The Great Escape is a movie that is loosely based on the true story of 70-odd American, British, and other allied prisoners of World War II who escaped from jail to deliberately throw confusion on Germany and divert troops from the front lines. Steve McQueen plays the part of Capt. Virgil 'The Cooler King' Hilts, sent to the cooler for testing the German line of defense. Always wanting to escape the POW camp he is in. Steve’s character is known for having a baseball and baseball glove with him while in the POW camp and cooler in which he plays catch against the wall to pass the time away while in the cooler.
Enter Jayco’s “The Cooler King” This is a bust which has a lot more going on for it than just the main character that it is focused on. Containing a full base with a number of extras, this pushes The Cooler King beyond other bust like kits that are out in the modeling world today.
A total of 6 pieces make up this ¼ scale kit, 4 piece resin and 2 part metal wire, the wire is used as barbed wire that would encircle the kit when finished.
Sculpted by the talented Jeff Camp, Jeff is a new sculptor to the modeling world and by the looks of this kit you would have never known it. The likeness of actor Steve McQueen is so life like you would expect him to throw the baseball he is holding in his hand out to you. The right arm holding the baseball is connected to the base and not to the bust itself giving a more realistic look and feel to the makeup of the kit. I would expect the baseball to contain scruff marks, as if it has been played with already before one had a chance to add their own scruff marks.
The base contains 3 little huts; that are named Tom, Dick and Harry, which is where the POWs dug their escape tunnels. All though not in scale to the bust itself, I commend Jeff for adding them to the base to keep in synch with the movie. Also added are one of the German guard towers and a Halt sign tops this off to be one of the best bases I have seen connected to a bust kit in a while. Steve sits on what I would say is a mountain of Earth, which looks like it was unearthed from the escape tunnels themselves by the POWs.
A couple of pin holes on the huts and Steve himself would cause for some worry, but with a little bit of putty one can easily take care of this problem. Seam lines are really light so that it would only take wet sand paper to remove them. The one problem I did notice is that the base wobbles a little causing it not to sit flat on a hard surface. I would recommend using a dremal to sand the bottom of the base evenly so it sits flat. But I would not let these minor problems stop you from buying this kit at all.
The Cooler King sells for $70.00 plus shipping and handling from Jayco, making this an affordable kit to have in ones collection. If you are a fan of the movie the Great Escape and Steve McQueen, then this is one kit you do not want to pass up. I, as well as many others, have predicted this will be an instant grail kit in the near future
