We continue our review of products from custom house Tiny Tactical. Today we are looking at three products, the STV1 Tactical Vest, the SCR-536 Walkie Talkie, and the TL-122 Flashlight.
The tactical vest has been used in a wide variety of military applications for storage of key field gear. Some tactical vests also have a ballistics armor component to them. The Tiny Tactical STV1 vest doesn't appear to be based on a specific model, but can add nice 3D elements to military minifigures. The Tactical Vest fits quite well over a standard torso with the connection occurring with the head post. The color of the tactical vest is olive drab (OD) green and has nice, detailed pouches on the front of the piece. The back has a couple large rectangular pieces, but are largely smooth. None of the pouches are functional (i.e. no openings) and there are no connections or clips for accessories. One of the things I look for in body gear is the ability of the arms to move freely from front to back. This was not an issue, as the footprint of the vest fits well inside the torso.
The SCR-536 Walkie Talkie, or 'handy talkie', is one of the first hand-held, self-contained radios that saw wide use by the US Signal Corps during World War II. The Tiny Tactical version is 2.7 cm long (1.1 cm of the radio body and 1.6 cm the antenna), 3 mm wide and comes in OD green. The body is made out of thermoset plastic while the antenna cap is reinforced with carbon fiber. The antenna is made of a reinforced composite material. The part can be held in the minifig hand so that the receiver is either pointing out or in, toward the minifigure's head and face (see above photo). If the piece is held where the receiver is facing out from the minifigure, it will need to be 'slid' into position for a firm connection. This is accomplished by a small rectangular piece that extends from the main body of the radio and likely represents the press-to-talk switch. The part resembles its real-life counterpart quite well. The antenna appears to be fragile, but as we mentioned Tiny Tactical has reinforced this part for added durability. I would still not recommend 'rough play' with this piece to remain on the safe side.
The TL-122 Flashlight was an Army standard issue, right angle flashlight used widely in World War II. The Tiny Tactical replica is 9 mm long and made of thermoset plastic. The part is OD green with the 'light' itself hand-painted silver. The piece can only be held in the minifigure hand while facing out. This is achieved by having a small piece of rectangular plastic sticking out from the main body of the flashlight, allowing the part to slide into place. When the flashlight is turned sideways, however, the connection is lost and could fall out of the minifigure's hand. Again, as with many of the Tiny Tactical pieces, this resembles the real-life item well.
All three parts were found to be of good quality with firm connections all around. Although I wouldn't recommend 'rough play' with the radio, I experienced no issues during the review. All three of these items are recommended buys.
Additional Stats
Custom House: Tiny Tactical
Website: www.tinytactical.com
Location: British Columbia, Canada
International Shipping?: Yes (see BrickLink store for details)
Colors Available: All items are Olive Drab (OD) Green
Retail Prices: STV1 Tactical Vest ($3.75 USD), SCR-536 Walkie Talkie ($2.90 USD), TL-122 Flashlight ($2.45 USD)
