G.I. Joe Convention 2013 - Nocturnal Fire Night Force Charbroil

Charbroil has never been a character or a figure that I especially cared about. Heck, I've never really been married to the idea of a flame thrower in general, especially since their use on other humans was outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

But the Collectors Club did something they've been doing for years now... taken an obscure character that even I don't really care about and made a fantastic figure out of it that appeals to me on several different levels. At his core, Charbroil is simply a repainted G.I. Joe: Retaliation G.I. Joe Trooper, with the head of the Rise of Cobra Aqua Viper Officer. With new tooling, the detail work and sculpting are fantastic, blending sculpt design with articulation almost flawlessly. He's a large, broad-shouldered figure, which works nicely for a padded suit flamethrower character.

The Club obviously used the Night Force version of Charbroil as an inspiration for the color scheme, using the gray base uniform and a fantastic metallic blue for his kneepads, gloves, and forearm mounted trim. The contrast in colors works amazingly well, and I absolutely love the metallic twinge to the blue colors. A very cool base figure and a really nice paint job makes for a spectacular foundation to this figure.

ACCESSORIES

Along with the G.I. Joe: Retaliation G.I. Joe Trooper body, Charbroil also has the vest, which doesn't resemble the original necessarily, but is a very nice vest design as it stands, maintaining the high tech style of the vintage one. His helmet is a direct translation of the vintage version, but does come across as being a bit more soft than we're used to with brand new accessories.

The same metallic blue colors that are on the kneepads and gloves are on the vest and helmet, bringing a great sense of cohesiveness to the look and feel of the figure in general.

His flamethrower and backpack are very nicely designed as well, and I would imagine these weapons will be used for Dragonsky in the Figure Subscription Service Series 2. As a complement to the flamethrower, he carries a standard pistol, and even though there's no real holster for it, I'm glad they included it as an alternate weapon for the character.

Charbroil first appeared in 1988, I believe, and I've never once cared for the character. Didn't care for him then, didn't care for him in the Night Force, and didn't care for him in the Rise of Cobra. But, as I've come to expect from the Collectors Club, they've taken a character I have no real affinity for and make one heck of a great action figure out of him. Charbroil has relevance to me for the first time in many years.

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