Salvo (Figure Subscription Service)

The fans have spoken and thank goodness the G.I. Joe Collectors Club listened!

When the original build for the FSS Salvo was revealed, the G.I. Joe community pretty much imploded.  Using 30th Anniversary Law/Renegades Duke parts with the Resolute Duke legs resulted in a scrawny, mish-mash mess of a figure update that pretty much did nothing right.  Once the fandom was done yelling, the Collectors Club went back to the drawing board, and while they stuck pretty close to formula, they at least made some changes that presented an update to Salvo that felt more in line with the large, muscular rocket expert we got in 1990.

This version of Salvo is not perfect, but he’s a damn sight better than the alternative.

From the neck down, the figure is pretty much G.I. Joe: Retaliation Roadblock, only the lower legs are slightly different in order to get the proper cuffed look.  While the figure and the legs are nice and bulky, the result of different lower legs is that the knee joints aren’t as functional as they could be, and once again I’m not a huge fan of those ankle joints either.  On my figure, I couldn’t even get the peg stands to fit in his feet, and I know that’s been a recurring problem since this tooling was originally available.

That being said, the figure is large, muscular and imposing, another great looking figure of immense size to go along with some of the previously released Roadblocks, Leathernecks, Gung Ho’s, Repeaters, and others.  It’s pretty awesome to see some variation in height and size among the ranks of the Joes, so I appreciate the Club using that tooling here.  As one would expect, the articulation and range of motion is mostly good, and we got some exceptional sculpting work in that Retaliation line, so that’s all on point here, too.

The color scheme pulls straight from the vintage look, though some of the use of gold here seems strange.  I understand they’re trying to mimic the look of the criss-crossed machine gun belts, but at some point hopefully the folks doing the deco for these figures realize that you can’t just slap color on any old piece of the figure to match the vintage aesthetic.  You should really try and find a logical place for that color to exist and use it as a complimentary color, not just throw gold down on the holster and leg-straps because that kind of looks like where the gold is on the original figure.  It doesn’t always work.

That minor gripe aside, overall the figure is good.  They did a good job with the font on his shirt, the modern parts are good, and the choice of the Hit & Run head sculpt is unexpected and excellent.

Accessories

Salvo comes with some decent gear.  He’s got a huge rocket launcher which I’m sure fans will complain about, but makes perfect sense for his specialty.  Anyone who is dying for his vintage accessories that much can find them super cheap on eBay and they’ll still fit with this modern figure, so go for it.  He has Sci-Fi’s helmet and the same briefcase that he came with back in 1990, along with the Retaliation Roadblock pistol that fits in his holster.  All told, he’s got some gear that works well and compliments the character as you would expect.

I’ve loved Salvo since his original release in 1990 and I’m glad to see him finally getting some modern era love here.  I’m extremely happy that the Collectors Club followed the fandom’s lead and beefed up the figure build, even though it resulted in some mold fit issues.  He’s a nice update and another addition to the much-needed 1990 “DiC” era roster.

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