Mars ARVN Figures Are Finally Available, Kent Sprecher of Toy Soldier Headquarters has let us know these long delayed figures are available. The set has fifteen figures in eight different poses.
The figures have a retail price of $24.95. Kent and others will have these figures for resale.
Kent tells the next offerings from Mars will be Modern American Army and Napoleonic.
I just can’t see an ARVIN hoisting a 50 Cal like that,would need garden brick wall(Urban) or a log or rock(Field) to rest it on as they even had trouble handling the M14 before M16 showed up.But nice to have a set of a Nationality that doesn’t get much representation in the Toy Soldier world.My only gripe with MARS is not enuff “Shooters” prone, kneeling, standing.
In my opinion.
As again x cheap sets I take then granted.In my opinion not every body has to be shooting or shooting in typically aim pose.
As I mention before you can shoot from any position .Specialy w modern weapons. The heavy MG is extracted from fake WW2 era propaganda phootage. Non practical at all.
The invest in napoleonic sets would be a good sale if done least w simple style uniform as AIP did.
Because prices and amount figures per set they will sale good .Specially if cover more armies not done much such Polish, Austrian s, Italian, Swedish, German principles, Dutch, Turks and Egyptians, Pourtugese, Spanirads, sailors and others from 1795 till 1812.
Most Napoleonic plastic set cover late period and few armies.
My thoughts.
Best..
ARVN?,,,They should be in mostly running poses dropping their weapons,,
I have to agree with both Brian and R .
The old M2 .50 cal was/is a beast – we had a little guy drove our ammo carrier in Germany – even with the thing fully mounted on its vehicle mount the thing kicked so bad it about knocked him from where he was standing on the engine compartment behind the driver’s compartment (it was an old M548 tracked ammo carrier). I had a bit more “butt” to put to it than he (he was about the size of an average Vietnamese) and I had trouble controlling it.
The weapon itself is probably heavier than any ARVN soldier was – and the barrels weigh a “ton” – we used to have to carry them from our arms room to the motor pool at Graf (quite a trek). Any guy who could fire a .50 cal like that I would avoid.
So I’m wondering if that’s supposed to be an old surplus .30 cal? The barrel reminds me of the .30 cal more than .50 cal and it might be feasible for an ARVN to carry and fire one like that. I don’t know whether I’d want to do it or not – but then again I don’t recall anyone asking me if I wanted to “hump” that .50 cal (even without the barrels heavy enough) to the motor pool or not.
For me is a 30 CAL not a 50 ,too short straight barell x been a 50 cal.Still hard to keep up ,specially x small people as most Asian are .
In my opinion the ARVN fight well considering the poor education,training and issues as most then were fighting a civil war and have many families in the other side.
Towards end of war they know they were loosing and abandon by US and others with poor logistic and not air strong support.The training in air force was given too to late to short for then get a grip on it. While they were given mass support in small -medium weapons ,they receive much less per soldier average than the US army personal during war and by 1972/73 the supply replenishment of ammo and weapons was cut very short .
Viet Com had complete won support of most civilian population in south by war ends with exception of most middle class minority .ARVN Moral was extremely low towards end as they were loosing and know it .
They last longer they can in my opinion. Even in the battle of Saigon several units fought hard against overwhelming odds and inflict heavy casualties,it is recorded- written. The evacuation was finish before the city surrender and the units still in strong position order to ease fire by their weak leaders and high command staff.
Many of those hanging from helicopters images I had seen are not ARVN as far I recall.
My thoughts.
Best…
Did you serve with and around the ARVIN as some of us did??? The 10 % who fought well ,,Marines,,aborne some others deserve credit,,
Your sources and photo information are lacking,,Arvin units North at the end abandoned and threw away a good deal of the equipment they should have fought with but fleeing and overtaking the civs got in the way,,for ten years most Arvin units stood by as We U S types did the heavy lifting,,seeing the large cities overflowing with young Military age males standing around-cowboys ,,did nothing for our positive feeling about them,,,,I might be a bit jaded having been around them as much I was,reality is a bit better source then the media and politics
I don’t know the Viet Nam vets I have talked to had nothing good to say about the ARVN. They did speak very highly of the ROK Marines though.
Yes ROK did enjoy a high and brave reputation ,ironical not quite given during the Korean war when did too very well under heavy pressure , under armed and unrestrained during first two years.
Yet in Vietnam war there several big mass massacre and atrocities committed by then that stain their reputation during the war .In fact Koreans units committed the more mass massacres of civilian per unit during war.
Regardless .The bravery of their units that always acted under their own command and total independent from US army is well documented and the small sectors they hold were almost clear from enemy activity with a very high ration kill enemy .
They sure gain respect .
But out of total over 300 000 who served only 5000 or so died from 1965 till 1973 when starting to get pull back.That number indicate that they took very few-limited main actions and battles against the NVA and guerrilla and none involved in main communist large offensive compere to much heavy involvement of ARNV.
The Korean soldiers/marines as voluntary program were hand picked in most case from elite distinction units by staff during formation of the division sent to Vie nam with many officers and NCO been Korean war veterans already Giving a superiority of well trained,prepared and motivated soldiers over their counterpart already tired conscript under trained soldiers of most ARNV units.
Some info could be red here.
http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/CMH_2/www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/vietnam/allied/ch06.htm
Still the figures made by MARS above could be use as such if like as well.
My thoughts.
best
OK Erwin,,my thoughts and opinions are based on the scene as opposed to your sources whatever they might be
History changers are usually irritating to those of us on the scene
…or the other way around too.
best …
The quality of ARVN troops depended a lot on the integrity of their chain of command. There was a lot of corruption in the ARVN – the central government used a sort of reverse “tax farming” system to pay its troops from what I’ve gathered over the years. The division commander got the pay for his division – took his cut and then divided the rest among his brigade commanders, who took their cuts and passed the rest down to battalions, and so on… the troops got what was left. Is it any wonder morale was low?
Many ARVN took to stealing and black marketing stolen items to make up for lost pay – that is if their commanders hadn’t already sold it on the Black Market. It’s just the way it goes in many countries. I warned my son when he went overseas that there were usually two fees to getting things done like a getting a Driver’s License – one fee to take the test paid to the government; a second fee paid to the tester to pass it.
When the NVA came across the border, [spitting] on the Paris Peace agreement, I remember sitting in the dayroom at Ft Sill, OK and watching the ARVN run like scared rabbits as they fled. There were a bunch of “retread” Vietnam vets with me, who had gotten out and come back in – all our NCOs with rockers had been to Nam; I watched my mother’s hair turn gray as my brother and dad did consecutive tours over there. And I thought of all the kids my dad brought home for holiday dinners who for whatever reason couldn’t make it to their own homes for the holidays – some of whom had gone over there and not returned. And I cursed the ARVN for being cowards.
Then a few years later I read Richard Nixon’s “No More Vietnams” and learned that the reason those ARVN ran from the NVA was because many of the troops sent to defend Hue City had gone into combat with fewer than two rounds in their M-16s. What do you do with two rounds in modern combat? You shoot them and run, I guess. Maybe that’s what they did?
What happened to all the stuff we left them when we pulled out? Who knows?
I do know reading the book and doing further homework, that that was true. When then-President Ford tried to get supplies certain members of Congress led the charge to stop him from getting a dime’s support. They actually passed an act over his veto forbidding any more aid from going to Vietnam. Was it right or wrong? I don’t know.
From what I’ve learned over the years it appears the ARVN were as good or as bad as their leaders and that was usually pretty poor. Just a few thoughts on it.
Very correct,,,,Most of what we left them was dumped on the side of the road as they took off,, or unmaintained to the point of being not operational
I read No More Vietnams, also. It’s all verifiable fact, too. Without getting long winded, I agree with your summation. I will add this though; all this talk of an ‘unjust, illegal war’ smells of crap to me. Those that vomit that party line don’t know of, or like to ignore, the huge purges the Commies carried out right after the war. Millions died either outright or in concentration camps in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. I wonder how they would have rated the legality of that war if they were able to speak.
In fact the purges by communist start way before in mass killing in NV before took over after Japan surrender and during the indochina war .But is a taboo mention it in documentary or books with few minor exception.
All wars are with out garlands.
my thoughts..
Totally agree with you, Greg. I remember talking to someone who criticized our invasion of Grenada as being “illegal.” I told him to tell that to the college students who hugged our necks and the Grenadians dancing in the streets singing “God Bless America!” when we lifted the curfew.
As for Vietnam I may have said it here before but it bears repeating. Nixon stated in his book that between the time he left office and Reagan was sworn in some fifteen nations fell to communist insurrection or outright takeover. I look back and realize we were losing the Cold War. Our invasion of Grenada – though much mocked ended that trend.
I’ve mulled it over over the years and have come to the conclusion that for some ten years or so the “hot” part of the Cold War centered in Vietnam. I wonder how far communist expansion might have gotten had our troops not gone there and held them back for those years? Maybe it wasn’t such a waste after all. I’d like to think so.
Wayne – I agree and had made a similar observation. Some Historians tried to say that the ‘Domino Theory’ was a laughable farce, but they sure were falling one after another. Just because it wasn’t a nation a day, it was easy to postulate and make up excuses.
In my opinion the set of figures as show Asian faces could be use for any asian unit from late 60s till now as any war representation too.So I think the set is a good generic set that can have multiple use such Cambodia,Laos,Viet nam ,anti terrorism wars ,China Vietnam war and so on…