Doing these Con Set reviews is always a bit of a mixed blessing. I generally love the convention sets, but at the same time I’m still trying to do nearly 20 reviews simultaneously which is exhausting. I’ve lost track of how many hours I spend each year putting these together, but that’s why they pay me the big bucks, right?
Wait… I don’t get paid for this crap?
Ah, well. Good thing I enjoy it, eh? So, the 2016 “Project: Downfall” Convention Set hit my hands a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been spending nearly all of my free time behind a camera, behind Photoshop, or behind Microsoft Word writing up the reviews! Today I am starting the week of right, with SIX, count ’em SIX of the reviews hitting today alone! The entirety of Sky Patrol is being reviewed today with the rest of the set sprinkling out throughout the week.
It’s with quite a few mixed feelings that I tackle the 2016 G.I. Joe Convention set this year, mainly because this year was one of the few years that I haven’t been able to make the show, and believe it or not, quite a bit of my joy and embracing of a particular year’s convention set is a direct result of feeding off my peers and sharing thoughts and opinions with them throughout the weekend. You might think that a more segregated, impartial look after the fact represents a more accurate review, but I’m not sure. In many ways, collecting and fandom is about how the target of your fandom brings people together and creates bonds (at least it should be, anyway) and that, in my opinion, must be a factor of any review of collector oriented product.
However, even though I did lack that person-to-person contact this year that I’ve had in years past, I’ve had a few weeks to share opinions with many of my friends and peers, and by and large this Convention set appears to be very well received. I agree with this opinion, for the most part.
Standing back and looking at the set as a whole, it’s amazing to see just how many of my own personal high points are hit all at once. I’m a big fan of Sky Patrol, using them as a liaison of sorts to my offshoot “Renegades” team in my dio-stories. Along with that, I’ve always loved the crazy 90s greatness of the Air Commandos, and we have plenty of that mixed in here, too. As if that wasn’t enough, by far, two of my favorite foreign character variants are also included here in the form of Black Vulture and Flying Scorpion, two very intriguing combinations that were only available as exclusives in Brazil before now.
As I go through all of the figures in the set (and yes, vehicles, too) I’ve been quite pleased at the more modern selection of parts and the intricacies of much of the deco. There are some decisions that I’m not a huge fan of (no removable helmets on the new heads? Booooo), but as a whole this set seems to pay homage to the classics, while also bringing plenty of new stuff to the table, which is about all you can hope for as a modern collector.
Not everything is a home run, of course, but there’s a lot to enjoy here, and putting this complex, elaborate review together has been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, as it is every year. I hope you enjoy it.
Static Line is another good addition to the JoeCon Sky Patrol set that could have been fantastic. He almost is, but just falls short.
Like a few other figures in this year’s convention set, the Collectors Club decided to invest in new tooling for a head sculpt for Static Line, but like those other figures they unfortunately surrounded that head sculpt in a non-removable helmet. The design and sculpting of the helmet itself looks really good, and I like how they took the shape and look of the Static Line helmet, but added the visor that is posed in an elevated position so you can at least see Static Line’s face. That’s a pretty unique idea, and also means the head can likely be reused down the line, possibly for Backstop. Even with the non-removable helmet, the actual sculpting looks pretty great, though because of how closely the face and the surrounding helmet are molded together, there is some silver paint overspray on the lower part of the face. It’s sort of tucked down under the chin part of the helmet, so it’s not eminently noticeable, but it is there.
For what it’s worth, you can use the head from the attendee exclusive Air Raid on Static Line and it works okay, though it sits kind of low on the neck.
Minus the disappointing helmet, though, the figure build is pretty decent. Pursuit of COBRA Beachhead’s torso is always a good choice, and it’s surrounded by G.I. Joe: Resolute parts which I’ll never argue about either. It’s a very unique look to the figure that looks nicely modern, yet separate from some of the other Sky Patrol figures in the set. I’m a huge fan of the Resolute COBRA Trooper arms, which have some great modern
dymanic and are exceptionally poseable. Even though he’s got those thick Resolute Duke legs, they look okay on him and manage to blend with the rest of the figure. The color balance of blue and white is great, too, and actually jives him with Skydive’s color aesthetic quite nicely. They end up looking like a great pair, although their color schemes are pretty separate from several other Sky Patrol figures.
Accessories
Static Line comes with the Rise of COBRA jetpack, which is a very good thing, as well as a shoulder holster and submachine gun. He’s got a knife and a satchel as well, which add some nice variety to the figure.
Static Line was a figure I really liked back in 1990 and while this update has some interesting flair, the new head sculpt should be a bonus, not a disappointment. I appreciate what the Club was trying to do, and I can envision them using this head sculpt in other ways down the road, but I think in this case there was a potentially better way to handle it. The figure is really good, but could have been even better.
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Static Line
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.6
Summary
With an intriguing choice for a new head sculpt, and a pretty unique build of G.I. Joe: Resolute themed parts, Static Line has a recipe for success, that much is for certain. He’s got a really nice paint scheme and a decent accessory compliment, and ends up being a pretty nice addition to the Sky Patrol roster. A removable helmet would have put him way over the edge and possibly even landed him on my favorites list, but as it is, he’s not quite there.
One look at Skydive back in the day and you immediately wanted to eat all your vegetables and do your homework, he just had that kind of a-hole dad look to him with his close-cropped hair and tightly manicured lip fuzz. Still, it was a head sculpt that had a ton of character, and even on top of a really bizarre figure like the COBRA Gyro-Viper he looked like he was on top of his stuff.
This new version manages to take what was great about the classic version and make it even better, with some interesting twists along the way.
Essentially the modern Skydive is 25th Anniversary Mutt’s head on the G.I. Joe: Retaliation Data-Viper’s body from the neck down. Thick, padded uniform, amazing articulation, and a really great overall figure gives you a look and feel of a flight suit. Heck, the Retalition Lift Ticket’s already wearing it as one. The great thing about the Data Viper parts, too, is that with the right paint, the trim work jumps off the blue background
of the uniform and almost ties together as the classic version did with those strange hoses and ports of the original Skydive.
Even though there are no new parts here, the parts were obviously chosen with a specific look in mind and they work eminently well. Silver trim on the torso, and the white colored padding are both nice and bright and break up the royal blue underneath very well.
I admit to being a little surprised that the Mutt head works as well as it does. With the brown hair, moustache, and especially with the silver helmet on, you can barely tell it’s Mutt (or Bazooka for that matter).
Accessories
Like Drop Zone, Skydive comes with the really fun Rise of COBRA jetpack done up in a great blue/silver color scheme. He’s got Agent Mouse’s tactical helmet, which is fantastic, as well as goggles that can slide over the helmet to replicate his vintage look, or even pull down over his eyes for added realism. Finishing off his gear is a military assault rifle. His accessory compliment is pretty much perfect, with the right balance of offensive
weapons and accessories that work well off his vintage version.
Skydive is fantastic. Yes, Data Viper has become a defacto standard for modern figures, the same way Shock Trooper and Snake Eyes were before him, but when the base figure is that good, it’s very difficult to complain. The paint work is nearly perfect, the parts choices work to near excellence, and the accessories are just right. This is a very well done update and an excellent addition to your modern era officer corps.
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Skydive
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.5
Summary
This update to the hard as nails Sky Patrol leader hits all the right notes and gives us a suitable modern update. While I obviously love the Pursuit of COBRA version of the character, this one feels much more true to the vintage roots, and even though it’s mostly a Retaliation Data Viper, the figure works on all fronts. The paint deco is great, his accessories rock, and pretty much everything about this figure is a win.
By all accounts, Drop Zone feels like a figure that really shouldn’t work, yet somehow does. G.I. Joe operatives are human (well… I guess they are, right?) and it makes sense for them to have some different body types, and it was an interesting choice to make Drop Zone so skinny. If I had to bet, they probably wanted to use the Strato Viper legs to approximate the vintage figure, but those legs are pretty slender, so they took that as a theme going forward and the entire figure looks really tall and thin, a nice and different look, to be honest.
Using the Retaliation Flint torso and Retaliation Storm Shadow arms (thank god they didn’t use Strato Viper’s!) the figure looks almost scrawny, but still packed with great sculpting detail. I’m one of those fans who really loves the Retaliation Storm Shadow update, and the arms are a big reason why. They work here for some unknown reason, even though the intricate detail, by all rights, shouldn’t necessarily jive with the rest of the
figure’s look.
Articulation is quite good with Drop Zone, especially with Storm Shadow’s narrow, unencumbered arms, allowing for some great poses and weapons firing stances. You wouldn’t think that various shades of brown color would make for a very interesting color scheme, but it works for Drop Zone, built nicely off of the vintage color scheme and mixed in with some great gray colors. For some reason I really like the texture and color mix of Storm Shadow’s biceps and the way the layered padding looks with these added colors on the arms. It’s really very nice.
Accessories
Now we’re talking! With Drop Zone, the Sky Patrol figures start coming with jet packs, and they are really great jet packs to boot, based off the fantastic Rise of COBRA pack that came with General Hawk back in 2009. With the wings that spread out and the poseable rear angled rudders, this is more than just a slapped together piece of plastic that resembles a jet pack. I love that the Collectors Club included them here, though I do wish
all six Sky Patrol members came with them.
Along with the pack, Drop Zone has the removable Strato Viper webgear from the 25th Anniversary, which kind of hangs off his skinny torso. As a word of warning, the holster/pistol on my webgear was separated in the baggie, and I had to super glue it back together, but once I did that, things stayed together fine. Complimenting the jetpack and webgear is a helmet (Pursuit of COBRA Ashiko helmet like Airwave), and two guns. I really like both weapons, and actually think I like Drop Zone’s accessory compliment the best out of the entire Sky Patrol.
Drop Zone is an interesting figure. With a tall and slender build, baggy webgear, and odd textures throughout the figure, it’s a formula that you wouldn’t expect to work, yet it does. He bares a decent resemblance to the original, but with great articulation and really fun accessories, he’s a worthy update for the modern era.
Check out the video review for the Sky Patrol half of the boxed set below!
Sky Patrol Drop Zone
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.2
Summary
While not one of the more exciting additions to the Sky Patrol Convention set, Drop Zone does what he’s meant to do, carrying forward the character from the vintage era and making some much needed aesthetic updates. He’s tall and lanky and really stands apart from the other members, which is cool in a way, though the Strato-Viper legs still a look a little dated compared to others.
