GI Joe Vanishing Act Review

When this year's batch of "50th Anniversary" stuff first showed up online, there were quite a few of the two-packs that I knew I wanted to get. I've been pretty successful in getting what I want from the two-packs.

The only one of the three-packs that I was interested in was the set with Alpine. Got it, sold off the Rock Viper, no big deal. None of the other sets were of much interest to me.

Until Toys R Us started clearancing them out...
I couldn't resist. How can you resist when the per figure price drops down to around $4.50? So I picked up the Vanishing Act and Sneak Attack sets. I still don't give a crap about the Screaming Duke set.

As usual, I'm late to the game on figure reviews, but what the hell. Here goes my random thoughts.

I'm actually not very impressed with either of these sets.

The Vanishing Act set includes Torpedo, Hit & Run, and Zartan. Zartan is the high point for this set. 

Zartan has been a bit of trouble for me in recent years. I haven't been able to figure out my "default" version. I'm thinking that this guy has made the cut. For a while, the Resolute version filled that slot, but I think this version jumps ahead.

The parts choice works out quite well to closely match the original look, but not obnoxiously so. There's enough of a modern vibe to the figure that all the parts work well together.

The oddest accessory is the mask backpack. Like the original figure, the mask just slips under the hood and, there you have it, Zartan in disguise!

Uh, who the hell is this supposed to be?

Oh yeah, it's Storm Shadow! Yeah, that's right...

Crap, I forgot to take a picture with the Duke mask. Oh well, no loss.

This is a decent head sculpt. Is that the Vosloo head sculpt? Looks a little like it to me.

One day, I've got to revisit all the different versions of Zartan and make a final choice. I think this guy wins.

Next up is Torpedo. Decent figure, but there are a few issues. It looks like Hasbro went with the original torso and added the arms and legs from the Retaliation Snake Eyes. The new parts actually work quite well for Torpedo. The new arms and legs give a lightly armored look to the figure. I'm not too sure where the head came from.

The belt that originally worked with Retaliation Snake Eyes should work on Torpedo, but the sculpted belt interferes with its ability to rest comfortably on his waist. I like these types of figures just fine, but they just don't really work with most of my collection. I focus more on land warfare over water or air warfare. I may try him on eBay and see what I can get for him.

Lastly, we have Hit & Run. Such potential and such failure. The uniform color is great, but what the hell happened to his skin?

Look at that paint job on the helmet and the backpack! Excellent paint apps!

Alright, so Hit & Run is going for some nighttime camouflage, right? Yeah, sure, that's the ticket. I suppose it could work, but after the all green face from the Club version last year, I was hoping for a more normal skin tone. Perhaps Hit & Run got caught in the "Great Magnetic Field."

So for Vanishing Act, we have one hit and two misses. All decent figures, but Zartan edges out the two Joes with their flaws. Still, at $4.50 per figure, not a bad set. 

Next up - Sneak Attack!

FSS 3.0 - A Final Look

I thought I'd take one last formal look before I move on to whatever else strikes my mood. Not much has lately. Or I'm just lazy. I'll go with the lazy aspect.

I'm going to try to rank the Club figures from FSS 3.0, but only the GI Joe figures. This year, GI Joe dominated the Club figures with a total of 9 of the 13 figures. Of the four Cobras, the three that I kept were ninja based and that would be an easy list to compile. From best to least favorite (of only the three), there's Slice (#1), Jinx Vypra (#2), and the Night Creeper Leader (#3). The Crimson Guard Immortal doesn't make the cut because mine ended up in the barren frozen wastelands of New Hampshire to the GeneralsJoes compound.

Now I just need to rank the nine GI Joe characters from the Club. This is going to be tough, because there were several figures that were really well executed. 

Here goes!

#9 - Alpine
Alpine just doesn't cut it for me. Unfortunately, he's at the bottom of the list. I think the oddest issue that I have with him is the skin tone. It's just oddly reddish. the face looks a little too Wayans-esque.He looks too much like the Ripcord figures from the Rise of Cobra line.
His gear is not that great either. The backpack doesn't look supported with any web gear and that rope coil keeps slipping off.
Sorry, Alpine, someone had to be at the bottom of the list.

#8 - Spearhead
Kind of a tough call putting Spearhead down at #8. A couple issues for me - the vest doesn't fit very well and the belt is just too loose on his hips.
Thankfully, the Club did tone down the original orange camo pattern.
Plus that bright orange cheeto bobcat just doesn't work.
On the plus side, the Club did an effective job of using the Cobra Shock Trooper body parts. Additionally, the head sculpt has been used for PoC Dusty and the Dollar General "Duke" figure. I think it works best here.

#7 - Muskrat
I'm not complaining about Muskrat's smaller stature because it sort of works for him. Everything seems to look right. His head is proportional to his body and he just looks pretty decent.
The only real drawback is that his boonie hat won't stay on. A little rubber cement will take care of that issue.

#6 - Psyche Out
Psyche Out's head is quite the contrary when compared to Muskrat. This guy has a pretty big head when compared to the body. Hell, I can't complain too much, I personally deal with that everyday.
Psyche Out goes ahead of Muskrat primarily based on the character. I don't think he's ever been a huge fan favorite, but I always liked the concept of the character. Plus the Duke body that the Club used just did an excellent job of recreating his original look.

#5 - Hit & Run
H&R jumps up higher in the list, primarily due to just the overall feel and look of the figure. Don't look too close at his stubble, that will drive you nuts. Not good, but it works fine for my blurry near vision.
While the Club went with the full green camo paint on the face and hands, it really didn't turn out too bad. The green turned out to be a much lighter wash over his skin and it looks pretty good. Odd hair paint job though. I'm not sure if he actually has sculpted hair or just a paint job.




These last four are tough...

#4 - Big Ben
A solid home run by the Club with Big Ben. they really recreated his original look, while still making him look modern and relevant. He's also got a great set of accessories included.
I don't really like the back pack though, but that's not a huge issue with the figure.









Time for the top three!

#3 - Bombstrike
So very close to cracking the top two, the Club did a damn fine job with Bombstrike. I'm actually quite glad that they didn't try to recreate her original white t-shirt look. The Retaliation Lady Jaye torso really added more of a military feel to the character.
Yeah, her head is a bit over-sized, but that happens in real life too!
The head sculpt is exceptional as well.

#2 - Frostbite
The }mystery" 13th figure takes the number 2 spot. Everything just works with Frostbite. The head sculpt is amazing, the web gear/collar looks great, and he's rocking two removable pistols!
The only drawback is the silly demolition pack, but that is a very minor issue.

#1 - Repeater
The big guy takes the top spot. Repeater didn't come with much gear, but he sure does compensate for just the mass of the figure.Using the Retaliation Roadblock body and a killer head sculpt, the Club produced an excellent upgrade to the original figure. Between Repeater, RET Roadblock, and 50th Leatherneck, the GI Joe team has some seriously big dudes manning the big weapons.
Sure, Repeater is a big guy, possibly nearing seven feet tall in scale, but which "standard" figure would be considered six feet tall within the modern era? I think there's enough variation in figure height where we don't have to consider these three big guys to be abnormally huge.

So that pretty much wraps up my thoughts on the Club's FSS 3.0 figures. Don't worry, loyal reader(s), they won't be disappearing forever. I really need to just get back to taking some diorama pictures of these characters in action and interacting with other figures.

I would be interested in knowing your thoughts on my rating of these figures. What would your ranking of these nine figures be? Let me know in the comments!

FSS 3.0: Alpine & Hit n Run

Unbelievable! I'm getting my reviews caught up before the next set of figures show up!

Next up for review are Hit & Run and Alpine. Both of these figures turned out decent, but they both still have some odd issues in my opinion.

Let's start off with Hit & Run. He looks amazing, great paint apps on the uniform and the green paint on his face and arms is not solid green like his previous incarnations.

I do wish that H&R wasn't quite this green though. I like to be able to display figures in various types of situations and H&R will always seem like he needs to be in the brush somewhere or immediately headed into combat. I don't see how he can be displayed as a part of a mission prep type display.

Some other Joe - "Geeze, dude, do you always have to wear that green sh!t on your face?"

"Yup, just like Duke always wears a khaki shirt and green pants."

Oh my, look at that stubble. I never really noticed it at first because my near vision is much more blurry as I get older. So it just looked fuzzy to me. Noted toy photographer, Monte Williams, pointed out this weird pixelated stubble on Facebook and that was the first time I noticed it. Reading glasses confirmed this odd pixel pattern for his stubble. 
Maybe H&R is just very organized in the way he grows his beard. That's really the only negative for me for H&R. Overall, he looks great and has some decent gear as well.

Alpine in shorts? Or are they lederhosen? This version of Alpine is based on a new sculpt era version. These are combat shorts!

Alpine is definitely not in the top five of the FSS 3.0. There's just bits of oddness about him. The skin color is really weird. I'm not really sure what color it's supposed to be. His face is a bit odd too. Very similar to the RoC Ripcord head sculpts.

The gear is not that great either. The rope coil is too large and easily slips off his shoulder. Not a bad figure, but not one of the best of this series.

Here's a shot of all of the Joes that have been currently released from FSS 3.0. I think I would rate them in the following order:

1. Repeater
2. Muskrat
3. Psyche-Out
4. Hit&Run
5. Spearhead
6. Alpine

Only four more plus the bonus figure left to go!

**Note: JoeCon 2015 was last weekend. The list for FSS 4.0 is out. Thoughts on that coming soon.