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 - Muskrat & Slice

Time for some more quick reviews. Mine aren't the best in the world, but I thought I'd my opinions anyway. Again, like last time, two better reviews can be found on General's Joes and JoeBattlelines. 

The next two up for review are Slice and Muskrat.

If you don't know the history, Slice & Dice were a pair of Cobra Ninjas from the Ninja Force line back in 1992. I liked them both well enough back then and their newest incarnations are pretty decent as well. Dice was part of FSS 1.0 and looked decent enough, but I wasn't on board for FSS 1.0, so Slice is partner-less for now. I think I've got an idea for a custom Dice. 

The Club pretty much hit a home run in my opinion with Slice. There really wasn't much that they needed to do besides using a new head sculpt. Boss Fight Studios provided an excellent update that still remains very true to the original version.

There's really nothing new with the design of this new version and the original and I'm fine with that. There was a later version of Slice that was just hideous. I'm pleased that the Club stuck with the original design.

Slice comes well equipped with assorted edged weapons. There's two hooked swords which are a bit odd to me. He also comes equipped with climbing claws and a set of four swords that can connect with each other into two longer double bladed weapons. They are a bit loose in the backpack and easily slide out.

I've become more accepting of the ninjas in my collection. The original Ninja Force got weirder and weirder. I suppose that it is still a bit weird to have some ninjas clashing with modern soldiers, but that's always been the fun part of GI Joe.

Muskrat is an odd choice to pair with Slice - a ninja and a swamp specialist? Whatever. No big deal. Muskrat's original version was decent enough and usually found good rotation in my various displays. Even tagged as a "swamp fighter," he still has enough of a military look that he'd work well with most everyone else.

His boonie hat is well made, but doesn't stay on very well. I figure a little spot of rubber cement would help Muskrat to keep his hat on.

Great job on the head sculpt. I don't know the origin, but the head is well done. The body is a combination of various other bodies - I think maybe the Jungle Assault POC Duke for the torso and arms, while the legs have been used by Cobra Troopers, Snake Eyes, and numerous other figures. It's a good mix of parts. There's a decent amount of gear that comes with Muskrat including his wake board. Is that what that is? A mini surf board?

I'm not too sure how appropriate the wake board is for a swamp fighter. I don't recall ever seeing a situation where ride-able waves in a swamp. I suppose he could get pulled along, surfing behind a Killer Whale or a Devilfish?

I'm pleased with these two figures from the Club. I really don't get when other Collectors just slam on the Club because the figures aren't perfect or are too expensive based on how they were made or what gear they did or didn't come with. Somewhere, some collector's childhood has been raped because the Club didn't quite get it right with a particular figure.

Geeze... Lighten up. Nobody forced you to buy them, and damn, GI Joe isn't out there in the wilds right now. If you don't like them, don't buy them, and shut the hell up.