Also realized the The Force is strong with chuckles...his left hand looks like it belongs in the SW line, like he's trying to uyse the force to move something

Ripcord has one ugly face. Already swapped his head with that German Motorcycle rider from the Indy line. Thinking of trying out Blowtorches head.

I swapped Ripcord's head for a Star Wars ginger-top I had on hand and gave Chuckles a different noggin and hands. I re-equipped Zap to better echo his original look and am in the process of tweaking Wet Suit so he's got the short-sleeved, booted, helmeted thing going on.

Outback and Hit N Run are, IMHO, unsalvageable.

Outback's torso is way too scrawny and his head sculpt looks like a caricature drawing of Chuck Norris. Plus his legs appear knock-kneed and he looks like he's got rolled up sleeves instead of a t-shirt.

Hit n Run is just weird looking all the way around. The green doesn't look like camo paint so much as a kid smoking a cigar in an old cartoon and the combination of parts they used for his body just doesn't work well together. Plus his gear is weak sauce.

Recondo's the only figure from the Joes that I kept as is.

The Cobras, on the other hand, were pretty perfect right out of the box.

I didn't need more BATs, but this one with the battle damage Is an excellent addition.

I'm no fan of Night Creepers, but this figure is just really well done.

Mindbender should've used the Viper's loer body, IMHO, but the route they took is by no means bad.

All the rest are just sparkling representations of the original figures (which I really wasn't expecting with the Range Viper).

Overall, I'm quite pleased.

Is Mindbender supposed to have his generator box? Mine only has the cattle prod.

Mindbender comes with just the prod

And someone is going to get roundhouse kicked in their sleep for making fun of CN

it's not a warning, it's a promise

_________________

Mine arrived today. Haven't had a chance to open 'em, but they all seem to be very well executed. That Zap just shines!

_________________

Got mine today (well, it came last night while I was at work.)

Love Zap & the Lamprey. Like Recondo & Wetsuit. Meh on Outback, H&R, and Creeper. The rest kinda suck. The Cobras are well-done, but I just don't give two "LASER BLAST" about Alley Vipers or Range Vipers.

Looks like a good chunk of these guys will end up on Ebay after all...

_________________

I'll take another Alley Viper if you don't want him. I love this figure.

I think Hasbro needs to make some troop builders out of these suckers.

I never like Hit and Run with his green face.

I think Outback is Ok, I mean...he runs in the jungle...eats bugs, prolly a thin guy

_________________

I picked up a Recondo on ebay last week, and got him in the mail yesterday.

This is one of the best figures I've ever seen from Hasbro. The mold is one of their "good" ones, his arms are a rigid enough plastic that they don't flex and fall off when you try to bend them (I'm looking at you Ninja Viper), and he can actually hold his gun without it falling out when you look at it wrong.

His head looks great with or without his hat on. No pin head or oversized hat thing going on.

While I prefer to keep G.I. Joe as a small 2-squad unit, and don't really have room for Recondo on the team, I plan to use him as an independant safari / adventurer type (think Allan Quatermain). He will work perfectly for the purpose, with no alterations needed.

Bravo Hasbro!

_________________

if you're going to use him as Quartermain, don't forget his opium rig or Alan Moore fans will hate on you for it!

_________________

Whoa that caught my attention, definitely a different take from other collections I've seen. How does this work? Say your joes are made up of SEALs and Arctic Troops only? Just curious.

_________________

I like the skinny Outback okay. I wish he was a bigger dude but I still think he is cool looking. I never liked Recondo for some reason, so he's on the bay as well as Wet Suit and Ripcord. I have customs of them which I like better. The Cobra are all pretty cool I guess. The Night Creepers head is really cool but the scarf thing I hated. The Mindbender is probably going to get the Viper lower leg treatment. The Alley Viper is very nice and the Strato-Viper is one of my old favorites. I thik they are all well done.

_________________

Even if I don't actually call him "Allan Quatermain", I may use this angle for him, as it adds an interesting aspect to the typical adventurer type character...



For me the Joes are the best of the best, hand picked soldiers, who are then trained in all forms of warfare. They are no longer SeALS, Rangers, Delta, etc. They are all of them, combined. They have their specialities within the squad (Squad Auto gunner, grenadier, RTO) but they are all proficient in things such as Artic Ops, underwater Ops, Desert Ops, etc.

G.I. Joe is like a seperate specialist group, like SeALS, Rangers, Delta, Force Recon, only even more elite. Similar to things such as Rainbow 6 and the like. Due to retirements, KIA's, and other issues, the rosters do change, a little, from time to time.

My current two 5-man squads are:

Flint - squad leader
BeachHead - second in command / demolisions
Leatherneck - grenadier
Rock-n-Roll - squad-automatic gunner
Footloose - RTO / assistant gunner

Duke - squad leader
Dusty - second in command / demolisions
Gung-Ho - grenadier
Roadblock - squad-automatic gunner
Dial-Tone - RTO / assistant gunner

Hawk is in charge, and some times goes on missions, but not very often.

Snake Eyes is a former member, who still works with the team, once in a while "unofficially", as an independant operative.

Since I don't have Cobra as a massive military force, there really is no need for G.I. Joe to be massive either. Cobra is definitely a larger force than my Joes, but the standard Military deals with Cobra on a "military battlefield" level, while G.I. Joe deals with them on a more "Elite Ops" level. Like rescue / infiltration, intelligence / espionage, sabotage, missions ... similar to SeAL / Delta teams.

_________________

I gotta say I really like that spin from your universe. I never cared for greenshirts, Joes are supposed to be elite. Thanks for the insight.

But to get back on the subject of this thread: My dang 7-packs haven't come in yet (I'm hoping for today), but I did see someone's amazing photo shots of their 7-pack cobras and the Range Viper does look like all-win!!!

This is from a user named zerogouki on a site that will remain unmentioned (he's got other shots of teh 7-packs too):

_________________