Platoon-ing In: A Platoon MiniMates Review

August 7, 2008 on 8:09 pm | In Toy Review | 1 Comment

The good folks at Diamond Select sent us a boat-load (really a box-full) of MiniMates for a top secret upcoming project. In that boat/box we got an early look at the Platoon set based on Oliver Stone’s 1986 classic which includes MiniMate interpretations of Sgt. Bob Barnes (Tom Berenger), Sgt. Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe), Pvt. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) and Private Gator Lerner (Johnny Depp).

I’ll be honest, it’s been quite a few years since I watched Platoon and I don’t really remember too much of it. But, even considering that, I had absolutely no problem looking at these figures and figuring out who was who. It’s amazing how well the MiniMate masters can capture the essence of an actor or character with what boils down to a few lines on smooth, rounded peg. Kudos to DST’s artists.

As with most of the MiniMates I’ve seen, these ones come with extras. Each comes with a rifle and a helmet (except Dafoe who doesn’t care for protective headgear). The rifles are all the same, but each helmet is unique. Depp’s has rosary beads and a cross, Berenger’s a pack of smokes and Sheen’s a clever saying about burial and butt kissing. Oh and while I’m on the subject of the helmets, they made them big enough to fit over the figures’ movie accurate hair, even though they do look a bit huge.

The uniqueness doesn’t stop there. Each figure has a distinct removable shirt with gear and a backpack (none of which opens or comes off, but it looks freakin’ cool). Underneath, all the non-Dafoe figures sport the same olive drag shirt and dog tags. Dafoe ’s showing off a bare chest, dog tags and mud covered arms.

As always, the fun in MiniMates isn’t just with the specific Mates, but in the potential for further customization. You could have Dafoe fight the Green Goblin or make your own Two and a Half Men set. But seriously, these are great little figures that offer up plenty of play potential (especially considering you can have them take out those damn Cylons in the future) and look fantastic whether you keep them in the packaging or bust them out and pose them around in war-like positions.

Oh yeah, quick note on the above picture. It was a promo image and there’s a few differences between the picture and the actual figures. The pic makes Dafoe look darker than he actually is. Those tan stripes on the front of Sheen’s shirt are actually green and Depp’s zipper is silver and not gold like in the shot. Oh, and there’s helmets which you can’t see obviously.

–TJ