Tag Archives: gi joe

Nov 13 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Shipwreck by Hasbro

Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do action figure companies. So, with my Star Wars Black Series and Marvel Legends collecting dropping off, GI JOE Classified has stepped up to fill those gaps and help Hasbro to keep sucking out all my monies. There have just been so many quality releases out of this line and they just keep coming! Today I’m checking out Classified Shipwreck, and some may be surprised to find that this is another character where I did not own the vintage RAH figure when I was a kid. Indeed, the first time I added a Shipwreck figure to my collection would have been as an adult collector with the 25th Anniversary release.

Shipwreck comes in the usual plastic free packaging, including a cardboard footlocker to stow his gear. I love these boxes and I’ve been keeping them for now, but I think eventually they will need to go. Maybe I’ll just flatten them all out and tuck them somewhere. Anyway, it’s hard for me to put a finger on why I never owned the vintage version of Shipwreck. He was a 1985 release, so he turned up on shelves just at the cusp of when I was starting to lose interest in toys, but he was so prominently featured in the Sunbow cartoon. Maybe it was because I was never a big fan of the character, and I think I used to just use Cutter as a stand in. Anyway, let’s scrape the barnacles off this box and see what we’ve got!

True to form, Shipwreck hits all the beats of the vintage figure with his blue trousers, lighter blue short sleeved shirt, and black gloves. The trousers here are textured to look more like jeans and less like a uniform, which I guess fits in line with his weird freelancer Sunbow backstory, but not so much with his official filecard. There’s some excellent detail sculpted into his tiny belt buckle, and some sharp naval tatts on his forearms, as well as the insignia on his shoulders. Like the RAH figure, you get a plunging neckline, as his shirt is unbuttoned at the top, but here you actually get to see his hairy chest which is printed on. He has a belt rig with a scabbard for his larger gun and a hook for his boarding hook. There’s also a functional holster strapped to his right leg, which was just a sculpted bit on the RAH figure.

The head sculpt looks great, giving Shipwreck the look of a rough-and-tumble seadog. The beard and mustache sport some nice detail and the paint is pretty well, with only a few bits where the brown paint comes up short of the beard sculpt. He has a strong nose and somewhat sunken cheeks and one eyebrow is raised to give him a little character. This feels more like an update to the RAH character as opposed to the Sunbow one, and I’m all for that! With Super7 doing the Sunbow stuff, I really love when Hasbro does their own thing with these guys. The hat is removable and the hair goes with it, but you get a second hair piece if you want to display him sans hat. The secondary hair looks great, but I’ll likely always display him with the hat on.

Naturally, Shipwreck comes with his parrot Polly, which has no articulation, but is a fantastic little sculpt with some vibrant green and yellow coloring and some sharp paint on his tiny face and beak. They also gave him a peg leg, which is I think is hilarious, in a kind of morbid way. It gives the little figure so much character and poses so many questions as to how and why. It also serves the practical function of allowing him to be pegged into the hole on Shipwreck’s arm. You also get a coil of rope that can be worn over Shipwreck’s shoulder and it has a peg hole if you’d prefer to perch Polly up there. This is some really clever and fun design beats on Hasbro’s part and I love it!

The holster on his leg rig stores an automatic pistol, which is nothing terribly special, but a decent little sculpt nonetheless. The RAH figure didn’t come with a sidearm like this, but there was one sculpted onto the leg, so it’s nice for the Classified version to be able to make use of it.

The anchor is a stand in for the original figure’s boarding hook, which is an interesting update and certainly adds to the naval theme. The ring that allows it to hang off the belt can also be used to attach a string if you want to complete the look. Personally, I’d like to think he just uses this thing as a melee weapon and beats the shit out of Cobras with it while whistling a jaunty maritime tune.

The other weapon lifted from the RAH figure’s inventory is the percussion pistol, which I always thought was meant to be a sawed-off shotgun. I blame the 25th Anniversary figure for that. It is indeed an old-timey design with a double barrel and a vintage style hammer mechanism. Probably not the most reliable and efficient weapon to bring into battle, but it sure is distinctive and adds more to the figure’s naval theme and I dig it a lot. There’s also a sculpted lanyard loop coming off the handle grip.

The designers definitely had some fun with this figure, and for a character that I never warmed up to, I really love this one a lot. He walks that fine line between being a fairly credible military-style figure while infusing just enough distinctive character and not being too goofy. All the accessories gel so wonderfully and he’s tons of fun to pose and play around with. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this one is another direct hit for Classified and another reason why this is my favorite line to collect right now!

Nov 1 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Low-Light by Hasbro

I’m going to be digging into G.I. JOE Classified hot and heavy over the next few weeks as I try desparately to get caught up with the pile of figures that have been coming in. I’m glad I cut way back on Marvel Legends and have pretty much dipped out on Star Wars Black Series entirely, because keeping up with Classified has become quite an endeavor and I’m sure I couldn’t have done it if I was still collecting Hasbro’s other 6-inch lines. Today I literally just grabbed a random figure off the stack and it happens to be Low-Light, so let’s do it!

Low-Light had one of the most bad ass backstories of all the RAH JOEs: Getting lost as a child in North Dakota while hunting with his father and surviving on his own for weeks with just a .22 rifle and a flashlight. Dayuuuum! Low-Light is also distinguished as being one of my first Classified figure reviews where I did not own the vintage original when I was a kid. That figure was released in 1986 and by that time I had moved on from toys… at least until I started collecting Playmates Star Trek figures over five years later. Suffice it to say, I’m excited to get this guy open and check him out!

Once again, Classified draws heavy on the original RAH design for the character, and all I can say is, keep it up guys because that’s what I’m here for! Low-Light has a set of gray-blue fatigues with reinforced patches, zippers, pouches and sculpted detail pretty much everywhere. The boots and gloves changed from black on the original figure to blue here, and it looks fine. You get some snappy silver paint on the buttons and clasps, green on the pineapple grenades hanging on his left front, and red paint on the quilted recoil pad on his right shoulder. His right leg has a sheath rig for his knife while his left leg has a pouch for his wind meter. The tactical backpack pegs into his back and has a peg on the side to hold one of his guns. What a great looking update to the original figure!

The portrait features solid face sculpt with his familiar blonde hair and knitted cap and his red goggles, which can sit up on his forehead or be worn down over his eyes. Since I don’t have a huge attachment to the original figure, I’m perfectly fine with the likeness they gave him. Honestly, I don’t really even remember Low-Light appearing in a whole lot of episodes of the Sunbow cartoon, except for when Cobra kidnapped his sister in Glamour Girls.

The visor fits over the eyes really well, with the top rim lining up with the lower edge of the cap almost perfectly. The paint on my figure’s visor is a bit sloppy with the red spilling over onto the lower frame a bit. It’s unfortunate, but not overly noticeable unless I’m punching in close with the camera. It doesn’t feel like positioning the goggles up and down is stretching the strap out too much, but I’ll probably wind up keeping them down over the eyes most of the time.

As for accessories, the wind meter is a really nice touch. Sure, it’s just a plain black piece of plastic and it looks like a cell phone with a fan attached to the top, but I think it’s really cool that Hasbro included this little piece of gear and gave him a spot for him to store it.

The survival knife is a nice little accessory as well. The grip is painted to match Low-Light’s fatigues and the blade is silver. He can hold it very well in either hand.

His regular shooter is, eh… well one of these weirdo modern European looking sub machine guns. The original figure came with an Uzi and I would have much preferred that, but I guess this is fine. I’m not up on these modern designs, but it’s a nice sculpt featuring a well-defined rail on the top, a foregrip, and a detachable magazine. God, how I love that Hasbro has made detachable mags a normal thing for this line and the gun sculpts have been absolutely fantastic, even if I do prefer the more traditional designs.

And then there’s this beauty! You get a fully functional case for Low-Light’s sniper rifle. The sculpt on this is beautiful from the nylon straps to the seams to the zipper running along the edge where it opens. It has a carry handle and a peg to attach to his back. There’s also a socket on it so you can peg the backpack on top of it, but I think that looks kind of silly, so it’s an “either, or” situation for me.

Open the case and you have compartments inside to hold the sniper rifle, scope, suppressor, and bipod. This is so damn cool and so incredibly well done! It’s also exactly the sort of thing that I hoped we would see with the increase in scale. Everything fits into the case perfectly and can be attached to the rifle once Low-Light has scouted his perch.

The rifle itself is a pretty big departure from the simple one that came with the original figure. Like his other weapon, it’s a little too modern for me to decipher what it’s based on, but the sculpt is fantastic and it too has a detachable magazine.

It’s pretty damn cool to finally get a Classified release of a figure that I didn’t have as a kid, and I suspect that’s going to be happening more frequently as Hasbro digs deeper into the line and releases updates to those post 1985 figures. I’ve already seen a few coming down the pipe that are going to be new to me and that’s pretty exciting. Low-Light is a fantastic addition to my JOE forces, which were getting pretty outnumbered by Cobra up to this point, but in the coming weeks I think the two sides will soon be more evenly matched!

Oct 20 2023

Transformers X G. I. JOE: Megatron HISS Tank by Hasbro

I’ve been taking stock of some of the toys that have been sitting around for a while and waiting their turn in the spotlight here, so you may see some older stuff turning up now and then. One of those woefully delayed reviews is this crossover between Transformers and G. I. JOE that I picked up almost exactly a year ago. I must have had a lot going on because I shelved it and kind of forgot about it. So, let’s take a look at one of those 80’s kids fantasies where Transformers and G. I. JOE meet! Where knowing is more than meets the eye but only half the battle!

The box is interesting as it’s basically a two-part slipcase that slides off each side to reveal a plain brown box with the Hasbro logo on it. The slipcase is gorgeous with the vintage style package design from each franchise represented and some amazing artwork for the vehicle and characters. The Megatron robot mode really downplays the HISS kibble we’re going to see on the actual toy, but even in that regard it’s still very much in the spirit of the vintage TF package art. There’s a fake window showing that the figure includes a vintage-style 3 3/4-inch Baroness, who actually comes carded inside the box. I’ll be honest, as a kid I was never really jonesing for this kind of mash-up. The Cobra Commander cameo in the the Transformers episode Only Human was a cool enough tease for me. Nonetheless, how could I resist something like this?

Here’s Baroness. Yes, she’s still carded and I’m going to keep her that way. All of my 3 3/4-inch JOEs are from the 25th Anniversary line or later, so she really wouldn’t fit in anywhere. I love the card art on this, but the card itself is pretty flimsy and prone to warping. The figure overall looks good, except for where they painted the skin around here eyes inside the glasses so it doesn’t match the rest of her skin color. It may not be all that noticeable in the picture, but it’s really obvious with the figure in hand. She comes with a backpack and rifle. It would have been really cool to give her a scaled down Megatron gun to make her really special to this set, but at least the back of the card has some art specific to this crossover.

And here’s Megatron in his HISS mode, and he looks fantastic. There are some telltale signs that this tank is More Than Meets The Eye if you know where to look, but for a casual observer, this really does look like a regular 3 3/4-inch scale HISS tank and that’s awesome. There’s a seam running down the center of the nose that doesn’t close up all the way, you can see the off-white panels under the cockpit, which are Megatron’s arms, and the most obvious is Megatron’s chest piece fully exposed under the rear platform. None of these really bother me at all, in fact I think they all add to the charm of the toy.

The bulk of the toy is cast in matte black plastic and there are printed red Cobra emblems, as well as some identification numbers. The treads are sculpted just like the regular HISS toys, but there are wheels under it to roll it into battle. Most of the sculpted detail goes into the tread system, but there are still some bolt holes and panel lines, which help draw the eye from the actual transformation seams. The turret rotates as it should and the cannon barrels can be raised and lowered, and they actually move independently from one another.

Here are some comparisons of Megatron HISS with the 25th Anniversary release, and damn they look pretty close. When viewed from the side, and ignoring the color/style changes to the markings, it’s virtually impossible to tell which is the transforming toy.

If you don’t like having extra pieces, you can plug Megatron’s fusion cannon into the turret to give it some extra firepower. On the one hand it kind of looks silly, but then again I kind of like the personalized Megatron touch it gives to the toy.

And here’s the tank with some of Super7’s ReAction figures manning it. These make for a good fit, although this vehicle is really designed for the vintage-style O-Ring figures and the foot pegs on the tailgate are not compatible with the Super7 peg holes. Despite splitting apart down the middle for transformation, the interior of the cockpit is still fully realized with a ton of sculpted detail. The ReAction figures fit fine, but the O-Ring figures would fit even better. Let’s get Megatron transformed and check him out.

Transforming the toy into robot mode is pretty easy, but I found that getting it locked back down into HISS mode can be a pain, even when I know what I’m supposed to be doing. In robot mode, it’s clear that Hasbro’s focus here was the HISS mode, because the robot mode has a lot of kibble. It’s like Megatron is cosplaying as a HISS tank. I think the toy manages the HISS parts pretty well when viewed from the front, but there’s a lot of stuff going on the back… like, oh I don’t know… the fact that he’s basically wearing half a HISS tank as a backpack. I was not fond of this at all when I first saw the toy, but it’s grown on me a little bit. It’s kind of got a powerful battlemech vibe going on, and I’m not hating it. Either way, there’s enough G1 Megatron beats to the robot mode to make it work.

I really dig how the design added the rocket packs to the tread pieces that land on his hips. Being able to launch off six rockets from your hips ain’t a bad thing. The fusion cannon pegs in on the back of the hand, but at least he’s not actually holding it. He can definitely get into a good firing pose with it.

During transformation the back plate of the HISS is removed. You can incorporate this as a shield, but it looks like exactly what it is… Megatron holding the backplate of the HISS. I wish they had just designed this piece to peg into the back somewhere. Then again, maybe he’s already got enough going on back there. As it is, I’ll just set this piece aside when displaying him in robot mode.

The head sculpt is pure money. I’d say this is one of the best G1 Sunbow inspired Megatron heads Hasbro has ever given us. The HISS turret lands directly behind the head and this serves as a firing position for a figure while Megsy is in robot mode. It kind of justifies the extra bulk on his back, or at least gives it a purpose. It also gives the included Baroness figure something to do when Megatron is in robot mode. On the other hand, it’s hard for me to believe Megatron would be fine with human vermin riding on his back.

If you’re looking for an Optimus Prime to square up against this figure, the Power of the Primes Powermaster Prime isn’t too bad. He comes up a little short, but I think they look good facing off against each other.

Overall, I like this toy a lot, but I fall just short of really loving it. As a kid, it was kind of a dream of mine to have a Transformers figure that could hold action figures in its alt mode, and this definitely scratches that itch. The HISS mode is so incredibly well done and it’s fun to load it up with figures and display it alongside regular HISS tanks. The robot mode isn’t all that bad, but the HISS kibble is definitely rather excessive. At least Hasbro leaned into it by giving him the turret on back so he can interact with figures even in robot mode. This thing was released at $90, which I still think is pretty damn excessive, but I got it on sale for around $60 and it can be had these days for even less than that price. Hasbro followed this up with a Bumblebee AWE Striker, which was a pass for me, because it should have been Hound. A third release has been up for pre-order, mashing Soundwave and the Dreadnoks Thunder Machine, and I couldn’t resist that one.

Oct 18 2023

G. I. JOE Classified Firefly (2.0) by Hasbro

The Classified figures are really piling up here, folks, and while I’d like to give every figure a go in the proper order they were received, I inevitably bump some of the new releases to the head of the line because they happen to be on my desk and ready to go. That’s the case with today’s review of Cobra’s demolitions expert… Firefly! Also, since I never did get around to checking out the first Classified Firefly figure, we’ll do a little comparison at the end.

I’m not sure why Hasbro chose this particular figure as a do-over, especially before Scarlett and Duke. I don’t remember any great outrage over the first one, although I think that figure left some people underwhelmed. Either way, Firefly was a prominent figure for me when I was a kid, and he was always crawling under JOE vehicles and planting tiny C4 charges that I made out of modeling clay. One time he blew up the APC full of JOEs. It was a horrific massacre with body parts and O-Rings flying everywhere. Only Gung-Ho survived to avenge his friends in a Rambo style one-man killing spree. He worked his way up the chain and eventually took out Cobra Commander himself. But, don’t worry… everyone was miraculously alive again and ready for action when I was playing the next day.

And unlike the first Firefly, this time Classified gives us a pretty close update to the original vintage figure, complete with gray camo fatigues, which in this case I think are colored a bit lighter than the figure I remember, but still looking great. The fatigues have all sorts of sculpted pockets and stitch lines, as well as knee pads, and there’s a red Cobra emblem printed on his left bicep. The chest rig, which was sculpted as part of the RAH figure is now a separate sculpt, as is the belt, holster, left thigh rig, and both the forearm bracers. This makes all of these pieces a lot more prominent on this version, and gives him a bulkier and more kitted-out feel. He really does look like a one-man demolition squad. The chest rig has some sculpted pouches, pineapple grenades, some canister grenades, and even some green paint on the explosive bricks down the lower left side of the chest rig.

The head sculpt features the balaclava style mask that I always associate with the character. It’s in camo gray to match his fatigues and you get some rather intense eyes peering out. The neck is encircled with a ribbed turtleneck that can be seen extending down into the opening of his fatigues.

Firefly comes with a pair of night vision goggles, which can be worn up on his forehead or down over his eyes. These are cast in soft plastic and fit the head really well in either position. These have a pretty cool sci-fi design to them with a honeycomb pattern over the yellow lens and red globe over the opposite eye.

The backpack is probably the most reimagined part of this figure, although it still conforms to the RAH pack in a general sense. It’s an open frame design with a carry bar and two sculpted pouches at the top. The opening tool box from the vintage figure has been replaced with some kind of electronic device with a digital display resembling a seismic monitor. There are some more sculpted gadgets in here, including a pretty big grenade. I can’t deny that it would have been cool to see the toolbox make a return, but I still like what Hasbro did with this pack design a lot. There’s a peg on the side to store his rifle and pegs on the angled lower panels to store two mines.

The mines are simple enough, but really cool accessories. They have painted red lights on the top and some decent sculpted detail. I love that they can be stored on the backpack for easy access.

As for more traditional weapons, Firefly is armed with an automatic pistol and a submachine gun. The pistol stores in the holster on his hip and can share the silencer with the submachine gun. Meanwhile, the larger weapon is patterned after the one included with the RAH figure and has a removable magazine, which I always really appreciate. On the downside, the box shows some green paint on the submachine gun’s foregrip, which didn’t make it into the final production. I thought it was a nice nod to the color of the RAH figure’s weapon and a great example of why if you’re going to do windowless boxes, you really should make sure the picture is accurate. Although, in fairness it is depicted as unpainted on the upper right hand corner of the box.

He also has a combat knife, which is stored in a sheath on his right forearm. Once again, this accessory is depicted on the box having some green paint that got nixed for production, so it was left all black.

And finally, Firefly’s arsenal is rounded out by his remote control explosive delivery system, aka RC Car. This fat-tired four-wheel delivery system is strapped with a brick of explosives and ready to be inserted under the nearest GI JOE convoy. It rolls along and can be stored by plugging it into the bottom of the backpack! The detonator is a nifty little device with a pistol grip and detonation trigger and a circular screen with the number 3, presumably showing a countdown. This sort of replaces the walkie-talkie that came with the RAH figure, and I’m cool with that.

As promised, here’s a quick look at both Classified Firefly figures together. I didn’t mind the first one so much, but boy does it come up short compared to this second release. And I mean that both literally and figuratively. Even with his bulky torso armor, he’s tiny compared to Firefly 2.0. I still dig the overall look of the first release, and the drone was a nice touch, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the new one will be my Classified Firefly. Old Firefly will either get relegated to a Tote or perhaps just be a generic Cobra saboteur. I think this comparison is a great example of how far Classified has come, and how much it’s been embracing the franchise roots more than ever.

And there you have it, another slam dunk for the Classified team. Firefly is a fantastic figure and a worthy addition to my Cobra forces for when something needs to go boom. I tend to have a special affinity for the Classified figures that have a more realistic military vibe and Firefly certainly fits that bill. I can’t wait to seat him in one of the Classified Trouble Bubbles I have waiting for him. Which reminds me, I’ve really got to spotlight at those Trouble Bubbles here in the next week or so.

Sep 25 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Scrap Iron by Hasbro

Hasbro had it’s annual PulseCon last Friday and G.I. JOE Classified really ran away with the whole show. There were tons of new reveals, some confirmed rumors, and just lots of beautiful figures to drool over and pre-order. And it also made me realize how behind I am on what’s already here, so I’m going to be pushing the Classified reviews pretty hard over the next month or so. Today I’m digging into what was one of my all-time favorite Cobra figures back in the day. Let’s check out the MOBAT’s worst enemy… Scrap Iron!

Why did I love this guy so much? Probably because he looked so cool and he came with such an amazing bonus weapon. I also had him drive around the Cobra STINGER most of the time because it was his vehicle of choice in the cartoon. Whenever I played with my JOEs, this guy was front and center, usually as Destro’s right hand man. As a Deluxe figure, Scrap Iron comes in a big box to house his mobile Anti-Tank Drone with a swipe on the corner showing all the goodies inside. While I haven’t been a big fan of the no-plastic packaging, I think this is a great presentation. No goofy highly stylized art, just a classic head shot and some digital renders of the figure in action. It’s also worth noting that Hasbro has been killing it with this line so well that I have no problem buying the figures without seeing them through a window.

Classified Scrap Iron stays pretty close to his original vintage roots with dark blue fatigues and a red vest with a pair of sculpted black grenades and a black pouch. His red belt features two thigh straps, with the right one equipped with a holster. He has black knee guards and the only big design difference here is the original red boots have been changed to black with red stripes, and I think that was a good call! The sculpted detail here is really nice with lots of quilted padding on his vest, sculpted elastic around his wrist cuffs, and texturing added to his fatigues. His open collar, exposing the red shirt underneath also calls back tot he original figure. He also has a crisp red Cobra emblem on his shoulder. A always loved how Scrap Iron’s uniform made him look more like a specialized Cobra Trooper than a lot of the other wacky Cobra characters. Classified Scrap Iron is everything I could have asked for in a modern update.

The head sculpt holds some grizzly surprises, but first we’ve got to talk about how awesome his helmet came out. The matte black helmet has a fixed black visor and an angular sculpted Cobra emblem on the forehead just like the original. In this case, we got a little bit of red paint on the emblem, which makes it stand out nicely. What’s more the helmet fits the figure beautifully.

Take it off and I’ve got to just take a moment and bask in all the love and imagination that went into this head sculpt. I remember Scrap Iron’s filecard stated that he conducted field tests for a lot of Destro’s new armaments and I’m guessing that some of them didn’t go so well because this guy is severely burned and disfigured. I can’t say enough about how much I love how the designers extrapolated all this into a portrait for a character that previously always had a permanent helmet. The burns across the left side of his head are grizzly, his left eye is just a milky orb, and he’s got scarring all across the right side of his face and head. It’s kind of tragic when you remember that Scrap Iron was a perfectionist with his filecard stating that any form of imperfection repelled him. That must make it tough for him to look in the mirror. This is peak Classified, and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about a line this good.

Scrap Iron only has one personal weapon included and that’s his automatic pistol, and when you’re toting around your own tank-busting rocket drone, I guess a pistol is plenty. It’s a cool looking piece with a very pronounced rail on the top and a peg hole in the barrel so it can be used with any of those effect parts that came with past figures. He has two sets of trigger finger hands, so he can wield the pistol left or fight and it stores in the holster nicely.

He also comes with a remote control unit for his Anti-Tank Drone, which replaces the corded firing plunger that came with the original figure. This basically looks like a Nintendo Switch with two antenna and a printed red screen. The only downside here is that there’s nowhere to store it on his person. He can however handle it pretty well in either or both of those trigger finger hands.

And that brings us to the Drone, and it is all sorts of awesome. The original figure came with a static rocket launcher on a tripod, so this treaded mobile launcher is a pretty cool update. This little dealer of destruction has a glossy black finish with some nice angled edges and soft gray treads. There’s a sensor array on the top and the launcher itself is attached to the chassis by a ball joint giving it some nice aiming abilities. There are some red paint hits on the front grills and the rear bumper, as well as in the camera compartment that sits between the rocket tubes. You also get some markings stamped in white on the sides. Hasbro did a beautiful job modernizing the original accessory and I think giving it mobility was a great idea.

The red rockets are perfect callbacks to the originals and are of course removable These have LAZER-GUIDED printed in white lettering on the sides and X04 stamped in black near the fins.

There are effect parts included so you can display them launching from the tubes and these look great, with one being a little longer than the other. These slide into the launch tubes and peg into the back of the missiles. They’re cast in orange semi-translucent plastic with some white smoke smoke painted at the bases.

The set also includes four additional blast effect pieces and these are pretty damn big. Like the launcher effect parts, these are cast in semi-translucent red and orange plastic with white smoke painted in at the bases. These look amazing and they work well as impacts of Scrap Irons’ rockets or as the result of a pesky Skyhawk trying to take out the drone with a couple of its SPATS rockets. Just plain awesome!

I confess to getting a little bit nervous when Classified updates one of my favorite figures, but I don’t know why because they’re nailing it just about every time, and Scrap Iron here is no exception. I love every last thing about this figure and his awesome drone too. The outfit hits all the beats of the original figure and the design team went above and beyond giving my man some real personality in that portrait. It makes my imagination go into overdrive and gives him so much more character. This set retails for $45 and I can’t recommend it enough. And yeah… if it happens to go on sale, I may grab another to add one more drone to my collection.

Sep 4 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Cobra Valkyries by Hasbro

Even an evil organization like Cobra isn’t beyond the reach of having to take on a Diversity Compliance Specialist and as a result we get The Valkyries! That’s right, these Cobra reinforcements arrived over the weekend and I was very excited to take a look at them, so they got bumped to the head of the line. This is a two-pack of Cobra femme fatale troopers with lots of gear and effect parts. In the past, I went pretty nuts buying Cobra Troopers and Officers in this line, but I was able to limit myself to two of these sets for now and will pepper them throughout my Cobra forces. Let’s cue up some Wagner and take a look!

The Valks come in a fully enclosed box with some great renders on the front and a shot of all the accessories included. Inside, you get the figures on a cardboard tray as well as a cardboard footlocker containing paper baggies with all those pieces. There are a lot of tiny pieces in there, so be sure to check those bags thoroughly before pitching them!

Here are the ladies out of the box and geared up. These feature the same body sculpt with most of the blue fatigues being smooth with some rumples, and some sculpted panels on their hips. There’s textured reinforcement on the biceps and up around the shoulders and upper chest, along with a sculpted Cobra emblem. Each figure has high boots, as well as sculpted armor plates for their knees and forearms. One Valk has these pieces painted all black, while the other has some tan paint for the straps on her boots and forearms. They each also have a good bit of separately sculpted pieces, which include the right hip holster, the belt with left cross-draw holster, left bicep strap, and shoulder rigs with a a right side sheath. Thanks to pegs on the backpacks, each Valkyrie can store all their gear, which is always a big plus in my book.

The backpacks have some excellent sculpted detail, but I wish they stayed on a bit better. Also, I’ll concede that I was not a big fan of the tan coloring on the one figure when these were introduced, and I’m still not all that crazy about it. I kind of appreciate Hasbro wanting to offer a little color variety between the two figures, but maybe grey would have been a better way to go. Honestly, I would have been happier if they were both the same black. No, it’s not a dealbreaker for me, but I just like the look of the entirely black and blue uniform better. Apart from that, I think these figures look great and I’ll throw in some pictures at the end to show how well they mix with the other Classified Cobra Troopers.

The set includes a total of three heads and three removable helmets. The two regular heads have face masks and tight fitting hoods similar to the Classified Cobra Troopers. The only other difference here is the sculpt around the exposed eyes. These are not only unique sculpts but one has dark skin and one has light skin.

You also get a gasmask style head with a red visor, which looks pretty damn rad. I do wish we got some completely unmasked heads like Hasbro is doing with their female SHIELD pack in Marvel Legends. You can swap heads with those Marvel Legends figures, but these ball joints are smaller so a bit of putty will be needed to make the replacement noggins a tight fit.

I mentioned three helmets, and the third has a silver badge on the front. V for Valkyrie? I guess this one one works for if you want to make one of the ladies an officer. The three helmets stay on the figures pretty well, but I found that they could get lopsided pretty often and I’m sure that came across in a few of my pictures here.

For weapons, each figure comes with the same arsenal with one set cast in black and the other in tan plastic. Again, still not a big fan of the tan, but I’ll live with it. In total you get two knives, four pistols, two sub-machine guns, and two machine guns. We’ll start small and work our way up. First up is the cutlery and these are pretty standard fighting knives with the blades painted silver and the hilts either black or tan. They’re fine, but not as impressive as some of the other blades we’ve seen recently. The right hand seems to hold them better than the left, even though both hands are designed for the guns.

The automatic pistols are a matched pair for each figure and these are pretty nice. They’re not too chunky and not too small. You get some nice detail in the sculpt and they fit well in either the hands or the holsters. In theory I really like the inclusion of the cross-draw holster, but in practice t doesn’t make much sense since the right hand would obviously just draw the weapon from the right holster.

I like the machine guns a lot. You get a pretty simple grease-gun style sub-machine gun with a removable stick magazine. This one has a flared muzzle and a scope. The scope seems like an odd choice for this kind of weapon, but it’s still a great design that reminds me a bit of the weapon design the Cobra troops often carried in the Sunbow cartoon. The alternative is an automatic rifle with an under the barrel grenade launcher. This is another excellent sculpt and you get a removable magazine as well. And yes, I I still think the scope should have been sculpted on this one.

Finally, the set includes a whole bunch of effect parts for the weapons. I think we’ve seen all of these before, and they tend to vary in how they look. Not that I’m complaining. I’ll take as many of these as I can get. All of the weapons have holes in their barrels and these parts just peg in. Some are designed to peg together for different combinations, and I particularly love the smoking barrel pieces. My only complaint here is that I couldn’t really make one work with the grenade launcher.

After the great Cobra Eel debackle, it’s nice to see that Hasbro is still capable of making good decisions with troop builders. Selling these in two-packs and making them easy to get is a great idea and it’s going to be tough to stick to just two. Not that I have much of a choice, as these did sell out. Hopefully Hasbro will do a restock, especially if they like money. Sure, Hasbro Pulse isn’t my first choice for online shopping, and I tend to stick to them only for exclusives like this, but I’ll admit that they’ve been pretty good about getting figures out and delivered in a timely manner. The price was $55, and that feels about right considering how many extras are included.

Aug 23 2023

G.I. JOE Classified: Torpedo by Hasbro

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…

Jul 24 2023

G.I. JOE Classified: Bazooka by Hasbro

It’s hard to believe that I haven’t revisited the Classified line since April, but then again I have been getting caught up on the Super7 G.I. JOE Ultimates line, so that’s the excuse I’m going with. Nevertheless the Classified figures have been piling up and it’s time to remedy that today as we look at David Katzenbogen, aka Bazooka!

Yeah, I am not a fan of this art. This might be cool as an art print, but why Hasbro thinks this is a good way to convey what’s in the box for an action figure line is beyond me. It looks like something you’d find hanging on the wall at wine and cheese night at the community college art show. At least you get a small picture of the figure on the front and more on the back panel. I was excited to get Bazooka because I was a big fan of the vintage figure, and I always thought the cartoon did him dirty. The Bazooka figure I played with was a fast and decisive thinker, just like his filecard noted, and not a slow, dimwitted guy who could barely articulate his thoughts into the English language. G.I. JOE was supposed to be the best of the best, and my vision of this character fit that ideal a little better.

In terms of sculpting, Bazooka was one of the simpler figures for Hasbro to produce, but he still looks great. His standard issue trousers have some sculpted pockets and are tucked into high black boots. This is all contrasted by his bright red football jersey with blue and white numbering and sleeve stripes. Yeah, the numbering is interrupted by the cut for his chest ball joint, but it’s not like that could be helped. He has a pair of green wrist cuffs and a black belt with silver buckle that is attached around his waist. This looks good, but it can have a habit of riding up when posing him. I really dig the build Hasbro gave him, as he’s a pretty buff figure all around with some nice muscle definition in his arms.

While Bazooka has standard Classified male articulation, the jointing on this guy feels a little weird. The joints offer a little more resistance and sometimes when I thought I had tweaked them, they revert back to the way they were. I’ve found that working the figure has resolved this a bit, and I’m hoping that the more I play around with him, the more cooperative his joints will get. Because of his dual handed weapon, Bazooka comes with two trigger finger hands, and that’s cool because these can double as fists well enough.

The portrait is really good, even if it strays a bit into caricature, I’m not looking for super realism on my Classified figures and I dig when they get a bit stylized. He’s got a power house of a neck, a beefy cleft chin, high cheek bones, and a bushy mustache and eyebrows. The paint could be lined up on that stache a little better, but it’s not too bad. The helmet has some sculpted wrinkles to show it’s got a cover on it and I love how one of the chin straps flies off to the side. There ain’t no way those straps are going under that monument of a chin anyway! The helmet is removable and you get a neatly combed coif with a sharply defined part.

All of Bazooka’s accessories fit on his back, which is pretty cool. You get the backpack that holds four of his bazooka rounds and two arms to attach the bazooka across the back. The pack is cast in olive green plastic with some nice detail. The four compartments up top house the bazooka rounds, of which two are left plain, one has a painted yellow tip, and the other has some nose art on it. The bazooka has some excellent detail too and the padding on the side is painted black.

There’s also a sling if you prefer to have the bazooka over his shoulder. I imagine it can be difficult to get through doors with it stored horizontal on the pack.

The back of the bazooka is pegged and swings open so you can load in one of the rounds. I think this is a great idea, but this piece comes off way too easily. You can also have a round peeking out the front as if it’s about to fire or in the process of firing. I like to pop the yellow tip in there because it’s easier to see. I think Hasbro really missed an opportunity here not to give us a smoke trail to show the round leaving the tube and a blowback effect part for the back. They’re doing some amazing effect parts with the multi-packs and Bazooka would have been a great opportunity to introduce some here.

Lack of effect parts aside, I think Hasbro did a great job on this figure. He’s a great mix of realistic military MOS with the colorful characters that the G.I. JOE brand brings to the table. His gear is fun to play with and it’s always a plus for me when a figure can carry everything they come with. Now if we can get Alpine and Quick Kick to display by his side, I’ll be even happier!

Jun 30 2023

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Battle Android Trooper by Super7

Happy Friday, everyone! Well, I’m working through the weekend so that sucks, but at least I can still enjoy spending a bit of my Friday talking about toys. The second wave of Super7’s GI JOE Ultimates has arrived, and I’m eager to start digging into it, but before I do I have one last figure from the first wave to look at. So let’s check out Cobra’s Battle Android Trooper, better known as BAT to his close friends.

Here’s the awesome packaging, which is pretty much the same as what we saw for Cobra Commander, complete with a cover sleeve and blue camo pattern. The window shows off all the goodies and you get a little blurb about the BAT on the back panel. It’s no secret that I loved the BATs when they were introduced to the Sunbow cartoon. After having to suffer through dozens of episodes of Cobra troopers ducking enemy fire, the cartoon finally had an enemy that could be shot, blown to bits, impaled, crushed, and violently dispatched in every other way imaginable because they are only robots. But the real reason I love them is because they just look so damn cool.

And here’s the BAT fresh off the assembly line and ready for action! The black matte jumpsuit coupled with the blinding canary yellow for the boots, belt, and epaulets is such a bizarre combination for a combat trooper, and yet it looks so sharp and iconic. The Ultimates BAT also features some crisp metallic silver paint for the tops of the boots, the gauntlets, and just some general pop all around the figure, and I can’t overstate how great this paint looks. There’s a brown pistol holster on his left hip, a pair of sculpted grenades hanging from his shoulder strap, and does anyone know what that silver thing strapped to his right leg is supposed to be? Because I sure don’t.

The BAT carries a rather large backpack, which serves to carry his interchangeable arm attachments, and we sure will come back to those in a bit. The backpack clips into square peg holes on the figure’s epaulets, and it works fairly well, but if you pick up the figure with your fingers touching the backpack, it will likely pop off. It’s not that big a deal when posing and displaying the figure, but this is a case where maybe a peg in the back might have been preferable. Especially since, I really never display my BATs without the backpack on.

The helmet is pretty spot on for the Sunbow animated BAT design. Yo get a smooth and rounded noggin with a rather prominent T-shaped red face shield. And that emotionless blank slate of a face is a big part of what makes these things so scary to me.

One of the more iconic design beats of the Cobra BAT is the clear shield over the exposed bank of circuits on display in the chest, and it is very well done here. You get a wall of sculpted gray mechanisms with some green, yellow, red, and blue wires and devices embedded in there. The clear plate can also be removed and we’ll get to the purpose of that peg hole in a bit when we look at the damage display options.

While BATs are essentially walking weapons themselves, they do come with two standard issue guns. The first is the pistol that can be stored in the aforementioned holster. It’s got that great pseudo sci-fi design that a lot of the Sunbow pistols had and he can hold it in either of his gun hands quite well.

And he also comes with this rifle, which also sports a decidedly sci-fi flavor to it. both of these weapons are cast all in black plastic and they have that minimalist approach to sculpted detail that lends itself so well to being a cartoon model.

And now we get to the swiss-army-knife nature of the BAT’s arm attachments. There are three extra attachments that store in the backpack, which include a pincer claw, a driller arm, which I think is actually meant to be a laser, and what I think is supposed to be a torch of some kind. These attachments can be swapped out to replace either hand and they pop off pretty easily. The BAT also comes with a bunch of different regular hands, which include relaxed, fists, and gun toting hands. If the BAT is using one of his special attachments, you can even store the displaced hand in the backpack.

And since the cartoon had so much fun blowing up and damaging the BATs, Super7 included a number of damage options. You get an blue electrical discharge effect part that can be plugged into the hole in the chest compartment. You also get a damaged head with more of the blue electro discharge effect. And for total cranial destruction, you get just a neck stump with electro discharge spitting out of the top. Just be prepared to have to work to get that neck stump out of the figure once you put it in, because there isn’t a lot to grab onto.

You also get a severed left arm, and I like to pop the chest effect part into the arm stump. Not too shabby! The colored wires coming out of the damaged arm are a nice touch.

I think it’s safe to say that I really love this figure, since I wound up buying three of them, and there may be a couple more in my future. I can display this trio with a variety of attachments or even have one blown up and another partially damaged. There are definitely a lots of cool options!

And that wraps up the first wave of Super7’s GI JOE Ultimates and I am absolutely smitten with this line. The initial character assortment was pretty good, and while I loved each of these four figures, I think the BAT may be the stand out for me. Sure, I’d argue we should have had a Cobra Trooper in the line first, but I dig these so much that I’m not going to complain. As I said earlier, I’m eager to dive in to the second wave, but I’m going to take care of some business over on the Silverhawks side of things before coming back to JOE Ultimates in a week or so.

Jun 16 2023

ReAction (G.I. JOE): Battle Android Trooper by Super7

I have reviewed a number of ReAction figures here on FFZ, but I have yet to give any of the ReAction JOEs the spotlight. It’s not an intentional slight, but nonetheless one that I will rectify today. And it works out perfectly, because I kind of ran out of time and needed something quick to look at!

Yup, I’ve been collecting this line pretty hard since the beginning, mainly to them display on card, but in the beginning I was buying some doubles for openers, and I still keep an eye out for sales to get more openers. If you’re unfamiliar with this line, they’re basically 5-POA figures based on the Sunbow cartoon character designs with some cool expanded universe kind of stuff in the way of troop builders. I think the figures themselves are quite good, but the real magic here for me is the figure on the card, which look absolutely spectacular. And while all of these have been great, the recent release of the Cobra BAT was so exceptional that it motivated me to go ahead and start reviewing some of these.

Here he is on the card, and yes I did pick up a pair of these so I could open the one we’re looking at today. The card oozes vintage goodness with the iconic GI JOE logo and the character art set against an explosive backdrop. The figure comes on a bubble with some of his accessories positioned beside him. I got one of these punched and the other unpunched, so let’s tear into that punched one and have a look!

Straightaway, I have to say that the sculpted detail and paintwork on this BAT are both exquisite, especially for this type of 3 3/4-inch retro-style figure. I have yet to review Super7’s Ultimates BAT (coming soon!) but in a lot of ways this simple little 5-POA figure captures all the detail of that larger and more complex figure quite well. The transparent chest piece is a real stand out with the fully sculpted and multi-color wires and mechanisms on full display inside. But there’s a lot of other cool details worthy of shout outs, including the tiny belt of grenades hanging off his shoulder strap, complete with teensy tiny painted buckle, and even the ribbed padding on the inside of his functional pistol holster. I mean… wow! This is great stuff!

The BATs colors have always been a great combo of matte black, metallic silver, and bright canary yellow and all of those colors are on full display here. The silver paint in particular looks sharp and shiny and the yellow just contrasts so well with the black. The Cobra emblem tampo on his shoulder patch looks awesome too. You really have to punch in close to notice any slop in the paint, but it is mostly noticeable around the silver collar.

The BAT retains the backpack from his other versions, which is still capable of holding his swappable hand attachments. Both hands are designed to come off, but the left hand on my figure feels a little tight and I don’t want to risk dislocating the peg, so I’m sticking to swapping out his right hand. The extra attachments include the usual pincer claw, laser gun, and drill arm, making it fun to display a whole squad of these guys, each kitted out a little differently.

You also get two conventional weapons, which include a pistol and a rifle. Either of his regular hands are capable of holding either weapon, and you can stow the pistol in his holster when it’s not in use.

I usually review ReAction figures in groups because there’s only so much you can say about these figures and only so many ways you can shoot pictures of a 5-POA figure. But I really felt that this guy needed his own spotlight. It feels like Super7 just poured the love into this figure and went above and beyond. I paid the full twenty bones for my first one, but was able to get a second on sale through Amazon at $15. It would be cool if Super7 released a three-pack of these at a little better price. I’d love to pick up a few more, but even I have to concede that these little beauties are pretty pricey for what they are.