FSS 02: Lt. Falcon

My custom 1/6th version of Lt. Falcon

Lt. Falcon has always been one of my favorite GI Joe characters throughout the entire 50 year history of the brand. That first figure was so well done in terms of military realism. Now in regards to his appearance in the GI Joe animated movie - nope, I don't have to acknowledge that spin on the character. No thanks. And he's Duke's brother or step-brother or whatever? Nope, I don't want any part of that.

The original mold was reused a couple of times, especially as a part of the Night Force sub-team. Falcon's first appearance in the modern era was a disaster. Such an awful figure. He had those early Duke arms that just sucked and that head sculpt was just a wreck.

Somewhere along the way, Falcon was reintroduced as a part of the BBTS exclusive Slaughter's Marauders set. I don't know the history of the figure, but he turned out pretty decent. He wasn't in his traditional colors, but still looked pretty decent. Finally, a modern version of Falcon that I was pleased with.

As a connection to the 2013 Con set, Nocturnal Fire, the GI Joe Club included Falcon as a part of FSS 02. He looked to be a direct reuse of the BBTS version, just in the Night Force colors. This version of Falcon was one of the few reasons that made me jump on board for FSS 02. The results just rock. 

Falcon doesn't come equipped with a lot of gear, but he is adequately loaded up. He comes with the backpack that his first modern version came with, along with two types of shotguns. Falcon also has the Cobra officer web harness - the only weak point about the figure. It works well enough, I just don't like the sculpt, plus it just looks a little flimsy.

I believe that Boss Fight Studios did the work on many of the head sculpts for the BBTS set as well as many FSS figures. Excellent work as usual. Oddly enough, Falcon is back to having brown hair. His BBTS version had him with black hair. His hair color has changed on and off over the history of the figure. I suppose only his stylist knows for sure.

The backpack is a great addition to the figure. I've never really been fond of the way that Hasbro originally sculpted the knife holders on the backpacks, but it worked well enough for the toys.

The backpack opens up and you can pull out the radio. It's actually made up of three pieces, the antenna and the two-part body. Pretty cool!

Here's Night Force Falcon compared to Marauder Falcon. For the Marauder Falcon, I removed the lower portion of his jacket and that flimsy harness and replaced it with the web gear that came with Spirit from that set.

Both figures are exactly the same construction. I never realized that the torso is from Dusty and has that lower waist joint. The Club even did away with the lower portion of the jacket during design. I'm thinking that there may be enough differences in skin tone and, of course, hair color, that I may be able to get away with considering these guys as different characters. Maybe?

Here's Night Force Falcon in his final form. He's now geared up with Spirit's web gear. I think that the colors match just fine. Besides, who says that Falcon always has to use a shotgun? Can't he be well versed in the use of other weapons as well?

The Club really kicked ass with this figure. Straight up repaint with nothing new, but still a damn fine figure. Where else is a collector to go for new GI Joe product? Maybe we'll get an answer from Hasbro at Toy Fair in February.