Mission Accepted/Heavy Conflict Review

Let's take a look at a couple of the new GI Joe two-packs. There's a total of five two-packs in this year's GI Joe release.

First up is the Mission Accepted two pack with Duke and Tombstone. A new character from Hasbro! Awesome! Black characters on the side of Cobra have been few and far between over the history of the Real American Heroes cast of characters. I'm pleased that Hasbro went this direction; it's been long overdue.

Duke turned out... okay... I'm not totally impressed. I've already modified him just a bit. I added a pistol belt and switched out the vest with the more muted colors of the Steel Brigade vest. Plus the SB vest has a few more features detailed with paint. I was really hoping that the Renegades Duke head sculpt would fit on this new figure, but it just drops down too much on the neck post. He turns looking like he has no neck. Decent enough figure, but he won't become my default Duke.

Next up is Tombstone, the new Cobra field commander. I think the idea of this guy is that he is basically Duke's counterpart on the side of Cobra. Decent build by Hasbro. The head sculpt turned out nicely, but a few paint apps around his damaged eye would have been a nice touch. I believe this is a straight reuse of the PoC Firefly figure. I wasn't too crazy about that body back when it first showed up and I'm not too crazy about it now. 

Next up is the Heavy Conflict two pack with Heavy Duty and Stiletto. Stiletto is a new character based on a character from one of the Kindle Worlds fan fiction stories. I need to dig into the Kindle Worlds stories and find out the back story on Stiletto.

Heavy Duty turned out great. Hasbro used the Retaliation Roadblock/Rock body with great results. Heavy Duty becomes the big dude that he seemed to have been implied. The original Heavy Duty just seemed like muscular average sized dude, but he seemed to grow in size and stature as the line progressed. I think he was part of the Sigma Six line and became a pretty big dude. His character in Rise of Cobra was a big dude as well. 
Personally, this Heavy Duty is the best of this year's collection of GI Joe figures.

Next up is Stiletto, a brand new character to the GI Joe universe. Apparently a Cobra defector who now works as Mercer's bodyguard. Why does Mercer need a bodyguard, especially since he was a lowly Cobra Viper. Perhaps Mercer gathered quite a bit more information about Cobra during his career and now they have a serious need to eliminate him. I guess he might need a bodyguard then.
Hasbro did a decent job with Stiletto. They used the Helix torso and legs along with arms from an older Lady Jaye figure? Maybe, I don't know. The head sculpt turned out... okay... There's a few issues. The head seems to be a bit squished and she could have used some paint apps on her scar.

Not a bad few figures, but not a whole lot of excitement. Next up, I'll look at the troop builder two packs.