GI Joe reviews

With Hasbro (may they rot!) deleting the 12" line, and 86ing the Adventure Team, (idiots), we've seen a drop-off of 1:6 scale figures of late. So this is something completely unexpected.

Lanard has introduced a bold new line: K9 Corps. With a cute back story, this may get the attention of the kids. 12" figures with the heads, hands and feet of dogs. The line includes one human (so far), Dr. Davis Elliot, the genetic mastermind behind the new K9 Corps.

Sounds a bit silly, but for me, this may renew my hope in figures this year. With absolutely no hope of getting new Adventure Team figures (except through the GI Joe Collectors' Club) I'm actually looking at the K9 Corps with eyes geared towards my Doctor Who photo stories.

So as a test shot, I put the Eclipse figure in the TARDIS with the Doctor. Hmmmm.... promising....

Starting with the Mummy's Tomb re-visit a year or so ago, Hasbro has begun giving collectors fuzz-heads again. Flocked hair was a hallmark of the Adventure Team, and it was time to give us what we wanted after all these years.

The "Hawk" head was one included in that set, which was originally introduced during the "Adventures Of GI Joe" series a couple of years earlier. But they decided to flock one of the most-used heads, the "recruit" head, for a surprisingly good look. I say surprisingly because until then, I was getting pretty tired of that head-sculpt. It seemed to be a catch-all, overused in every set Hasbro released.

With the success of the Mummy set, Hasbro has since released Search for the Yeti, which included another recruit fuzzhead.

Then recently they released the Tactical Advisor set, the first non-Adventure Team set to be flocked.

Here are the four Recruit fuzzheads together. Click on individual heads to see them close-up.

ERTL, in its latest hunting figure series, has included an excellent 1:6 scale compound bow. This bow, I can certify, is incredibly life-like. It has rotating gears, sights, a quiver with four molded-in arrows and one loose arrow. The bow loads and looks fantastic in firing position. Have a look:

The bow itself is gorgeous. I held a compound bow that was practically identical to this one, except in camouflage. In image 1 the blue sheen on the quiver top is a reflection of my TV.

- The first picture shows the first problem. The upper pulley is perfect. It holds the string correctly. However, the cantelevered pulley at bottom does not hold the string, which looks wrong. Minor problem.

- The second problem can be seen in image 2. The central stock of the bow is made of soft plastic while the rest is made of hard plastic. The limbs even have metal pin-hinges. This makes it the perfect bow except for one thing - it bends easily, bowing so that the bow is no longer straight up and down. This is a more serious problem that could easily have been fixed by molding it in solid plastic like the quiver and limbs.

Even with these two problems, this bow is the finest piece of its kind I've ever seen in 1:6 scale.

The figure comes completely decked out in camo. Here, a SA Tactical Advisor wears the jacket only. The figure comes with a backpack of the same material, and a nice bow carrying case of the same material. The biggest problem with the figure is the fact that everything is sealed with big white velcro. Yuck!

If the velcro was replaced with zippers and snaps, and the bow case a hard-shell, and the bow itself molded in hard plastic, this would be one hell of a set!

WalMart is currently selling a 1:6 scale ATV 4x4 POLARIS under their "Kid Connection" line. There's nothing to indicate brand on the tag, but if you look at the underside, you will see the ERTL logo. ERTL is a great company. Their attention to detail is high. The cost of this vehicle is $9.95, so it can be forgiven if it's not 100% perfect.

(I apologize for the photo quality. I'm stuck with a cruddy digital camera this weekend.)

The Bike is nice. Some details are skimped on, such as a sticker for a headlight, but mostly, the detail is good. And for the price, it's excellent!

I have to say these figures are quite nice. The faces are fairly accurate, though not picture-perfect. The outfits are very nice. The only problem I have with them is that the hair colors seem to be rather exaggerated. Kira in the film was basic pure-blonde, and Jen has black hair. The figures have a lemon-yellow and blue hair.

Kira comes with Fizzgig (in the picture near Jen's foot, I think, though from this angle it may be hard to see) and Jen comes with his flute and a shard of the Dark Crystal.

Nunchuk is one of the $10.99 RAH GI Joe figures. He has one of the most unique head sculpts I've seen in the GI Joe line. He uses molded long hair, which I have never seen pulled off so successfully. Even with it, the head's range of movement is not minimized in any significant way, and it looks very good.


Here, Nunchuk wields his Nunchukus.	Here he wields his katana and a shuriken throwing star.	That's a big gun. Check out the ridiculous grip!


A crude, large box on his ugly large harness holds the katana and the gun.	Apart from the head sculpt, the showpiece of this figure is the fantastic high-tech communication device on the wrist. This clips onto the wrist, and the cover flips up to reveal a keyboard. Wow! This is just perfect!

Another set of unique boots. These have spikes around the permiter, and are quite pliable.

Nunchuk comes with red tiger-striped pants, spiked boots, nunchuku sticks, outlandish shotgun, oversized katana with no features on the hilt-guard, headband, harness which can hold the three varied shuriken throwing stars, and finally, that gorgeous communicator/wrist computer.

Heavy Duty is a great figure. He's another of the Real American Hero 12" figures. Heavy Duty has a new head sculpt that is just fantastic!

Heavy Duty's face is of a strong African American male, with plenty of character. He's a winner!


Heavy Duty is seen here wearing his helmet, and wielding his assault rifle.	He prepares to go into camouflage mode by donning his ghillie poncho.

He now uses his converted sniper rifle. He would be difficult to see in the woods, no?

The boots seem familiar. Perhaps these are Hicks' boots from Hicks vs. Aliens, with silver paint? Anyway, they're much softer rubber than Hicks' boots, or most other GI Joe boots for that matter.

Equipment includes a blue jumpshit with many pockets and loops for holding gear, boots with silver painted buckles, a square helmet with silver eyecovering, and antenna. His gun comes apart in many pieces and goes together in two forms. Assault rifle and sniper rifle. Top it off with a ghillie camouflage poncho, and he's ready for his mission.

Heavy Duty, when he's not on duty, he plays Falcon, the AT's resident expert on the street. Oh, and he's the AT's art expert and critic. He knows art, and he knows what he likes.

Hasbro's latest line is the Real American Hero 12" series. Here's Dusty in all his splendor.

Dusty's head sculpt is just gorgeous. Sadly, they had to mar it with camo patches. Other than this vandalism, the face deserves a place next to the Pearl Harbor head sculpts Hasbro introduced last year.


Dusty with full backpack. (Helmet is the only thing not in there)	His gear is spread on the ground. He wears his glasses and displays his pistol and overlarge knife. His two-piece missile launcher is assembled.	He dons his Night Mode pants.


Here he reverses his backpack and starts to put it on. Note that it is quite clear Dusty was originally slated to be a Double Duty Joe.	His reversed backpack/vest is now fastened.	He dons his night-vision helmet.

Rocket launcher ready, Dusty is out for action.

This is a close-up of the boots. They are very soft, and fairly detailed. I haven't seen these before. Very knobby treads.

Here is Dusty with everything he came with. Shot-gun pistol, knife, night vision helmet, camo shorts, red-brown socks, boots, glasses with microphone, reversible vest/backpack, two-piece missile launcher and missile, and black night mode pants.

Firefly is a Cobra operative. He comes equipped with body armor, gun, suction-cup kneepads and suction gun, boots, shorts, black balaclava, night-vision headset, grappling hook and rope, gun and explosives.

Here is a good closeup of Firefly's sculpt. The mask is molded and painted on, but it's a nice sculpt.

I didn't snoot a picture of some of the gear, such as the suction gun or suction kneepads. The gun, however, is visible above. The grappling hook is quite nice. The explosives are mounted on a suction cup, which can stick to the body armor for storage while Firefly deploys it. At night, obviously, otherwise why the night-vision goggles?