While the folks at Fun Publications were ramping up for Botcon, they put FSS IV reveals on hold to focus on the task at hand.
Now Botcon is over and the latest Figure Subscription Service is open for business again. To celebrate the launch, the Club has revealed Interrogator!
A personal favorite character of mine (I still can’t believe in FSS 3 & 4 we got or are getting Hit & Run, Vypra, and Interrogator. Too cool.) I am pretty particular about how Interrogator should be represented. We’re fortunate enough to have a few good sources of inspiration for the character, from the awesome ’91 original to the Direct To Consumer “Viper Lockdown” version which is pretty amazing. Here, the Club is taking a different approach.
This Interrogator draws some inspiration from older models, but also adds some nice newness. Using Retaliation Cobra Commander’s torso and arms with Artcic Destro’s legs there is some nice armor and some great black and gray offsets. I’m not wild about the re-use of the 2010 Convention helmet (really if they’d used the Retaliation Cobra Commander head along with the torso and arms with a red faceplate it would have worked) but the rest of the figure surprisingly appeals to me. I like that he’s more combat ready, and goes in a bit of a different direction than previous versions. This almost looks like it could be a Plague version if the colors were darker.
Anyway, I’m excited for this one. Check out the image below and keep watching GIJoeClub.com for the latest info. Also, if you like what you see, sign up for the FSS, it’s only open until midnight of July 15th.
I will fully admit that Big Ben has never been one of my favorite characters, even with his great entry in the 1991 line, and certainly his rampant appearance in 2000 – 2002 didn’t change that opinion much. I think part of it was that I loved the 1991 run of figures so much, he sort of faded into the background in an awesome selection of character updates.
Back in 1991, Big Ben was equipped in what appeared to be arctic gear with a heavy machine gun, and I was never a huge arctic fan anyway. If I wasn’t a big fan of Big Ben even in 1991, his constant resurgence in 2000 would have definitely pushed me over the edge. So Big Ben hasn’t been high on my list of figures I wanted to see, but now that I have the Figure Subscription Service in hand, I realize that narrow opinion was a fallacy. This Big Ben update is nearly perfect.
With a new head sculpt (sporting a nicely updated Bluetooth headset replacing his previous old school earpiece) immediately Big Ben is a character meshing perfectly with more modern updates. As we’ve come to expect, Boss Fight Studio did terrific work here. Utilizing a nice build from parts in recent years, the figure is stocky and solid, yet maintains fantastic articulation and range of motion. I absolutely love the G.I. Joe: Retaliation G.I. Joe Trooper arms, they have great details and bend really far to allow for nice poses.
The Pursuit of Dusty legs adds some bulk to a winter based figure, and the overall look of Big Ben is terrific, really separating him from some other contemporaries.
The Club deco borrows heavily from the original 1991 version, which actually has the very nice added benefit of being a close match for the Z-Force deco as well, and Big Ben actually jives with the FSS Quarrel in a nice way. Utilizing his British background, the Club takes this opportunity to dovetail Big Ben with “Special Action Force” giving him a nice arm patch on one side the the Union Jack on the other, which again puts him in league with Quarrel (and the upcoming Jammer) very nicely. These are the kind of great added details I like seeing from the Club in these FSS entries.
Accessories
Big Ben is pretty loaded with accessories. He has a large backpack, which opens up, twin machine gun ammunition belts, and the heavy machine gun to go with them. He also comes with the grenade launcher from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trooper, a pair of grenades, and a satchel. He doesn’t come with the bag that opens for the grenades as other versions have, but the overslung satchel charge is a nice homage to it.
If you’d asked me to name 50 figures I wanted to see in the FSS, I’m pretty sure Big Ben wouldn’t have been on that list. But the Club took that somewhat forgettable character and made him extremely memorable. A great build, a fun deco, and terrific accessories makes for an impressive FSS entry, and one that I’m extremely happy we got.
Big Ben
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.5
Summary
For this entry into the FSS, the Collectors Club managed to take a character I had little affinity for and make an amazing modern update. Nearly a perfect parts combination, really great paint deco, a great new head sculpt, and awesome accessories give us one heck of an FSS update. Love this guy.
Ah, yes, the Stall siblings. It takes you back to a time when Hasbro was trying to bring new story elements to G.I. Joe rather than just revisiting vintage looks. I, along with many others, was captivated by the Stall sibling story line, and now three renditions into the Figure Subscription Service we have all three siblings in modern format. Bombstrike is far and away the best of the three.
With a great new head sculpt by Boss Fight Studio, and a pretty spectacular modern build, Bombstrike is a heck of a great update to a fun part of recent G.I. Joe history. She has a great combination of modern female G.I. Joe parts that give us a nice update to the figure’s look, but adds some great different elements to her design. The G.I. Joe vest over the black shirt adds some nice color variation to the figure while maintaining a good
tie back to the 2005 original. Her articulation is really good (though the elbows could stand a little bit more movement) and the more modern sculpted parts give us a figure that really shines, even among newer product.
One thing I really enjoy is the camouflage pants. A very tight, nicely applied paint scheme gives the camouflage pants a remarkably great and realistic look, far removed from the more typical blobs of camouflage paint we normally see. The combination of brown, black, and camouflage strongly resembles the older figure, but has enough new and interesting elements to make this a new looking figure.
And that head sculpt? Yeah, pretty terrific.
From a character perspective, I’m glad they ommitted a reference to her being captured on the file card. That made for an interesting story dynamic back then, but obviously it doesn’t make sense to continue that story, plus I like to think that Bombstrike is bad ass enough to be the one doing the rescuing instead of being the proto typical “damsel in distress”.
ACCESSORIES
Bombstrike comes with a wealth of great gear as well, including a machine gun, the drone that came with Retaliation Duke, and the metallic case with enclosed submachine gun. As a Forward Air Controller, the computer in the case makes sense, not to mention the drone to be used for close range air support. Really great selection of weapons.
Bombstrike is a terrific update. Enough homages to her previous version to make folks happy, but enough new elements to have a character that shines among current contemporaries. The new head sculpt is fantastic, the character selection is great, and the whole package excels. Awesome entry to the FSS!
Bombstrike
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.7
Summary
A great new sculpt era character updated with a fun assortment of modern parts, an updated paint scheme and a wealth of really terrific, functional accessories makes for one of the best entries into the Figure Subscription Service we’ve seen yet. More like this please!
Here we go again… figure #13. A figure that’s been frought with frustration and controversy since the first FSS. Personally, I still think Blackout was almost the perfect example of a Figure Subscription Service 13th figure. He’s enough of a draw (I think) to please folks, but he’s not such a desirable figure that it frustrates would-be subscribers. Grand Slam was too far into the “not desirable” side, and Frostbite, I think, surges the other direction into “must needed” territory. Personally, I’m fine with that, I’m subbing anyway, obviously, but I can see where a couple folks might be frustrated.
It’s a weird feeling to see the 1985 roster now complete (well, except for Listen & Fun Tripwire, I guess) even though it took quite a while to get here.
What amazes me, too, is that a character that wasn’t deemed important enough to receive a modern update until the last spot in the roster may possibly be one of the best overall ‘85 redo’s in the line.
Frostbite’s build is exceptionally well done, choosing parts from several different sources and giving us a figure with a nice arctic aesthetic and great range of motion. He’s not over-detailed, but not under either, blending perfectly between part selections which all fit together amazingly well. The new head sculpt is spectacular, with layered fur sculpting on the hat and bearded face. Removable goggles approximate the classic look, but also can slide over his eyes as well for added realism.
Doing the new sculpting as well as the build, Boss Fight Studio did a great job assisting the Club with getting this formula just right.
The deco is obviously built upon the classic version with lots of white and hints of off white fur, and black trim. It looks the part perfectly. This is one heck of an update to a 1985 character that rarely got any screen or page time, even in G.I. Joe’s hay day.
Accessories
Along with the new head sculpt, we have newly sculpted fur collar that goes over his shoulders, with a pistol holster built in. This is a terrific piece of new gear that adds a perfect element to Frostbite, allowing some flexibility for the torso underneath, but also matching the vintage look well.
Two pistols can be removed from his two holsters, both on the chest, and with the 25th Anniversary Zap’s belt, another great addition to the figure. He also comes with a wrench to fix the Snowcat, the removable goggles mentioned before, and a nice sniper rifle. I’ll say the original Frostbite’s rifle is one of my all time favorite guns in the line, and this is a decent version of it. All of the accessories make perfect sense and compliment the figure well.
How suitable is this figure for the mystery 13th? I’m a bit conflicted. I think advertising this figure as part of the subscription might have driven more people to subscribe. But at the same time it feels like a fantastic incentive for folks to subscribe next time. On the flip side, if the NEXT 13th figure doesn’t rise to this level, we’ll just see disappointment all over again, so the Club is constantly waging this battle with the fandom. This figure is fantastic. I love it. It’s made me care about Frostbite when the original ‘85 version failed, and I’m quite excited to have it in my collection, even though I just got the Tiger Force version six short weeks ago.
Frostbite
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.9
Summary
The last clinging remnant to 1985 (Listen & Fun Tripwire aside) it’s about time we wrapped up this year in A Real American Hero history. Leveraging Frostbite as the 13th figure in the third FSS is a great idea and will hopefully drive more subscriptions in the future, especially if the quality matches what we see here. Great new sculpting, awesome parts choices, and a flawless deco. A great way to finish the FSS and to finish the 1985 roster.
It seems like just yesterday that the Collectors Club’s decision to go with the yellow and purple Night Creeper Leader was met with frustration and anger, and now that the figure has been shipped, the reaction has been much the same, but this time focused on the head and blindfold. Early images of the Night Creeper Leader showed him without his black skullcap, and to the Club’s credit they gave him one. The only problem is the paint doesn’t go down far enough to meet the slim blindfold and the result is… well, it’s
not aesthetically pleasant.
Thankfully, I’m sure there are casters right now working on a potential stopgap solution to that.
So after seeing all the online reactions, I was mentally preparing myself to be really disappointed with the Night Creeper Leader, but once he arrived, I feel quite the opposite. If you can get past the look of the head and blindfold, this figure is fantastic. Yes, fantastic.
Using Rise of Cobra Arctic Storm Shadow’s bare torso, Renegades Storm Shadow arms, and the Retaliation-themed Ninja figures (with rocker ankles), the build for this figure allows for terrific range of motion, great updated sculpting, and the ability to hold his included throwing stars and knives. The wrist joints give him some great flexibility in martial arts poses…this is a really, really fun figure.
While many folks aren’t a big fan of this Night Creeper Leader paint scheme, I actually really love it. I find the yellow and purple more pleasing to the eye than the orange camouflage, and as an added bonus, it matches the Club Black Dragons perfectly! That may be meaningless to most of you, but in my Dio-Story, I had created an allegiance between the Black Dragons and Night Creepers, so I really love that there is an update to
that cool looking Night Creeper Leader.
ACCESSORIES
Night Creeper Leader comes with a ton of gear. The focal point is the terrific double-strapped webgear which was a really great choice for a number of reasons. It looks great, holds tight, and allows for him to hold the twin Mac-10 submachine guns. One might ask why Night Creepers need machine guns, but it’s been pretty clearly established that they’re not JUST ninjas, so using machine guns makes sense, and I believe in an old
Marvel Comic, they actually used some Mac-10’s. I want to say it was an issue with art by Lee Weeks, but I may be misremembering it…
Along with this, the figure comes with two throwing stars and throwing knives, which works really nicely, considering the webgear has those exact weapons attached to it. An automatic crossbow, two swords and the blindfold round out the accessory compliments, and while it’s a little frustrating to have all this gear that the figure can’t hold, I think it
all makes sense for him.
Yes, the head looks pretty bad with the mispainted skull cap that doesn’t come far enough down his head. I will not argue that at all. But from the neck down, I really like this figure a lot, and find myself thoroughly enjoying messing with it. An exceptionally pleasant surprise.
Night Creeper Leader
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.9
Summary
A great paint scheme for nearly the whole figure is negatively impacted slightly by the funky look of the skullcap and blindfold. I love the character inclusion and the parts chosen are mostly great. A surprisingly fun addition to the FSS with some slight quirks easily overcome by the majority of the rest of the figure.
