John Wayne as a Cavalry Officer

I want to get right into this review. Everyone that has been watching the Sideshow website has been wondering when the Cowboy John Wayne was going to make an appearence. Well, He now has!

Captain Nathan Brittles has graced my tabletop. I received him a couple of weeks ago and reviewed the figure for Sideshow's production team. I had to keep it secret which was tough to do until I was done and had heard from them. This is the only review you are going to see of this figure that is sanctioned by Sideshow. This is a BEFORE the release review.

The box is the standard SS box with the great graphics and information that SS always has. Mine is the SS Exclusive and comes with the buckskin jacket. The buckskin jacket is a nicely done addition to this set and looks really good either on him or another one of your figures. I only had two complaints on this piece and they were minor. Both had to do with the fringe on the jacket. I believed it could have been cut thinner like the jacket in the early release display piece on their site. So what I did was to take a very small pair of my wife's sewing scissors and clipped the larger fringes in half or into thirds (see pictures below). My other issue was that the nylon side of the fringe was sewn in so that it was facing out and does not look right...It looks fine sitting on your shelf but when you take him down you can notice the nylon backing of the material. Overall though this is what the community has been waiting for.

While I was researching the character I started to pour through the movie photos of Wayne in this role and I found something I really hadn't seen until I watched the Shootist and that was his age. This figure brings that out. Mat Falls does a great job at bringing out the "oldtimer" features of Wayne in this role. With full mustache and the squint it brings out Brittles in him. What is interesting to note is that a year or so before this film and a year or so after this film he played Kirby Yorke in Rio Grande (1947) and Fort Apache (1950). He looked much younger more like 30 or so and not the 60ish he looked in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

The uniform was well researched by the production team. Shoulder boards showing rank of captain were nicely done. The dark blue cavalry shirt and 3 button setup where new for the time and based on the Civil War pattern wife's shirt. The Military used this shirt up through the 30's when it was phased out for the M1937 mustards. This is a copy of the 1883 Campaign shirt without pockets. It was also known as the Experimental 1875 shirt. The suspenders look and feel just tike the reproduction originals I have in my collection and button in the right spots on the trousers front and back. The trousers are ok but this is one thing I took issue with. The material does not look right (see picture) and they are to tight on him. I said they look like pants that Superman would wear in the winter. Other than that they look ok from a distance.

The gauntleted hands are soft and pliable. The fingers move easy to allow placing weapons in hand without breaking the hands or the weapons. The boots are standard stove pipe cavalry boots which Wayne wore in many of his cavalry style movies. You get a pair of standard cavalry spurs that cling to the boots.

Included with the set is a pistol and saber belt with cartridge box, 1873 Cavarly Peacemaker, and 1860 light cavalry saber. All in the weapons grouping are well done to include the officers eagle buckle.

The Surtout Coat or officers Overcoat was another nice item included with this set. It fits nicely and looks great on the figure. These coats were issued around 1872.

Over all I think that the collectors will like what they get in this set and enjoy its looks and display features. It is one piece that I think John Wayne would really appreciate and one piece that I hope shows the John Wayne Estate that Sideshow has what it takes to honor this great man for years to come.

Thanks for reading this!

David C. Matteson Jr.