ICM The Game – Square (16210) 1:16

[Mike]

The Game – Square (16210)

1:16 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd

 

 

The TV series ‘The Squid Game’ has been a massive hit worldwide, but I’ll be honest and tell you that I’ve still not seen it.  It’s a South Korean series consisting of 10 episodes that has become a blockbuster on Netflix, that’s insanely popular with Western audiences despite the language barrier, as most of us don’t speak Korean – thank goodness for dubs.  It’s about a TV game show that involves hundreds of impoverished players competing in childish games for a huge cash prize that is paid to the ultimate winner, totalling 45.6 billion ₩ (pronounced Won) (that’s £28,664.54 or $34,810.22 for the Brits and Americans at today’s exchange rates), but the caveat is that these games are deadly.  You’re going to die if you lose.  Each episode is 55 minutes long, and I picked it up out of curiosity when the first kit arrived, but still haven’t watched it yet, so I still don’t know what all the fuss is about.

 

The contestants all wear a loose-fitting jumpsuit in red to hide their gender and identity, which is further hidden by the black full-face masks that they wear, giving the impression of an ant face, which was deliberate according to the IMDb trivia section.  Even the staff wear the same gear, but on the ‘forehead’ of the staff masks are simple white symbols in the shape of a circle, square, or triangle - the reason for which I don’t yet know.  If you’re wondering why it’s called The Squid Game, it’s because the player board is in the shape of a squid roughly scratched into the ground.

 

 

The Kit

This figure arrives in a slim top-opening box with a captive inner lid on the tray, and inside are four sprues in grey styrene, and three in black styrene, a small decal sheet, and the glossy instruction sheet that is printed in colour.  The final item in the box is a glossy colour print of the box top art, which you can stick on your wall or not.  It’s a simple kit because it’s a figure dressed in a jumpsuit, but it is well sculpted and as detailed as we’ve come to expect from ICM.  Construction is carried out according to the same diagram as the painting guide, which uses the same drawings to give paint and part numbers for simplicity.  The figure has a face with lower half covered by a mask, even though the main mask tends to obscure all the detail, but there it is, so if you wanted to adapt your figure to have the mask off, you can do so by removing the strap with a motor tool or old-fashioned sanding stick. 

 

 

The figure is made up from sixteen parts in grey, with separate legs, arms, a two-part torso, two-part hood, a well-detailed head that is wearing a half mask, hands, separate cargo pockets with keyed attachment point, and a single black mask that fixes to the front of the head, which has the retaining strap moulded into it.  This figure is armed with a revolver that is moulded into the right hand, and it is aimed diagonally upward as if starting a race, or as is more likely, vaguely threatening someone.  The revolver has an empty holster included on the sprues, but there is also another part that has the gun moulded into a holster, as it’s the same sprue used for other figures.

 

 

The base is moulded in black styrene, and has a choice of four different surface textures for the top and a flat base for the bottom.  The choices comprise a flat asphalt surface plus three styles of cobble or paving stones, and is a constant theme of ICM’s 1:16 series of figures, so they’ll all match.

 

 

Markings

The decal sheet includes one square decal for the character’s forehead, and you are advised to paint the jumpsuit blood red, with rubber black (dark grey) and black for boots and other accessories.  You can change the colour of the suit to your whim if you know what you’re doing and have watched the series, and some simple masks or decal strip could be used to create the other shapes if you prefer this pose for other characters, or wanted to create a new one for your own (as yet imaginary) season 2.

 

 

 

Conclusion

A nice figure that hits near the height of popularity of the series, according to my 12-year-old son who still gets bombarded by spoilers for it at school.  You can use it as intended, or tinker with it to portray other players, staff, or even go totally off-piste and use it in another situation entirely.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd.

 

Review sample courtesy of