G.I. Joe Convention 2013 - Nocturnal Fire Night Force Psyche Out

Seriously, deceptive warfare? What the hell is deceptive warfare? I can guarantee you when I was a 13 year old kid, I had no freaking idea what deceptive warfare was. All I knew is this dude came out in 1987 with a bright green uniform and wore red radar dishes all over himself that I kept losing. What the heck?

A little research into the art of Deceptive Warfare shows that there are two polarizing opinions of it...one main proponent of it was Sun Tzu, most well known for the Art of War, who claimed that deceptive warfare was key to most victories. While there is a rich history of this practice going back to the Middle Ages (or even before then if you consider the Trojan Horse legend) the idea of using electronic disturbance or psycho-kenetic wavelengths is something only thought of in the past few decades. Very intersting how pervasive this concept is throughout the Real American Hero mythology, with not only Psyche Out, but also the base concept of the Terror Drome itself.

Since 1987 Pysche Out has grown on me, but mostly because of his potential, not necessarily because of his current role. I can appreciate the place that deceptive warfare has in battle. Mindgames are a huge component of successful field warfare, but I was pretty surprised that G.I. Joe had an operative dedicated purely for this purpose. But hey, I'm not actually in the military, for all I know, there are deceptive warfare specialists in pretty active roles out there. That would be an interesting angle.

Getting back to Psyche Out, I think most of us are probably relieved that the Collectors' Club elected to go with this version of the character rather than the bright blue from 1987, but maybe I underestimate collector love for original versions. The Night Force rendition of this character is more muted in tone, but not glaringly so. The different shades of gray match up with the green of his pants quite nicely, giving us a character that still has some nice design elements, but isn't quite so bright. Using the tooling from the Pursuit of Cobra Wave 3 Duke was an interesting touch, as it does bare some passing resemblance to the torso armor from Psyche Out. I think the main issue with any Psyche Out figure was destined to be his head sculpt, and the Collectors' Club resolves that problem by tooling up a brand new, awesome looking head. It has the trademark communications gear antenna and some really great detail sculpted in the face. There really wasn't any other option, considering how unique that headgear is.

The parts, coming from the later waves of the Pursuit of Cobra, have a high level of detail, and some great articulation, though I will say his arms are pretty short. That's more a fault of the original figure, though, than anything the Collectors' Club has control over.

What I find interesting is that Psyche Out only barely resembles his classic version. Like several other figures in this Night Force boxed set, they are maintaining the overall look and feel of the vintage, but are making improvements (in my opinion) to the overall shade and tone of certain colors. Where the original Night Force Psyche Out had some pretty bright green pants, this version is much more muted. I have no issues with this at all, and I've always maintained I would much rather sacrifice some vintage accuracy to get a good looking modern figure.

ACCESSORIES

Psyche Out is one of those characters who is greatly defined by his accessories, and the Collectors' Club did not pull any punches here. Not only did they give him a great new head sculpt, but they also tooled up three separate arm-mounted radar dishes, and a radar dish which brilliantly plugs into the vacuum that Airtight originally came with.

In an equally brilliant maneuver the Collectors' Club also took the backpack from the Pursuit of Cobra Recondo, and used the silver and red paint scheme to bring us an amazing backpack that could also serve Psyche Out's purpose. This is an astoundingly great idea, and kudos to the Club for thinking of it. I LOVE this.

Rounding off the allotment of great gear is a pistol and the same machine gun that Lifeline (and Hit & Run) come with, which is one of my favorite weapons we've seen. Terrific.

Psyche Out is another one of those characters that I've never quite understood or appreciated, but the Collectors' Club has made a really good figure complimented by a fantastic allotment of accessories. I think the tooling works really well in this case, the colors are nice, and the gear is, of course, fantastic. A worth while purchase, to be sure.

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