General Issue
GI-02

According to Mike Bedard, sculptor of this trio of figures, General Issue is no longer in operation. That’s too bad, because this and an offering from Jaguar are the only two sets – resin or plastic -- of a wounded GI being aided from the battlefield, whereas there are probably close to a dozen such offerings for “the other side.”

These three figures – two supporting a soldier between them -- are molded in such a way that they pretty much have to be used as a trio. The figure on the left, as seen in the package photo, has the arm of the center man molded around his back onto his shoulder. The left man’s left arm is partially molded onto the back of the second man. The figure on the right side has his right hand molded onto the back of the center man, and his left hand molded onto this man’s left arm. I don’t know yet how well this will all work together, but other figure manufacturers have accomplished it successfully and Mike Bedard is a noted figure sculptor and modeler in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, so he knows his stuff (he also did some work for Yanks, creating the seated medic for Italeri’s W54 Dodge ambulance).

The poses of the figures are good. The man on the left really looks like he’s carrying the weight of the center figure, which seems to be walking quite gingerly. The figure on the right side is more static and firm-footed, as if briefly assisting the pair into an aid station or ambulance. The faces are a bit bland, however, given their situation. It would have been nice to see a greater expression of pain or urgency conveyed.

As to the predicament that has befallen these figures, it’s a bit sketchy. As portrayed on the package photo, the guy on the left has his face bandaged. The front of the center figure’s pants are ripped away from the knees down, and his short boots have no canvas leggings as the other two figures do. Perhaps acquiescing to “good taste,” there are no wounds molded onto the figures and no blood portrayed. We’re on our own here.

Two of the figures are wearing tannish OD field jackets, and the one on the right does not wear a jacket but a standard issue shirt with the pair of flapped breast pockets that you could paint a light khaki color of the cotton shirt for a summer setting or the brownish OD of the wool shirt that might be worn as the weather turned cooler in the fall. The same could be done for the exposed areas of the shirts of the other two men. The sculptor has done a good job creating the fabric folds and rumpled look of these men in war. There is no extra gear save for a small bag carried by the figure on the left, which is far too small to be the musette bag we’ve grown accustomed to in Verlinden sets. It’s not a medic bag either, and for that matter, none of these figures sport the armbands conventionally worn by medics. The molding is quite acceptable, though the detail is not as crisp as found with Warriors or Jaguar figures. It’s perhaps more along the lines of Coree or SOL sets. Scalewise, these men are on par with Tamiya or more recent DML offerings. There was a bubble on the tip of the nose of one of the heads that will need to be filled. The figures are packaged into one small plastic bag, so it will take some careful sorting to assign the right boots and arms to each torso.

Overall this is a good little kit that, unfortunately, will be rarely seen. If you can find these boys, buy them.

-tss-