1/6 UJINDOU UD9002 British SAS Lieutenant Edward MacDonald (1942)

[Asta]

After receiving their Paddy Mayne, and being very pleased with him, I got the urge to look for MacDonald. I knew Modellers Loft had him, but the price was too high.

I looked again anyway, and they'd reduced him in price! He was about £190 before, but now reduced to £148.99. Using their site wide 5% discount code brought him down to under £142. Too good a price to miss.


WWII Military Series : WWII British SAS Lieutenant "Edward MacDonald" 1942 (UD90002)

Set Includes:

Head Sculpt “Edward”
BB-2 Body w/Feet

Palms:
1 Pair Gun Holding Hands
1 x Cigarette Holding Hand
1 x Lighter Holding Hand (? There's no lighter shown ?)

Costume:

1 x Arab Style Headdress and Head Scarf
1 x Khaki Drill KD Bush Jacket
1 x UK Khaki Drill Shorts, 1941 Pattern
1 x 1937 Webbing Belt
1 x Pistol Ammo Pouch
1 x Webley MKIV .38 Service Pistol Holster
1 x Neck Scarf
1 x Commando Dagger
1 x Canvas Rifle Sling
1 x Socks
1 x Webbing 1937 Small Pack
1 x Allied Military Map
1 Pair Dispatch Riders Gauntlets
1 Pair Desert Ankle Boots

Badge & Patch:

1 x Military Service Ribbons
1 x SAS Shoulder Titles
1 x Rank Insignia
1 x SAS Parachute Wings

Weapons：

1 x STEN MK II Sub Machine Gun
1 x Webley MK4 Pistol w/Pistol Lanyard
1 x Commando Dagger

Accessories:

1 x Monkey
1 x Cigarette
1 x Military Binoculars
1 x British Army 1 Pint Tin Mug

 

[Asta]

Lt. Edward MacDonald appeared in the famous series of photographs showing 'L Detachment':

Lieutenant Edward MacDonald, D.C.M. of the Cameron Highlanders (foreground) sits at the wheel of his Willys MB 1/4 ton Jeep with Corporal Bill Kennedy manning the twin-mounted gas operated Vickers K machine guns beside him and the rest of the heavily armed patrol of L Detachment Special Air Service (SAS) Brigade on 18th January 1943 somewhere in the desert of North Africa.(Photo by Major Geoffrey Keating, No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit.

Left to right: (or furthest from Camera to Lt McDonald)

Jocky Henderson – Scots Guards (Killed with SRS at Termoli),
Jock Mcdiarmaid MM – Black Watch,
Dave Goldie – Scots Guards,
John Taylor, who I believe was with a Scots regiment, maybe Scots Guards,
William Kit Kennedy, Royal Scots Greys,
Edward Mcdonald

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/sas-identify-members-in-photo.87404/

Colourised:

He doesn't have the fame of Paddy Mayne, and I haven't found much history on him apart from this:

Parent unit: Cameron Highlanders (Sgt)
Parent unit: West Yorkshire Regiment (Officer)
L Detachment SAS 1941-42 (Sgt)
1 SAS (A Squadron) 1942-43 (2 Lt - Lt)

CITATION:​

Distinguished Conduct Medal : This NCO was one of a small raiding party with Lieutenant Mayne, who at Sirte on the 12/13th December, destroyed 24 aeroplanes, bomb stores and petrol stores. This NCO was conspicuous throughout for his utter disregard of danger-his coolness and steadiness when faced by a superior number of the enemy. The example set by this NCO was an inspiration to all, and was instrumental in the success of this operation.

https://www.specialforcesroh.com/index.php?threads/mcdonald-edward.29033/

 

[Asta]

The neck in the prototype photos appears really strange, as though it was a neckless sculpt fudged onto a neckless body.

That's not how the production sculpt was produced though.

I saw this review, or rather complaint, about the figure when I first started looking into the company:

https://bbs.bbicn.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=366813&highlight=ujindou
The complaint was that there was only one button on the jacket, and that the body had fallen apart in the box:

What a big surprise
Ah!
Didn't your factory ask for quality control?
Before I bought the first product, I knew that the quality of the body you used was very poor.n't
second product to be so exaggerated!
Leave it like this, and then the jacket will be shipped to me with only one button)!
Please be careful if you want to create a new brand!

I don't understand the button complaint since they seem to be all there. Maybe they were complaining that only one was fastened at the factory?

Ujindou replied three hours later:

Hi! Thank you for your feedback on our products. We have received reports from agents that some parts are missing, or that the head carving touches the flower. We are the first to provide new accessories to players. Any questions raised by players will be dealt with actively, and there will be no delay or failure to deal with them.
If you contact the seller and there is a phenomenon that the damaged parts cannot be replaced, please let me know, thank you very much. I am very sorry for the unpleasantness caused by the problem of the factor body. We can arrange to replace the body with a new one for you. Please provide your contact information, thank you.
Starting from UD9003, we will replace the new body. At the same time, we will also strengthen our product testing work and try our best to do it well. Thank you for your support!

I'm not worried about the body as that can be repaired if there's an issue. Missing parts could be a problem since it's an older figure.

 

[FlyAndFight]

Congrats on being able to pick up this figure, Asta!

If there was one Desert SAS Brit figure that I would get, it would definitely be this one. The fact that he is included in that classic photo of the group in the jeeps only makes it even more special.

 

[Asta]

Congrats on being able to pick up this figure, Asta!

If there was one Desert SAS Brit figure that I would get, it would definitely be this one. The fact that he is included in that classic photo of the group in the jeeps only makes it even more special.

I found another colourised photo that I hadn't seen before;

The text accompanying it says that Lt. MacDonald is driving the front Jeep with Cpl. Bill Kennedy next to him. They were returning from a three month patrol somewhere in North Africa on 18th January 1943.

The Photo was taken by Major Geoffrey Keating of No.1 Army Film & Photographic Unit. (Colour by Richard James Molloy).

 

[FlyAndFight]

Awesome photo.

 

[Asta]

Lt. MacDonald arrived this morning.

Body wasn't broken and no buttons missing.

The packaging is exactly the same style as for Paddy Mayne: a fold over lid that creates a backdrop, with the head on Jeep image above in sepia tones; and rigid foam layers to safely secure all the parts.

First impression, as seems to be usual with Ujindou, is that the head is a little under sized. Not really in height, but in width this time. The hands aren't great, but they are painted in a dark sun tan (and even have painted fingernails). Though dark, the sculpt is even darker. You could use this sculpt and hands to make a Cairo Swordsman from Raiders of the Lost Ark (the Hasbro version was too under scaled).

The body is also a darker tone, though only his knees will be showing.

The clothing is nice, thin material, well tailored with working buttons. The suede desert boots even feel like the real thing.

In a little bag there were six tiny brass rounds to load into the Webley, which I wasn't expecting since they weren't listed. A little fiddly to load, but they really look the part when you break the revolver open. The brass rims are also visible from side with the revolver closed, which adds a bit of extra realism. As with Paddy Mayne's flare pistol, the thread supplied for the lanyard is too thick to go through the ring.

The map of Algeria and Tunisia isn't authentic if you look too closely, since it says "Algeria - Tunisia, 1942 Race for Tunis 11-17 November 1942".

It only took me a couple of seconds using to find the original map that Ujindou used as the source:

https://historicalresources.wordpre...-tunisia-maps-november-17-1942-–-may-13-1943/

The monkey is identical to the one that came with Paddy, so I'll probably give it to one of the Indiana Jones figures.

The Sten is plastic. For some reason I was expecting it to be metal. I haven't had one since I had Action Man figures as a kid. Since the SAS favoured the Thompson I'll give it to my Commando officer. With Ujindou announcing the Commando sniper today I'll likely buy two of them, so one can have the Sten to create some variety.

Now onto putting him together.

 

[Asta]

The body isn't great and posing isn't easy. I still need to try and get a more natural pose out of Paddy Mayne as well.

The keffiyeh is wet here as I soaked it completely before putting it on his head to tame it:

MacDonald is a better figure than I expected from the initial review on BBICN.

 

[Asta]

 

[FlyAndFight]

That display is looking amazing.

 

[DrWeaponX]

The body isn't great and posing isn't easy. I still need to try and get a more natural pose out of Paddy Mayne as well.

The keffiyeh is wet here as I soaked it completely before putting it on his head to tame it:

View attachment 604340View attachment 604341View attachment 604343

MacDonald is a better figure than I expected from the initial review on BBICN.

As I mentioned on another post, I had to pick this guy up. I’d actually been looking at him awhile and there is so much character here.

I’m meh on the body for a few reasons, mainly on the knees and forearms looking the way they do on a figure with this much exposed skin. I’m also not big on seamless, but I might try those newer worldbox bodies with the single forearm pieces and hopefully pull the socks up higher.

Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[DrWeaponX]

Still futzing but I like the body swap so far!

 

[Asta]

Still futzing but I like the body swap so far!

View attachment 611770

He looks good with the body swap and new arms.

Mind me asking how you’re attaching the patches? Is it as simple as fabric glue?

Right. Mine don’t stay on. They start to almost peel off and look weird.

I see what you mean with the shoulder title in that photo.

An easy fix for those would be to remove them entirely as I haven't seen a single photo of them being worn in North Africa.

There are photos of them on the battledress jacket later in the war in Germany and Norway (1944 onwards). There's another photo from 1944 with them being worn on a jacket by one of the soldiers sent on a tour of US cities to help encourage Americans to buy war bonds.

For those that are essential you could try double sided tape, as it may be a safer option to fabric glue.

 

[Asta]