I don’t think it’s necessary for me to go into the details regarding the horrific Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster that shook the world in the 1980’s and created the largest uninhabitable radioactive region on the globe, ultimately costing hundreds if not thousands of lives. The Fukishima disaster may ultimately turn out to do more damage, but Chernobyl certainly stands out as one of the top examples of manmade blunders up to now.

On that cheery note, it is with more than a little awe that I examine one of ICM’s latest and perhaps most ambitious products – the Chernobyl #1 diorama-in-a-box. Literally intended to be an entire scene in one package, this kit contains a command center truck, five new figures, a small hut and various bits and pieces to compose a radiation check point outside the recently destroyed power plant. To top it off, a beautifully rendered background is included to help you recreate the box cover in its entirety.

The book is the second on Hal Moore by Historian Mike Guardia his first being as co-author with Hal Moore on “Hal Moore on Leadership”.

This is a great photographic biography of Harold G Moore. It spans his childhood in rural Kentucky, West point during the latter part of World War II and military career, in occupied Japan then the Korean conflict.

This is followed by his time in the Vietnam War including his epic command at the Battle of Ia Drang. Which is the story used in the movie We were soldiers once where Hal Moore was played by Mel Gibson. Followed by his peacetime supervising military training.

Mixed in with the whole story is the thread of his loving family which includes his wife and five children.

The book has over 300 color and black & White photographs which are well selected and give a great insight into his life. The text with each photograph give a lot of information and reinforces the whole photo biography.

Hauler has provided an interesting item that can be put to good use in any number of 1/72nd scale dioramas, as well as an item that enhances the display of a non-diorama model. That item is a set of two umbrellas. Imagine a ground crewman or pilot, sitting atop the wing of an aircraft in North Africa. An umbrella would provide some much-appreciated shade. How about an infantryman or member of a tank crew, taking a break and preparing a meal in North Africa? And, of course, if our fellow is in Europe, then the umbrella could provide some protection from rain. And, of course, umbrellas know no nationality, so if based in England, the umbrella would certainly be useful during rainy weather.

When Napoleon returned from Exile on Elba he wanted to rule France in peace but that was not to be. In the following weeks Napoleon gathered an army of 128,000 soldiers. This book gives all the details of the troops of the French Army under Napoleon at the battles of Ligny, Quatre-Bras, and Waterloo.

I was surprised at how much content this book held when it arrived for review, it is one heavy book (in weight)! The book's chapters are based on all the different divisions and corps within the army. The details within each of the chapters are incredible and shows how much research the author did to put this book together. I was amazed at the pictures of original equipment and uniforms. They make this book a great reference source.

I must say that the book is very in-depth which some may not like, and could make it heavy work for some. I myself loved the amount of information and lists included.

This book covers the history of toy and model soldiers for the last 2,500 years of human civilization. That is not a minor feat, considering that human civilization is about 6,000-year-old.

The book describes the religious and martial uses of scale toys in the past and how the model soldier became a toy in the late 1800s through the mid-1950 and a collectible in the 21st century. It includes the evolution from paper, to tin, to alloys and finally to plastic.

It also has a few chapters (listed as “Cameo”) where collectors tell very personal stories of how they got interested in toy soldiers, why they collect them and what aspect of collecting them gives them the most pleasure (it could be going “hunting” to an open market for that rare find or how the old memory of a dime-store gets triggered by holding a given figure).