The holidays are past us and I’ve gotten a couple more 2016 G.I. Joe reviews under my belt… Heavy Duty and Stiletto can now be found on the G.I. Joe: 50th Anniversary review page.
Along with this, with Chris from the Full Force Podcast’s help, a video review has been completed to compliment them and that can be found below, or embedded within the review itself.
Enjoy!
Okay, I admit straight up. This is going to be a tough review to write. I was desperately hoping that Whisper might end up winning the fan vote, and I fully admit I was pretty upset that she didn’t get the nod.
That’s not meant to be any slight against the other three excellent candidates, but I’d be lying if I said this review wasn’t being written through at least some gritted teeth. As it stands, the Stiletto figure came out pretty good, and manages to capture the elements of Bill Nedrow’s character relatively nicely.
The new head sculpt is decent, but would have benefited from better paint apps, especially on the scar and potentially missing left pupil. The figure build is essentially Rise of COBRA Agent Helix with Lady Jaye arms, and as much as I love the parts for that figure (I consider her one of the highlights of the excellent Rise of COBRA toy era) the color placement on Stiletto is odd to say the least. Purple and black on the torso with oddly green colored pants and a blue scarf makes for an eclectic and eye-opening array of colors that seem almost arbitrarily chosen.
While I fully admit to being somewhat disgruntled at Whisper’s shunting to relative obscurity, I’m generally a fan of new characters, and Stiletto works in that regard, although her filecard is in pretty direct contrast to the actual character in the fiction. That leads to some challenges, as she is clearly a COBRA agent in the books, but is written as purely a G.I. Joe member according to the filecard. It’s an interesting dichotomy which will make for some intriguing storytelling opportunities.
ACCESSORIES
As an expert in edged weapons, Stiletto comes with two swords and knives aplenty, as one might expect. She also has a submachine gun and a Drugonov sniper rifle. I’d argue out of the 2 packs she is the best equipped figure and has the most sensible assortment of weapons out of the whole crew.
Stiletto is an intriguing new character and I’m happy for Bill that she managed to get included in the 2016 assortment, and I’m still totally not holding a grudge about Whisper. All that being said, this figure is a decent build with some strange color choices and a nice assortment of useful accessories.
YouTube Video Review
Summary
Another new COBRA character is something to be celebrated and Stiletto certainly has an intriguing look and feel. While I love the Agent Helix build, and am happy with the majority of the figure, the restrictive arms and the mish-mash colors leave me a little cold, not to mention the lack of quality paint apps on her face.
Pros
1 – New character!
2 – Nice new head sculpt
3 – Good accessory compliment
Cons
1 – Lack of paint apps on the scarred face
2 – Pretty bizarre color choices throughout the uniform
3 – Whisper FTW 😛
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After the run that Heavy Duty had in the early 2000’s, it’s tough to picture a time when fans might actually be looking forward to a new version of this 90’s character. Essentially a Roadblock replacement when the trademarks were lost during the new sculpt era (and into Sigma 6), Heavy Duty was often the target of derision from collectors who much preferred the more popular Roadblock.
Now here we stand in 2016 after getting a healthy helping of Roadblock from G.I. Joe: Retaliation and now people seem happy and satisfied with a new Heavy Duty. In truth, there’s a lot to be satisfied by.
Heavy Duty here is by and large the Retaliation Roadblock from the neck down, with what looks to be a new head sculpt. The result is a large, imposing looking figure as the classic was meant to be, though this version’s baseball cap is replaced by a bandana. His shirt is off-white, like the vintage version was, and the green pants offset it nicely. I will say without some kind of vest or web gear the figure looks a little plain, but still is pretty cool. Once you put the Resolute Roadblock web gear on him, it’s a huge improvement and the figure all told is surprisingly effective. Certainly it’s basically a Roadblock repaint, but this particular Roadblock is a fantastic figure with great sculpting and impressive articulation, so it’s pretty tough to complain about that formula.
Heavy Duty is a nice compliment to other figures in this first 2 pack assortment, and I think Hasbro did a decent job with it.
ACCESSORIES
Heavy Duty is littered with accessories to the point where he seems to have more weapons than he has places to store them. This seems to be an ongoing issue with these modern figures as Hasbro kind of treats them like “accessory packs” simply dumping a pile of gear in there that aren’t necessarily meaningful. Heavy Duty comes with two separate oversized machine guns along with the M249, pistol, and knife. He also has the great Resolute Roadblock vest, too.
In spite of the prevalence of Heavy Duty back in the early 2000’s, I was excited to hear about his inclusion here, and the end result is really nice. It’s got some vintage twists, but some new elements, and the figure is surprisingly one of the highlights of this year’s series.
YouTube Video Review
Summary
Although Heavy Duty was a roster stalwart for many years, it’s been a while since he’s made an appearance. This 2016 version makes up for lost time and ends up being a pretty terrific new version of a classic character that believe it or not, feels overdue in spite of his rampant appearances in the early 2000’s.
Pros
1 – Effective modern parts choices
2 – Good new head sculpt
3 – Fun accessories
Cons
1 – Almost too many accessories, some of them redundant
[wpebayads]
The time has come! Last year we brought you Welcome to Wolf Squad, a novella based on the 2015 series of G.I. Joe and COBRA action figures… now we bring you Nerves of Stone, the follow-up Novella to our Wolf Squad adventure from last year.
Familiar characters make their returns and some new characters get introduced…each and every member of the 2016 G.I. Joe and COBRA roster appears!
When a new G.I. Joe recruit goes missing while investing a top secret COBRA research lab in Alaska, G.I. Joe’s special operations Wolf Squad team gets deployed to see what’s up. They get far more than they bargained for and when G.I. Joe reinforcements arrive, a long kept secret gets revealed…
Now, for a limited time, get an exclusive sneak preview of this upcoming novella! Sign up for the World of Wolf’s Head Publishing and you’ll get immediate access to the Prologue and first chapter of this novella, due for release in early 2017. This will be available NOWHERE else.
As an added bonus you can check out the first three chapters of my original novel The Fog of Dreams and get access to a Top Secret Research Paper outlining the Operation: Harvest story. If you’re a fan of G.I. Joe, I really think you’ll enjoy this story as well. Lots of similarities as one might expect.
Just sign up for the World of Wolf’s Head Publishing, I promise we won’t spam you or throttle your mailbox, but we will have plenty of exclusive offers and fun stuff coming down the pipe. Check it out!
With some newly found spare time at GeneralsJoes we’ve put together some video reviews for figures from FSS 4.0! Tiger Force Outback and Sneak Peek video reviews have been posted to the GeneralsJoes YouTube Channel and are ready for viewing.
They’ve also been embedded in the written reviews at the G.I. Joe Collectors Club Review Page or the direct links below.
Enjoy and huge thanks as always to Chris from The Full Force for his help on these videos!
In recent months, comic artist John Royle has put together some amazing G.I. Joe covers, and just revealed was his retailer incentive cover for Revolutionaries #4 from IDW Publishing.
This cover looks just as exciting as the other work he’s been doing, which is really saying something! Check out this fantastic cover and the comic details below. Fantastic stuff from John Royle.
Revolutionaries #4
Art by John Royle
Inks by Eeshwar
Colors by Juan Fernandez
Check out more of John’s great work at JohnRoyleArt.com!