Orion – 72068 – USMC in Vietnam (early war)

Description:

Unpainted plastic soldiers in 1/72 scale depicting U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam during the early stages of the war.

Though the Vietnam War spawned for decades and different phases since mid 50s after French defeat and withdraw from Indochina, the USMC formally did not arrived to Vietnam till 1965, with around 3500 marines landed in Da Nang. At the time, though the famous M16 was in service from previous year, 1964, it was not till 1969 that it fully replaced the older M14 Rifle, and most of the poses depicted in this set, are using yet the M14, though other interesting supporting weapons as the grenade launcher are present too. Kit consists of 48 figures in 12 different poses (Seems there is a mistake in the box print, as back box shows 14 different poses rather than 12 as stated, the number of figures is unconfirmed till the sprue is shown) 44, there is one unique sprue with 4 unique figures and a common sprue repeated four times with 10 different figures, with a good selection of different poses and roles.

Orion already added some nice sets to the Vietnam War range, but this is the first set introduced for the U.S. troops. Orion is the only maker who has boosted the coverage for this conflict, with only the two ESCI sets tooled in the 80s present for decades and lonely Pegasus set, till these recent Orion releases for the subject.