Introducing the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN)

The South Vietnamese Army, officially known as the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN) was established after the end of the Indochina War with France in 1955, and went on to fight for 20 years until its defeat at the fall of Saigon in 1975. Their main adversaries were the Viet Cong and the NVA, who were fighting for a unified, communist Vietnam. While many think of the South Vietnamese Army as having played second fiddle to the US Army during the Vietnam war, they actually had over 4 times the number of KIA during the war, with over a quarter million deaths. It is true that operationally, the let the Americans take the initiative for several years while the US forces were involved, but prior to that, and after the US forces completed their withdrawal in '73, the ARVN bore the brunt of the fighting. At the height of the war, they were considered a fairly modernized army, utilizing helicopters and armored cavalry vehicles not just as transportation, but in actual combat, with doctrines that were later used as blueprints by other nations. At some point, the number of ARVN troops was close to 1 million. About 40% of them were regular army, and the rest were regional militias. Unfortunately, even though they were very well supplied and trained by the US, they were not led very well. Not only by their politicians and generals, but also through a weak officer corps, which was often described as corrupt, inept, and suffering from low morale. Throughout the war, the South Vietnamese we hindered by political infighting which lead to a coup, followed by ongoing questionable leadership. The collapse that they suffered at the end of the war, was particularly shocking. When the US left Vietnam, they basically left all their fighting vehicles and weapons/ammo caches behind, so the ARVN should have had enough materiel to fight with, but the North's Spring Offensive in March of '75 resulted in a total rout and by end of April Saigon had fallen. Many generals, officers, and enlisted men committed suicide anticipating what was to come, and the rest were sent to reeducation camps by the North Vietnamese, where many more were tortured and died. In terms of toy soldiers, there really aren't many options. As far as I know, we only have the Mars set so far. Let's check it out.   

Mars South Vietnamese Army

As far as I know this is the only ARVN set that has been released in this scale. So it's great to have some representation for this country and service branch, but I do have to say that the set was a bit underwhelming. First of all, the poses have several guys just standing around. I am never a big fan of those. Then the sculpting and level of detail are a bit coarse. Some of the weapons feel a bit thick, and the detailing feels like someone just took a knife and sliced off some sections of clay. The guy on the far right is particularly off at the middle seam towards the face. On the positive side, there's a good variety of head gear, and weapons. So, all in all, happy that there are some guys to fight next to the US forces, but it feels like this set fell short of its potential.