Toys "R" Us Exclusive Shipwreck

I've never been the biggest Shipwreck fan, mostly because he seemed like such an arragent dope on the Sunbow cartoon, and did not seem like the type of team player that would serve the G.I. Joe team well. As I've gone on in years, though, I've grown to appreciate those diverse personalities that the cartoon entered into G.I. Joe lore, and have realized that Shipwreck does have his place. But I never really considered the arctic as that place.

I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line Hasbro realized that Shipwreck had a pretty motivated fan following. He received a single figure in the vintage line up until 1993, when he finally got his questionable Navy SEAL upgrade (which could barely be considered a Shipwreck figure). Once Spy Troops hit in 2003, he got another great Devils' Due like rework, and from then on, he made pretty consistent appearences throughout Valor Vs. Venom, Sigma 6, the 25th Anniversary, and the Rise of Cobra. His popularity from the cartoon finally caught on, and he's really become a familiar face in the G.I. Joe line, but I'm still not sure that makes him suitable for arctic operations.

All of that aside though, how does this work purely from an action figure perspective? It's not bad. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

Shipwreck made his first appearence into the Rise of Cobra wearing his reactive armor and military pants and toting a very strangely modified submachine gun, but some absolutely awesome underwater gear. He's given up the underwater life for some arctic operations, and the figure is actually pretty cool.

Using the same baggy uniform look as the Elite-Viper, Shipwreck certainly looks dressed for the part. His secondary parka is a fantastically detailed overstuffed jacket that looks as if it would protect him from any elements out there. The very curious thing is that upon first glance, you think it's simply a re-release of the Arctic Snake Eyes jacket. But that's not the case. They are actually significantly different.

Sure, the seams and sculpt looks pretty similar, but Snake Eyes' hood is sculpted onto the coat, whereas Shipwreck's is sculpted in a folded down position. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Shipwreck is the only figure who has this coat. Perhaps other Arctic Operations figures were planned, but didn't make the cut?

Regardless, it looks very nice, though I do think it's somewhat of a shame that they didn't give him a color scheme to match Snake Eyes.

Looking at the accessories, it doesn't look like he comes with a ton, and really he doesn't. Some gear was sacrificed for the oversized spring-loaded harpoon gun, and from the perspective of a Toys "R" Us exclusive, he seems somewhat under-armed. What weapons he does come with also makes me scratch my head.

That old school rifle is certainly nicely sculpted, but really? All of the other Rise of Cobra Joes tote around these "10 minutes in the future" submachine guns, and Shipwreck carries this relic? What a strange choice. I'm really not sure what they were going for there.

Beyond that, he has a great backpack, a harpoon, the aforementioned spring-loaded monstrosity, and of course, Polly the parrot. Where the accessories DO impress, though, is with the paint applications. Hasbro designers went through great pains to give both the backpack AND the bird some very neat snow-frosted detail.

Very effective and very realistic. Check out poor Polly!

Bird must be frozen!

So, in the end, Shipwreck is fairly similar to Doc, though honestly, I thought Doc was a lot more successful. The Joe sailor is a fairly solid figure design-wise, and I enjoy some of the little Easter eggs, but really he doesn't provide much use to me, and there's nothing that really makes me say "wow". A fine figure, I suppose, but doesn't fill any needs and doesn't make an impact. He's definitely a "skippable" figure, especially now as Spirit and Quick Kick are starting to trickle into stores. If given a choice, it's not even close. Spirit and Quick Kick are far and away better than the previous offerings.

GRADE: