My pile of GI JOE Classified figures is stacking up, so I really need to double my efforts to get into these. Three reviews a week seems like a lot of work, but it isn’t enough to keep up with all the toys I want to look at. In a lot of cases, I’ve been doubling up on figures in each review, but I feel as if there’s too much great stuff to talk about with the Classified figures and I want to give each one their own review. So, let’s take a dive under the water today and check out  Ed Leialoha, aka Torpedo!

I was probably around thirteen when I got the first Torpedo figure and he was one of my absolute favorites for a while. Keep in mind, my first experiences playing with GI JOE was with the 12-inch figures. My Uncle had given my brother and I his whole collection and we were always playing with them. When I started getting the new 3 3/4-inch JOEs, I tended to really take to the ones with a lot of gear, so figures like Snowjob and Torpedo were among my favorites because all their gear reminded me of playing with the bigger figures. Also, whenever I would get a new JOE my Dad would explain a lot of the filecard stuff to me, as he was a military history buff. I can still remember getting Torpedo and him telling me all about Navy SEALs and what they did. I think he was happy to see me move from playing with Star Wars to GI JOE because it was something he could relate to a little more… at least until things started getting really goofy. Anyway, Torpedo comes in a fully enclosed box with some excellent artwork. Inside you get a cardboard foot locker with all his gear in a tissue paper bag.

Here is the base figure before suiting up to dive under the waves and boy does he look great! Hasbro did very little to change that iconic black and gray suit, and I’m certainly happy about that. They did add some paint to the belt, which adds a bit of detail, but my favorite addition is the little sonar instrument he has attached to his right wrist. He also adds a brace of pouches strapped to his left thigh and a sheath for his combat knife on his right thigh. You get a soft plastic shoulder harness with a couple of red pouches added to his right shoulder, and a black one on the left. This is exactly how I like to see my Classified figures, with deep roots in the vintage original and just enough modern flourishes to make if feel fresh.

The head sculpt is pretty good, but I think they uglied Ed up a bit. Hey, not every JOE can be as handsome as Chuckles, and to be honest I think the portrait gives him a lot of personality. The skin tone is also excellent, especially considering my vintage Torpedo looked like he had jaundice. There is some pretty bad paint slop around the lines of the hood where the black paint is over sprayed onto his skin. It’s tolerable when the figure is in hand, but it looks absolutely terrible when you punch in close. If he shows up for clearance, I may try my luck on another, otherwise I can live with it. Let’s check out some of his weapons before he hits the water.

I really dig how Hasbro is improving the knives in this line. For a while we were just getting simple sculpts cast in black plastic, but here we get a red painted grip and a black blade with a serrated back and a nasty looking clip to the point. This fits perfectly in the sheath and he can comfortably wield it in either hand.

Next up we get a sweet little automatic short-barreled rifle with a removable magazine. This is a great bonus, since the original figure only came with his harpoon, and sometimes even divers have to exterminate Cobras on dry land. The sculpt on this little weapon is very detailed, and while I don’t recognize the model, the design definitely looks like it’s grounded in reality. OK… time to suit up and go below!

Much like the vintage figure, Classified Torpedo has a pair of flippers and an O2 tank for his back, but here we actually add a face mask. The backpack is a pretty big departure from the vintage design, but I still like it a lot. Gone are the thruster-like side pieces and the red tanks, all abandoned for a simple and streamlined black tank. The flippers are cast in soft plastic and actually fit around his feet, rather than just pegging into the bottoms. They also have holes so you still have access to the foot pegs, which is a great little touch.

The mask has hoses that peg into the O2 tank and it just fits right over the head with soft plastic straps. This is such a great addition to the figure, as I had to use my childhood imagination that there was some kind of shield over vintage Torpedo’s eyes. The goggle lenses are painted silver and you get some red gray paint hits on the breather apparatus. The tubes even seem to stay put when I articulate his head, which is a nice surprise, as I thought they’d be popping out left and right.

Finally, you get the harpoon gun. A lot of folks were complaining about how rubbery and warped this thing was, so I was a bit worried when I opened the bag of accessories. It is indeed rubbery and warpy, but mine is actually not too bad. I like the sculpted loop to hook it around his arm, and there’s a clip on the bottom of the O2 tank to store it horizontally across his lower back.

Dare I say that Classified Torpedo is a direct hit? Well he is in my book! He’s the textbook example of what I look for in these figures. The base body lines up beautifully with the vintage design, while the scuba gear is all given a well needed modern update. The bendy harpoon gun is a tad disappointing and the paint on the head could have been a lot cleaner, but there’s so much else to love here, I’m not going to let it sink my enjoyment of this figure. The only sad thing here is that I don’t have a Cobra Eel for him to fight, and who knows if I ever will. Hasbro decided to make it an Amazon exclusive and it sold out fast and scalpers are selling them at double the price or more. Still, I think I’ll keep the nautical theme going for my next Classified review… but will it be Cobra or another JOE? We’ll see…