As usual, notpicard has got a great eye for parts, unused or otherwise. I posted images of the Fang Boat w/ Swamp-Viper last night, and today, notpicard left a comment referencing some old unused “Clutch” tooling.
It was a story that I posted some time ago, pointing back to the Facebook page of Matt Brouillard, who is apparently a freelance sculptor who did some work for Hasbro, including an incredibly awesome looking “Clutch” (a name Mr. Brouillard used). This Clutch looked pretty futuristic, yet had a ton of amazing detail throughout…and guess what?
Yeah, that’s Swamp-Viper. Only the figure looks considerably different once it’s tooled up with reduced detail and articulation. There’s absolutely no doubt that the Clutch sculpt was the foundation of this figure, yet it’s downright depressing to see how much detail and design is lost through the articulation changes. Ugh. It’s not just missing joints, the entire figure just doesn’t look as sharp or as cool. Check out the comparison image below:
Obviously the armor design and overall uniform design is the same, though there are some missing pouches around the waist, and with the t-crotch added, you loose the detail in the upper legs as well. Some of the sculpting work on the gloves is not the same either, and overall, things just look a bit softer and less crisp. It still looks like a very impressive design, but by reducing the articulation, the figure itself suffers in almost every way.
A real shame. Again, big thanks and kudos to notpicard for picking up on this instantly. He’s got a great eye.
Simply tragic. What a waste of a great sculpt. I hope Hasbro sees the error of their ways quickly with this articulation crap. And the packaging… we need filecards and individual character artwork! Oh, and stands.
Shit, just give us what we’ve gotten for the last five years.
this is why you NEVER argue with notpicard. he’ll sweep you under a rug and then dance on you.
Wow that really sucks! 🙁 Oh well maybe we will see that ‘Clutch’ figure after the movie crap.
See, it’s okay to hate 5 PoA Joes.
I have yet to see anyone who’s actually excited about them. Even Hasbro.
This is the first I’ve seen Justin full on negative about them.
So sad to see. When it was first mentioned that the Swamp Viper was included with the Fang Boat I was really excited. Maybe because it was my first JoeCon set or maybe the club did that good of a job resurrecting the Mega Viper mold, but the Swamp Viper from the Operation Anaconda has always been one of my favorite among the more recent characters. Seeing what could have been along with the butchering of that absolutely beautiful “Clutch” sculpt just twists the knife, the small neon one from the Battle Corps weapons sprue, in my heart even more.
Me love you long time, T-Clutch.
The Cobra Commander’s body that comes with the Retaliation Hisstank is the same body of Payload in the cancelled ROC Howler.. sad. At least give us an articulated body & we’ll just custom it
Other than the crotch area and reducing the angle on the arms, I don’t understand the reason for the drastic change in the sculpt quality. Aren’t you still tooling the same number of parts? I thought squaring off the Pilot Firefly helmet from the original sculpt was bad enough. This is ridiculous.
man….that is a serious kick to the groin…glad i have no itnrest in any fo the crappy vehicles or the lame ass drivers
Why oh why did Hasbro decide to take some of the coolest sculpts and bastardize them like this? Couldn’t they have just t-crotched up an old ROC sculpted figure we already had?!?! That way I wouldn’t cry every time I read something like this.