hey guys,
i was a bit busy over the past 4 weeks, so i didnt get a chance to add februarys reviews. so, today we get 3 reviews by the great thomas wheeler all at once!

head on over to http://www.joearmory.com and check out reviews on 1991's incinerator, 1990's bullhorn and 2001's crossfire!

as always, feel free to post your own thoughts and feelings here!

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Crossfire is a underrated character and fairly decent figure. Good review, Thomas!

I never cared much for the Incinerator. He's got an unusual mold with odd details, a huge barrel-like chest, and that strange helmet... But his flame thrower is an awesome accessory. The fire ball catapult... less so.


I do agree that the RAHC figures were mostly great, and I've always regretted that that line didn't run longer (even though the SnakeEyes/Storm Shadow pack was a huge disappointing waste)

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I liked Crossfire since the moment I bought that figure. I always used him as a somewhat older, wiser team member. He always seemed older to me because he looks like Richard Nixon.

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Thank you!

To me, Crossfire represented everything that was wrong with the ARAHC. While the use of drab on Duke and Sidetrack was a great way to showcase two (then) obscure molds, it quickly got stale as they used it on EVERY Joe figure from there on out. As such, the Wave III and later ARAHC Joes are just an indistinguishable sea of olive. Making figures realistic didn't mean making them all the same and I think it was this removal of character identity that really turned the Joes from the last two waves into duds.

I still recall the ARAHC fondly, but I think it was mishandled and by the time Wave III was designed, the creators knew the new sculpts were coming and they just didn't put any effort into the remaining Joes. (Though, the Cobras weren't all that interesting, either. All the named characters save Serpentor are just rehashes of the mold's original colorings.)

This figure in particular irritated me since I don't like how the mold fits together, it has crappy accessories and it used body parts that had been just released in the 2 prior waves. Other than that, it's OK.

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Thomas, geat reviews as always. And bah to the detractors, Crossfire is a great figure and so was most of the ARAHC. I'm not sure how anyone can complain about olive drab on a Joe, if anything, I wanted more of these. Not to hog credit but I like to think our small conversation in a past thread about a month ago might've influenced you to review this figure.

Bullhorn is another nice fig. I don't have one, but if I come across a complete one I want it.

Incinerator is the only one I can do with out. Orange and red, while appropriate for a flamethrower, just burn my retinas. Its an oddly designed figure and one I have no room for in my collection.

I actually like Crossfire a lot. He was an actual new character that wasn't just a re-paint of an existing figure, which is why I still have a hard time integrating Double-Blast, Wet-Down, and White-Out into my collection. Crossfire is my standard issue vehicle gunner and right now, he's looks at home manning the gun turrent on my APC.

Personally, I think there's still a lot that is possible with mixing-and-matching ARAH to derive new figures. I've made some pretty decent looking LBC's the last few months to pretty good results. I'd post them, but I didn't have anything specific in mind other than making use of parts I had laying around and didn't want them to go to waste. They're all un-named background fodder for now.

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Count me in on the Crossfire Fan Club. First of all, I love the name. I can't explain it but it may be my favorite code name of the entire series. I also am a fan of the traditional olive drab look - Mike says it was overkill for the time period, it may be, but over the course of the entire run I think its nice to have such a classic soldier look. No other variation of the BIg Ben mold is as good. My only qualm is the head. With a name like "Crossfire" I think the heavy machine gunner should have more of a bad ass face - his given head sculpt looks like walter mathou (sp)

Bullhorn is an indisputable great figure.

Incinerators - meh, I could get past the orange, but the oblong face shield is too unnatural - I can't believe thier is a human head underneath there.

Enjoyed the reviews.

-CJack

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The Incinerator catapult is more fun when it's a space catapult, and Effects is still angry!


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