General Dynamics Light Armored Vehicle LAV-25

I was completely taken aback by finding the LAV, I didn’t pay particular attention to the details within the box, but with Fighting 1:18th Forum member art2614’s help I already had an idea of what to expect. I reserved a lot of judgment because some collectors despise what Unimax has done in the 1:18 scale business. Some see Unimax’s efforts  as cheap and toy like, but with all their past offerings I’ve never felt like that. Unimax has always had a reputation with me of creating a great balance between detail and durability, I tout it throughout my review of Unimax’s Bradley CFV. I’ve always championed Unimax as a great compliment to the pieces 21st Century Toy’s and Blue Box Toys have put out, much to the disagreement of others. Unfortunately today I’m going to have to eat humble pie. Unimax has completely let me down.

This vehicle has less detail than any other Unimax product I have ever reviewed or owned. The most strikingly underwhelming  portion of the vehicle is the turret. The turret design almost seems like a second, unrelated, and uninformed team came and took up production after the body was done. The turret’s overall structure is fine and seems to be in scale as you would expect, but a lot of the details seem to fall apart as you explore each facet of the vehicle.

I’ll start with the body first. The body is a typical Unimax design. Very nice, molded in details throughout. Panel lines with welds on them, areas where hatches or compartments might open are outlined, the engine covers even have individual grills molded into them, these things all look great. The lights are separate pieces that are glued on and add a realistic dimension to the toy. The body even has three gas can stowage racks where the generic gas can can be removed and replaced with the ones that came with the Marine and Army figures available at Target stores last year.

In addition to those details, there is a really nice exhaust system and, I guess, a muffler that comes out from the side. A large, angled exhaust pipe is accented by a smaller pipe that connects to the muffler just below the main, larger pipe. These type of small, simple details, despite not having a lot of action features, are what has made Unimax great in my eyes. Durability, but a few special details. Another little gem on this vehicle is the inclusion of the swimming propellers on the rear section of the vehicle. They are not angled correctly and they do not spin, but it is nice that Unimax added a detail that could have easily been excluded.

So now we come back to the turret. This is where things get shady. The turret has the same weld lines molded into it like the body, so far so good. The periscopes and hatches look fairly accurate and there are two antenna “stubs” where the larger radio antennas stick out, but they are not present. Unimax doesn’t add these antennas, even stubby versions, to any of their vehicles, so this is not a huge loss. This is where the good ends however.

This is where it seems the second, uninformed development team took over the vehicle. Toy like features dominate the rest of the turret. Most noticeably, the bushmaster chain gun is a huge disappointment. It is massive and bulky. The size of the gun really makes the whole piece look like a toy from a mold prospective. I would really like to have seen the same size barrel from the Bradley used since they share the same cannon in real life. The coaxial gun is just a simple rod sticking out from behind the turret shield. Again, why couldn’t they have used the Bradley’s coaxial gun innards here?

The smoke launchers are hollowed out tubes that are attached via a “block” which, in turn, attaches to the turret. They aren’t even close compared to the smoke launcher details on Unimax’s other 1:18 scale vehicles. They look incredibly cheap and rushed. Another odd find is the single piece gas can stowage rack on the turret when the others are two pieces. You would think a single mold to make all four of these would have sufficed.

I think the overall, realistic appearance and quality of the piece break down in the main gun barrel and the smoke launchers looking so toy like. If these two areas had been improved, this would have salvaged the vehicle in my eyes.