Revolmini Micro Solid Snake

As someone who was right in the wheelhouse of the Sony Playstation release in the 90s, and who was a fan of "future tech" military, Metal Gear Solid was pretty much the epitome of greatness in video game format. The demo was infamously released through a copy the PSN Magazine, if I remember correctly, and while the demo only offered you the first few minutes of gameplay, I must have run through that demo 100 times. Metal Gear Solid let you live in the world of Foxhound, Solid Snake, and all of the terrific characters that inhabited that small Alaskan Archipelago. It was perfection in video game form.

Being a diehard G.I. Joe fan for most of my life to that point, of course I immediately wanted to indoctrinate Solid Snake (and Foxhound for that matter) into my G.I. Joe universe, but back in those days that was considerably more challenging. There were no G.I. Joe figures at retail, and it was tough to find vintage parts that might work. Still, I gave it my best shot... I managed to dig up these pictures of customs I did right around the release of Metal Gear Solid:

Custom Vintage Solid Snake circa 1998 - 2000

Custom 12" Solid Snake - circa 2000

So obviously a desire to have Snake in G.I. Joe form was pretty strong, even back then. Over the years, Hasbro has done amazing things with figure design, making an effective Solid Snake custom in Joescale a real possibility, but now, for the first time, we have an official Solid Snake that falls within the scale range (well, more or less) to fit in everyone's G.I. Joe universe.

First, as you can already tell, style will be a stumbling block. Revoltech made this figure purely with the Metal Gear universe in mind, pulling a lot of inspiration from the aesthetics of that first Playstation game. Because of that, the figure is quite animated and stylized, and doesn't look nearly as "realistic" as our modern G.I. Joe figures. For that reason it might be tough to get him fully integrated with your G.I. Joe universe. Along with that, the figure is actually on the tall side, as well, being closer to 50th Anniversary Leatherneck than most of the other more standard height figures.

That being said, from a display perspective, putting the figure in a crouch or action pose should help negate the effects of much of the scale distortion, even if the animated sculpting doesn't quite let it fit in.

I will admit, I was a bit taken aback by the material used to craft this figure. He feels quite rubbery, and the joints don't really "lock in". There is some give there, and holding a pose, especially with the arms, can be tough unless there is a weapon or something for both hands to lock onto. There are double joints pretty much everywhere giving some really impressive range of motion, allowing for deep crouches, tightly crossed arms, and other interesting positions. The style of the sculpting and the figure build doesn't really allow for a plain standing pose, though, he always seems to have his hips spread, just a little bit. Along with the animated sculpting, the improved articulation does come at an aesthetic price, as many ball joints are visible and the sculpt does look a bit distorted because of how the figure is assembled and designed.

As for the sculpt itself, yes its animated, but still the sculpting of the figure is pretty fantastic. It looks pulled from Konami's drawing board, which is great, with some nicely detailed wrinkles and surface-accurate sculpting. Cloth looks like cloth, and padded fabric looks like padded fabric. I'm really impressed with the way they're able to maintain a "video game" appearance, yet still some passing resemblance to realism.

But it may not be enough realism to tie in seamlessly with your G.I. Joe collection.

ACCESSORIES

Snake comes loaded with accessories, including the infamous SOCOM (with removable silencer!) and FAMAS machine gun. He's got a holstered SOCOM that you can swap out with a pouch on his right leg. Swappable hands, including a hand that clutches a removable cigarette. Crazy. There's a pair of binoculars, a claymore (with real string for a det cord) a foot stand and a another kind of stand, which is really weird because it's supposed to plug into a back hole, but Snake doesn't have a back hole. It does work for G.I. Joe figures, though, so I'll find a use for it, I'm sure. I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the white thing is... if anyone has any input, I'll take it, the package is in Japanese.

He has a nice assortment of game-accurate gear that actually looks pretty large, but maybe that's because I'm used to G.I. Joe scale undersized weaponry.

From purely a fun action figure perspective, I like this Solid Snake quite a bit. He looks very much like the video game source material, has terrific articulation, and has been a lot of fun to mess around with. The main issues that a G.I. Joe fan might experience is that he doesn't fit in as seamlessly with your G.I. Joe collection as you might want. Some suspension of disbelief will be required. That being said, I plan on buying whatever other Metal Gear Solid figures that do in this format, it's a very fun way to build that universe. They've already announced the Ninja, and here's hoping we get Meryl and some other bad guys, too, I'd love to see a full slate of MGS characters in this scale and form, even if they don't necessarily integrate well with G.I. Joe.

Buy this at Big Bad Toy Store!

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