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01-01-2012, 12:58 PM | #1 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Albany, NY
Posts: 28
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A new year brings new toys and new toy reviews, starting with this 30th Anniversary SCI-FI G.I. Joe! As usual, the fulltext of the review is posted here for discussion, although the prettied-up version with complete photo gallery is posted over on my new toy review blog. I'm starting off the year with a childhood favorite G.I. Joe I’ve been waiting 25 years for a great remake of: the 1986 version of Sci-Fi. Clad in bright neon-green and silver, the laser trooper Sci-Fi was one of my favorite Joes as a kid because, well… he was bright neon-green. And everything bright neon-green is awesome when you’re a kid, right? 25 years and several drab new versions of Sci-Fi later, he’s finally bright neon- green again. Is this figure destined to be one of my new favorites? The Right: 1986 was sort’ve a weird year for G.I. Joe and a sort of turning point for the brand. Realistic characters like the communications officer Dial-Tone and the field medic Lifeline were introduced–but it was also the year that pro wrestler Sgt. Slaughter joined the Joes, Zartan gained bright pink-haired twin siblings, Cobra enlisted an android army, and mind control specialist Dr. Mindbender debuted. Not quite as bizarre as those latter incidents was the introduction of Sci-Fi, the new G.I. Joe specialist laser trooper. The 25th Anniversary collection of G.I. Joe was discontinued before it reached the majority of the later characters like Sci-Fi, but modern revisits of the classics have returned this year for the 30th Anniversary and we’re finally getting some of the quirkiest characters like Sci-Fi released. Props to Hasbro for finally releasing Sci-Fi, even though he’s not exactly the most popular Joe in the room. The sculpting on Sci-Fi is top-notch and phenomenally replicates the look and feel of the vintage figure while adding an abundance of new details to make the figure look terrific. The pre-dominant green has been toned down to a milder lime green from the classic neon green. It’s still bright, but it’s not eye-searing anymore, so Sci-Fi blends in (a little) better with his teammates. The sculpted power wires connecting his thigh and calf are an all-new detail that add a new visual dynamic to the figure and help make him look more high-tech. Sci-Fi includes six accessories, and they’re all well-designed and useful. Sci-Fi includes a removable helmet with visor like the classic Sci-Fi’s, a helmet with full faceplate blast shield, an argon burst laser rifle, a power hose, a power source backpack, and a figure stand with his name on it. While this may seem like a lot of accessories compared to what you get with a Marvel Universe or Star Wars figure, prepare to be blown away when I review some more of Sci-Fi’s casemates later this week. The most critical part of Sci-Fi’s accessories are obviously the laser rifle and its complementary accessories, and thankfully they’ve been wonderfully engineered. The hose fits tightly into both the backpack and the laser rifle and never came loose from either while I was posing Sci-Fi, and the backpack locks into Sci-Fi’s peghole just as firm. The laser rifle is faithfully based upon the vintage one Sci-Fi came with, but has been enhanced with multiple paint colors and modern sculpting. Likewise, the backpack is authentic to the shape of the vintage Sci-Fi’s, but now cast in a more realistic (if you can call anything about Sci-Fi realistic) silver than the vintage neon green. The total package is an technologically-advanced laser rifle that Sci-Fi looks highly intimidating holding. A feature this Sci-Fi has that the vintage one didn’t is that you can now see his helmetless head, and he comes with not one but two removable helmets! Now that we can finally see his face, Seymour “Sci-Fi” Fine looks like a pretty boring guy, but I guess that’s what you’d expect from someone whose filecard describes him as “a master of precision and patience”. I have such fond memories of 80′s Sci-Fi that I had planned to pose him with the vintage-based visored helmet, but as it turns out, I think the blast shield helmet looks a lot slicker and more fun on him. Like all G.I. Joes, Sci-Fi is loaded with articulation. Sci-Fi has 20 points of articulation: neck, upper torso, ball-jointed shoulders, ball-jointed hips, swivel wrists, double-jointed elbows, double-jointed knees, and double-jointed ankles. The Wrong: The vintage Sci-Fi design divides G.I. Joe fans somewhat: some collectors love it, and many think it’s one of the first truly “unbelievable” G.I. Joe designs that led G.I. Joe down the path away from realism. As a kid I really loved Sci-Fi, but as an adult I kinda shake my head at him when I see him displayed next to more One bit of Sci-Fi’s engineering seems poorly-conceived to me: his boots. Sci-Fi’s boots are sculpted to stick against Sci-Fi’s kneecaps, and the way they’ve been sculpted they protrude at a weird angle. As a result of this, Sci-Fi never looks like he’s standing straight up, even when his legs have been fully straightened, and he looks strange in non-crouching poses. The other thing that bothers me about Sci-Fi is a couple points of what I consider to be pivotal articulation. Like most Hasbro figures in this scale, Sci-Fi is missing ankle-rockers, which limits his poseability. Considering that a lack of the proper ankle articulation can shatter a huge percentage of posing opportunities, that’s a joint that Hasbro seriously needs to consider adding to its figures in this scale across the board. Ankle rockers are so crucial that I’d be willing to give up the double-jointed knees in order to have them integrated. The other piece of missing articulation on Sci-Fi is a hip joint of any kind–without it, it looks strange that Sci-Fi can turn his upper torso freely while his lower torso always remains locked in place. Plenty of Hasbro Marvel Universe and Star Wars figures have both upper and lower torso points of articulation, so there’s no reason that the Joes can’t have it too. Overall: This figure takes everything that was awesome (or not awesome) about the 1986 Sci-Fi figure to the next level. The figure’s greatest strengths lie in its authenticity to the original, superb accessories, great paint and sculpting. The only real downsides to this figure are the awkwardly-implemented boots and a couple points of missing articulation. If you hate the vintage Sci-Fi design, you still will. But if you’re nostalgic for one of the first “science-fiction”-ized Joes, Sci-Fi fits the bill better than any other released in the modern G.I. Joe line. If you can get past the over-the-top aspects of this character and his design, then this figure is highly recommended. GRADE: A- |
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