Mars – 72140 – U.S. Marines WWII

Description:

Unpainted plastic soldiers in 1/72 scale depicting U.S. WWII Marines.

Box contains 32 figures in 8 poses, which means each pose is repeated 4 times. In the set you get two heavy machine guns as are the M1917 Browning machine gun and the M1919 Browning machine gun, in both cases the kit provides no loader, only the men managing the machine gun, which for us is an odd. There are two poses with a rifle, they seems to be M1 Garand and one pose with a M1 carbine and then we found one pose with a Thompson submachine gun and one more with a “shotgun” but we are unable to precise which one, as the length of the barrel doesn’t match any “shotgun” used by the U.S. army during WWII (Winchester Model 1912 and Winchester Model 1897 were the most popular but resemblance of the weapon in the kit to any of them is rough). The last pose is using a flamethrower, most probably a M2 flamethrower.

We found here the same problem happening in the Mars – 72139 – British Paratroopers WWII kit, the set is totally disproportioned with two machine guns for 8 poses, repeated 4 times each, plus a flamethrower (also x4). In the case of the British Paratroopers you can understand the set as a complement for other existing products, but in this case, the lack of loaders for the machine guns, make us back to the 70s or 80s when makers mostly did not paid attention to this details, but it’s 2024 and the hobby as run through several different stages as to consider that this is fine. Also, the pose holding the “shotgun”, is carrying an ammunition box for the M1917 Browning, but the box is way smaller than the one already in the machine gun. About the M1919 Browning it has no munition at all to fire, the man is firing nothing, just resting over the weapon. In contrast the little 2 inch Mortar Mk 7 in the British Paratroopers has a crew of two.

The painted example in the back box, using the 1/32 scale figures previously released and painted by a profesional painter, promises much more than which this set offers.