G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Beachhead (Dojo Battle 3-Pack)

I've gone on record saying that Hasbro could pretty much use the Pursuit of Cobra Wave 3 Snake Eyes body for everyone, and it would be cool with me.

That seemed like a great idea in theory, and it had the potential to be a great idea in execution, but somewhere along the way, this Beachhead figure went a bit sideways and didn't really get back on track. It's a shame, too, because I think these parts would have made for one hell of a fantastic update to the venerable Army Ranger.

Really, it's not the figure itself that bums me out, it's the complete and total lack of interesting color that does it. These parts work fantastic together, as they have since they first came out in very late 2010. If they had taken these parts and painted them up to match the classic Beachhead? OHHHH man. That would have kicked all sorts of ass. Hell, if they had even made him a basic olive drab green with some interesting splashes of color elsewhere, that would have been cool, too.

Instead they took these great parts and painted them... what? Grayyy... ish....tannn.... ish... brown? I mean, really. What is that supposed to be? It's kind of a desert version of Beachhead, I guess, only it looks somewhat gray as well. Whatever color they were going for, the end result is just a bland figure that has almost no aesthetic "bang" to it. They managed to take some awesome tooling and make it relatively unexciting.

I'm kind of surprised they didn't go a bit more into the green color pallet, since it not only suits Beachhead well, but judging by all the folks I've seen remaking the "Original 13" using this figure base, it could have been a great source for custom fodder as well, which would have encouraged sales. As it is, the figure is just sorta boring.

I do like the painted flag and the familiar insignia on the other arm, but those small little splashes of color don't really make up for the overall dull-ness of the figure itself.

Looking at the weapons, you almost get an idea why Hasbro went with the color they did...I can only imagine that they tooled all of this stuff from the same color in order to save costs...and probably due to budget issues they couldn't really apply any more paint on Beachhead. It's the familiar '82 Snake Eyes issue. The story goes in 1982, Snake Eyes was actually supposed to have some camouflage, but when the budget ran dry, they just kept him in all black...the rest is history.

But, I digress. Beachhead comes with the same great webgear as Snake Eyes from the Dojo Battle 3-Pack (which you'll see later in the week), and he comes with numerous cool guns. The M-4 with silencer, the submachine gun from the Cobra Shock Trooper...the great supressed weapon from the Pursuit of Cobra Beachhead. Two knives (although only one fits on the figure...it's the opposite issue of the Pursuit of Cobra Beachhead!) and the familiar Snake Eyes pistol and silencer. It's a very cool and very military-based weapons assortment.

I want to like this figure...I really do. He's a very cool character, he's got some great parts, and some awesome accessories. But the truth is, I've been lauding the fact that Hasbro was experimenting with some more interesting color schemes for the Retaliation line, which probably makes this guy stand out even more (but not necessarily in a good way). The end result is a great feeling figure that doesn't look the part.

GRADE: