Avalanche epitomizes everything that I didn’t really like about BattleForce: 2000 back in the 80’s. His helmet is strangely shaped and doesn’t make much sense, his uniform attempts to look armored and padded, but just kind of looks fat, and his weapon is a bizarre radar dish on a block of metal that doesn’t manage to look especially futuristic or even very interesting. Combine that with the fact that I’ve never loved arctic figures to begin with, and I didn’t find a whole lot to love about Avalanche back in the day.
I don’t find a whole lot to love about this one either.
While I like the use of Retaliation Firefly’s torso and the way they combined armored pieces on the right shoulder, the rest of the figure feels relatively blah. His slender legs and knee-high metal boots are an interesting contrast and provide some great range of motion, but the use of 25th Anniversary Iron Grenadier Destro arms completely kills any sense of decent articulation with this figure. Elbows that only bend at a 45 degree angle should really be banned from all future use, no matter how accurate they might look to the source material. Aesthetically they are intriguing, but functionally they disappoint, preventing the figure from carrying any weapon in a realistic way.
Like several of the other BattleForce team members, Avalanche gets a new head sculpt, but I gotta tell you, it’s not real pretty. The head bleeds into the helmet and ends up looking pretty uncomfortable for poor Avalanche. Sculpt wise, the face is smooth and flat and unfeatured and just does not do the figure any justice whatsoever.
Using the vintage figure as a template, Avalance is mostly white with assorted brown camouflage and the paint scheme is fine, though again, nothing too special.
Accessories
Like the other BattleForce members, Avalanche comes with a reproduction of his vintage weapon as well as a modern weapon as well, and I actually really love the sniper rifle he comes with. It’s a great choice. The radar dish weapon, not so much. Also, it would have been great if his microphone could have been sculpted and tooled alongside the helmet, but the Club elected not to do so, apparently. Avalanche also comes with a removable knife for a sheath on his left thigh.
Avalanche was never my favorite BattleForce: 2000 figure and he remains my not favorite one today. The head sculpt is soft and not up to spec for what I expect from a modern G.I. Joe figure. Not the best foot forward here.
BattleForce: 2000 Avalanche
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
2.2
Summary
There unfortunately isn’t a whole lot to love here. The head sculpt isn’t great and it gets little better from there, with old school arms that don’t move well, an uninspired and boring paint scheme and a lack of a key accessory which would have shown some real initiative in producing. As we’re expected to pay more and more for these limited run exclusives, the value seems to be getting less and less, which is not a great combination.
Good friend Chris of The Full Force comes through again from JoeCon in Orlando with an awesome in hand look and video review for the JoeCon exclusive Vector X-36 Jet!
Check out a bunch of images of the Vector w/ Maverick and the video review embedded below. Awesome stuff from Chris, huge thanks!
Good morning! So the rush of the Golden Ticket pick up is over and we’ve had some time to digest some more information from the comic book.
Some random thoughts:
The original Corrosao was a Brazilian DeeJay repaint. He appears in the comic both looking like Tele-Viper AND looking like DeeJay. Which is it?
It definitely looks like the B.A.T. Rocket Glider 2 Pack are repaints from the old COBRA Jet Pack (last used as a Target exclusive from Rise of COBRA).
The pilots of the COBRA Sky Serpent looks like it might be a variation of the Laser Viper. Perhaps a Laser Viper Officer? You can see a slightly different colored Laser Viper in the pilot’s seat and jumping from the exploding Sky Serpent below.
The Vector Jet was up in question for a bit, based on the design of the jet in the comic, but more and more I’m suspecting that it might just be the Conquest, especially based on the uneven artwork elsewhere in the comic itself.
Below check out a bunch of other images from the comic. Big thanks as always to Phil from YoJoe and Chris from The Full Force for these great images!
Fresh from the Golden Ticket Pickup, we’ve got the full list of exclusives for the 2017 G.I. Joe Convention as well as some possible images/design cues based on the comic. Keep in mind the comic isn’t always 100% accurate and they sometimes throw us some curve balls, but in years’ past they’ve been pretty solid.
First the list:
BF 2000 Vector Jet
COBRA Sky Serpent w/ Pilot
BF 2000 Marauder Snowmobile 3 Pack
COBRA Laser Vipers 3 Pack
Ultimate Enemies 2 Pack
COBRA B.A.T. Rocket Glider 2 Pack
So, this doesn’t tell us a whole lot. Thankfully, Phil from YoJoe was there with a camera to snap some images from the convention comic. Check them out below:
Based on those images above, I think we can make some educated guesses:
Vector Jet is a tough call. It almost looks like it could be the Conquest, but the wings are the wrong way. Repainted ROC Night Raven maybe? Or something obvious that I can’t put my finger on? EDIT – It’s been mentioned that this at least slightly resembles the old school COBRA Hurricane. DARE WE HOPE?
Sky Serpent w/ Pilot is likely the Black Dragon VTOL, at least it certainly looks that way. No idea who the pilot might be
Marauder Snowmobiles look like repainted Polar Battle Bears as figured. Three of them?
Laser Viper 3 Pack – Pretty much what I suspected, and also it certainly doesn’t look as if they have their laser backpacks (which isn’t a surprise, not even the concept case version did)
Ultimate Enemies 2 Pack – Looking like perhaps DeeJay and Corrosao (the guy they call “Corrosion” in the comic). In toy form, Corrosao was a Brazilian DeeJay repaint, so the correlation makes sense, though the comic looks to use the Tele-Viper head sculpt.
COBRA B.A.T. Rocket Glider – Maybe COBRA Jet Pack (like the one that was repainted as a Target Exclusive for Rise of COBRA)? The image of DeeJay getting blown up almost looks like one of those flying off in the upper right hand corner.
As an added bonus it looks like perhaps Backstop is the parachute figure! At least that looks like him in one of the comic panels above.
It should be noted that Tundra Stalker is also in the convention comic, though I’m honestly not sure where he would slot in, unless he’s one of the “Ultimate Enemies” and DeeJay isn’t, but that would just be bizarre. Sometimes the Club throws red herrings at us in these comics, so that seems likely in this case.
Patrick from YoJoe also threw along some images of the BattleForce: 2000 LAW. Check those out below. Huge thanks to Phil and Patrick!
Can it be here again already? The annual gathering of G.I. Joe fans, this year down in Orlando, Florida is here again with the 2017 International G.I. Joe Collectors Convention!
Unfortunately I will not be in attendance this year due to some poorly scheduled previous family commitments, but that won’t stop me from laying down coverage as usual. I’ve reached out to several “boots on the ground” in Florida who will be helping throw some intel our way so we can all stay informed together.
As usual, Wednesday night is Golden Ticket pick up night, which means a bunch of folks will be getting their boxed set tonight, which includes the convention comic! Typically within the convention comic will be a list of the show exclusives and those same show exclusives normally appear in the pages of the comic as well, so by the end of the evening we should at least have an idea what to expect for Convention exclusives.
This is always a very fun time as a G.I. Joe fan, and I’m upset that I won’t be in the middle of it, but I will be enjoying it vicariously through all of my good friends down there.
Buckle up, hopefully some fun stuff to come over the next several days!
