Toy
name: Barrel Roll Assortment: Direct-to-Consumer
Wave 2 Price: MSRP $4.99 Availability: September, 2005
So,
I can already see a lot of folks asking "why him?". Hasbro's MO so
far with the DTC offerings has been more or less pretty faithful new representations
of old classics, with a new character in the mix for fun. Barrel Roll really
is neither. He's not an old classic, and he's not a brand new character. If
anything, he was the potentially most intriguiing new sculpt character to come
along, but never really got the exposure he deserved in the cartoons to follow.
It seemed as if he had some great potential rivalry built up with Blackout,
but it just never panned out.
But I love the
character...love it enough that I don't really mind the new figure being Barrel
Roll, even though the old figure is pretty darn cool as it is. This new one
has a completely new look...one I'm not 100% sold on, but it does have some
neat features. It's almost there, but not quite.
Figure Mold
If this figure
has any problems, the mold is not one of them. From what I can tell, this figure
has a pretty much new mold, most likely a left over design from what was going
to be the follow up to Valor Vs. Venom. The mold is, to put it mildly, just
plain fantastic. It's really a pretty simple overall design, with a padded shirt
and basic military uniform. His arms have the new style elbow construction which
works well, and his hands are sculpted to fit his rifle as they should. Not
only that, but he has swivel wrists articulated deep into the shirt sleeves,
which looks very real, and is an awesome articulation point, especially for
a sniper.
His head sculpt
is plain, and with quite a different hair style, but still looks like Barrel
Roll. The shoulder pads add a little toughness to the figure and break it up
a little bit, all while keeping him from looking TOO ordinary military. His
legs also look like your typical soldier with the combat pants all nicely wrinkled
and sculpted...but what really brings out the leg sculpt are the kneepads and
cross-straps, leading to an awesome holster for his pistol and a nice knife
perched on his right thigh. This little additions break up the mold perfectly
and add some nice design elements to what could have been a bland bottom half
to the figure. The proportions all work pretty well on this figure as well,
and mold-wise he looks great.
Paint Applications/Color Choices
This is where
the figure suffers a little bit...not that his colors aren't realistic, but
they're kind of bland. Barrel Roll is colored in various shades of brown and
tan indicating that this rendition might be equipped as a desert trooper of
a sort. His arms have a pseudo desert camouflage look to him, while his pants
are your basic tan and his shirt is a darker brown. Folks who have read my reviews
along the way know that I'm not a big fan of environment-specific Joes, especially
someone like Barrel Roll, who could potentially be used in a variety of manners.
The color applications
themselves are pretty nicely applied, but I'm not wild about the idea of relegating
this version of Barrel Roll to desert ops (because I love the mold so much)
and his appearence just seems to dictate that. Maybe it's just my personal preference,
but I would have rather seen a night ops Barrel Roll, or perhaps another gray
themed uniform like his original look, just so he's a little bit more flexible
about operating conditions. I do like his strap colors and such, but it's just
the overal desert theme leaves me a little bit cold. This isn't necessarily
a technical deficiency, though, just more my personal taste.
Accessories
Wow! These accessories
are terrific! Chalk up another big positive spot for this figure. We start off
with a great tactical helmet and mike combination which fit him well, however
it does look slightly goofy. I'm not sure why, as it fits snug and tight as
I would expect it to, but it just flares out a little bit and looks kind of
off. An awesome helmet conceptually, however. He also has a pistol which fits
nicely into his leg holster, and a great set of webgear. With all of this gear
on him, he looks like a perfectly well equipped special ops trooper, and I LOVE
this look. Even his sniper rifle, which at first looks like an oversized, fake,
super-powered weapon, is based on a real world weapon, I believe this
model from Austria. It's listed as an "anti-material" weapon and
definitely looks the part. It's a nice crowning touch for this marksman and
really adds just that last little bit to make the figure cool. It's still a
little bit big, and I like his original rifle much better, but it was cool to
see that this new rifle is at least based on something real.
Final Comments
I love the character,
I love the mold, and I love the accessories...this figure came very close to
sealing the whole deal, but the colors just left me a little bit uncertain,
and the figure falls a couple of notches because of it. I do still think that
this is my favorite Joe figure of this wave, but he gets overshadowed by most
of the COBRA's.
So,
I can already see a lot of folks asking "why him?". Hasbro's MO so
far with the DTC offerings has been more or less pretty faithful new representations
of old classics, with a new character in the mix for fun. Barrel Roll really
is neither. He's not an old classic, and he's not a brand new character. If
anything, he was the potentially most intriguiing new sculpt character to come
along, but never really got the exposure he deserved in the cartoons to follow.
It seemed as if he had some great potential rivalry built up with Blackout,
but it just never panned out.
