Toy Review: TEKKEN BISHOUJO NINA WILLIAMS

 Silently wondering who the first clown will be to

try making a grab for the goods.

First things first, welcome to 2015 on the blog!  No, I didn't die in some nuclear catastrophe toward the end of last year, I just got caught up in a bunch of non-blog stuff that kinda torpedoed my drive to keep updating this page.  Plus, there wasn't a hell of a lot to talk about - I mean, I could've done a post on Smash Bros. but, why?  Do you need me to tell you it's good?  No, you do not.

But as ever, I'll always drag my arse back here when there's something worthwhile Tekken related to discuss.  And the release of the series' first lady in the Bishoujo statue line - shamefully 3+ years after the line debuted - feels like justification enough.

Let's hit it!  But not too hard, it might break and these things are expensive.

Toy Pictorial: The Nintendo Trinity

In this dark time of reduced articulation, shelf-warmers, novelty gimmicks that don't work and G.I. Joe not really doing anything despite being on an anniversary year, it's comforting to know that the Japanese specialist market is still churning out some gold, provided you've got the money.  Which is a needlessly grim way of saying I've got the leads of the 3 best Nintendo franchises (no I do not rank Kirby or Donkey Kong up there, thankyou) in posable figure form and I could not be more happy about it.

More pics after the jump.

Toy Review: G.I. Joe Kre-Ons Wave 2

 Dreadnoks: not liking dogs since that time Buzzer

tried murdering one with a chainsaw.

While the 'main' Joe toyline has limped from the shambolic release pattern of the Retaliation figures into a big ol' deadzone, the chaps behind the licensed Kre-O building block series have been busy bees.  I've already professed my love for these babies despite their not being any easier to get hold of in the UK than their big brothers, and now I at last got the chance to snap up all 12 of the wave-2 blind bagged figures (just as waves 3 and 4 were announced...whee!).  So let's run them down, good guys first...

Toy Review: Play Arts Kai Faora-Ul

 Not a photo of mine.

You can probably guess by the lack of awfulness.

To start, hey look, my first post of 2014!  Hope everyone had a safe New Year's.

Anyway - as time passes, I find myself growing more and more irritated with Man of Steel, as seems to be the prevailing feeling amongst interweb dorks like myself.  This is the big problem with the tone and aesthetic that Christopher Nolan has bequeathed to Warner Bros.' nascent DC cinematic universe: when every character and place is presented as cold, severe and super-duper-serious it prompts the audience's thoughts to linger on the ideas and questions raised by the story rather than just relax and let oneself be moved by the flow of the film.  That's fine if you've got a tight grip on the tale and know exactly what points you want to get across, but if you don't - if the questions you're raising clash with the overall 'point' of the film, or if you're simply not elaborating them well enough - then all you're doing is giving viewers more time to chew over the film's problems.  And hoo boy did MoS have hefty problems delivering its themes.

Despite that, I still bought the damn blu-ray just so I could gawk at Faora-Ul in glorious HD.  That plus the hilarious sight of Michael Shannon's misshapen beanpole body being pushed through military-grade workouts in the special features was worth the asking price.  Thus my Faora crush remains strong, albeit ill-served by the movie's merchandising.  Sadly there's still no sign of a Hot Toys 12" $200+ wallet-killer fig of the lady (I remain hopeful - HT's Roadblock figure still hasn't been released and G.I. Joe 2 came out last March) and Mattel did their usual hopeless job on the main toyline, resulting in this disappointment with its cartoon face, borked joints and oddly squat physique.  Luckily, though, DC's licensing deal with Square Enix covers both comics and movie properties, and so the MoS subline of the Play Arts Kai range has stepped up to fill the void and maybe give Faora the toy she deserves.

PHICEN Nina Armoury Post 3

It's been a while, but with more figures in the collection now I've got more Things Nina Can Hold, and more amateurish photos to prove it!

PHICEN Nina Armoury Post 2

Thought about sitting on these pics a while longer, but it's a slow period right now, so here we go.

PHICEN Nina Armoury Post 1

If I didn't make it quite clear in my review, I looooove this 1/6 Nina fig, but if there is one department she lacks in, it's weaponry.  Her Glocks are cool, but Nina Williams is a master assassin, a spy, a saboteur, possibly a catwalk model AND a ninja all at once, so she knows a few more ways to kill folk than just through the John Woo school of twin-pistol dove-exploding gun-kata.  Hence this post, first in what will probably be a series*, showing off Nina waving around other various implements of pain.

Oh, and before we start, if you don't check my Twitter feed regularly (what is wrong with you):

Knife & strapped sheath sourced from 1/6 General Hawk,

by Sideshow Collectibles' G.I. Joe line.

I think we can agree that all versions of Nina need a superfluous tiny dagger that never ever gets used strapped to one thigh, right?  And yeah, I kinda wish I could attach it further down her leg, but the top needs to hook onto the belt to stay in place.  Anyhoo, click through for more pics.

* - it'll run until I can't find more weapons to steal off my other figures...which doesn't look likely to happen soon.

Toy Review: PHICEN LIMITED 1:6 NINA KILLER ver 1.0

From Twitter: Wesker getting kicked because reasons.

At this point, detailing my obsession with the Tekken series in general and Nina Williams in particular for the umpteenth time is a waste of bandwidth...but I don't know how else to start this post, so pretend that I said something meaningful and revelatory here as well as the usual 'gaaah nina so amazing and hot and badass, would gladly try and marry her even though I know it would end horribly, fuck everything about that other blonde girl who doesn't deserve to be named' spiel.

Of course, the downside to being a Tekken fan is that Namco have historically done a terrible job of pushing the franchise in terms of merch.  Oh, sure, if all you need to be happy is a custom fight stick, you're golden, but clothes?  Few and far between, usually convention exclusives.  Manga or comic tie-ins?  There were some hilariously terrible ones around the time of Tekken 2 but nothing worth mentioning since then.  Toys?  Palisades did a line of 5" figs based on Tekken 3 but they were generally pre-posed and had very little articulation, not to mention the sculpt quality is, well, of its day, which means they look pretty dated and simplistic now.  After that, Tekken figs have only come in tiny bursts; a group of rarely-seen 1:6ers based on Tekken Tag Tournament came and went, a group of tiny plastic statues with swappable parts styled on Tekken 5, and the still-running TTT2 additions to the Kotobukiya line, which takes ludicrously proportioned girls in super-skimpy outfits and makes their clothes more revealing, because Japan, basically.  Even with the advent of the TTT2 Play Arts Kai figures, it feels like there's been a lot of missed opportunities over the years - the fact that I can honestly say the best Tekken figures money can buy are the sodding Minimates from the SFxTK series says it all.  It's not so bad if all you're after are polystone statues, but...where's the fun in a statue?

So, when this little beauty cropped up out of the blue, I was very excited.  Of course, it's not officially endorsed by Namco on any level and doesn't mention Tekken anywhere on the box and is only COINCIDENTALLY similar to a character from Tekken with the same first name *cough* so it's totally okay to buy it so long as you make sure to never ever mention it to Harada-san and/or his lawyers.  We clear?  Okay, let's get down to brass tacks.

Toy Review: G.I. Joe Kre-Ons Wave 1 + Checkpoint Alpha

Let the battle begin!

Also: admire my hamfisted efforts to erect a white background for

better pics.  Blergh.

 

 

Long-time readers of this blog do not need to be reminded of my fascination with G.I. Joe - actually, nobody does, since my last post was on the subject...but of all the things I'd previously wished for from the toys, 'get even smaller' was not on the list.  That said, when Hasbro announced the first bunch of Joe products for their Kre-o building block range, I was smitten at first sight, albeit cautiously so.  Lego was an obsession of mine growing up, of course, but I'd also been hooked into buying some of their newer superhero-themed sets - getting some Joes on the same scale who could interact with dinky Superman, Captain America and co.?  Intriguing.

 

 

I dub this piece 'Battle of the Ninja Ziggurat'.

I do not entirely know what a ziggurat is.

 

 

So I went and bought the cheapest set, Checkpoint Alpha, and...pretty much fell in love with the thing, and with thanks to a very helpful eBay seller I also got my grubby hands on the full wave of 12 mini-figures (Kre-ons) sold individually in blind bags.  None of this stuff seems destined to make it beyond America, thanks to Hasbro having chickened out over marketing the Joe brand internationally after the mess they made with the Rise of Cobra toys (too much early stock clogging up shelves, limited promotion, overestimating production etc.) - which is a shame since, taken on their own merits, I think these little guys have the potential to catch on in a way their 4" progenitors never did.

Toy Review: Transformers Masterpiece Soundwave

Oh, where have you been all my life, you?

It's been a while since I talked about toys that aren't Minimates here, mostly my own fault - I've been buying plenty of stuff but I've had other distractions that made it tricky to focus on writing anything about them.  Why has that changed?  Maybe a gap in my schedule.  Or maybe that I've got my mitts on one of those rare toys that feels like something I've been waiting years for.

And Masterpiece Soundwave is exactly that sort of toy.

Pursuit of Cobra Wave 3 - 'City Strike' Cobra Shock Trooper

Crap, it's been a while since the last update...anyways, since time is sharply rolling on, and PoC Wave 4 is now winging its way to me, I'm gonna try and finish up Wave 3 before then, and now that the chaff of the wave (that'll be Arctic Storm Shadow) is out of the way, we're gonna talk about the stars of the show, the first being...a nameless, faceless Cobra grunt.  How did that happen?

I blend into the night like I'm silhouetted by a massive black pillow.  Wait...

The Shock Trooper - whose name and function seem almost wilfully vague, something I'll come back to later - looks to be entirely black plastic here, but he's actually more colourful than you'd think, thanks to judicious applications of midnight blue and a couple shades of grey across his body, which really help to make him look...well, not like a ninja, which is good.  The last thing G.I. Joe needs is more damn ninjas.

"Has anyone seen the other half of my badge?"

The detail work on the sculpt is just astounding; obviously, the influence primarily comes from real-life SWAT officers, and the Shock Trooper has a similarly overburdened vest and thick gloves, not to mention padding on his arms and that curious balaclava/cowl combination head.  The edge of the cowl has a tendency to get stuck on the vest when you turn the head, which restricts his articulation a bit, but it's hardly a deal-breaker.  And I really love how the Cobra emblem on the shirt is only half-visible, as if one side of it is obscured by the items fitted to the vest (not actually the case - the vest is all one piece, Hasbro just carefully cut off one side of the logo).

Show us dat ass.

Things are much the same around the back, with the ribbed 'counter-weights' used in real-life to balance against the weight of all the junk stuck to the vest's front, and some more Cobra paintwork down one side.  He also has a handle jutting out from just under his collar, though I'm buggered if I know what it's there for.  Maybe so it's easier for one of his mates to drag him along the floor mid-firefight, Army of Two style?

"I know kung fu...except for the bits about taking your jacket off quickly.

Skipped that part of the movie."

Articulation is, as you might expect, fantastic for such a small figure.  It's not quite perfect, thanks largely to the detail work on the arms, which clutters the elbow joints a bit and prevents them from reaching a perfect 90-degree angle.  But wait!

"Yeah, I'm pointing at you!"

"Whassup wit dat?"

The new wrist articulation!  GLORY BE!!!!  Previously seen on the PoC Jungle-Viper and the SDCC Sgt. Slaughter figures (neither of which have shown up on this blog yet), this gives him an extra hinge on each wrist which, for some reason, don't actually match; so the left hand goes forwards palm-first, whilst the right goes up-and-down in a 'chopping' sort of way.  Still, new joints is new joints, and again, I'll come back to it later, because they really do help here.

I hope you're not expecting a funny caption about a hat.

The helmet is, again, very SWAT, and features detachable goggles which don't have a long enough strap to fit down over the Shock Trooper's eyes.  I'd complain about that, except I'm starting to expect it with my Joes, and you could always treat it as a nod to the classic series Vipers, who had similarly nonfunctional goggles on their helmets (which they didn't need, since they wore fully-enclosed masks).  Speaking of which, the Shock Trooper does still have the option of concealing his face in a different way...

Weirdest gas mask to not be worn by a guy called 'Vader' EVER.

No, that doesn't look like it would work very well, does it?  It's just a bunch of filters stuck to a curved bit of perspex.  Combined with the helmet, though, it all comes together very nicely.

Mwuahahaha!

Now that's better, isn't it?  What's especially cool is that, under the right lighting, the mask retains its translucency and lets you see the trooper's eyes through it.  Try clicking on the pic to enlarge it for an example.

So, we've established that the Shock Trooper is a good-looking and (mostly) well-articulated figure, but what about his guns?  Like most PoC figures, this guy comes almost drowning in accessories, and by and large, they're all winners.

For all your home-protection needs.

The main rifle is a model I'm not familiar with.  I'm not even entirely sure it's based on a real gun at all.  That said, it does look believable, and the curved 'banana' clip is very AK-47ish - apt, since that was the preferred weapon for all basic Cobra Troopers back in the day.

"SARGE!  Package tango inbound!"

"Oh, have my fizzy drinks arrived?  Thank christ, I'm bloody parched."

Here's where the NEW SOOPAH WRISTS come into play; they really do help him get rifles with stocks into decent firing positions, something a good many Joes have issues with.

We meet again, old faithful...

This shotgun - a SPAS-12 if I'm not mistaken - is probably one of the most well-used moulds amongst all the 'generation 3' accessories Hasbro's been churning out since the 25th Anniversary range started.  I'm pretty certain it was Flint's to begin with, but his was made from green plastic, which looked...ergh.  It had some pretty good innings in the Rise of Cobra line, particularly with Night Adder and the Elite-Viper from the troop builder pack, and now it's back again...

Gawd dang it, bubbah, that ain't how ya kill us a deer!

...except it doesn't seem quite so well-suited this time around.  Even the SOOPAH WRISTS can't quite allow the Shock Trooper to lift the thing into a good firing position, which is a shame, as it's otherwise still a well-sculpted weapon and quite fitting for a SWAT operation, where most fighting will be done up close and personal.

The red paint makes the bullets go faster.  It's SCIENCE.

This, on the other hand, seems to be new.  It's an MP5k, which is what happens if you take the usual MP5 submachine-gun favoured by American counter-terrorism units and shrink it down to a size where it fits in an attache case comfortably.  The weapon has been seen before with some other figures - Resolute Destro has one inside his M.A.R.S. case - but this is a newly-tooled version, and very nicely tooled it is too.  And to make the detailing stand out a little more, Hasbro added some red markings on each side, which is a rare thing to see.

"Sorry about before - I'm allergic to buckshot."

Despite his shotgun failings, Shock Trooper can manage a dual grip on the MP5k, using both the handle and the small foregrip just beneath the barrel.  But of course, a gun this small is the sort of thing that's bound to wind up being fired single-handedly...

"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!  HAHAHA - er, please

don't fly low over any trees, pilot."

...such as when hanging from the underside of a Cobra Gunship mid-flight.  Honestly, sometimes these things just happen.

Next on the armaments list is what I'm guessing to be a taser pistol.  I know next to nothing about this sort of weapon, but the blunt, blocky front end of the pistol and the lack of, say, a slide or bullet chamber make me pretty certain that's what it is.  Unfortunately, I seem to have utterly failed to take a good picture of it, so instead, here's the Shock Trooper using it to 'contain' Duke.

Shock Trooper:  "Squeal, piggy!  Squeal!"

Duke:  *zapping noise*

So that's another fairly nice addition, even though Cobra - or my Cobra, anyway - aren't terribly bothered about taking people alive.  But what's that in his hand...?

"Ah, the dulcet tones of Chris Moyles - they always put me in a murdering sort of mood."

He's got a radio!  I love that.  Y'know how few Joes (and Cobras) come with some sensible means of keeping in touch with one another?  Very few indeed.  And given the retro bent so many Joes are keen on, it's hard to imagine most of them packing high-tech Codec-style communication setups.  So it's very cool to see a basic grunt remembering that, at some point or another, someone may wish to talk to him without shouting through several rooms.

Well, that's certainly the least interesting picture I've ever taken.

Yeah, it's not a terribly exciting piece of plastic by itself, but I still like its inclusion.  Plus, it's got its own little storage space too...

"I'm sure I had that radio on me when I sat down..."

There it is, on the back of his belt, exactly where it should be.  Sweetness!

Would sir like some ninja with his soldier today?

And then there's these things...okay, I can see how they look like cattle-prods, so they're some sort of electrified stun baton or suchlike.  Fair enough, it goes with the SWAT theme and the taser pistol.  But why are they joined by a string?
 

Enter the dragon.  The battle-armoured, begoggled dragon.

So they're stun-nunchuks, I suppose.  Blargh.  And to be honest, they're a little too thin for Shock Trooper to grip effectively.  Double Blargh.  Probably the weakest feature of the figure in hindsight, so it's just as well they're not really vital for anything.

 

Must...resist...obvious...pun...

This, on the other hand, is something I can get behind.  It's a hammer - a great big ol' sledge-hammer.  Okay, so maybe a 'door knocker' battering ram would've been a more sensible choice if we're going for the SWAT theme, but this is more workable, and somewhat multi-functional.

Okay, I give up...you can't touch this.

*Gunshot, dies*

In case you were wondering - yes, Shock Trooper can grip the hammer with both hands very easily, and looks bloody mean when he does.  Maybe it's my inner WWE fan talking, but there's something more vicious about a sledge-hammer than there is a knife or sword; if Jim Ross was a war correspondent, he'd be better at it than Michael Cole was - and I can imagine him yelling about "business" and how it has "just picked up" whenever Shock Trooper goes to town on some Joes with this nasty lump of menace.

"FOR ASGARD!"

Raging battle-cries?  Yup, the hammer helps with that, too.  Though I suspect that its primary use shall inevitably be smacking Joes upside the head.

 

Bonk!

Tee hee.

Now we're talking.

Oh hell yes.  I love riot shields.  Not sure why - maybe something to do with Urban Chaos: Riot Response on PS2, or Crisis Squad in the arcade.  Whatever, point is, there's nothing cooler than carrying your own cover, essentially, and G.I. Joe as a whole has been lacking a good example up 'til now.  Even Shockwave, the Joes' own SWAT specialist, never had one.  But this, oh, this will do nicely.  It's predominantly translucent, as these things should be; maybe a bit too 'clean' - I'd mark out if it had a few bullet marks and scrapes across the surface - but it's still nice.  And of course, it has COBRA scribbled on it, in case you forget who carries the thing.

 

Can't think of anything relevant to put here, so...

KNICKERBOCKERCRUMPLEZONEFISH.

The grip works like on a real riot shield, with a 'loop' to thread the wearer's arm through as well as a bar to hold in their hand.

 

Modelling this year's must-have item...

And here's how it fits on the Shock Trooper.  It can be quite difficult to force his arm far enough in to make his fingers wrap around the handgrip, but the shield stays on and stays in position firmly.

 

Finally, a Cobra Trooper with a chance of surviving longer than 5 seconds?

So then, we have safely established that, pointless stun-chuks aside, this is one seriously badass figure with seriously badass gear.  I can give it a 10/10 mark and leave it at that.

But...

Ever since I first saw this guy, there's been two issues with him in my mind, and sadly, they're still here.  Firstly, there's the fact that, if it weren't for a few logos painted onto the gear, this guy wouldn't look like a Cobra operative.  Cobra, in most cases, likes to show off and either make its guys dress incredibly formal or attach all manner of odd, impractical stylistic flourishes to their battle armour because...well, because they're the bad guys, dammit, and bad guys are weird like that.  The Shock Trooper, in that sense, is disappointingly normal.  If Hasbro had painted him blue, he'd be a Joe.  Shockwave, specifically.  (note to Hasbro: if you want to actually paint this guy blue and re-release him otherwise unaltered, as Shockwave...no objections here)

Also, there's the question of what his actual job is within the Cobra hierarchy.  One of the head designers on the G.I. Joe team has been quoted as saying that the Shock Trooper is a 21st-century update to the old-school Cobra 'blueshirts', their basic infantrymen, but this is such a radical departure from those previous figures it's hard to see the evolution.  Observe below as I compare Shocky with the closest figure I could find to a vintage trooper, the 25th-anniversary Crimson Guard:

"What the hell're you gonna do dressed like that?

Bust up an anti-Prop8 rally?"

Not the best picture, but you can clearly see that there's absolutely no common ground between these two guys.  The 'Siegie' is tarted up with his jackboots and double-buttoned shirt whilst the Shock Trooper could be someone's online COD avatar.

And on top of that, there's the slight issue that we've already got one Cobra urban assault trooper class in the Pursuit of Cobra line, the fantastic Alley-Viper:

"Red again?  Did I miss a memo or some shit?"

I can't very well replace the A-V with the Shock Trooper, because the A-V is far too cool a figure to drop, and with his stylised shield, inexplicably red vest and funky helmet, fits the Cobra style a lot better too.  So who goes on missions and who stays behind at the Terror Drome to do the washing-up?  Tough call.

Or maybe I'm overthinking this.  I mean, Rise of Cobra, good as it was, gave us two terrible standard army-builders (Neo-Viper and Viper Commando) before slightly upping its game with the Ice-Viper, then finally striking gold with the Elite-Viper.  PoC didn't really need to bother treating us to another classy Cobra trooper after the Alley-Viper (and I haven't even mentioned Jungle-Viper...), and yet Hasbro gave us one anyway.  Why complain?

Overall rating for 'City Strike' Cobra Shock Trooper:  10/10

 

"Surrender to me, Wild Bill, or I'll smash your tiny helicopter to smithereens!"

"Git yer damn dirty paws off ma slick, varmint!"

Night Rhodes

Boredom at night leads to much messing around with a lamp in order to make 'stylish; shots of new War Machine figure.  That's all, really.

I think those turned out pretty well.  Hopefully I'll get the chance to do something more in-depth with this guy in future posts.

Toy Pictorial: Sideshow 12" Firefly

By now you've probably realised, I'm a little infatuated with G.I. Joe.  In fact, I'm sufficiently infatuated with the franchise to blow nearly £100 on a single figure, apparently.  Providing, of course, that's it's a very special sort of figure.  And for the most part, Sideshow Collectibles' run of 12" Joes fits that bill perfectly.

There've been a fair few releases in the Sideshow range already, and regular viewers of the blog may recall seeing their Cobra Commander figure in my first post (feel free to go check).  However, since he was the first I purchased - and still my favourite - I'm giving Firefly the spotlight today.  Partly, I bought this based on a review of the figure at GeneralsJoes which was very enthusiastic, and partly because despite not appearing in The Rise of Cobra, I've quickly become a massive fan of Firefly as a character.  Though I like how the movie made Cobra as an entity look and function, and in fact probably wouldn't have it any other way, I rather like having one lone guy amongst the evil legions who actually looks like the sort of terrorist that the Joes seem to think they're fighting.  In fact, the lunatic excesses of the rest of Cobra actually make Firefly stick out all the more.

And of course, Sideshow did a fantastic, fantastic job with this particular Firefly, combining a splendidly-articulated body with a revised but instantly familiar outfit, and a ton of excellent gear to stick on him.  And since I'm feeling generous...or just in the mood to show off...here's a rundown of exactly how awesome he is.  Let's start with some poses!

"Reporting for duty!  Assuming said duty involves making stuff explode.

Otherwise, piss off."

"Sex bomb, sex bomb, yoooouuuu'rre my sex bomb!"

When Firefly sings to his grenades, try not to stare. 

Curiously, for a man so fond of exploding things,

Firefly likes to keep his guns quiet. 

Token crotch shot.

No, I don't expect you to be interested in his plastic penis.  I'm just pointing out his nice articulation, not to mention the snazzy detailing on his trousers and boots.  Nice knife sheath, too. 

Good luck getting that stuff through airport security. 

There're lots of little gaps in the fabric across both the backpack pouches and the strap that goes across his front; these can be used to hook on either some grenades (good luck trying to get all of them on there...) or the various separate pouches Firefly comes with - there's one for his detonator, one for his pistol clips and two small ones for...well, anything that fits.  I figure you can split the mines between them, though fitting two mines in one pouch can be tricky.  If all else fails, the backpack itself has enough space inside to hold all his smaller accessories at once.  An inelegant solution, but nice and easy, and very thoughtful of the designers.

Now THAT...is a ton of stuff. 

Just felt like showing all the accessories at once.  Helps to get your head around exactly what your money gets you.  Two guns, both with suppressors and detachable aim-assist gizmos and four clips; three pairs of hands (only two in shot); a knife; a pair of goggles; five frag grenades; two flash-bang grenades; two smoke grenades (one red, one yellow); four detachable pouches; one large backpack with adjustable straps; two shaped explosive charges; one suitcase; and one detonator.  Whew.

"If you can't strip this baby down whilst blindfolded,

you're not badass enough to put me on your shelf.  Nerd." 

Nice close-up of the pistol in hand.  Note how the slide can be pulled back, so it looks like it's really out of bullets?  How brilliant is that?!

It's a cool gun.

Can't really think of anything funny to say here. 

There's no adjustable slide fanciness on the SMG (don't ask me what model it is - I'm not entirely clued up on my gun names), but the stock can fold up along the side of the gun (look back at the first pic to see that), and of course the scope for the top and the suppressor can both detach.  The spare mags, FYI, fit snugly into a pouch that's clipped around Firefly's left thigh.

"Hell're you lookin' at?  It was wash day, alright?" 

Oh yeah, forgot to say: Firefly actually comes with two heads.  In fact, the above one is the default, and is the one used on the packaging.  However, when pre-release pics were seen by the Joe fandom, there was a pretty strong backlash, since all previous Firefly figs have had a mask that matched the rest of his uniform.  Sideshow - and this was very nice of them, it must be said - took those words to heart, and added a second head with the same grey camo scheme as the rest of the uniform.  This may be the only time I'll ever say this, but I'm thankful for the fanboys' whining in this case; although there's nothing wrong with the black head, the camo one is just so much cooler.

"You can have the blade, or just a punch in the face.

Either way it'll kill you, it's just a question of how much you bleed." 

The knife's pretty small, but it looks sharp, and I like how the blade is camouflage-painted (presumably so it doesn't reflect light and give Firefly's position away during night-time operations.  Also, this is the only photo where I remembered to put his hood up.  Firefly's never had a hood before or since (maybe because Hasbro think that should remain strictly Zartan's 'thing') but it really suits him here, and fits very snugly.

Not something you want to declare at Customs. 

I love the fact that he's got a suitcase bomb.  It's so much more modern and practical and...terrorist-y than just a big block of C4.  Not sure if I needed to have the individual charges be removable, but I suppose you could use the case for other things.

"Dammit, I can never get Radio 1 on this thing..." 

If you're gonna have a bomb, you'll need a detonator too.  It's a bit...retro, but it matches the equivalent accessory from the old-school Firefly figure, which is nice, and it fits one of his hands perfectly.

Looks like a hockey puck.

Almost as dangerous, too. 

One of his four limpet mines.  They're a very nice size, I feel, and clearly fit his hands.  Plus they fit the 'saboteur' function better than plain ol' grenades.  Also...

Sticky! 

...they're magnetic!  Love that, I really do.  It's all well and good saying these sort of figures are collectors' pieces, but c'mon...you're gonna play with them at some point, so they'd better have something to offer in that regard.

Also, I'd like to give the box some love.  I'm not one for keeping things mint-on-card, so when I do keep the packaging, it's because it's special somehow.  This is one of those times.  It's got a lovely fold-out design, lots of printed details, some nice pics, AND you can open it without tearing off any sellotape, so it stays presentable.  Lovely.

Firefly relaxes after a good days' work.

Or as close to relaxing as you can get with a face like that.

Next time, erm...no idea.  See you then!