Firefly - Hall of Heroes (Figure 2 of 10)

Of any Hall of Heroes figures, Firefly probably has the distinction of being the one most different from anything that came before. While many of the Hall of Heroes figures used most of the same tooling, just with some paint alterations, Firefly actually has a totally different torso and uses Snake Eyes arms and legs to go along with a much darker (too dark maybe?) color scheme. In essence, the Hall of Heroes Firefly is almost a completely different figure than the original.

So, Firefly... what's not to love about Firefly? He's a ninja-masked bad ass saboteur who likes blowing stuff up and being mysterious.

Well, turns out, from a figure perspective, there was some stuff not to love. Mostly with the webgear that rode way too high on his torso, and the bulky grenades that restricted his arm movement, and even the old school machine gun that really didn't fit the era, the character, or even really look like his original weapon. Firefly has made such an awesome evolution since his Anniversary days it's tough to go back in 2011 and look at a rehashed version of the original, and pick apart all the faults.

The figure isn't terrible. He was actually one of the few Anniversary figures initially released that had some decent arm articulation. While this Firefly doesn't use the same arms, the Commando Snake Eyes arms are also fairly poseable. Thankfully this version also has the better hips as well, so no "diaper crotch" syndrome. But truth be told, looking at this figure now, compared to where Firefly has come? It's tough to see a whole lot to love.

I do kind of dig the different torso, going with a more generic pocketed uniform look. It makes the figure at least a bit different, but with that bulky non-removable webgear (well, without taking the head off, anyway) does it make much difference?

Then we move on to the color scheme. I'm not entirely sure where Hasbro was going with this one. Their inspiration for the Hall of Heroes line really seemed to be making figures as close to the originals as possible, with some nice realism (like weathering and detail) added on top. Firefly ended up a very dark gray camouflage. Camouflage you say? Yes, camouflage. He is so dark that you can barely even tell that there IS camouflage, but trust me, there is. Unfortunately I find the color scheme to be somewhat dull even aside from the darker colored base paint. His straps and belts are all a muted gray, to go along with his other shades of muted gray. The sporadic touches of silver here and there don't really go a long way to improve things either.

On thing Firefly does have going for him are his accessories. He comes with a ton of them. Pulling from his original version and the Comic Pack version (which I absolutely love) Firefly is fully equipped with two different machine guns, some great sabotage gear, and plenty of little paint details.

Unfortunately, he does still come with that old school machine gun that he can't hold very well, and looks kind of silly anyway...and he comes with a pistol that has no holster, and a sheath on his leg that has no knife. Strange to say the least.

The green shade of his weapon and walkie talkie are a great homage to the original, but beyond that not much newi n the way of accessories. I think it's the paint that really makes them shine, anyway.

His original sabotage backpack just really comes to life with the small silver tools and the little touches of red. Detail like that is pretty freaking fantastic.

All told, this version of Firefly is not at all perfect. I wasn't wild about the original, and this one isn't really much of an upgrade, but the weapon details are terrific, and like the rest of the Hall of Heroes figures, I really dig the presentation. He looks totally different from the original, which is strange, since so many of the other figures here are not, but ultimately he retains many of the same misfortunes that the original did.

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