50th Anniversary Leatherneck

I got lucky...

I've seen some absolute horror stories regarding the paint apps for Leatherneck. I've seen some pictures where half of his hair on the back of his head is missing paint. Ugh!

No horror stories here, though. My Leatherneck came in pretty decent condition. A bonus since I bought him from BBTS and, of course, didn't have a chance to look at the package. It's too bad that this has become an issue with this line. Usually, paint app screw-ups are a little more rare than this. I guess the Quality Control department at Hasbro doesn't much give a crap right now. 

Enough about Hasbro and their shitty attitude towards GI Joe. Let's talk about Leatherneck.

The design team that developed Leatherneck a few years ago did a helluva' job. The figure just looks amazing. The only real drawback that I've heard about from collectors (besides crappy paint) has been his size - he's a beast!

There's some great detailing on the vest and the paint apps look pretty decent to me. I suppose it helps that my near vision gets a little more blurry every year.

Here's my only paint app issue with my Leatherneck - right around the back of the head. There are bits of missing paint here and there around the back of the head. I'm sure that a black paint marker could take care of those spots quite easily.

The design team used the body from Roadblock (v2) from Retaliation. The only really new items are the head sculpt and the vest. He towers over the standard GI Joe figure.

And then there's Tollbooth - using the 25th style body with much shorter legs, he's really quite short compared to Leatherneck. Still okay, though, since real humans are extremely varied in height differences.

I'm not really thrilled with the weapons that came with Leatherneck. He comes with an M-16 with a grenade launcher as well as the big 50 cal machine gun that came with a RET Roadblock figure. The big gun is pretty cool, but it's a bit fragile. I've got to find my other 50 cal from Roadblock and probably super-glue them together and then mount them on my new Tomahawk. 

I think Leatherneck needs a decent sized gun like the M-249. I've got a couple different versions from various vendors, so my bigger Joes can carry some serious firepower.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the end result of Leatherneck. Sure, he's very tall and I'm okay with that. In my opinion, he's one of the few shining stars in this overall dismal 50th Anniversary of GI Joe, the best damn action figure line ever. Yeah, I'm biased.

GI Joe: 50th Anniversary Review

Just a couple weeks ago, I finally got my first and probably only GI Joe 50th Anniversary item - Leatherneck, Destro, and General Hawk. Rather than worrying about going to Toys R Us, I just decided to order from Big Bad Toy Store. Is there much else that I want? Not really, I'm just not impressed.

Okay, yeah the figures are out of the package, but by this time, you've probably seen plenty of pictures of the full packages. The only reason that I'm posting this picture is that Hasbro did a decent job on the graphic impact of the package. It looks pretty nice. Crisp, bright colors. Bold graphics. 

I really like these etched in elements. The Sky Hawk and a couple HISS tanks add to the decor.

Mr. GI Joe himself - Snake Eyes. Sigh... Whatever sells product, I suppose.

The file cards are back. Whoopee!! So what, lackluster copies of the original cards. No big deal.

The implication here is that GI Joe has been fighting Cobra for the past 50 years. Not quite, Hasbro. did you forget something, Hasbro? I imagine that going back and revisiting the original GI Joe wasn't in the plans, but at least a little better acknowledgement would have been nice.

So Destro is a "troublemaker"? Really? Another "sigh..."

Of this set of figures, I'm only going to review Destro and Leatherneck, mainly because they are both new figures. Hawk has been released before and is still a damn fine figure. I already had three of that figure, so this one will wind up as a custom of some sort. 

Stay tuned for my reviews of Destro and Leatherneck. Yes, I'm on top of quick reviews as usual!