Toy Review: G.I. Joe Retaliation Wave 3

However troubled the release of G.I. Joe Retaliation was, it's fair to say that Hasbro have had it even worse trying to make the accompanying toy line work out how they wanted it to.  First, the movie's rapid pre-production cycle left the figure designers with no time to make true movie-accurate figures for the initial wave, instead being forced to settle for a mix of unused concept art looks and some of their own ideas that had been festering for a while.  Then word got around about the reduced articulation among those first figures - a necessity to keep costs down, but realities like that rarely mean anything to a fanbase united by the internet.  (IMHO, when I finally picked up those first figs, I found more to my liking than most did...but I do wish a few could be remade somehow with better joints, Zartan especially)

And then, of course, the movie got delayed almost a full year, despite Hasbro having got their act together and prepared a sensible release pattern for the latter, more appealing figures.  Those figures were promptly recalled and forced to sit in warehouses for long, long months, until finally the movie's promo train got back on the go.  As a result, the old scheduling went out the window, and with Wave 3 Hasbro have just said 'screw it' and combined two waves of releases into one, hence a full 12 new figures all arriving at once.  Me being a completionist dork, I had to buy them all on principle - but honestly, with a few pet peeves here and there notwithstanding, this was absolutely worth it.
To make something very clear before we start, the reduced-articulation dark days are past us.  All the figs in Wave 3 have the full standing compliment of Joe joints (neck ball, shoulder, bicep swivel, single elbow, swivel & hinged wrist, mid-torso, t-crotch, double knees, rotating ankle) and a few even have the super-new rocker ankles to boot.  If one or two have difficulty holding their gear it's only because of their vests obstructing their arms, which isn't exactly a new problem for Joes *coughPOCBeachheadcough*.  For the most part, each figure also comes with a generous accessory compliment, and most excitingly, a lot of these don't even include ludicrous play-action missile launchers and other things too big and unwieldy for the figures to 'use' naturally.  Also, display stands are back!  They're boring and no longer have names on them but hey, at least these guys can be put on shelves without falling over again.

Now, let's get to brass tacks:

'Ultimate' Roadblock

After a disappointing wave 1 figure and the superior but not quite movie-accurate 'Battle-Kata' wave 2 release, Roadblock gets the figure he deserved.  Most of the parts are shared with the W2 fig but the paint apps are better, with the more neutral, dusty colours on the fatigues, a nice 5 o'clock shadow around the beard, the printed 'R' on the vest and an attempt at mimicking some of Dwayne Johnson's excessive tattoos on the left arm.  With the exception of said ink slightly blurring against the sleeve of the shirt, everything is coloured neatly, and the loss of the chunky B-K holsters on the thighs (replaced by a regular sidearm holster and some generic pouches) is a blessing.

The Kata grips and attachments are carried over also; of course, 'Block no longer has any place to put the actual gun attachments, but since they're the least interesting of the bunch and he's been given a normal handgun instead I can't bring myself to mourn them.  More importantly he's got both the bigger guns used by Roadblock in the movie, a box-fed SAW variant and the 'Ma Deuce' .50 cal machine-gun.  Both seem to be new moulds, and the Deuce splits into multiple pieces and can be plugged into a weapon mount on the new Eagle Hawk helicopter if you've got it.  Roadblock also comes with some sort of rappelling cord gizmo that I forgot to put in the photo and can't get to work for love nor money - it's useless, but even after throwing it away this guy still feels like good value.  Easily a 10 out of 10.

'Ultimate' Duke

After 2 movies and 2 tie-in lines of toys, Joe collectors are probably quite sick of Channing Tatum's face.  On the plus side, this is more than likely the last version of Duke sporting his likeness to ever be made, and it's quite possibly the best too.  Duke shares the same vest and torso as both Flint (also in this wave) and Mouse (released in an earlier 3-pack) which gives a nice sense of uniformity, but his limbs are new and of course, his paintjob is far different, with a very nice desert-themed digital camo pattern applied over all the fatigues.  There are a lot of details that don't get the paint needed to really make them pop (particularly the nifty sat-nav computer on his left arm) but overall he's a great looker.  Duke also features a functional holster on his right leg and a knife-sheath on the back of his vest.

Hasbro went a little crazy with Duke's weapon loadout; he's got 6 assault rifles, 2 handguns, 2 knives, a shotgun, a rocket launcher (1/ removable missile) and a micro UAV drone.  All these weapons have been seen before, but it's nice to have spares and I'll never complain about getting more of Lifeline's badass M4.  Duke also gets the same sort of helmet as Mouse, which he doesn't really need, and a swappable head that fully obscures his face behind a helmet, cloth and orange shooting goggles - a nice thought on Hasbro's part, as this guy could make for a good army-builder for 'normal' soldiers.  9 out of 10, losing one point for a few missing paint bits.

'Ultimate' Flint

Based on Flint's look during the film's closing set-piece, Flint's familiar vest and the shirt under it are done primarily in black, with some worn gray on the armour panels that looks pretty great.  His legs are the same as Mouse's but his arms come from Renegades Law, which gives him short sleeves and fantastic range of motion at the elbow.  The head is the same as featured on the iffy W2 Flint, but for some reason I think it looked more like DJ Cotrona then than it does here...not sure why.  And his trousers have a nice camo pattern on them too.

Flint doesn't get quite as much stuff as Duke, mainly to make room for the parachute pack.  This is basically the same 'chute and harness that came with the W1 Cobra Trooper, but here the harness is cast in black plastic instead of blue, and the 'chute itself is olive-drab green with the classic G.I. Joe logo on it.  As a sucker for the parachute gimmick from way back in my childhood, I'm all for adding it to my Joes and it's nice to have a good guy-flavoured one. (note that you'll have to pry Flint's vest off to get the harness in place) For guns, Flint's got a mess of weapons from the old Rise of Cobra Paris Pursuit Baroness, plus Law's shotgun and RoC Heavy Duty's grenade launcher, which is coloured to match the one he briefly totes in the film.  He's also got the knife that fits into his vest and Mouse's helmet again.  Alas, I'm not a fan of oddly-coloured weapons, so the slightly-yellow plastic used for some of the guns here results in Flint's rating slipping to a 9 out of 10 again.  Still, a necessary addition for the 'movie squad'.

Budo

Well...that is certainly a red samurai.  It's hard to tell what parts Budo is made of at his core, as his real torso is heavily buried under what seems like multiple vests to achieve the look of classic feudal armour; his legs are shared with the W1 Red Ninja but the arms seem new.  Annoyingly, said arms skew for look over functionality, featuring thick, heavy 'folds' of cloth that drastically limit elbow motion.  That plus the 'skirting' of the armour keeping his legs in place make Budo more a tiny statue than an action figure.  On the plus side, the detail in the sculpting is incredible, and though I think the all-over red is a little monochrome, there's a bit of gold drybrushing to make the metal studs stand out, which is very nice.  The head, of course, is new, and thankfully ditches Budo's original faux-hawk for a fetching top-knot 'do, and gives him a very pensive stare and neatly-trimmed beard.

As you can see, he's not got much in the way of accessories, just his helmet and his swords.  I've seen some people successfully pry the 'scarf' piece off the torso but my own efforts to remove it have been in vain.  Anyway, the swords are pretty unremarkable and probably scavenged from an old Storm Shadow figure; I rather wish they could have given him flashier, more ornamental looking ones, just to compliment the look better.  The helmet is every bit as well-sculpted and painted as the armour, and slots into place over his head amazingly well; I had my worries about the fit but it's tight enough that you can see his eyes through the holes in the mask.  On the whole, Budo is interesting as a display piece but borked as an action figure, so he gets a 6 out of 10.  And no, I don't know why he has reindeer antlers, it's very silly.

'Ultimate' Snake Eyes

Unlike the previous 'Ultimate' figures, this is quite clearly not a movie-accurate Snakes.  We already had that in W2, and short of giving him a pair of MP7 SMGs, he didn't need improvement.  No, instead, this is a modern update to the 1985 Snake Eyes...which has already been updated several times in the 25th Anniversary series.  Okay, yes, this version has a whole new body and better joints, but still.  The figure is almost all black from head to toe, as you'd expect, and is very slim, designed to look like he's wearing figure-hugging spandex rather than armour or fatigues.  The head is shared with the W2 Snake Eyes, meaning it's the movie-style helmet rather than a more classic look, but the visor is painted grey to capture the original spirit.  The belt and bandolier are carried over from past Snake figures and are painted well, though the body is so skinny that the fit is very loose, so both tend to flap around alarmingly.  Additional paint apps are used to denote the ankle...bracelets?...and the wrists, with the mini-crossbow sculpted on the right forearm looking particularly sweet.

For accessories, Snakes only gets what he needs - his Uzi (w/ removable suppressor), pistol, distinctive sword, a G36 rifle and a pair of knives.  He's got holsters for the pistol and one knife on his legs.  Also included is Timber, his pet wolf, who is now painted albino white for some reason.  Timber has a ball-jointed neck but is otherwise immobile.  There's not a lot that's wrong with this figure, but he's an unnecessary update to something that's still easily available, and doesn't bring anything new to the table to justify being higher than a 7 out of 10.

Kwinn

Now this is an odd one.  To the best of my knowledge, Kwinn has never been a toy before, but for long-time fans of the comic he's an important player, an invention of Larry Hama used to fill in a story slot back in the days when the Cobra ranks were pretty thin.  An Inuit mercenary, Kwinn was hired by Cobra only to eventually turn his back on the outfit after being disgusted by their amoral actions, and formed a tense alliance with Snake Eyes after the pair had been left for dead by their cohorts.  This figure has been floating around for years, continually put on the back-burner, and though it makes zero sense in the context of the Retaliation line, it's great to see him finally hitting retail.  Kwinn is almost entirely unique pieces; few other characters wear this kind of 'safari shirt' and I can't remember any other Joe with shorts.  He's got a greenish 'back protector' strapped through his shoulders, a very detailed belt with a functional holster, and a necklace of small animal skulls (likely weasels) around his neck.  His head does a great job of getting his ethnicity across while also making him look like a grumpy sod.

He's also got a great selection of gear.  He's got the older model 'Ma Deuce' cast in blue (yep, somebody was toting that thing by hand long before Roadblock!) with 2 ammo belts for it, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and a revolver.  He's also got a spear/harpoon (first seen with the RoC Crimson Neo-Viper), a bear-trap (Pursuit of Cobra Recondo), an opening backpack (PoC Low-Light) and 2 distinctive, old-fashioned hunters' tools, one a knife and the other a pickaxe, both new tooling.  While I don't have nearly the same fondness for Kwinn as a character that many do, there's no denying this is a near-perfect figure.  10 out of 10.

Cobra Commander

'Classic' Cobra Commander is another update we probably didn't need, yet for a few reasons I'm much more fond of this guy than I am of this wave's Snake Eyes.  That's partly down to me not owning too many old-school Commanders, since in recent years he's gone through a lot of wardrobe changes, to the point where it's almost novel seeing him like this again.  Anyway, CC's body is nearly all new tooling, adding in improved joints but also emphasising how slender the guy looks in this freakishly tight suit.  There's a goodly amount of wrinkles, but this design was never complicated and it's still quite spartan here.  The main detailing is in the belt, which has a Cobra sigil belt buckle (painted!) and a variety of different sized pouches and the like.  The figure is almost all a vibrant, cartoon-accurate blue with black trim, and the extra details and Cobra stamps are perfect.

Again, not many accessories but what he's got works.  Firstly there's 2 different heads.  The 'masked' head is an old model of some kind, with the blue helmet a separate piece, and is of course done with a reflective chrome finish, but the hooded head is new.  A long-needed update from the old one (which was sculpted to look like it was blowing in the wind, which is a bit daft), the hood looks wonderful, with a nice 'flow' to the edges, great eyes, and angry brow sculpted in to give CC a bit of expression.  Aside from that, he's got a plain dagger, a newly-tooled take on the classic laser pistol, and his helicopter backpack.  Of course, I'm a sucker for helicopter backpacks so this is welcome, and it's a nicely-sculpted and scaled piece with paint apps evoking the old Fang gyrocopter in style.  The silver lever on the side can be pushed to spin the rotors, and there's a little hatch that opens to drop the 2 blue bombs.  Great looking figure and a genuinely cool play feature make this an easy 10 out of 10 - it's the last/only vintage Cobra Commander you need.

'Ultimate' Storm Shadow

Again, this Storm Shadow takes more after the classic look from comics and cartoons of 1984 onwards than the movieverse.  Using much of the same tooling as Renegades SS, Stormy has baggy pants and cloth-wrapped feet, and a loose-fitting tunic, but still has some of the best range of motion in the whole line.  What's new are the head and bare arms, which evoke the 80s design.  The head is probably from an older figure but I couldn't tell what, and the arms...might be new, although the hands are clearly the same as the Renegades fig's.  There aren't too many paints apps on the figure - he is of course mostly white - but the eyes on the head are done well, the Cobra sigil is clear, and there's no sloppiness between the bare arms and the cloth wraps at the wrists.  The black bandolier is a separate piece that fits well.

SS retains most of the accessory compliment from the Renegades version, which means he's practically drowning in ninja gear.  2 swords, a bow and arrow, 2 sais, 2 shuriken, a nunchaku-type thing, 2 kunai throwing knives, 2 climbing claws, a fan, and that little dart-holder pack...it might not have the 'shock of the new' but this is still a great load.  The backpack/quiver can hold both swords plus the bow and arrow.  On the less useful side, he's got a Byung-Hyun Lee likeness head (a bit pointless for a non-movie figure) and a...thing.  That thing on the left in the 3rd shot.  It plugs into his back, has wings, and when you press the button Storm Shadow spins like he's doing a really fast cartwheel.  I...really don't know, it's very stupid.  It also has some nice paintwork on it, this time tying into the old CLAW jetpacks, but it's just not as satisfying to play with as Cobra Commander's heli-pack.  That and the sense of familiarity knock him down to a 9 out of 10 - unless you're a big stickler for the 80s look, there's not much to recommend this SS above the earlier model.

'Ultimate' Firefly

Back to movie-accurate toys, though again I have to dispute the use of the word 'Ultimate'.  This Firefly uses the masked head of the W2 figure but has the torso of RoC Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow, arms from the PoC Cobra Shock Trooper, and legs from 30th Anniversary Lifeline.  He's got a nice scheme of green with grey camo blobs on his jacket and simple but effective paint apps elsewhere, but...I'm sorry, but this isn't Retaliation Firefly.  Ray Stevenson is a big guy, and the jacket he wore in the film was a multi-layered leather piece that made him seem even bigger, whereas the Firefly figs in this line are all either the same size or slightly smaller than the rest.  They don't even use a secondary vest to bulk up the torso a little!  Hell, this one doesn't even have the unmasked headsculpt...it's just so much wasted opportunity.

Anyway, Firefly doesn't get much extra, but it's just about enough.  He's got a fairly unremarkable backpack that looks like it could hold a parachute, Law's shotgun, 2 knives, a pistol, and a weird triangular gun that debuted with PoC Cobra Commander.  He's got holsters for the pistol and 1 knife on his legs.  Additionally, he comes with the attack drone originally marked to accompany said Cobra Commander toy, which looks like a severely shrunken v5 HISS Tank.  It's actually kind of adorable, and not so small as to be ridiculous, even if I imagine a real UGV would have wheels instead of treads.  It does look daft with the firing missile in place, though.  Aside from the drone, there's really nothing to recommend this Firefly; he's not movie accurate enough to matter and he's not any better than the many other great Firefly figures available.  6 out of 10.

Cobra Combat Ninja

To get it out of the way, yes, Combat Ninja is a silly name, and yes, this is actually the Retaliation movie-accurate Cobra Trooper, but they couldn't call it that after releasing a different figure as the Cobra Trooper in wave 1, so, yes.  Anyway, this uses 90% of the body of the PoC Cobra Shock Trooper, which isn't exactly what the movie troopers wore but it's a good all-round set of real-world combat gear and easily passes the squint test.  The head is new piece, although I wonder why they bothered when it's just a guy in ski-mask and there are plenty of existing figures with those to choose from.  Most of the figure is done in a light grey, accentuated by a digital camo scheme of differing grey and blue flecks, which again isn't 100% accurate but close enough.  There are a lot of details that don't get highlighted the way they should, but the overall look is still very nice, and I like the Cobra sigil stamped on the right arm patch.

The token play-feature accessory is a spring-loaded missile launcher on a tripod stand that first appeared in a Resolute box set; I'm not a big fan of spring-loaded launchers but at least the figure doesn't have to try and lift this one.  He's also got 4 differing weapons to choose from, most of them borrowed from older figures, though the SMG second from the top in pic 3 is new, and fits his hands like a dream, it must be said.  There's also a screen-accurate helmet to complete the look, a sword and sheath (from various RoC Snake Eyes figs) to justify the ninja name, a Cobra flag as a cute nod to the White House takeover from the trailers, and a swappable head.  The head is new and based on the Blue Ninjas featured in Larry Hama's ongoing A Real American Hero comics currently published by IDW, and is probably the first time any invention from IDW's comics has been added to the toy line.  I don't think the head works too well on this fig but it's well-sculpted and I can probably find a better home for it in my collection.  8 out of 10 overall - not exciting enough to be a 9 but there's little to complain about here.

Data-Viper

The Data-Viper is a brand new figure, not based on any existing character or concept.  It's another one that's been floating around a while only to finally crop up here, more by virtue of this being the only open slot rather than any ties to the movie.  Anyways, the D-V is entirely new tooling, or was meant to be; weird scheduling saw some other figures in convention-exclusive sets and the like appear with some of his body parts before now, but these were designed for him.  With thick pads, baggy material and pressure seals sculpted in, the D-V looks less like a soldier and more of an astronaut, and the paint apps are used to highlight the various attachment points very well.  The head is a very smooth helmet with what are either tiny red optics or plug-in points for other devices, it's hard to say.  Despite how deep the folds are on the suit, the joints remain unhindered, which is impressive.

Of course, it doesn't stay that way.  The D-V has few real accessories, but he does have some big removable gear pieces to bulk him up.  Most notable is the chest armour, a huge jagged double-triangle of pretend metal that rests over his shoulders, and features both a satellite dish and some odd wing-thing on the back, and missile pods on the shoulders.  The extra parts are all ball-jointed so their positions can be tweaked.  Then there's the helmet, which slips on over the head (which itself looks like a helmet...) and looks kind of halfway between a Reaper drone and a shark's head, what with the forward slops from back to front and the split down the middle.  The arms are also covered by segmented control devices, which clip around the forearm and feature joysticks to be gripped in the figure's hands, plus red pipes which just about manage to stay in place successfully.  These arm bits are, I think, designed to let the D-V control the micro drone also included here, something which I guess nobody told Duke about when he picked up a similar model.  All the pieces are painted perfectly, though once they're on the figure can't move all that much, and keeping the arm parts intact can be a challenge.  Nevertheless, he looks great, and actually fits in with the line, so I'm gonna call it an 8 out of 10.

Crimson Guard

The Crimson Guard has already been done (repeatedly) in the 25th line and has no bearing on the movie...but, I've never much liked the 25th figure.  Oh, it matched the classic look just fine, but it was oddly skinny and continued the pattern of the 'Siegies' always appearing in formal parade dress rather than actual combat gear, which limited what they could do and looked kind of silly.  This new figure uses the same torso as the 25th version but swaps out the limbs for the Shock Trooper arms (very popular) and the legs from the 'Defense of Cobra Island' Alley-Viper, albeit with some tweaked add-ons to include a pistol holster and knife-sheath.  Then they threw a brand new vest over the torso which gives the CG some chance of not being killed immediately by a single bullet, and at last we have a Crimson Guard who looks ready to throw down.  The head is also new; I didn't actually mind the earlier head but the way this one flares out at the back of the helmet is much nicer.  The paintwork is great, and carries over the traditional CG scheme of red with black trim onto the new pieces, and adds just enough metallic detailing to make things pop.

His accessory haul isn't all that big, but it's a good selection.  2 rifles and an SMG for main armament, the old CG backpack, a pistol and knife that slot into the legs and - my favourite - a cavalry saber that can be held in a sheath hanging off the back of the vest.  I can't really explain why but I've always been keen on the notion of soldiers with swords, not as weapons, but as symbols of status, or tradition; and in my personal head-canon, the CGs are exactly the kind of guys who cling to old, antiquated ideas even while embracing the realities of modern warfare.  Plus it's nice to get swords that aren't katanas.  Also included is a sticker sheet which lets you add insignia to the figure to denote rank and platoon; I love this idea, though trying to get a label to stay on the crinkled arm patch is tricky.  Even with that minor niggle, this is one of my favourite Cobra army-builders ever, and an easy 10 out of 10.

~+~

Retaliation Wave 3 is still available from BigBadToyStore and other online retailers, as well as from brick & mortar toy shops in the USA and Canada.