Ultimate Soldier
the Ultimate Soldier was produced by the company known as 21st Century Toys. It was founded in 1997, and began making 1/6 scale figures and uniforms, and now mostly makes 1/6 scale weapon sets as well as 1/18 and 1/32 scale toys. The President of the fan Club was Rex Adams. The action figures are based on World War Two, Vietnam War, Korean War, and Operation Desert Storm soldiers.
In 1997, 21st Century Toys decided to create a "12" inch soldier with more detailed accessories than Hasbro's G.I. Joe. The original SAM action figures released featured the same basic movable joint design as the G.I. Joe Classic Collection action figures featuring 15 movable parts. They were slightly taller with a slimmer build, and made with flexible plastic. The hands were a main concern, because they were stiff and difficult to place accessories into, as well as having an unrealistic head sculpt with a baby-face like design. In 1999, the company released the Super Soldier body design with 27 movable parts. The expanded line included three new categories: The original Ultimate Soldier line included a Vietnam Veterans Memorial set of The Three Soldiers, a Spetsnaz soldier and sniper, a Navy SEAL, George S. Patton, Erwin Rommel and various other modern day soldiers. The America's Finest line included Steve McQueen, firefighters, and a K-9 police officer. The Villains line included Boris; a KGB enforcer agent, a bounty Hunter named T-Gore, and a biker. The Misfits line included Jerry Only and Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein from the band the Misfits. A United States Secret Service agent was being considered when it was mentioned in a fan club news letter; unfortunately this led to an unknown rival toy company producing it before 21st Century toys made their final decision about releasing it. This basic design was used in 2000 to create the Cy Girls known as the Perfect Body Female .
The arms had four parts, featuring fore arms, elbow pieces, lower biceps joints, and upper biceps/shoulder joints. The legs also had four parts with movable hips, calves, thighs and knee caps. The torso consisted of a movable chestpiece, abdomen and a pelvic piece connected by screws and springs. The head consisted of a pivoting neck joint (also connected by a spring and screw) with a universal socket joint for the rubber molded head to connect to. The new head sculpt was much more realistic. The double-jointed elbows and knees enabled the arms and legs to be posed into folded positions. This action figure could be posed into the lotus position and any other position that the human body was capable of (and several it was not capable of). The two main concerns were the following: the flap sections on the calves and thigh connecting to the knee caps would have gaps in between them, and the connecting joints created a loose fit. The pivot joint connecting the neck to the torso was also very loose fitting, so that if it were accidentally knocked out of place or removed, there was no known way to put it back on. There were also complaints about the Nazi soldiers from the Third Reich being on the shelves. In 2002 the "12" inch line was cancelled as companies such as Dragon Models, Blue Box (BBI), Sideshow Collectibles, In the Past Toys and various other rival companies released their products with the same basic body design and their more detailed accessories. 21st Century Toys has moved on to producing smaller palm-sized planes, tanks and action figures.