Slaughter's Marauders Barbecue

Like I mentioned in my Sci-Fi and Airtight reviews there are certain mid-80's characters that had some popularity in the Sunbow cartoon, but I never really latched on to. The same was true of Barbecue. Part of the reason for that, I think, is the fact that they often showed the character without their helmet, and all of the figures I played with had helmets firmly implanted over their faces, which somewhat negated their personality.

That being said, I do understand that Barbecue is a popular character, and while his 25th Anniversary version was fine, the red and dark gray isn't exactly covert. Not only that, but the figure used a lot of Snow Job as his base figure, which wasn't extremely accurate for a fire protection uniform.

What Hasbro did with the Marauders update is quite simply inspired, and a huge improvement over the normal 25th Anniversary original. It would have been fairly simple for Hasbro to just take the existing Barbecue figure and slap the Marauders paint scheme on him, calling it good. But they didn't. They went above and beyond, essentially re-inventing the entire figure. Instead of the familiar Snow Job parts, Barbecue now sports mostly Wave 4 Airtight parts, which as I've already discussed in my review, are some of the nicest components Hasbro designers have put out to date. Sure, he's got at least the top half of his familiar Barbecue torso, but beyond that, the updated Airtight parts really enhance poseability (new wrist joints... yay!), detail, and just the overall look of the figure. A huge difference.

Now, I know the purists will be mad that this figure isn't a more traditional update of the Slaughter's Marauders Barbecue. Hasbro certainly looks as if they are taking those Marauders figures as an homage and making the right tweaks throughout. Instead of just plain horizontal striping of varying shades of green, they build up a great camouflage pattern using those colors, giving him a blue helmet to tie in that familiar blue color. At first, though, while it seems somewhat of a random change, once you get the SDCC Slaughter tied into it, a nice, unifying look starts to come together, which is a pretty cool touch.

The most amazing thing to me about the paint work, though, is the weathering and wear on his helmet and chest canister. A very small touch that really adds a nice amount of realism to the figure.

Barbecue comes with a lot of the familiar accessories like his shoulder pads, the fire extinguisher, and his axe. This is somewhat disappointing to me, as I'd like him to have some sort of combat weapon...but that is not to be. It's pretty much the same gear as he came with in his original appearance.

I wasn't a huge fan of the original Barbecue in 1985, and the 25th Anniversary update didn't necessarily blow my skirt up either. However, this latest update with the awesome jungle themed camouflage, the improved construction and articulation just hits me in all the right spots. It improves on the original in pretty much every way. The only other cool thing they could have done would have been to give him a removable helmet with his distinctive face underneath.

A very cool update to a so-so figure that will absolutely find a place in my collection.

GRADE:

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