Mini Review: HOT TOYS USSOCOM NAVY SEAL UDT 2005 Wetsuit.

Decided to get HOT TOYS USSOCOM NAVY SEAL UDT 2005 Wetsuit edition, so I ordered in from ebay on Monday and got it Thursday from Hong Kong. The seller posted it same day I made payment (Fantastic speed).

First up, I tried searching for reviews for this figure on this board and on the net, didn't see much good pictures. I saw a post from a member who took a pic of his figure though.

Anyway my thoughts. Overall its a great figure but not without its mis-givings. The wetsuit material is not that good, it sort of 'flakes' of black specks where crinkles in the suit are. Other point is, some of the parts are fragile, especially the straps. (Its my first hot toy figure).

I started gearing up the figure around 5:30pm after I got back from work and the figure was 'ready to display' standard at 4am! That's right I took 'THAT' long to get it up to display standard. (I forgot to eat last night LOL!)

First off the dive goggles strap broke 3 times, at the area attached to the googles. I had to super glue it. In the end I couldn't bother with it. I just use the Night vision frame (made of wire) to clamp the googles tight. (It holds it in place very well).

For the head there are 3 items. The dive goggles, The NVG frame, and the communication device. My take is put on the dive googles first, then the coms device, then the NVG frame. You dont want to remove the googles too much. I probably broke the diving googles strap because I remove it too many times.



Without NVG on



With NVG

Next the main body. God, this took forever, several straps at some point just came off, due to poor stiching. So I spent the night, sewing up straps so on and so forth. I had to keep dis-robing the figure, because one after another straps from their point of attachment started to peel off (hence, the long downtime in getting the figure up).

I took a great deal of time trying to fit the rebreather over the torso. Tried running the straps of the rebreather all over the place to get the best fit. Tried under the tactical jacket, removed the tactical jacket and the Secumar jacket. Tried all sort of combination. It was just impossible using the straps attached to the rebreather. It keeps runnning out of the buckles (and in the first place it was just difficult getting the straps into the buckles anyway). In the end, the best way I found was to mount up the rebreather, place it on the figure's chest and use the Secumar front strap and buckle to just clamp it tight across the rebreather. It won't fall off.

My take on gearing up : 1. Weight belt, 2. Tactical harness (Tighten it) 3. Secumar vest (leave the front buckle alone) 4. Place Rebreather on chest. 5. Bring the Secumar vest buckle across the Rebreather, clip it up. So, basically the head area and the body unit are the 'challenging area'.

Next the pouches. My first thought was ' Do UDT divers carry that sort of pouches?' (Well, I won't know) but it doesn't exactly look like its for wet work.There are 4 black pouches (1 longish one, 1 big square one, 2 rectangle ones) and 1 green pouch. Basically you mount the black longish one first, and the big black square one you can clip on.

Here's comes the 'Big question mark' moment. The 2 other black pouches, do not have clips what so ever. It has two straps with a metal stud at the end. I don't know where it fits. And the back of these pouches there is only strap backing for 'vertical straps' to thread through. I tired tying up the the straps that were sewn to the pouch to a knot and tried to thread it to one of the horizontal clips ('cos the pouches seem to be carried on the kidney area) but it fell off. In the end, I attached it to some vertical clip from some... ' for- magazine-looking-pouch' on the tactical vest located directly under the armpit. It does take quite some time threading the clip through the pouches strap backing. And the only way I could reach it was to.. ugh.. that's right dis-robe the entire torso ! (Yes, big Nooooo !! moment). The big green pouch which they call (waterproof pouch) I couldn't be bother to mount it. Plus, all the figures in black so doesn't seem that color coordinated LOL

I don't know if that's how you mount the black side pouches, if any guys know how give me a shout. Anyway, the Navigation board, I attached it to the provided Combat diver lanyard, and for the Fins, I attached it to the provided carabina (Don't know how ya spell it) attached to one of the straps on the back of the tactical harness.



Side pouches



Back view



Left view



How I attached the fins and navigation board

Recommend items to have on stand-by:

Mini Tweezers : (From Victorix Swiss Card) use to to pull and tighten straps.
and to tuck excess straps under gear, Super Glue, Black thread and needle, Black marker.

Summary.

Some items are very fragile (diving googles strap), and some items are not color coordinated, as in don't match the black scheme. (The green 'water-proof pouch), The Green pistol hoster ( I switch it to an exact one but black which I got from Ebay before), Right thigh pouch (The strap for it was a bi-color pale blue and black. I had to black marker out the pale blue color). Since the figures is so packed, the amount of poses you can do with the hands is very limited. Basically if you want the left hand to hold the gun, the only pose you can get out of it, is the one printed on the box.



Hot Toys Navy Seal UDT Wetsuit version 2005



Unknown parts. There are some parts I have no idea what they are used for. Anyone out there any idea?

1. Some slab Sticker was provided. Its like a post it note-pad size of just.. Army Green.

2. Some.. tiny compass/glass valve like thing?? (It's not the navigation board)It sits on a little compartment of its own on the top position of item tray . It has a tiny black clip behind it. Seems like some part of the rebreather gear?

3. Black rectangle plastic stuff with paired vertical openings. Stuff for the weight belt maybe?

I don't know how accurate the figure is. Maybe some military guys down here can comment? Given that there are so many pouches, and NVG and a COMs device (a mic) on a diver (Do these even work after submerged?). The whole setup looks too bulky to be something that would be used in operation. (Then again I won't know.)

Overall, a very good looking figure, but not entirely sturdy, due to parts. Wetsuit flakes out at creases, Nightmare to gear up. Probably break some stuff here and there if you have big hands.But a very cool and good looking figure.

So there you go, a mini review (without pics) of the HOT TOYS USSOCOM NAVY SEALS WET SUIT VERSION. My second 1/6 military figure and my first Hot Toys figure. First 1/6 military figure - Medicom S.A.S practice version (The black kit). Will upload stuff when I get the chance.

Cheers