Toy Review*: G.I. Joe Classified Dragonfly Crew

(*Not every detail will be shown, but all are discussed)

If this were a full-on Schmuperschmeroschmype or Werdist toy review, I’d have taken more photos that show specifically every piece of gear and functionality with the figures involved. I didn’t, because I was doing the photoshoot for fun rather than to hit a quota, and I paid for the figures myself. But what I will do here is use my words to explain what all they do, and how I think these figures turned out. In the end, I’ve written just as much.

Is there a point to reviewing a HasLab, since the whole point of these crowd-funded sets is that they’ll only ever sell to those who preorder, unless you buy one at twice the price from a scalper? In this case, I think so, as it’s evident that three of the four figures in this set will see some sort of rerelease for certain, and the fourth is a toss-up. I’m not reviewing the Dragonfly helicopter vehicle, which remains in its box for now, and will probably not get a second release. I bought this set because as a kid, I saved for weeks to buy the Action Force version, only to have the nose gun promptly break and need gluing in place. A couple years later, I’d buy the Tiger Force repaint in the U.S. for probably half the price, adjusted for currency. Plus it came with Recondo, a figure I did not have, in place of the rather poorly sculpted, even for the time, Wild Bill.

One of the cool things about G.I. Joe is that there is no disconnect with having a helicopter crew that consists of two para-bros, a literal cowboy, and Laser Chick. For the first four pics, above, I was going for a sort of character teaser-poster effect, emphasizing the small details on each.

Wild Bill was one of the worst figures I ever owned in the vintage line, but his update is excellent, thanks to Hasbro’s sculptors taking the original design and simply adding a level of detail it deserves. My one gripe is that the sunglasses don’t stay on very well at all — they neither slot nor peg into his head, but just rest there, waiting to fall off. A helicopter pilot needs sunglasses, probably more than we need to see his eyes. But this is partly because of a gimmick wherein his hair is removable, replaceable with a hairpiece that has his hat attached. This despite him coming with another hat that already fits snugly on his un-hatted hairpiece. Was this so he could hold his hat in his hand? If so, let me just say that grip doesn’t work too well — the one photo in his gallery that has hat in hand took several attempts to capture without it immediately falling out.

The western flourishes on his gloves, belt, and boots are nicely done, while the green gear underneath is flight-suit styled. If the pistols look unusually plasticky, it’s probably because they’re meant to stay in the holsters most of the time, and it’s the handles where all the details went. Wild Bill is the least likely figure to see a re-release, since he only ever came with the Dragonfly.

Here’s the Wild Bill mini-gallery from my shoot:

Crazylegs is a great figure from the neck down, shall we say.

So what’s wrong with his head? To start with, the face sculpt is really soft, resembling the Selfie Series fan-scans rather than the sculpted details on Wild Bill. Then there’s the helmet with the skinny chin strap that never looks quite symmetrical. He also comes with two sets of goggles — one that goes over his helmet, and another that just fits on his head, but both look more like the battery powered shutter-sync 3D glasses I used to watch Avatar with than any kind of para-troop gear. (He looks better with Wild Bill’s sunglasses tucked into his helmet, but Wild Bill can't wear either of the goggles, so it’s not a fair trade. His red baseball cap looks okay, but I’m strongly considering switching out his head, maybe for one of the extras in the Steel Corps set.

His gun with a stock that hinges inward is interesting, and the detail on the suit is solid. Since this is specifically a Nightforce variant, I assume we’ll see the classic red/gray/white version later — and hope for the sake of everyone else who buys that future version that he’ll have a better head.

Glenda was originally released in the South American market — a repainted Scarlett to become an all-new pilot character. It couldn’t be more obvious that Hasbro intends to reuse this body for a more vintage-styled Scarlett, but will she be different enough?

Her face from this angle looks like Gina Gershon, but in hand and up close, I think it’s more of an anime Cameron Diaz. You decide.

The base body, appropriately, is quite basic, though I like the sculpted mini-pistol on her left glove. The extras make her worthwhile — the full pilot harness, three interchangeable hairpieces (one with headphones attached) and a pilot helmet that fits over two of the hairdos. She has a sidearm pistol, and a laser rifle with plug-in backpack that looks like the one used by the vintage Flash figure. The figure also comes packed with alternate fist hands that I will never use, and a harness to fit on any other figure that will hook them to the Dragonfly’s winch for rescues.

Her helmet bears the logo of the original repaint brand, now retconned as a G.I. Joe sub-team: Comandos Heroicos.

Here’s a Glenda gallery, introducing Ahsoka Tano as the Predator…

Is Rip Cord’s real name literally Rip Cord? Let’s investigate.

First, what’s the blurry yellow image on his shoulder? Well, I put on glasses, and blew it up with my phone, and I *think* it’s a flying monkey silhouette. I’m not certain, though.

Most modern G.I. Joe figures list their “real” names, and have their codename in quotes, but the box for Rip Cord merely says Rip Cord. Maybe this is a legal thing — we know from the movies and old file cards that his name is Wallace Weems. But I do wonder if they’ve retconned, and he’s actually now just Ripley Cord, or something like that. At any rate, he’s the standout figure in this set. He features removable skydiver goggles that go under his helmet with movable visor and removable breathmask that plugs into his side-harness. I think his parachute pack can open, but haven’t wanted to force it; he also includes two rifles in two-tone black and green.

Like Crazylegs, he’s a Nightforce variant, so we can probably expect a more classic repaint later. It’s hard to imagine it’ll look more intimidating than this one.

Here’s a gallery for more Rip Cord:

If we assume these figures would retail at $25 apiece, they made up $100 of the Dragonfly’s $250 price tag. The appeal of G.I. Joe has always been the gear, and these come with plenty — more, in fact, than the basic Joe figure does these days (so many get upped to deluxe level just by having more than, say, three weapons lately). If any get sold later as deluxes, it’s an even better deal this time around.

Hope you like the photos.