Very Cool Toys

I’m not going to mince words here.  The Very Cool Toys Kerr is the most expensive and nicest looking piece of that I have encountered in my 20+  years of adult toy collecting.

I’m mystified at how you cannot touch anything on this figure without it either a) falling off or falling apart, b) breaking, and/or c) being a time consuming and aggravating chore to reattach.

I’ve had all three of the little plastic pins that attach the holster to the rig on her leg break, the belt is a ridiculously difficult to re-loop, I can’t get the zipper on her jacket to reconnect properly at the bottom, the hands are annoying as hades to swap in and out because the fingerless gloves are sewed to the sleeves, the barrel end of the gun strap piece keeps falling off the gun (and that was after the ordeal of getting the gun strap attached in the first place)...I could go on and on.

I was just going to dump her on eBay (and still might) but the most aggravating part is that once you put her together, she looks great.  It’s keeping her together that seems to be the problem.  This last cascade of issues started with simply trying to reattach the retaining clip on to her holster after it fell off.

So for future reference, is it just me, is it just this figure, or is it Very Cool Toys in general?  I have the VCT 1/12 Villa which hasn’t been too much trouble, but then there’s a lot less things TO go wrong on a 1/12 figure.

EDIT: Okay, I settled down, and went rack to the drawing board. I was able to fix everything except for the holster, and since Miss Spetsnaz uses the exact same pistol, holster, and rig, I was able to get a replacement off eBay for $12 shipped. I just had to get that rant out of my system. Lots of ups and downs working with this figure the last couple of days.

I am personally own two figures from Verry Cool Toys

Villa 2.0 darker camo version



and Jenner B version


In my personal experience with these they are high quality figure and had no trouble assemblying them.

However I have no experience with their recent figures

I have four Very Cool girls, but these are from some time ago so maybe they've changed their assembly method.

Things falling off is reminiscent of earlier VTS/DAM. The DAM Ryder Watson that I have a love/hate relationship with (mostly hate!) is an infuriating figure. The attachments for the rifle, for instance, have no friction and are apt to just slide off.


Putting the EKUAZ HUNK together yesterday (i.e, VTS/DAM's latest release), the difference was incredible. While it was fiddly and very frustrating at times, once assembled it feels very secure.

I realise now I could've sped up the process of assembly by simply removing the belt buckle so I wouldn't have had to fiddle with all the working metal ALICE clips, but just slid the belt between them all while they were fastened.

I always try to avoid taking buckles off because it can be a pain getting them back on, but towards the end of assembly I found I had to take it off. And it was really easy to put back on!

Adjusting the length of the various straps is time consuming, especially when those little elasticated bands that hold the folded strap to itself fall off.


Of the Very Cool girls the only one who's remained stock is the ACU Megan Fox.

I prefer my combat girls to be more practically attired, so the original Camo Milla got the camo shirt from Dragon's National Guard Amy.

Black Milla got broken up for parts to make a Liz Sherman from Hellboy, and her head went to a Supergirl figure.

The Multicam Cara Delevingne (Villa) got a head swap because it was a shame to mess her hair up with the hood. That one is such a good sculpt, and ended up on one of the VTS Dark Zone Tracy figures.

Thanks for the feedback. It’s probably me. I was very frustrated when I wrote that post. This is the first military style figure I’ve purchased in at least 15 years, and I put a lot of time and effort into learning how to assemble her correctly. To have so many things start going wrong when I was finally putting on the finishing touches put me over the edge. I guess that just comes with the hobby, though.

I reattached/fixed everything I needed to except for the replacement holster and rig which is on it’s way from China. I’ll give VCT another shot if I see something that really grabs my attention. I would like to get the Police/Urban camo Villa to go with Kerr some day.

She looks good. Definitely a keeper.

I got into 1/6 in 2000 when I discovered Dragon and BBI military figures, and was blown away by the detail compared to the Action Man/GI Joe figures I'd had as a kid.

But back then a lot of packs, scabbards, straps, harnesses etc were moulded plastic and required minimal effort.

Since the hobby has demanded greater and greater accuracy over the years all those things are now replicated like their 1:1 counterparts, so these military sets are more like model kits because it would take too much effort and cost to do all assembly at the factory.

It can be a double edged sword: accuracy vs. frustration and breakage!

One of the worst things is having a figure you're afraid to touch in case something falls off, and then the process of putting it back invariably leads to something else falling off!

Luckily, I think my only real problem figure was that old DAM Ryder Watson. I Remember I had to re-glue some of the clips that secure his armour.

The VTS Revenger has a hard plastic holster with three pins on the back that plug into a plate, which in turn slides into the MOLLE straps on the vest. The pins look very fragile, and there's very little friction to keep the pieces attached. I don't like gluing things that aren't supposed to be, so I plugged the holes with blue tack and pushed the holster pins into that. It did the trick.

Great tip! I tried the blu tack AFTER the pins broke, but when the replacement comes in, I’m going to try your suggestion.

Xavion2004 wrote:Thanks for the feedback.  It’s probably me.  I was very frustrated when I wrote that post.  This is the first military style figure I’ve purchased in at least 15 years, and I put a lot of time and effort into learning how to assemble her correctly.  To have so many things start going wrong when I was finally putting on the finishing touches put me over the edge.  I guess that just comes with the hobby, though.

I reattached/fixed everything I needed to except for the replacement  holster and rig which is on it’s way from China.  I’ll give VCT another shot if I see something that really grabs my attention.  I would like to get the Police/Urban camo Villa to go with Kerr some day.

nice figure, and no it's not just you. i've bought great looking accesories that were fragile as hell, and have a few (mostly radios) that have broken. i find small earpieces and headset cables to be especially fragile. even Damtoys ones are bad, the female radios with earpiece have both lost their earpieces and i've since removed the cable connecting them to the mic, cause the earpiece wouldn't stay. it's so tiny it's crumb sized anyway, so as soon as it falls off...good luck finding it on carpet. maybe if the earpiece was part of the cable instead of a seperate and tiny plastic part...i think the more we get detail, the more things will be fragile. also, a good deal of patience will help.

Very Cool Toys = Oh, look. We made a really good figure, the 1:6 People like it. Let´s make prices like Hot Toys

I continue to have problems with this figure.   Obviously there’s enough that I like here to continue putting time and effort into it, but now I’m at the point where there are some things that simply aren’t going to work and need to be replaced with something different.

I’m also realizing, after looking at most of Very Cool’s other figures, that a lot of the issues I’m having are unique or almost unique to this figure.

One example is the fingerless gloves sewn into the jacket sleeve.  I’ve tried different hands on both arms, and the results are always the same.  As soon as I try to move the hand, or in some cases, even the arm, the hand comes off the peg.  

The sleeves are sewn tightly at the wrists, and they constantly want to slide off the forearm and settle at the wrist joint.  That’s pushing the hand forward.  Then the stretchy fabric, which serves as the fingerless glove, has a little hole for the thumb.  So the “glove” is pulling the hand back and at an angle.  Put it al together, and the hands are useless.  However, tuck the “glove” material back inside the sleeve and attach the bare hand to the wrist peg, and everything is fine.

So, I ordered a set of four of the VC toys Villa’s hands (with the black fingerless gloves molded on.) I will cut away the excess of the black “glove” material at the wrist of the sleeve of the jacket (leaving just enough to comfortably tuck back under) and use the Villa hands.

That’s one problem solved, but it’s one of several, and even if I had gotten into 1/6 early enough to get her on the primary market (much less what I paid on the secondary market), this is way too expensive of a figure to have to put additional time, effort and money into to fix issues like this.

Sounds like a good plan, Xavion, and it will help make this great looking figure more functional.

Oh, yeah...I’m on a mission now. By the time I’m done with her, she’s going to look...AND function...great.

Sorry to hear about all the issues. I have many of the Very Cool ladies, but I honestly have yet to assemble most of them with their gear, as I ended up using the heads for other projects. However, my frustration level (and breakage issues) with military figures (or any figure really where tons of assembly are required — such as the Elizabeth I, which also has weak hand/wrist joints) drives me insane. Messing with all of these tiny details (straps and belts/hooks and loops) becomes an exercise in patience that as I get older, and suffer from often crippling arthritis, my patience level diminishes rapidly, and I tend to handle things roughly when I shouldn’t.

I think some of these figures are designed to be zen exercises.

Great looking figure and uniforms!

To echo everyone else, sorry for your frustrations. But for what it's worth, she looks absolutely gorgeous from your pic! I do have a soft spot for the VeryCool figures, even though I only own just the heads...

Diana wrote:I think some of these figures are designed to be zen exercises.

That sounds like a good mindset with which to approach assembling many action figures.

I probably should have searched for VeryCool topics on the forum before making my most recent purchase, which is on the way (VC-2036 Officer Figure). I might have reconsidered the investment.

The frustration of tiny parts constantly falling off is familiar to me. My brief foray in to Revoltech figures several years ago came to an abrupt end when I grew tired of them constantly falling apart. I felt as though they would come apart if I so much as looked at them too intently. The lot of them went up on eBay and I haven't missed them since.

I hope the VC figure I have on the way is at least reasonably robust, as I am hoping to use it in photo stories.

This thread is really embarrassing because I love Very Cool figures now.  Kerr was a challenge, but now she’s arguably my favorite 1/6th fogure.  Basically, the sculpts are great, the clothing is great, and most of the gear is great.

Kerr’s assault rifle sucks (I replaced it with an E&S HK416), her drop down holster (which she shares with Miss Spetsnaz) sucks (I really need to get her a better one) and the “gloves” sewn into the sleeves of her shirt were a terrible idea.  (I cut them out and gave her fingerless gloved hands from a parted out Villa).   Other than that, all five of my Very Cool figures have been fantastic.

Xavion2004 wrote:This thread is really embarrassing because I love Very Cool figures now.  

Not embarrassing at all. Helpful in managing expectations. For the price, VC figures (which I have previously avoided because of the price) should be uniformly excellent. It sounds like some... not all, but some... are plagued by some of the same problematic issues as other figures, both less and more expensive.

I'm glad your Kerr figure is finally meeting your initial expectations. It is unfortunate, though, that this comes at an additional cost that you did not expect.

Shortcomings can occur, though, with any figure. I recently purchased an Alert Line figure, and almost the moment I removed the weapon from the foam cushion a little plastic detail part broke off. The same thing happened with my ROCHobby Jeep. As noted by others previously in this discussion, a higher level of detail can result in greater fragility. It's just that... we don't expect things to break when we don't actually do anything to break them.

Your update leaves me less concerned about my incoming purchase. Thank you!