confront the enemy. Those very first troops were Marines, and their numbers rapidly increased, quickly making Vietnam the major overseas commitment for the USMC in the late 1960s.

Military operations in Vietnam took many forms, including patrols, base defence, anti-guerilla sweeps and, later, full-scale engagements with regular North Vietnamese forces. However for many the iconic image of the war is of US soldiers patrolling through dense jungle, and for us this set seems to reflect this particularly well. Quite a few of the poses are simply walking forward or dropped to one knee, which really works for a group on patrol. There are of course also some men firing or running, which are more general combat poses, so there are various uses for these figures, but we still think of these as mainly on patrol, for reasons that will become clear shortly. All of the poses are nicely done, and we thought all were well chosen for the assumed role. The kneeling firing figure in the top row is strange in that he supports his rifle by holding the magazine, which seems like an unlikely thing to do for several reasons, but otherwise we really liked all of the poses here, and thought them very natural.

The first Marines wore utilities which are largely hidden on these figures, but what can be seen looks authentic, so for example there are no thigh pockets on the trousers, which is correct for the early war period. There are different methods of handling the trouser bottoms (tucked into boots, rolled up above them, loose over the boots), all of which reflects the considerable latitude the men were often given in terms of their appearance, particularly when away from base, though this did depend on the local commander to a great extent. A common feature is the M41 helmet everyone wears, all of which have a cover, as they should. None of these figures have the elastic strap round the crown into which foliage (and much more besides) might be tucked, but sources disagree completely as to how common this practice was in the Marines specifically, so this absence seems to present no problem (and can easily be painted on if necessary). Every man here wears a flak jacket, probably the M55, with two external pockets on the chest that do not slant at the top.

All soldiers are often encumbered with large amounts of kit, and as the nature of warfare has changed in the 20th century, this has become ever more important. Everyone in this set apart from the final figure is heavily laden with kit, which looks to be mainly the M1961 Marine Web Gear. This includes the two pairs of pouches on the waistbelt, each of which contained one rifle magazine, and the water canteens, with most men carrying two, but a couple of poses have three. All have the pack or haversack in the middle of the back, and below this is often the first aid pouch. Many have a blanket rolled inside a tent shelter half, which is placed around the top and sides of the pack, and some have a larger bag on the lower back instead of the first aid pouch. The man with the radio seems to have a rolled poncho/shelter half, also on his back, and like most of the men here he also has his entrenching tool strapped to the outside of the pack. Several of the men have grenade pouches, which came in strips of three, each of which contained two grenades and dated back to Korea and the Second World War. Otherwise there is remarkably little evidence of visible grenades, although the radio man has several around the radio, as does one rifleman. That is a great deal of kit, and when you add the knives and pistol holsters some carry, these are heavily burdened men. This too makes us think of these men as being on some long patrol, since if they were engaged in base defence, for example, then they would not choose to carry so much equipment in combat. There is a common tendency in this hobby to downplay the baggage that ordinary soldiers had to carry, especially when not in battle, but happily this set is not one of them, and while Marines would not always be this heavily equipped, all the kit here looks good and is appropriate.

Part of the reason for so much kit was to carry sufficient ammunition for some very hungry weapons. In the early war the Marines carried the M14 rifle, which was basically an improved version of the World War II era M1. From the design, all the rifles here are indeed the M14, which is great, although their lengths vary enormously between 16 and 21 mm (115 to 151 cm), and as the real thing was only 113 cm long, most of these are much too long. This error really shows as soon as you look at the figures – they look like rifles from a much earlier era. Our third row shows a pose using an M79 40 mm grenade launcher, which was a common weapon, and looks good and accurate here, as well as being realistically held. The other man in this row carries an M60 machine gun, again a standard weapon for the Marines as well as the Army. The weapon is well done, although the bipod has been twisted in a manner that is not possible in order to make the mould-making easier (it looks better in our photo than it does in the flesh); having it folded up would have been a better choice in our view. This gunner looks to have at least a short (50 round?) belt of ammunition already loaded into the gun and fed from a pouch by his side (sometimes called a ‘teaser’), and he also has full belts draped across his body (some gunners carried up to 1,000 rounds this way, if they were strong enough). Such a man would have had others carrying more ammunition and gun spares, such as the riflemen at the end of the preceding row, but this figure looks good for a main gunner.

Still on weapons, the first two men in the bottom row represent an M20 bazooka team. Although this was late in the story of the anti-tank bazooka, the Marines did use some of these in the early part of the war, and although the weapon here is a bit vague, it is the right size for this weapon, folded of course and so not ready for action. The second man has a rack of three rockets on his back and carries a fourth on his shoulder, which is nice to see as many manufacturers forget that the bazooka was a two-man weapon.

The radio man and the figure which we take to be the officer both have the M14 rifle, and both are also armed with a pistol, as are the men handling the M79 and the M60. The man with the M79 has clearly decided that a pistol is not enough of a personal defence weapon (we can’t blame him for that), and has also acquired a pump-action shotgun, adding to the burdens he already has. Several of the poses have knives visible, and doubtless all have one somewhere, so these are nothing if not well-armed, and while we were a little surprised that there were not more externally stowed grenades, such a practice did risk having them catch on vegetation or be knocked off, so perhaps these men are wise to use pouches instead. That is certainly a most impressive array of weapons, and apart from the excessively long rifles we thought all of them were well done.

Having discussed at length the quantity of kit and weaponry on show here, we finally come to the quality of production. These are good-looking figures; not quite the slender and elegant style we have come to expect of Orion (particularly many of the tank crew sets), but nevertheless the proportions are good and the detail very acceptable. Little touches like the rolled sleeves of many, the torch worn by one rifleman, and the glasses worn by the officer are nice to see, and the sculptor has nicely captured the slightly dishevelled look of these men, as so often seen in photos and film of the real thing. The radio man is using the extended long-range ‘fish-pole’ antenna (again suggesting they are far from base), which is somewhat thick here but worth it for the sack of accuracy. Occasionally there are problems with plastic fill (mostly some of the entrenching tool handles), and there is a fair amount of flash in many areas, though some seams are quite clean. In a couple of places there is also significant amounts of excess plastic (between bent arms for instance), so some trimming will definitely be advisable, but we feel the figures are well worth the effort.

The Marines took longer to replace the M14 rifle than did the Army, and it was still widely seen in action well into 1968, which gives us a neat three-year time span for this set. We have nothing but praise for the level of kit and equipment the sculptor has given these figures, when a much tidier, battle-ready appearance must have been tempting. They give a great general impression, and are nicely sculpted apart from the problem with the rifle length. Some further trimming might be required, but we loved the poses, and even the slightly thicker style contrasts beautifully with the slim Vietnamese sets this manufacturer has produced earlier. For a period when American hopes were still high that they could prevail militarily in Vietnam, this is a very good set that we thought really captures the essence of the subject, and that is no mean achievement.