Lets step into the “way back machine” here. During a recent round of upgrades to the home, I rediscovered some older stuff stashed away in storage. Hidden for at least 10 years, maybe more. Like pirate treasure. Or hoarders paradise. Take your pick. Either way, as soon as I rediscovered this, it was on the top of the pile to get built, bumping out some bashes and long neglected/unbuilt box sets.
I present the Toy Soldier & Workshop 1st Special Forces Group, ODA Member Okinawa gear set. I was late to buying some of these old Toy Soldier (TS) sets, even then, and had to track down a few well after they had been released. From a search through the internet archives, it appears this set released in Aug/Sept 2005. Almost 19 years ago. I picked up a few bits loose, then managed to find a mostly complete set on Ebay without the box, according to my records. And never built it. Hidden away like a crate from Raiders of the Lost Arc. I digress.
Lets get into this.
The sets were made to be compatible with the then current offerings of 21St Century Toys, Dragon and Blue Box Toys/BBI figures. A higher end brand offering, at the time, with more sewn parts, and nice molding of the hard bits. I grabbed an older Dragon figure I had in another bin, I actually did know the contents of, and got right to it last night. The body/head is from the SWAT Movie (2003), Dragon figure Deacon “Deke” Kaye, aka LL Cool J. Not a perfect likeness of the man, but probably one of Dragon’s better head sculpts. Perfect period correct use of the TS set.
The box for the set. Simple cardboard box offering with the contents on a printed sticker. Parts usually came in a molded tray or simple clear plastic bags.
This is the complete set list.
-OD CT 2002 helmet with NVG mount *1
-OD Balaclava 1
Eye wear, Accessories & BDU :
-Black sun glasses1
-Woodland Rip-stop Spec-ops BDU with Tan Tee shirt & Belt *1
Vests, Armor, Pouches, Gear & Backpack :
-Woodland PBPV I Body Armor w/h front & back Armor plate *1
-AWS made Woodland CQB over vest with build in hydration backpack for PBPV I *Body Armor: 1
-AWS Woodland double Mag. pouch for CQB over vest *1
-AWS Woodland double Frag. Grenade pouch for CQB over vest *1
-AWS Woodland Radio pouch for CQB over vest *1
-AWS OD Shingle triple Mag Panel *1
-AWS Experimental OD Pistol Mag / Strobe Panel *1
-AWS Woodland Medical Leg Pouch (Old style) *1
-OD hydration backpack cover (Eagle style) with Tube *1
-OD E.J. Tailor Big Mission Dump bag *1
-OD BHI? Para…? Early style Reversible Thigh Holster *1
-OD BHI? Para…? Pistol Mag. pouch for Reversible Thigh Holster *1
Radio:
-M148 radio with SFCTB V Special Forces Communications System headset *1
Belt:
-OD belt pad with BLK Duty belt
Knee Pads:
-Black Enhanced Neoprene Knee Pads *1pair
Foot wear:
-Black Gore-tex style leather-made lace-up boots (Enhanced fast lace buckle)
Weapons:
-M4A1 SOPMOD rifle (Enhanced Colt style collapsible stock, Tactical Light w/h custom Foregrip , ACOG scope)
-M9 Pistol
-M67 Frag. Grenades *4
Patches:
-IR US flag & IFF tabs
-OD NKDA tag w/h IFF
Gloves:
-OD Bendable NOMEX flight glove hands *1pair (Fit for G3 body)
I’m missing some of the bits, and I have a few extras not from this set as well. I’ll deal with those later on. I don’t have the M4, or the bendy hands with the BBI style wrist pegs.
The radio in the tray, jungle boots, and Mk48 with extras are clearly not from this set, but were stashed with it.
Mostly complete set bought loose after release. Missing the M4 and the bendy gloved hands. The rest was covered by the boxed contents.
Uniform on the Dragon figure body. Fits perfectly. Just the right amount of loose fit to accommodate the different brands at the time.
Detailed Ripstop fabric. I recall some folks didn’t like it because the Ripstop wasn’t in scale, and would be pretty much invisible if it was. But it’s a nice detail to the uniform.
Flag and IR Patches on the left arm.
Blood type and drug allergy(barely visible, doesn’t show on camera well, but slightly better to the eye), and IR patch on the right arm. Looks like the previous owner glued them in place. Pockets do work.
More working pockets, although all other pockets than those on the arms have the flap sewn down, so accessing them is a bit of work if you want to stuff them. Your choice really.
How to attach the vest/plate carrier.
This one comes with stuff most current vests don’t have. Armour plates inside. Who else remembers those days? That was a bit of controversy back in the day too. it hampered posing with the plastic plates in the vest. Kind of like the real thing. You can take them out if you want to post the figure better, or just to decrease the bulkiness of the appearance.
And the sewing of the vest with all it’s pouches, pockets and flaps is great.
Slightly curved plastic to simulate the armour plate. There is one for both the front and back.
Straps and fastex buckles all work.
Missing one here though. May ave been missed, or was broken or removed by the previous owner. From fussing around I realized I wouldn’t be using these pockets in my build because it adds to the bulk of the vest.
Depending on how you choose to build up the figure, you can use both vests, the plate carrier, and assault vest, or just one or the other.
This blurry one snuck in. Front of the vest on, with the cummerbund wrapped. The flag patch looks to represent some kind of reflective material. The halves of the plate carrier attach at the shoulders with hook and loop patches.
Slightly less blurry. Details of the Flag patch.
Hydration pack with straw. It has a straw. Odd that most current releases don’t have this feature.
Side strap for the assault vest. The buckle works, but doesn’t really keep the strap from slipping. I tucked the loose end of the strap into the elastic cummerbund, which keeps the strap from slipping too much, and also sticks to the hook patch on the plate carrier underneath.
If you use the pockets on the plate carrier for magazines, it adds even more bulk to an already bulky build. I had 2 mags in, but took them back out again to slim things down a bit.
All the pouches on the assault vest and dump pouches were filled with tissue. Not sure if this was a factory thing left in, or put in by the previous owner, but I pulled it all out. So I can stuff accessories into the pouches.
A close up of the box shows both the plate carrier vest, and assault vest over top. The gear in the kit allows you to you both, or just one or the other. All the pouches on the assault vest front attach with hook and loop patches, and can be removed and put on the plate carrier front. On the back, only the radio pouch is removable.
If you want a more streamlined build, just add the pouches directly to the plate carrier, and skip the assault vest altogether.
The OD hood/balaclava. I left it off to prevent staining, and so you can see the figure’s face. There is also good for another reason. Read on.
Mags in chest pouches.
The pistol mag pouch has such a small patch of hook material, that the flaps won’t stay closed.
Not sure what this pouch would be used for, at the front bottom of the assault vest.
Inside the dump pouch. More great sewing, and drain holes in the bottom.
Magazine stuffed through the elastic top, which would keep empty mags from popping out the top.
Who else remembers these? The little plastic tabs that would thread through the MOLLE loops on the vests, belts and pouches etc… they kind of worked the same. But in some cases were a bit slippery, and pouches would slide off while handling the figures. Very common to all TS sets, and BBI used this system a lot as well. I believe the earliest Soldier Story figures did too, but were replaced with actual straps after the first few figures.
The medical pouch. I think only one or two figures actually used a pouch like this. This set, and an old BBI set which had it in black. Great sewing, and full interior loops as well. I didn’t try to remove the shears/scissors, but it looks like the strap through the handle just pops off the stud on the strap. Sometimes it’s best not to mess with things like this on old sets. It invites breakage.
Just need a tourniquet or two and some med gear to stuff inside. All from the spares box.
The reversible thigh holster. One of the very few ambidextrous holster offerings in the 1:6 world. The pouches on the outside are removable. They do not appear to be big enough to hold pistol mags. I’ll try that later.
Slide on tabs again, that attach to the leg dropdown.
Holster insert. It’s finicky to fit into the holster mount/platform. The hook and loop is quite grabby here. You can switch this to either right or left handed use if you want. Great design use both in 1:1 and in 1:6 scale. And it was sewn very well.
Holster elastic strap.
The padded belt with dump pouch, medical pouch and holster attached.
Black neoprene knee pads. These are awesome. Nice and flexible and fit very well.
The M9 Beretta Pistol. Still a great mold. I think early Soldier Story figures used this mold as well, then moved on to a newer mold after the first few figures were released.
Right side.
Left side.
Slide works,and magazine is removable.
Almost readable logo on the grip.
The TS M4 magazines. Through all the releases, and years TS made their rifles, they never changes the molds of the magazines. Kind of clunky looking, with mold depressions in them. There are 8 in the stuff I have. I’m not sure what the full compliment is for the set. All installed in the pouches.
The same could be said for their rifles. Not the most detailed rifles made in scale. The best comparison would be the early BBI rifles. I don’t recall if I ever got the rifle for this set, or if I sold it as soon as the set arrived. EDIT; Thinking back now, I must never have had the rifle, because I would have sold all the accessories with it. Either way, I was never a huge fan of the mold, and details. Dragon and later generation BBI rifles were all better molds.
TS M4 rifle accessories. The simple molds, and lack of crisp details are standard for the time. All the parts would fit on with the little pegs, instead of sliding onto the Picatinny rails of current figure releases. Many got glued on as the pegs just wouldn’t hold tight enough into the holes.
Grenades from the set, x4 included.
Oops. Small parts and old plastic. One of the Peltor headset swivels. Hazards of the hobby.
The PRC148 radio cord. Actual wire with a mesh covering on it. I do love this feature about old TS sets. As opposed to molded coil plastic which has a mind of it’s own, and likes to resist positioning.
PTT switch.
Black combat boots. Kind of a Danner-ish looking boot. Laces were usually quite long and had to be trimmed back. These appear to have been cut back, which made blousing the pant legs into the boots a bit tricky. Hard to say if it was manufacturing or tinkering after all this time.
The pleather has held up after all this time as well, and hasn’t begun to flake away. Fingers crossed it will last a while longer.
Posing and “final” build.
Because I didn’t have an original rifle for this set, I found a closely related substitute. The M4 CASV from the Soldier Story ODA SS016 figure. It looks the part, and is an upgrade from the TS release. But it’s a bit fragile, and some of the bits need to be glued as the rifle falls apart. The releases of the TS and SS set were just 3 years apart, so the rifle fits into the timeline pretty well.
The helmet… well, the straps are almost falling apart. I suspect age crumbling the glue. And the helmet mold is quite small, which means it doesn’t fit over the head, made even worse with the comms headset. And if the hood was left on… that helmet is not happening on this figure. In fact, to use this helmet at all you would need to use a TS figure body which tended to have smaller head, or find a figure with a small head sculpt to use the full set of gear, with this helmet.
I’ll add a few more bits and update the figure. Med gear. A knife. Probably a different helmet. Maybe some NVG’s. Some flashbangs. Things for the pockets.
Final thoughts.
How well does a boxed accessory set from 2005 compare to a boxed release of current standards? Very well actually. TS and ACE set a benchmark for the way small uniforms and gear were to be made. Hot Toys made it better. And every other brand making 1:6 scale military figures afterwards had to meet or exceed this quality.
A full uniform and gear set. With a full set of magazines, 4 grenades ( in the vest pouches), rifle with accessories, radio, lace up boots… It’s everything current sets are released with. With a few minor missing bits that one would expect a soldier to have. In 2005 it was an awesome release. It would still be welcomed now. Even more so if the molded plastic parts were brought up to today’s standards of manufacturing.
There are a fair amount of loose threads from sewing, which should be trimmed away. And the hook and loop patches are hit and miss, some very grippy, and others not at all. In fact, a few of the pouch flaps were glued closed at one point by the previous owner, making them pretty useless now. But that is a hazard of buying a used set. Similar issues happened from frustrations with the little plastic pouch mounting tabs. A lot of this style pouches got glued in place to prevent the pouches from moving during handling. This used set didn’t suffer from glued pouches. If you plan on picking up an older set like this, it’s worth an ask to see if this was done, especially if the set was built up. If you find one that was never built up, and tampered with, I highly recommend the buy.
If you look at one of the full figure sets, be forewarned, the TS bodies were notoriously loose, and the headsculpt paint jobs were not that hot as well. But for the time, they were decent.
It was fun to get into a build that was rediscovered. Even more so when the build was at least as good as any currently released sets, even considering the age of the release. If you are looking at the gear sets to track down, make sure you have a few older bodies to put them on as I suspect they may not fit the newer bodies very well, or would be really tight.
Additional Info
Extra parts that weren’t used on this build. These can be swapped with the assault vest pouches, or if you prefer a more streamlined look, straight to the plate carrier.
I present the Toy Soldier & Workshop 1st Special Forces Group, ODA Member Okinawa gear set. I was late to buying some of these old Toy Soldier (TS) sets, even then, and had to track down a few well after they had been released. From a search through the internet archives, it appears this set released in Aug/Sept 2005. Almost 19 years ago. I picked up a few bits loose, then managed to find a mostly complete set on Ebay without the box, according to my records. And never built it. Hidden away like a crate from Raiders of the Lost Arc. I digress.
Lets get into this.
The sets were made to be compatible with the then current offerings of 21St Century Toys, Dragon and Blue Box Toys/BBI figures. A higher end brand offering, at the time, with more sewn parts, and nice molding of the hard bits. I grabbed an older Dragon figure I had in another bin, I actually did know the contents of, and got right to it last night. The body/head is from the SWAT Movie (2003), Dragon figure Deacon “Deke” Kaye, aka LL Cool J. Not a perfect likeness of the man, but probably one of Dragon’s better head sculpts. Perfect period correct use of the TS set.
The box for the set. Simple cardboard box offering with the contents on a printed sticker. Parts usually came in a molded tray or simple clear plastic bags.
This is the complete set list.
-OD CT 2002 helmet with NVG mount *1
-OD Balaclava 1
Eye wear, Accessories & BDU :
-Black sun glasses1
-Woodland Rip-stop Spec-ops BDU with Tan Tee shirt & Belt *1
Vests, Armor, Pouches, Gear & Backpack :
-Woodland PBPV I Body Armor w/h front & back Armor plate *1
-AWS made Woodland CQB over vest with build in hydration backpack for PBPV I *Body Armor: 1
-AWS Woodland double Mag. pouch for CQB over vest *1
-AWS Woodland double Frag. Grenade pouch for CQB over vest *1
-AWS Woodland Radio pouch for CQB over vest *1
-AWS OD Shingle triple Mag Panel *1
-AWS Experimental OD Pistol Mag / Strobe Panel *1
-AWS Woodland Medical Leg Pouch (Old style) *1
-OD hydration backpack cover (Eagle style) with Tube *1
-OD E.J. Tailor Big Mission Dump bag *1
-OD BHI? Para…? Early style Reversible Thigh Holster *1
-OD BHI? Para…? Pistol Mag. pouch for Reversible Thigh Holster *1
Radio:
-M148 radio with SFCTB V Special Forces Communications System headset *1
Belt:
-OD belt pad with BLK Duty belt
Knee Pads:
-Black Enhanced Neoprene Knee Pads *1pair
Foot wear:
-Black Gore-tex style leather-made lace-up boots (Enhanced fast lace buckle)
Weapons:
-M4A1 SOPMOD rifle (Enhanced Colt style collapsible stock, Tactical Light w/h custom Foregrip , ACOG scope)
-M9 Pistol
-M67 Frag. Grenades *4
Patches:
-IR US flag & IFF tabs
-OD NKDA tag w/h IFF
Gloves:
-OD Bendable NOMEX flight glove hands *1pair (Fit for G3 body)
I’m missing some of the bits, and I have a few extras not from this set as well. I’ll deal with those later on. I don’t have the M4, or the bendy hands with the BBI style wrist pegs.
The radio in the tray, jungle boots, and Mk48 with extras are clearly not from this set, but were stashed with it.
Mostly complete set bought loose after release. Missing the M4 and the bendy gloved hands. The rest was covered by the boxed contents.
Uniform on the Dragon figure body. Fits perfectly. Just the right amount of loose fit to accommodate the different brands at the time.
Detailed Ripstop fabric. I recall some folks didn’t like it because the Ripstop wasn’t in scale, and would be pretty much invisible if it was. But it’s a nice detail to the uniform.
Flag and IR Patches on the left arm.
Blood type and drug allergy(barely visible, doesn’t show on camera well, but slightly better to the eye), and IR patch on the right arm. Looks like the previous owner glued them in place. Pockets do work.
More working pockets, although all other pockets than those on the arms have the flap sewn down, so accessing them is a bit of work if you want to stuff them. Your choice really.
How to attach the vest/plate carrier.
This one comes with stuff most current vests don’t have. Armour plates inside. Who else remembers those days? That was a bit of controversy back in the day too. it hampered posing with the plastic plates in the vest. Kind of like the real thing. You can take them out if you want to post the figure better, or just to decrease the bulkiness of the appearance.
And the sewing of the vest with all it’s pouches, pockets and flaps is great.
Slightly curved plastic to simulate the armour plate. There is one for both the front and back.
Straps and fastex buckles all work.
Missing one here though. May ave been missed, or was broken or removed by the previous owner. From fussing around I realized I wouldn’t be using these pockets in my build because it adds to the bulk of the vest.
Depending on how you choose to build up the figure, you can use both vests, the plate carrier, and assault vest, or just one or the other.
This blurry one snuck in. Front of the vest on, with the cummerbund wrapped. The flag patch looks to represent some kind of reflective material. The halves of the plate carrier attach at the shoulders with hook and loop patches.
Slightly less blurry. Details of the Flag patch.
Hydration pack with straw. It has a straw. Odd that most current releases don’t have this feature.
Side strap for the assault vest. The buckle works, but doesn’t really keep the strap from slipping. I tucked the loose end of the strap into the elastic cummerbund, which keeps the strap from slipping too much, and also sticks to the hook patch on the plate carrier underneath.
If you use the pockets on the plate carrier for magazines, it adds even more bulk to an already bulky build. I had 2 mags in, but took them back out again to slim things down a bit.
All the pouches on the assault vest and dump pouches were filled with tissue. Not sure if this was a factory thing left in, or put in by the previous owner, but I pulled it all out. So I can stuff accessories into the pouches.
A close up of the box shows both the plate carrier vest, and assault vest over top. The gear in the kit allows you to you both, or just one or the other. All the pouches on the assault vest front attach with hook and loop patches, and can be removed and put on the plate carrier front. On the back, only the radio pouch is removable.
If you want a more streamlined build, just add the pouches directly to the plate carrier, and skip the assault vest altogether.
The OD hood/balaclava. I left it off to prevent staining, and so you can see the figure’s face. There is also good for another reason. Read on.
Mags in chest pouches.
The pistol mag pouch has such a small patch of hook material, that the flaps won’t stay closed.
Not sure what this pouch would be used for, at the front bottom of the assault vest.
Inside the dump pouch. More great sewing, and drain holes in the bottom.
Magazine stuffed through the elastic top, which would keep empty mags from popping out the top.
Who else remembers these? The little plastic tabs that would thread through the MOLLE loops on the vests, belts and pouches etc… they kind of worked the same. But in some cases were a bit slippery, and pouches would slide off while handling the figures. Very common to all TS sets, and BBI used this system a lot as well. I believe the earliest Soldier Story figures did too, but were replaced with actual straps after the first few figures.
The medical pouch. I think only one or two figures actually used a pouch like this. This set, and an old BBI set which had it in black. Great sewing, and full interior loops as well. I didn’t try to remove the shears/scissors, but it looks like the strap through the handle just pops off the stud on the strap. Sometimes it’s best not to mess with things like this on old sets. It invites breakage.
Just need a tourniquet or two and some med gear to stuff inside. All from the spares box.
The reversible thigh holster. One of the very few ambidextrous holster offerings in the 1:6 world. The pouches on the outside are removable. They do not appear to be big enough to hold pistol mags. I’ll try that later.
Slide on tabs again, that attach to the leg dropdown.
Holster insert. It’s finicky to fit into the holster mount/platform. The hook and loop is quite grabby here. You can switch this to either right or left handed use if you want. Great design use both in 1:1 and in 1:6 scale. And it was sewn very well.
Holster elastic strap.
The padded belt with dump pouch, medical pouch and holster attached.
Black neoprene knee pads. These are awesome. Nice and flexible and fit very well.
The M9 Beretta Pistol. Still a great mold. I think early Soldier Story figures used this mold as well, then moved on to a newer mold after the first few figures were released.
Right side.
Left side.
Slide works,and magazine is removable.
Almost readable logo on the grip.
The TS M4 magazines. Through all the releases, and years TS made their rifles, they never changes the molds of the magazines. Kind of clunky looking, with mold depressions in them. There are 8 in the stuff I have. I’m not sure what the full compliment is for the set. All installed in the pouches.
The same could be said for their rifles. Not the most detailed rifles made in scale. The best comparison would be the early BBI rifles. I don’t recall if I ever got the rifle for this set, or if I sold it as soon as the set arrived. EDIT; Thinking back now, I must never have had the rifle, because I would have sold all the accessories with it. Either way, I was never a huge fan of the mold, and details. Dragon and later generation BBI rifles were all better molds.
TS M4 rifle accessories. The simple molds, and lack of crisp details are standard for the time. All the parts would fit on with the little pegs, instead of sliding onto the Picatinny rails of current figure releases. Many got glued on as the pegs just wouldn’t hold tight enough into the holes.
Grenades from the set, x4 included.
Oops. Small parts and old plastic. One of the Peltor headset swivels. Hazards of the hobby.
The PRC148 radio cord. Actual wire with a mesh covering on it. I do love this feature about old TS sets. As opposed to molded coil plastic which has a mind of it’s own, and likes to resist positioning.
PTT switch.
Black combat boots. Kind of a Danner-ish looking boot. Laces were usually quite long and had to be trimmed back. These appear to have been cut back, which made blousing the pant legs into the boots a bit tricky. Hard to say if it was manufacturing or tinkering after all this time.
The pleather has held up after all this time as well, and hasn’t begun to flake away. Fingers crossed it will last a while longer.
Posing and “final” build.
Because I didn’t have an original rifle for this set, I found a closely related substitute. The M4 CASV from the Soldier Story ODA SS016 figure. It looks the part, and is an upgrade from the TS release. But it’s a bit fragile, and some of the bits need to be glued as the rifle falls apart. The releases of the TS and SS set were just 3 years apart, so the rifle fits into the timeline pretty well.
The helmet… well, the straps are almost falling apart. I suspect age crumbling the glue. And the helmet mold is quite small, which means it doesn’t fit over the head, made even worse with the comms headset. And if the hood was left on… that helmet is not happening on this figure. In fact, to use this helmet at all you would need to use a TS figure body which tended to have smaller head, or find a figure with a small head sculpt to use the full set of gear, with this helmet.
I’ll add a few more bits and update the figure. Med gear. A knife. Probably a different helmet. Maybe some NVG’s. Some flashbangs. Things for the pockets.
Final thoughts.
How well does a boxed accessory set from 2005 compare to a boxed release of current standards? Very well actually. TS and ACE set a benchmark for the way small uniforms and gear were to be made. Hot Toys made it better. And every other brand making 1:6 scale military figures afterwards had to meet or exceed this quality.
A full uniform and gear set. With a full set of magazines, 4 grenades ( in the vest pouches), rifle with accessories, radio, lace up boots… It’s everything current sets are released with. With a few minor missing bits that one would expect a soldier to have. In 2005 it was an awesome release. It would still be welcomed now. Even more so if the molded plastic parts were brought up to today’s standards of manufacturing.
There are a fair amount of loose threads from sewing, which should be trimmed away. And the hook and loop patches are hit and miss, some very grippy, and others not at all. In fact, a few of the pouch flaps were glued closed at one point by the previous owner, making them pretty useless now. But that is a hazard of buying a used set. Similar issues happened from frustrations with the little plastic pouch mounting tabs. A lot of this style pouches got glued in place to prevent the pouches from moving during handling. This used set didn’t suffer from glued pouches. If you plan on picking up an older set like this, it’s worth an ask to see if this was done, especially if the set was built up. If you find one that was never built up, and tampered with, I highly recommend the buy.
If you look at one of the full figure sets, be forewarned, the TS bodies were notoriously loose, and the headsculpt paint jobs were not that hot as well. But for the time, they were decent.
It was fun to get into a build that was rediscovered. Even more so when the build was at least as good as any currently released sets, even considering the age of the release. If you are looking at the gear sets to track down, make sure you have a few older bodies to put them on as I suspect they may not fit the newer bodies very well, or would be really tight.
Additional Info
Extra parts that weren’t used on this build. These can be swapped with the assault vest pouches, or if you prefer a more streamlined look, straight to the plate carrier.
