G.I. Joe: ARAHC - Ranger

I don’t know whether it’s the fact that I’ve been restricted to buying non-O-ring Joes for the past couple months or what, but Wave 5 has pretty much knocked my socks off. Every figure seems to come packed full of character, sculpting and terrific color schemes, and I really see a lot of these updates kind of overshadowing their original incarnations.

As I’ve been known to do with these new releases, I’m going to start at the bottom and work my way up until I get to my favorite new figure of the bunch.


Next up is Ranger! No, I am not misspelling his name or forgetting who he is…Sidetrack originally came out last year, and this guy is NOT Sidetrack. I thought Ranger was a great name when he was introduced with that name some time ago, so in my little world, that name still sticks.

It’s quite obvious to me that whoever was in charge of Wave 5 did not really do their homework too well. Between Lifeline’s and Dusty’s incorrect codename, to this new Sidetrack coming out only one year after a previous figure with the same name, I really think someone dropped the ball on their research. Heck, even the Steel Brigade disavowed all knowledge of their actions!

Regardless of those silly little mistakes, I still think Wave 5 is a GREAT Wave, with this figure enthusiastically included.

1993 and 1994 seem pretty widely disdained amongst general G.I. Joe fans as far as I can tell. Myself, I can’t really understand why, especially since 1994 really seemed to be gearing back towards the military roots. Sure, Star Brigade was still running rampant and with rumored releases of several different species of aliens, I can see peoples’ reluctance. That doesn’t change the fact to me, though, that ’93 and ’94 had some awesome offerings, which if they were only slightly different colors, they would be wildly popular. Just look at Wave 5. ALL of the Joe figures were based on molds from the 90’s, and 3 out of four of them were molds from ’94. And I think they are all absolutely great figures!

Ranger is one of those Crossfire-esque figures to me (perhaps because they share the same heads, I think, only slightly modified). A figure which is somewhat bland…somewhat normal, and yet can seem so cool. Ranger shares his mold from the ’94 version of Stalker, an awesome figure in its own right, especially the one with the green (not yellow) highlights. It is a plain mold, with a good basis in the military, but nicely souped up for the new millennium.

He’s got a great looking flak vest with some cool shoulder pads (that unlike the new sculpt releases, actually do NOT hinder movement), and a nicely adorned uniform. A trio of baseball grenades add some flair to the chest, and the circular padded boots and right thigh add some kick to the figure. This thin padding is matched in his T-Shirt and looks equally cool, balancing well off of the legs.

The colors are also very nicely done. Hasbro pulls of some more paint wipe goodness with this figure giving him a very cool gray/green base shade with the right amount of brown highlights to sharpen things up. The paint wipes add a great amount of flair to what could otherwise be a boring color scheme and Ranger looks like he might have just crawled in from a jungle mission. The slight black touches really bring out the color in the figure too and make it a great overall package.

As per the usual, Hasbro goes a little over the top with the filecard, although I think the professional wrestler angle is pretty humorous. I will definitely use that in Ranger’s personality, and I think having him be an overbearing screaming maniac is a cool little trait, that I imagine I will use.

And of course, there are his accessories. Like his teammate, Shipwreck, Ranger comes packed to the gills with firearms. He’s got a great machine gun and quite the assortment of other weaponry.

Overall, Ranger is a cool new addition to my Joeverse, and you should expect to see him in a diostory before too long.