Friday, March 11, 2016

JoeCon 2016: Sky Patrol

Hasbro has always had a knack for reusing parts for new figures. Hell, the very first series back in 1982 shared body parts and head sculpts throughout many of the characters. Breaker, Clutch, and Rock n Roll. Grunt and Zap. Flash, Short Fuze and Hawk. Stalker and Scarlett... Oh wait... not really.

The various sub teams that Hasbro came up with were largely repaints of existing figures. Sky Patrol was the same model and yet still a little different. The bodies were straight up repaints of previous figures, but all of the head sculpts were brand new. All of the characters were brand new even though the code name Airborne was a reuse. 
I really liked the GI Joe Sky Patrol series when they came out back in 1991. The paint apps on each figure were extremely well done. 

From my limited understanding, Sky Patrol has been a fan request for the GI Joe Club for several years. Now in 2016, Sky Patrol gets a modern era update. Finally! "Finally" has a potential deeper meaning here, but that's another post.

The Club has revealed the whole crew over the past week or so and they look pretty dang cool. I'm working on a post for the Cobra figures; I'll get to them soon.

Are they all perfect? It depends on your definition of perfect. Are they exactly like their original figures, but only with modern bodies? Are they destroying my childhood? Is "butthurt" sweeping across the fandom? For some, yes. There are the a'holes who live to troll.

Is the Club perfect? No. Who is? Hasbro has produced some crap figures. **cough, cough - blowtorch - cough, cough**

As I've stated before somewhere in this silly blog, I have no idea how the Club goes about their design process. Personally, I would like to know. I think that would be a cool story to here. Yeah, sure, perhaps they could have gone with different part choices. Oh wait, I don't have a clue as to what Hasbro allows them to use! Oh yeah, the Club is subject to the availability of parts through Hasbro!

Thankfully, there is a much larger contingent group of fans that seems to really like these figures. I think they are great! I've never had a JoeCon set and am sorely tempted to try for the Hometown Heroes option for this set. 

Enough of my nonsense, let's take a look at the figures.
I like them and I want them!
What are your thoughts?

1 comment:

Dr Syn said...

I think they're pretty sharp and might have to get them individually.