It’s with quite a few mixed feelings that I tackle the 2016 G.I. Joe Convention set this year, mainly because this year was one of the few years that I haven’t been able to make the show, and believe it or not, quite a bit of my joy and embracing of a particular year’s convention set is a direct result of feeding off my peers and sharing thoughts and opinions with them throughout the weekend. You might think that a more segregated, impartial look after the fact represents a more accurate review, but I’m not sure. In many ways, collecting and fandom is about how the target of your fandom brings people together and creates bonds (at least it should be, anyway) and that, in my opinion, must be a factor of any review of collector oriented product.
However, even though I did lack that person-to-person contact this year that I’ve had in years past, I’ve had a few weeks to share opinions with many of my friends and peers, and by and large this Convention set appears to be very well received. I agree with this opinion, for the most part.
Standing back and looking at the set as a whole, it’s amazing to see just how many of my own personal high points are hit all at once. I’m a big fan of Sky Patrol, using them as a liaison of sorts to my offshoot “Renegades” team in my dio-stories. Along with that, I’ve always loved the crazy 90s greatness of the Air Commandos, and we have plenty of that mixed in here, too. As if that wasn’t enough, by far, two of my favorite foreign character variants are also included here in the form of Black Vulture and Flying Scorpion, two very intriguing combinations that were only available as exclusives in Brazil before now.
As I go through all of the figures in the set (and yes, vehicles, too) I’ve been quite pleased at the more modern selection of parts and the intricacies of much of the deco. There are some decisions that I’m not a huge fan of (no removable helmets on the new heads? Booooo), but as a whole this set seems to pay homage to the classics, while also bringing plenty of new stuff to the table, which is about all you can hope for as a modern collector.
Not everything is a home run, of course, but there’s a lot to enjoy here, and putting this complex, elaborate review together has been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, as it is every year. I hope you enjoy it.
Static Line is another good addition to the JoeCon Sky Patrol set that could have been fantastic. He almost is, but just falls short.
Like a few other figures in this year’s convention set, the Collectors Club decided to invest in new tooling for a head sculpt for Static Line, but like those other figures they unfortunately surrounded that head sculpt in a non-removable helmet. The design and sculpting of the helmet itself looks really good, and I like how they took the shape and look of the Static Line helmet, but added the visor that is posed in an elevated position so you can at least see Static Line’s face. That’s a pretty unique idea, and also means the head can likely be reused down the line, possibly for Backstop. Even with the non-removable helmet, the actual sculpting looks pretty great, though because of how closely the face and the surrounding helmet are molded together, there is some silver paint overspray on the lower part of the face. It’s sort of tucked down under the chin part of the helmet, so it’s not eminently noticeable, but it is there.
For what it’s worth, you can use the head from the attendee exclusive Air Raid on Static Line and it works okay, though it sits kind of low on the neck.
Minus the disappointing helmet, though, the figure build is pretty decent. Pursuit of COBRA Beachhead’s torso is always a good choice, and it’s surrounded by G.I. Joe: Resolute parts which I’ll never argue about either. It’s a very unique look to the figure that looks nicely modern, yet separate from some of the other Sky Patrol figures in the set. I’m a huge fan of the Resolute COBRA Trooper arms, which have some great modern
dymanic and are exceptionally poseable. Even though he’s got those thick Resolute Duke legs, they look okay on him and manage to blend with the rest of the figure. The color balance of blue and white is great, too, and actually jives him with Skydive’s color aesthetic quite nicely. They end up looking like a great pair, although their color schemes are pretty separate from several other Sky Patrol figures.
Accessories
Static Line comes with the Rise of COBRA jetpack, which is a very good thing, as well as a shoulder holster and submachine gun. He’s got a knife and a satchel as well, which add some nice variety to the figure.
Static Line was a figure I really liked back in 1990 and while this update has some interesting flair, the new head sculpt should be a bonus, not a disappointment. I appreciate what the Club was trying to do, and I can envision them using this head sculpt in other ways down the road, but I think in this case there was a potentially better way to handle it. The figure is really good, but could have been even better.
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Static Line
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.6
Summary
With an intriguing choice for a new head sculpt, and a pretty unique build of G.I. Joe: Resolute themed parts, Static Line has a recipe for success, that much is for certain. He’s got a really nice paint scheme and a decent accessory compliment, and ends up being a pretty nice addition to the Sky Patrol roster. A removable helmet would have put him way over the edge and possibly even landed him on my favorites list, but as it is, he’s not quite there.
One look at Skydive back in the day and you immediately wanted to eat all your vegetables and do your homework, he just had that kind of a-hole dad look to him with his close-cropped hair and tightly manicured lip fuzz. Still, it was a head sculpt that had a ton of character, and even on top of a really bizarre figure like the COBRA Gyro-Viper he looked like he was on top of his stuff.
This new version manages to take what was great about the classic version and make it even better, with some interesting twists along the way.
Essentially the modern Skydive is 25th Anniversary Mutt’s head on the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Data-Viper’s body from the neck down. Thick, padded uniform, amazing articulation, and a really great overall figure gives you a look and feel of a flight suit. Heck, the Retalition Lift Ticket’s already wearing it as one. The great thing about the Data Viper parts, too, is that with the right paint, the trim work jumps off the blue background
of the uniform and almost ties together as the classic version did with those strange hoses and ports of the original Skydive.
Even though there are no new parts here, the parts were obviously chosen with a specific look in mind and they work eminently well. Silver trim on the torso, and the white colored padding are both nice and bright and break up the royal blue underneath very well.
I admit to being a little surprised that the Mutt head works as well as it does. With the brown hair, moustache, and especially with the silver helmet on, you can barely tell it’s Mutt (or Bazooka for that matter).
Accessories
Like Drop Zone, Skydive comes with the really fun Rise of COBRA jetpack done up in a great blue/silver color scheme. He’s got Agent Mouse’s tactical helmet, which is fantastic, as well as goggles that can slide over the helmet to replicate his vintage look, or even pull down over his eyes for added realism. Finishing off his gear is a military assault rifle. His accessory compliment is pretty much perfect, with the right balance of offensive
weapons and accessories that work well off his vintage version.
Skydive is fantastic. Yes, Data Viper has become a defacto standard for modern figures, the same way Shock Trooper and Snake Eyes were before him, but when the base figure is that good, it’s very difficult to complain. The paint work is nearly perfect, the parts choices work to near excellence, and the accessories are just right. This is a very well done update and an excellent addition to your modern era officer corps.
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Skydive
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.5
Summary
This update to the hard as nails Sky Patrol leader hits all the right notes and gives us a suitable modern update. While I obviously love the Pursuit of COBRA version of the character, this one feels much more true to the vintage roots, and even though it’s mostly a Retaliation Data Viper, the figure works on all fronts. The paint deco is great, his accessories rock, and pretty much everything about this figure is a win.
By all accounts, Drop Zone feels like a figure that really shouldn’t work, yet somehow does. G.I. Joe operatives are human (well… I guess they are, right?) and it makes sense for them to have some different body types, and it was an interesting choice to make Drop Zone so skinny. If I had to bet, they probably wanted to use the Strato Viper legs to approximate the vintage figure, but those legs are pretty slender, so they took that as a theme going forward and the entire figure looks really tall and thin, a nice and different look, to be honest.
Using the Retaliation Flint torso and Retaliation Storm Shadow arms (thank god they didn’t use Strato Viper’s!) the figure looks almost scrawny, but still packed with great sculpting detail. I’m one of those fans who really loves the Retaliation Storm Shadow update, and the arms are a big reason why. They work here for some unknown reason, even though the intricate detail, by all rights, shouldn’t necessarily jive with the rest of the
figure’s look.
Articulation is quite good with Drop Zone, especially with Storm Shadow’s narrow, unencumbered arms, allowing for some great poses and weapons firing stances. You wouldn’t think that various shades of brown color would make for a very interesting color scheme, but it works for Drop Zone, built nicely off of the vintage color scheme and mixed in with some great gray colors. For some reason I really like the texture and color mix of Storm Shadow’s biceps and the way the layered padding looks with these added colors on the arms. It’s really very nice.
Accessories
Now we’re talking! With Drop Zone, the Sky Patrol figures start coming with jet packs, and they are really great jet packs to boot, based off the fantastic Rise of COBRA pack that came with General Hawk back in 2009. With the wings that spread out and the poseable rear angled rudders, this is more than just a slapped together piece of plastic that resembles a jet pack. I love that the Collectors Club included them here, though I do wish
all six Sky Patrol members came with them.
Along with the pack, Drop Zone has the removable Strato Viper webgear from the 25th Anniversary, which kind of hangs off his skinny torso. As a word of warning, the holster/pistol on my webgear was separated in the baggie, and I had to super glue it back together, but once I did that, things stayed together fine. Complimenting the jetpack and webgear is a helmet (Pursuit of COBRA Ashiko helmet like Airwave), and two guns. I really like both weapons, and actually think I like Drop Zone’s accessory compliment the best out of the entire Sky Patrol.
Drop Zone is an interesting figure. With a tall and slender build, baggy webgear, and odd textures throughout the figure, it’s a formula that you wouldn’t expect to work, yet it does. He bares a decent resemblance to the original, but with great articulation and really fun accessories, he’s a worthy update for the modern era.
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Drop Zone
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.2
Summary
While not one of the more exciting additions to the Sky Patrol Convention set, Drop Zone does what he’s meant to do, carrying forward the character from the vintage era and making some much needed aesthetic updates. He’s tall and lanky and really stands apart from the other members, which is cool in a way, though the Strato-Viper legs still a look a little dated compared to others.
In what appeared to be a trend back in the 80s and 90s, Altitude was a Native American member of the G.I. Joe team, and like both Spirit and Airborne (Talltree, not Six), he was written in the filecard as having some sort of mysterious six sense. This trend was also carried forward to Dart, another Native American Tracker who became a stalwart during the new sculpt era. As a kid, these characters were awesome to me. For whatever reason I really loved the “near superhuman” aspects of G.I. Joe. They never really went full board over to comic book ridiculousness, but you had guys like Storm Shadow who could scale walls (according to his filecard), Zartan who had this mysterious enhanced strength and disguise abilities, and these trackers, who seemed to have extremely sensitive senses and abilities. That was cool in my 10 year old world.
This Altitude update might use the classic as a bare bones inspiration, but really takes the figure in some new places, even though it uses all existing parts. While many of the Sky Patrol characters were repaints of COBRA vehicle drivers, Altitude was a repaint of Slipstream, the Conquest pilot, who never really got a highly accurate modern update. Sure, he was produced, but not really as a direct update to the original, with some
healthy liberties taken. Big kudos to the designer of this version of Altitude, as they aschew the idea of just repainting whatever was done for the 25th Anniversary Slipstream and instead go in a whole new direction. Altitude is a mix of Pursuit of COBRA parts, leveraging Duke and Firefly for most of it, with the head from the Slaughters Marauders Mercer. This is a great touch, giving Altitude his classic flat top and angry grimace. A
very interesting choice of head, and with the different flesh tone, it works perfectly.
The other parts are fantastic as well, chock full of character, nicely developed sculpting, and great articulation. I’ll never grow tired of Firefly’s legs, although they come off as a little bit skinny sometimes.
The color balance here is very nicely done, using the original brown and green colors, but interspersing those colors on the more modern parts where it makes sense. Gold and silver compliments are spread throughout the torso and legs, and look…well… pretty spectacular. I really love how the silver trim and gold base balance off of each other on the torso armor. Like Airborne, Altitude has Lift Ticket’s arms and they work surprisingly
well.
Accessories
Altitude’s weapons are the definition of bare bones, as he also comes with the standard military backpack rather than a jetpack. His weapon is an updated version of the COBRA Viper machine gun that came with the 50th Anniversary Danger at the Docks set, and he also comes with a knife, helmet and face shield to attempt to mimic the look of the vintage version. The weapons are fine, but honestly nothing extraordinary.
Altitude is another solid update to the original figure. He looks familiar, but has enough interesting new elements to stand apart from the classic. I love the reuse of Mercer’s head and the perfect interweaving of Pursuit of Cobra parts, creating texture, paint breaks, and an overall great aesthetic.
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Altitude
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.5
Summary
As a childhood favorite, I was looking forward to seeing how the Collectors Club handled Altitude, especially since there wasn’t a really good Slipstream template to build off of. I’m happy to say the Club thought outside the box and put together a really unique formula, including a great choice for an existing head sculpt, and the end result is excellent. A very solid update to the long time Sky Patrol favorite.
In the days of the original Sky Patrol, Airwave was not my favorite, to be honest. I never liked the Motor Viper figure all that much anyway, and the parts didn’t do Airwave any favors. Sort of skinny arms and a weirdly over-designed uniform left me pretty cool and indifferent. I’m happy to say any potential issues with the vintage Motor Viper were rectified with the modern update in a big way.
Where the original Airwave was scrawny and unexciting, this update is packed with detail, bulk, and an interesting parts build. Like the original, he wears the Motor Viper vest, but in this case that vest is covering Pursuit of COBRA Skydive parts which give the figure a nice heft and design flair that the original lacked in my view.
Using the vintage Airwave as a template, this figure is colored in various shades of brown with camouflage, all set off with the right amount of silver trim and it all works really nicely. The figure looks like a modern update to Airwave, but has enough new twists to still feel unique and apart from simply being a new version of the original. This is a great way to do an update.
Accessories
Like Airborne, Airwave is one of the figures that does not come with a jetpack and in fact, his backpack is just like Airborne’s. He also comes with an assault rifle (though a different one than the other figure), a pistol, a version of Firefly’s walkie talkie (which makes sense for an audio specialist, I suppose) and the same helmet that came with Pursuit of COBRA Ashiko. All of the accessories work nicely for the figure, and while this newer helmet isn’t quite as nice as the vintage version, it works okay.
Airwave is another great Sky Patrol member, and is in fact, not just an homage to the original, but a drastic improvement to it, which doesn’t happen every day. Nice work!
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Airwave
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.3
Summary
It’s not often that I find myself preferring a modern update over the vintage original, but the Collectors Club managed it here. Thinking outside the box, while retaining some nice connections to the past, this updated Airwave looks pretty awesome. The accessories are good, not great, and the paint deco compliments the vintage look without totally mirroring it. I’m good with that.
