There is still some hard feelings among the G.I. Joe community over the original 25th Anniversary Alpine, which came out in a very difficult to find boxed set and promptly soared to wallet-busting levels on the secondary market.
So when the G.I. Joe Collectors Club announced during JoeCon that they were doing an Alpine, the collective cheer was only muted by the questions on the fans’ lips… why the new sculpt version?
Personally, I’m a big fan of the Kwinn figure, as I think pretty much every G.I. Joe fan in history is, so using him as a template for Alpine makes a lot of sense and the figure looks fantastic. I love that they actually went with the Firefly torso, though with that knit shirt underneath. Nice touch. The new head sculpt has those unique ridges that the original one had, too, and maybe, just maybe those removable goggles can be used in such a way that the original head is at least somewhat replicated? I don’t know. I’m one of the lucky ones who got my 25th Anniversary Alpine for retail prices, so I’m pretty excited to see this one. I’m a big fan of recreating new sculpt designs in the modern format (though I’ll admit Alpine wouldn’t be on top of that list). Check out the image below and keep watching GIJoeClub.com for the latest FSS 3.0 intel.
I love this new design. It’s a good modern take, unlike Spearhead…
Now club, REVEAL PSYCHE OUT!!!
Please?
What collective cheer? Instead of being released in a hard to find boxed set and then “soaring to wallet-buster prices on the secondary market” this time around, its only being released as premium for a “wallet-busting” subscription service (Matty 2.0?).
The way I see it, every figure that these clubs and subs reveal is just another figure that won’t be released at retail when/if Joe makes it back to retail. Something to remember the next time someone moans about another Snake Eyes or Duke being released.
I don’t know, I can’t think of anything the Club’s done lately that would preclude Hasbro from doing something better in the future. Club just seems content to keep releasing old figure designs with no marked improvement outside of the modern construction format.
Conversely, look at some of the figures Hasbro put out like Low-Light, Sci-Fi, and Lifeline. All based on the original character designs so they hit that nostalgia button but brought up several levels as far as design and sculpt goes. Plus, they really went all out with the accessory pack-outs as well.
Looks pretty good. I think a pair of POC ice picks and the ROC Elite Viper backpack would look better than the pick and pack pictured. The soft sculpts look out of place with post-ROC detail of the other accessories.