If you’d asked me at any point over the past several years if we really needed an update for Charbroil, I would have said “hell no”. In the 21st Century the need for flamethrower troopers seems unnecessary, and Charbroil isn’t even the number 1 flamethrower trooper on the G.I. Joe team. Not only that, but we’ve already received two Charbroil updates, though one was Rise of COBRA and one was Night Force, so we never really got the 1988 update that some folks might have thought we needed.
I would have disagreed.
However, throughout doing this review and realizing just how many 1988 figures have now been released, it’s kind of cool to see the group shot and Charbroil does fill a hole in that roster, which is cool to see.
Charbroil himself is a decent figure. He uses pretty much the entire base figure for the G.I. Joe: Retaliation G.I. Joe Trooper (like the Night Force version did) but done up in colors more accurate to the 1988 version. The shade of brown for the uniform is a decent match for the ’88 original and the yellow trim does a good job complimenting it now as it did 19 years ago.
One curious choice, however, was that instead of reusing the same unmasked head that we got with the Night Force version, instead this Charbroil has a balaclava. I’m not entirely sure why that decision was made, though I would have much preferred the unmasked head here as it was with the Convention set.
If I have a gripe, while the sculpting on the legs is exceptionally well detailed and looks really nice, the ankle joints don’t work especially well (as they really haven’t since 2012) making it tough to keep the figure standing, either on the battle stand or off.
Accessories
This figure comes with the accessories you’d pretty much expect, including the familiar helmet, backpack with flamethrower (and removable flame) and pistol. Honestly there’s nothing especially revolutionary or different here, and nothing that wows or impresses. The weapons are fine and they make sense, but beyond that they’re just kind of there.
As a character, Charbroil has never really held an interest for me, and as we sit here in 2017, the concept of a flamethrower trooper seems unrealistic at best. It’s nice to have another entry in the 1988 figure roster filled, however, and I will admit I geeked out just a little when I shot that group shot that keeps on getting just a little bit larger every year.
FSS 5.0 Charbroil
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.1
Summary
I don’t need a third Charbroil update, but the 1988 roster appreciates another hole being filled. The figure mold is the same as the Night Force version and the colors are updated to match the vintage, as one would expect them to be. At the end of the day, it’s a fine update, but doesn’t do anything amazing or out of the ordinary, it just kind of ticks those normal boxes that you’d expect to be ticked.
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?!?
In spite of how utterly awesome the Vitruvian HACKS Gorgon figures are, there has been some demand among the collector community for Gorgon “foot soldiers”. Snake creatures that run around on two legs rather than slithering on their spectacularly engineered, articulated tails.
Well, for Kokomo Toys’ most recent exclusive, Boss Fight Studio did just that with the Atelis Warrior. The majority of the figure is repurposed from the Amazon template, with the standard female buck, Amazon skirt, leg armor, and gauntlets, except we get Medusa’s chest armor and arm gauntlets to compliment it. Along with that we get both different variations of the Gorgon head, the “calm” version and the “screaming” version which adds a very nice layer of customizability to this fun troop builder.
Putting aside all the great extra pieces, just looking at the figure itself, this is a spectacular looking new type of Gorgon soldier. The green skin color is a really great, unique shade of green that is different than any other shade before it, an almost pale, faded hue, complimented by intricate and fascinating tattoo work throughout. As an “Altered Amazon” this figure has a neat back story, and built upon the already terrific Boss Fight Studio female figure buck, it’s a poseable and well balanced fighting machine. The overall presentation of the figure is terrific, with the Amazon Skirt complimenting the Medusa armor to perfection, giving us a figure that is truly inspired by the Amazon Warriors, but has some really great Gorgon elements.
Accessories
The Atelis Warrior comes with an excellent assortment of great accessories. Her weapons are a nice gold sheen and she is loaded. This tailless Gorgon comes with two swords, two snake whips, one snake knife, two helmets (one Myrmidon and one Gorgon), and the Gorgon shield, allowing for many awesome variations of accessory load outs. Being able to swap out the head and arrange the weapons in so many different ways gives collectors a wealth of options for posing various different Atelis Warriors. As you can see, I bought several for this very reason.
The Atelis Warrior is a ton of fun. A great Gorgon figure worked into the fantastic female base figure adds a fun new element to the Vitruvian HACKS mythology and is an exceptionally fun figure to boot. Great stuff from Boss Fight Studio and huge kudos to Kokomo Toys for pulling off this great exclusive!
Atelis Warrior
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.8
Summary
With the articulated tail being such an awesome part of the Gorgon figures, who would have thought that a variation of these snake ladies with legs instead of a tail would be as fun as it is. Surprise, this figure is fantastic! The paint deco is great, she has a ton of really awesome accessories and including both types of Gorgon heads gives her all sorts of army building capabilities. Great stuff here from Boss Fight Studio and Kokomo Toys.
To say I was pleasantly surprised with the Helios Warrior we received a short while ago would be a massive understatement, so at least I was somewhat prepared for what to expect from the Eos Warrior that just arrived at my mailbox last week. Even being so prepared, however, I found it difficult to contain my excitement over getting yet another God and Titan inspired enchanted warrior to fight against the Gorgon Horde.
While Helios is the Greek Titan representing the sun, his sister Eos is a “titaness” or goddess representing the dawn. It makes sense for the two siblings to work together in order to provide supernatural help to human kind.
Like the Helios Warrior, the Eos Warrior is produced with a fantastic translucent orange hue which I can only explain as “blood orange”. It’s a distinctly different, more vibrant color than the translucent orange blank and creates this look that truly feels representative of solidified flame.
I was pretty amazed at how similar this female figure is to her male counterpart, from the figure’s base color, to the rich candy apple red of the armor, to the Phoenix logo on the torso armor as well as the shield itself. They even come with the same accessory compliment.
Like the Helios Warrior, this figure is vibrant and striking, immediately standing out on display among even other colorful offerings. There is an exceptional punch to the color contrast, resulting in a spectacular looking aesthetic that truly feels handed down from the Gods. As with every figure we get from Boss Fight Studio, the construction, articulation and design are spot on, each color choice nearly perfectly complimenting another, and pairing the Eos Warrior next to the Helios Warrior just creates this perfect book end experience and I enjoy having them as additions to the Spartan/Gorgon conflict.
If anything I wish Boss Fight had dipped into more supernatural entities like Poseidon to reflect other environments. Of course, there are blanks available to do this for anyone who truly wants to…
Accessories
The Eos Warrior comes with a nice variety of accessories, with the Amazon torso armor, skirt, and leg armor and the same Gorgon/Amazon gauntlets that most female warriors come with. She also has three separate swords (the same ones that Helios Warrior came with) and a great Phoenix deco shield.
Eos Warrior looks spectacular and comes with some really great accessories, almost perfectly complimenting the Helios Warrior’s look and feel. I love the colors, love the concept and really like how this figure came out.
Eos Warrior
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.6
Summary
This daughter of the Goddess of the Dawn Eos is a great addition to the growing army to fight against the sinister Gorgon Horde. Leveraging the same overall color scheme as the Helios Warrior with some enhanced articulation (thanks to the rocker ankles of the female figures) we get a spectacular additional supernatural flame warrior that is just as impressive as her male counterpart. Even more so.
Throughout the past year we have received several different types of Gorgons with many different paint decos, so it seems only appropriate that the last release of Greek Mythology figures contains a pair of new Gorgons, and a pair of really striking new Gorgons at that.
The Anakritis Gorgon is based on the pattern of a neon Garter snake with some excellent, vibrant colors and an intriguing pattern across the surface of the snake’s skin. Without the armor, this very cool pattern continues along the flesh of the creature underneath and creates a very cool aesthetic.
Released with the “screaming” Gorgon head, the Anakritis is developed as an interrogator of sorts, a sinister member of the Gorgon Horde, colored in an excellent shade of blue and red. I love the way the two colors compliment each other on the skin, both exposed and hidden behind the armor. Certainly, the Boss Fight folks have limited tooling to currently work from, so repaints are prevalent, but the difference between how Boss Fight handles repaints and other, more mainstream companies do, is that Boss Fight really digs into the reason and purpose behind the repaints and puts together some terrific deco choices, so even repaints feel fresh, appealing, and new.
One word of caution – if you’re tempted to remove the gauntlets from the Anakritis’ arms, use a hair dryer or heat gun and be very careful. Mine were able to be removed fairly easily, but they did cause some paint wear on the forearms underneath. Nothing drastic, but something to watch for.
Accessories
I’m glad Boss Fight went in a different direction than the typical sheath, sword, helmet, shield for their accessory compliment, however these particular Snake Blades did end up a little warped out of the package. Far from a deal breaker, and these weapons seem to be the only ones that suffer from that occasional malady, but I did want to mention it. I really love the vibrant metallic color shade of the blades and the shield, which contrast nicely with the flat almost stone texture of the armor and Gorgon skull helmet.
I’m on board for whatever Gorgons that Boss Fight Studio decides to produce, and the Anakritis is no exception. I love the way the bright colors work off of each other, I like the back story, and the accessories are decent as well. This figure builds upon the existing base of Gorgons well, but also stands apart on its own quite nicely.
Anakritis Gorgon
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.1
Summary
Exciting, vibrant colors, the awesome screaming Gorgon head and an interesting new backstory, the Anakritis Gorgon is a great addition to the ever-growing Gorgon Horde. I did have some minor issues with the forearm paint and weapon warping, but those issues are minor in the grand scheme of things and the figure ends up as an excellent addition to the Vitruvian HACKS line.
