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
G.I. Joe 2016 Stiletto
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.4
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 😛
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
G.I. Joe 2016 Heavy Duty
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.8
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
I’ve had the video reviews up for a while, but finally I’ve had some extra time to assemble the written reviews as well!
Hop on over to my G.I. Joe: 50th Anniversary Review Page to check out the latest reviews for Duke and Tombstone. You can also click the links below to go straight to the reviews. Enjoy!
I could spend hours extolling the virtues of Duke as a character, but let’s face it, after over 50 different versions of the character, almost everything that could possibly be said about Duke has been said. While there isn’t a whole lot of new ground to cover when it comes to Duke the character, it’s interesting to look at this particular Duke action figure.
After the original 50th Anniversary run, there were rumblings among the fandom asking why we couldn’t get an updated version of Duke similar to Flint that we got in 2014. It was something that many folks asked for, in spite of the numerous versions of the character we’d already seen, because interestingly, Hasbro has never really done a modern update (past the questionable 25th Anniversary versions) that tied directly back to the vintage look.
Well, in 2016 Hasbro does a little bit of both, but I’m not certain the figure is better off for it.
While they certainly mirror the vintage look of the figure from a color perspective, Hasbro elects to modernize the figure with a bulkier, almost arctic looking uniform (using components from the Data Viper). The range of motion and articulation is really great, though the choice of different parts than, say the 2014 Flint does raise some eyebrows. Duke’s legs are from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation G.I. Joe Trooper, though thankfully seems to have deeper foot holes that fit in the pegs better than some other figures that have shared these parts.
From a color scheme perspective, Duke obviously pulls homage from the 1983 version, but is cast in a strangely bright hue, his shirt looking much more vibrant (and thus a little less realistic) and his pants a deeper, richer green.
All in all, Duke definitely has the look of the character, though the colors don’t quite jive with a more realistic looking version of the figure. The sculpting and articulation are both really good, thanks to more modern figure components, but they look like a more arctic version of the figure. Also, for whatever its worth, once you take off Duke’s vest, his torso is from Rise of COBRA Breaker and looks really skinny next to the baggy cloth of the arms.
ACCESSORIES
Duke comes with a wide array of cool weapons, though none of them especially stand point. He’s got a familiar machine gun and pistol, the green Shock Trooper tactical vest, smaller M249 heavy machine gun. He also has a green backpack. Pretty traditional looking weapons assortment that works fine, though isn’t especially remarkable.
Duke is one of the timeless characters of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero lore. Rather than go full bore vintage, Hasbro uses some vintage homages with some new twists, which generally I’m a fan of, though in this case it doesn’t work especially well. It’s a decent looking figure, but doesn’t bring a whole lot of new elements to the table, which feels necessary for yet another version of this character. Either go full vintage or go full on new, this walking the line in between isn’t especially effective.
YouTube Video Review
G.I. Joe 2016 Duke
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.2
Summary
Duke pulls some from his vintage version, with some new twists, but those new twists aren’t especially satisfying. A strange mix between the classic character and some modern arctic representation, Duke doesn’t really knock me out in either category. It’s a fine figure, but not fantastic.
Pros
1 – Great modern parts
2 – Excellent articulation
Cons
1 – Paint colors are almost too “colorful” and not especially realistic
2 – This strange vintage and new middle ground doesn’t especially excite either side
3 – The accessories could have been better
Interestingly, in stark contrast to the other figure in this two-pack, rather than a long time established character with over 50 separate iterations, Tombstone is a brand spanking new character, something very much appreciated by this long time fan.
But is this being a new character enough to wow a discriminating collector?
Along with being a new character, Tombstone also has a great new head sculpt full of character. He’s a former COBRA trooper who has been through the wringer, and that’s immediately evident with one look at his face. The sculpt is good to boot. Looking at the figure build, it’s a decent one, with the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Snake Eyes arms, which I’m always a fan of and the Pursuit of COBRA Firefly legs. The result is a pretty skinny, but flexible figure, a character that looks especially lanky buried underneath the long and heavily armored tactical vest from Firefly.
Obviously the shining point of the figure is with the new head, and the new head is pretty great and pretty gnarly with a nasty scar over his right eye making the character look like he’s seen some stuff. It’s a really neat “battle worn” look for sure. One thing Hasbro does a good job with in looking at the part selection is the range of motion is great. Long limbs and non-restrictive joints means the figure can achieve all sorts of great firing positions, which is a nice effect of the way the figure was built.
There’s a healthy run of purple and black throughout the figure, which leaves it nicely dark, but with some interesting colors, though I’m really not sure what’s up with the stark white shoulder armor. It’s not an especially realistic color and it stands out in distinct contrast to the rest of the dark figure. It’s not a bad look, just a bit on the odd side.
The backstory for Tombstone is certainly interesting, as a psychological operations guy who is now essentially the field commander for the COBRA Viper corps. It gives him some intriguing twists and lends some credence to his strange accessory compliment. The figure itself aesthetically looks decent, but doesn’t quite come together in all areas with some off color combinations and very lanky parts selection. That being said, he’s a figure that even with existing parts manages to stand out from the crowd, which is a good thing.
ACCESSORIES
I’m not really sure what to make of Tombstone’s accessories other than to assume, they were more or less randomly chosen without a clear indication of purpose. He’s got a great assault rifle, but then comes with the old school gas grenade launcher alongside futuristic laser weapons. It’s possible these are meant to be some kind of state of the art pyschosis weapons to go along with his psychological warfare specialty, but that’s not clearly stated anywhere. The weapons are fine, they’re just kind of there.
I’m always a fan of new characters and great new head sculpts and Tombstone has both of these, which gives him a major edge in my book. Some of the construction choices leave me scratching my head a bit and the color combinations are interesting. The newness of the character and head, however, overcome some of those design choices and leave me with a sense of satisfaction with the figure.
YouTube Video Review
G.I. Joe 2016 Tombstone
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.6
Summary
A brand new character with a new COBRA specialty is always welcome, and Tombstone has a pretty great and unique head sculpt as well. The build is interesting, though feels a little cobbled together, though the overall look of the figure is pretty fun.
Pros
1 – New character!
2 – Great new head sculpt
Cons
1 – Strange combination of purples blacks and whites doesn’t make a whole lot of aesthetic sense
2 – Weapons selections are strange
Holy cow, this is what happens when you don’t post a new episode for a while… the What’s on Joe Mind podcast has posted a new episode of their G.I. Joe podcast, and it’s a big ‘un!
FIVE FREAKING HOURS of content crammed into this tiny audio file, encompassing hours of recording, editing, and production work. Big props to all the work done behind the scenes, and I hope everyone enjoys this latest mammoth episode.
Check it out on our Podbean page or embedded below.
ZOMG! It’s a REAL episode!! Yes, the gang brings you almost FIVE hours of Joe Related Talk…and other subjects…and pointless tangents. Justin was having “family time” so joining us for substitution host duty is Chris McLeod of The Full Force. Since this is our first show since JoeCon (yes, we know it has been that long, but we all have real lives we must live folks), we spend a SIGNIFICANT amount of time in the news doing a day-by-day review of all that went down in Loveland. We also catch up on other topics in the news…all which is old news now, but you can hear what we have to say instead of reading it on a forum or in social media. We also talk to IDW GI Joe artist extraordinaire, Tom Feister as we check in to what projects he has cooking for the rest of the year. All that plus the Joes of 2006 and Inappropriate Cosplay Emails to Joe Colton. We know you will love this new segment! We’ll fill you in with our lives in the real world on our next episode, but for now, enjoy this MEGA show…this should last you a couple of days on your commutes…unless you have a long commute and in that case we hope it makes your trip go by that much more rapidly. Thanks for thinking of us! We appreciate your listener-ship!!
