Friday, April 22, 2016

FSS 4.0 Pathfinder, Jammer, and Barricade

As usual, I'm late with new reviews of the latest FSS figures. Of the six that have arrived so far, I've only kept four. Law & Order and the Night Creeper have gone to new homes. Whenever the BAT shows up, that will probably be the last one to leave my collection from this FSS collection.


Pathfinder was a bit of an odd figure when he first appeared back whenever. Combat gardener? The Club did a decent enough job with the figure, but he's far from perfect. It's tough to get "perfect" from the Club. I still argue that they are restricted by what Hasbro allows them to use.

I think more of "this is the best we can do with what we've got" rather than :let's piss off some fan-boys!"
The Short-fuze head sculpt works well enough. There are several issues with this figure. There's a problem with the hat not fitting well enough. And the vest, oh boy! Too big and bulky. Not so good. The base figure is pretty decent; good combination of parts. A decent effort, but not one of the high points of FSS 4.0. But who is? I'm not sure yet.
Jammer... Who the hell is Jammer? Okay. cool. the Club goes to the Action Force roster and pulls out a figure. Apparently, Jammer was a repaint of Stalker back in the day and the Club decided to go with him as a member of FSS 4.0.

So how did they do? Not too bad. Not great, but better than Pathfinder. The Club had a new head sculpt of Stalker that they used for the last convention set and dropped it on this tired body. The same body that circulated through Dollar General as the $6.00 "Duke" figure. Oh wait, he's got new hands!
Jammer still turned out to be a decent figure. Issues? Yeah... Dammit. The harness that was originally on him blocks the hole for his backpack. The backpack is nice! It's the new mold of the Dial-tone communication backpack. (Missed the Club figure of Dial-tone, dammit.) Problem - it doesn't fit snugly. Crap. Also, the new head sculpt is a bit of a melon head on top of this body. Massive compared to Pathfinder's pin-head. Another almost win by the Club.
So why is Barricade here? Because I'm lazy and/or busy and didn't review him when he arrived. I ditched the Night Creeper Ice Ninja figure that came with him. Sold him off. Looked okay, but an expensive troop builder.
Now, I have always liked Barricade. I thought that the original figure was pretty dang cool. I loved the idea of armored troops. I think I had been reading "Starship Troopers" around then, so he really connected. Somewhere, I've got a custom painted original Barricade in green and olive drab. Bad ass paint job, if I do say so myself.

I'm okay with the Club's version of Barricade, but there are still issues. I'm not thrilled with the blue weapons and I'm okay with the spring loaded weapon. A great link to the original figure and that's okay. 

As discussed elsewhere amidst the wilds of the interwebs, the arms are the biggest issues.I've got to agree. I'm okay with the reused head sculpt. I'm okay with the color palette. And the arms are okay... but just a little too short. 

So what happened? Why didn't the Club use the arms that originally went with. They had the arms when they made Voltar as a convention figure a couple years ago, so what gives?
The Delta 6 helmet worked out pretty well. It's a tight fit, but it will do. I'm still not sure how to integrate him into my "world". I like the armored Delta suit troops. Combat armor rocks. But they can't run super fast because that's stupid.

Three decent figures, but not the strongest pieces from FSS 4.0. Shipment 4 should be heading out soon. I don't know who is next. There have been a few cases where shipment 5 went out early. Interrogator and Cobra Commander's son, Billy! Excited about those two, hoping they live up to the hype!

1 comment:

Dr Syn said...

I wish Barricade resembled Oreobuilder's custom, parts wise. I like his colours here.

Jammer, I think I might have to get, originally I was going to use the head on my 30th Stalker, but a Tiger Force Stalker Donated that for me. Bummer he uses the 25th Snake-Eyes torso from way back, it just doesn't have a good range of motion.

Pathfinder... If I get one, he's gonna get a Raginspoon kit to spice him up slightly.