Hm. Every once in a while you run across a figure that you mostly like and mostly enjoy, though a certain decision was made that seems strange and misplaced, but you want to love the figure anyway…
Okay. Why is Scoop orange? I think the Club might have been going for “mustard yellow” (since they seem to like making these modern updates just a little dimmer and darker than their vintage counterparts)…but he really, truly looks orange.
Before we go down that road, I do want to say, as another entry into G.I. Joe’s illustrious roster of 1989 characters, the inclusion of Scoop was pretty much a given ever since we got Sky Patrol Airborne in the Con Set in 2015 using Scoop’s distinctive helmet. That kinda sealed the deal right there.
And it makes sense. Scoop is one of those rare later year characters who appeared after 1987, yet still had a very distinctive and familiar role in G.I. Joe animation as a Crimson Guard traitor on the G.I. Joe team during Operation: Dragonfire. Now, as one might suspect, he ends up having a change of heart, but he was still a central character throughout that mini-series and it makes sense to explore him as an action figure in the Figure Subscription Service.
Scoop’s figure is legitimately great. His head sculpt is reused, but it’s not exactly common and feels fresh just the same. His parts are all from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation family and its evident with the nice modern sculpting, great range of motion and functional articulation that suits the figure build perfectly. From a construction standpoint, I feel like the Club really and truly nailed this one.
But what’s up with the paint scheme?
I can’t remember a time when Scoop was orange, either as a toy or in the comic or in the cartoon, yet here he is in action figure form a wholly more orange color than he should be. It would be interesting to hear why. It’s not like the color is terrible, it’s a fine color that works well enough, but the Club typically works hard to mimic the vintage color pallet as much as they can, so this stark distinction seems surprising.
That being said, by and large, Scoop is pretty fantastic, honestly.
Accessories
Not only is the figure great, but the Club did an awesome job getting the right accessories for him, too. He’s got a Resolute tactical vest, which I’m always in favor of, a nice multi-colored assault rifle, the great camera that came with the old school 25th Anniversary boxed set, as well as a microphone. He also has a knife that fits in his ankle sheath.
In short, Scoop has a perfect allotment of great gear that makes sense and feels interesting.
If you’d told me six months ago that halfway through the FSS, Scoop would be my favorite, I would have said you were out of your mind. Yet here he are, and here he is. So far, among the rest of the Figure Subscription Service, Scoop stands alone at the top. He’s really fantastic, strangely orange colored and all.
FSS 5.0 Scoop
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.2
Summary
Look at this as a whole, the Collectors Club really nailed it with Scoop. A great, under-utilized character that still had a major role in G.I. Joe mythology, a really effective formula of parts, and some spectacular accessories to choose from. Yes, the color somehow got really screwed up, but beyond that, this is a heck of a nice figure and the shining star of the Figure Subscription Service 5.0 so far.
I just can’t help myself… every time I get a figure from 1990 in my hands I just want to belt out that theme song. When the DiC series first aired way back when it seemed laughable in comparison to the Sunbow days, but looking back on those 90s years it’s still kinda cool to see the later generation characters in animated form.
It was such a weird time in 1990. It almost felt like a “soft reboot” of the G.I. Joe brand, with all new characters (many of them sort of replacing existing characters), tons of interesting accessories and when I say “interesting” I mean weed whacker and weird mesh tent type of interesting.
Ambush was a “concealment specialist” in those days, one of the few figures from 1990 that didn’t automatically replace an existing character. His color scheme was a bit odd, looking very much like a desert commando, yet his accessories were clearly more geared towards jungle camouflage. To be honest, I actually preferred the Sidetrack rendition of the figure to the original. But I digress.
The Collectors Club dives back into 1990 with Ambush as part of their FSS and does an okay job of it. His head is from the Convention General Mayhem, which works surprisingly well, to be honest. The deco of the figure is a nice match for the vintage version, though the long brown sleeves don’t work quite as well without the underlying texture. Also, his torso and legs are from 25th Anniversary Dusty, which… is… I just don’t get it. In 2017 I can’t find many reasons why someone should use 25th Anniversary parts when there are so many others available. If the entire purpose was to get that weird “shirt tail” piece, I’d have considered just not sweating that a whole lot. As a result the figure looks somewhat dated, not just alongside other figures, but alongside himself. With the obvious later generation head and later generation arms, the torso and legs don’t quite mesh.
As a result of the strange confluence of parts, Ambush looks like his arms are a bit too long for this torso (though not as bad as I thought originally) and his neck is bordering on giraffe. Now, the Club did think to include the PoC Dusty scarf/cape piece to help offset that a bit, but if you want your Ambush to look more vintage accurate and you remove that? Well, he doesn’t look real good.
Of course a lot of that isn’t noticeable if you’re just checking out the figure on display, so perhaps I’m making mountains out of molehills.
Accessories
Considering how much thought and work were put into the accessories for the original 1990 run of figures, you would think that would be a key consideration with these new versions, and to a degree, it is. Ambush as a nicely fitting helmet, the collar and cape from PoC Dusty, the net from Shadow Tracker, a bandolier and two machine guns. He’s actually pretty loaded.
While the net sort of misses the point of the original ghille suit/camouflage net, I give the Club props for doing what they could to blend that aesthetic.
Ambush is a decent update, though unfortunately a somewhat flawed one. I’m not sold on the 25th Anniversary parts, but they did a nice job replicating the deco and he’s loaded with pretty fun gear and weapons. He’s better than I feared he might be based on some early images.
FSS 5.0 Ambush
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.3
Summary
Not my favorite character, but I always love seeing a roster addition from 1990. Ambush will help you GET TOUGH against COBRA and I really love how the modern updates to that era of G.I. Joe are starting to shape up. But dangit where’s my Captain Grid-Iron already?!?
The Los Angeles Times newspaper dropped an interesting article online today discussing the upcoming release of Transformers: The Last Knight as well as a My Little Pony animated film, but within the context of the article they spoke broadly about Hasbro’s new “Cinematic Universe” initiative.
This is all old news to most of us, but where it got interesting is some very specific discussions about the G.I. Joe brand itself:
Simon Waters, the man in charge of consumer brands says the following:
“The world has changed, and I think you’re going to see G.I. Joe changing with it.”
I think the evolution and change of G.I. Joe is a natural thing, especially as you consider all of the different other brands contained within the cinematic universe.
Hasbro’s Stephen Davis elaborated on this, saying:
“We hope to create a head snap. It’s a different kind of ‘Joe’ — one that still resonates with ‘Joe’ fans but brings in an uninitiated audience and expands the audience internationally and domestically.”
Discussions of a “contemporary approach” also take place within the article, the true meaning of which is anyone’s guess at this point.
I’m glad that G.I. Joe seems to be the focus of a potential overhaul, but time will tell what Hasbro considers a “head snap” and how it will resonate with the long term fans and what it can do to bring in new fans. I’ll certainly be watching.
There hasn’t been much in the way of G.I. Joe news this weekend at Toy Fair, but statue company Prime 1 has stepped up to the plate in a HUGE way over at the Tokyo Winter Wonder Festival previewing some fantastic looking G.I. Joe statues including Serpentor and Destro!
Package artist/colorist of the 2016 G.I. Joe line Ross Hughes has posted some images on his DeviantArt Page of artwork he has produced for recent G.I. Joe releases found at Toys “R” Us.
Interestingly, some of those images feature artwork for characters that were NOT released. Those characters include Action Man (in two different versions), Stinger Driver (in three different versions), a Snow Serpent, Wild Weasel and Rock n Roll (resembling his look from the concept case).
Considering some of these characters (specifically Stinger Driver and Wild Weasel) it certainly seems possible that some planned vehicle releases might have included these figures, but as we know, Toys “R” Us was not on board with vehicle releases for 2016. Whether or not these will make it out in some other format remains to be seen.
I’ve had my nose buried in other projects this week and the G.I. Joe Collectors Club has unleased two more BattleForce: 2000 reveals: Dodger and Blaster.
Like they’ve been doing from the start, they seem to be sticking really close to the vintage aesthetic, and the designs are, for the most part, really solid. I am a bit concerned about the Photoshop mock up head sculpts, especially the ones with the non-removable helmets, as I fear they may suffer from Static Line syndrome.
While many folks complained about Static Line’s permanently attached helmet, I wasn’t all that distraught about that component, but more about how the attached helmet almost looked like it was a part of his head. Whoever is sculpting these heads doesn’t appear to be accommodating for the actual shape and size of the head underneath the helmet and the result is an almost “squished” look where the helmets are far too small and way too tight.
Time will tell what the actual finished product will look like, I hate to make judgments based purely on a Photoshop mock up, but that’s all we have to go on at this point.
One question I really do have though – WHERE’S BLASTER’S MASK???? Seriously that was a really awesome element to the original figure. Very disappointed that they couldn’t find some way financially to include that, choosing instead to retool exact replicas of vintage accessories. Curious choice on that one, I have to admit.
The builds for these two figures are pretty decent, though as I mentioned above I’m a little confused as to why money would be invested in retooling exactly replicas of the classic weapons when a 30 second trip to eBay will find any replacement you want for pennies on the dollar.
Regardless… we’re now a good chunk of the way through the reveals and so far I’m liking the majority of the BattleForce: 2000 stuff, but am still really questioning the choice to include 9 Battle Android Troopers. Let’s see what the rest look like.
Keep watching GIJoeCon.com for updates and see the previews below!
