PMMS
Trumpeter
U.S. Marine Corps
Iraq 2003

1/35 Kit No. 00407

Review by Terry Ashley

This set of figures from Trumpeter provides four full figures with a sizable selection of personal equipment and three versions of the M16A2 and an M249 SAW to represent typical USMC grunts in Iraq during 2003.

The set contains 78 parts in light grey plastic with each figure broken down with separate upper body, legs and arms plus separate heads and helmet with each designed to be holding their weapon at different attitudes.

The figures all wear the over vest with fasteners with all personal equipment separate so you can fit this any way you choose although some trimming will be needed to get a natural sit against the body.
There is also the gas mask bag strapped to the left leg plus separate sand goggles for the helmets with the details on the personal equipment being okay while the weapons include a standard M16A2, an M16A2 with scope, an M203 and M249 Saw all of which have good details and are probably the nicest items in the set.

From here it’s all down hill unfortunately as the details on the uniforms if rather soft and there is two large mould seams on the arms and legs that will require some work in removing as the seam actually distorts the detail in some places and you will find yourself re-sculpting some details.

The proportions of the body parts and arms leaves a bit to be desired as can be seen in the images and unfortunately the facial features are a disaster in a couple of the heads and just passable in the others, see the images to see what I mean.

There was no precise location of the body parts and it is easy to get these mis-aligned especially when yo need to line these up right to hold the weapons which in turn didn’t fit all too well to the hands with some trimming needed to get a good sit.

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Partially assembled figures with the new Blast Models US Soldier Iraq No.1 (below) as a comparison
Blast ModelsBlast Models
Weapons from the Trumpeter set
Trumpeter

Conclusion:
While the weapons are quite nice the rest of this set simply doesn’t come up to today’s standards set by your Tristars and Dragons with soft uniform details distorted facial features and poor fit in some areas and unfortunately there isn’t much to recommend in this set other than some nice weapons.

The Sprues:
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