G.I. Joe Classified Series (1:12)

[ThunderDan19]

Well, Target managed to come through just in time again, convincing me to get the three divers (I didn’t need) for $21 off, a day before the offer expired. I saw all of them in person today at one of our local stores and they looked pretty good, if a little bright , though Wet-Suit will definitely need a better primary weapon. At least I’ll have plenty of spares with all the goodies in the other set, plus a harpoon gun I have left over from the Eel who got an upgrade.

I was going to buy them outright there at the store using the coupon (with a little help from CS I’m sure, since I didn’t see an easy way to get a bar code for the coupon), but the store price was a couple dollars less, putting it just below the cutoff for the deal anyway. So I checked online and found Wet-Suit in stock again there so I made the order from right there in the store from my phone. I just have to wait until Tuesday to get them.

I also saw Sci-Fi there. I didn’t see anything off looking from what I could see in the package. I’ll have to check again once I have mine in hand, with his helmet on and all that. I do remember his head was a goofy large back in the day. I wonder if this version looks off because he might actually be a little better proportioned. Anyway, it’s ironic that I will likely have WS (who I really didn’t care much about) in hand before SF finally gets here.

 

[nacho]

I do remember his head was a goofy large back in the day. I wonder if this version looks off because he might actually be a little better proportioned.

This is entirely possible and crossed my mind too. He did have a big noggin, likely the same designer that made the original '86 viper, who had a big noggin as well.

Then again, I always thought of it more like a motorcycle or racing helmet, which are pretty bulky, unlike a military helmet. Every racecar driver looks like a bobblehead when he gets out of the car, so Sci-Fi in my mind just had a bulky padded helmet. So I wouldn't say he's *better* proportioned now, but it's definitely a slimmer fit.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Well, the wife is off with the girls this weekend and I binged myself on Battlefield 6 so long yesterday that I didn’t even feel like turning it back on today (maybe tonight after a Christmas party ) so… I opened Mainframe and Grim Viper. I actually like them both a lot!

Lenny likes to say he wants the figs and vehicles to tell stories and I really got that from these two (or maybe my creative side is just dying to make up some fresh lore):

Mainframe strikes me as an old school white hat (baseball cap head for me) type who, in the modern cyber battlefield is constantly fighting off malicious AI beamed at Joe tech by Tele and Techno-Vipers or introduced into friendly computer systems at HQ via infiltration by Zartan and friends.

He’s generally suspicious of any new tech and even keeps his old codename, despite those systems long ago becoming obsolete. That approach also suits his choice of his primary weapon, an UZI (it’s what I had, and it works). He tried using a new MP7 for a minute, but hated always having to track down the fancy new ammo. So back to 9mm, just like he like’s his code, time-tested, trusty and dependable.

Half the time when he reintroduces an old bug into a Cobra system via his tech buddy, Dial-Tone (another obsolete codenamed fellow who now does more to intercept and/or disrupt Cobra comms than actually handle comms for the Joes, since everybody has radio these days), the young black hats haven’t a clue how to deal with it, since they were in grade school when it was written.

DT gives him crap about his stature, until they are stuck crawling underneath low clearance raised access flooring and utility tunnels at Cobra data centers while placing disruptor/interceptor devices. It‘s then that he gives it right back to DT when he easily navigates as DT bumps into everything. DT swears MF has been asked, “Aren’t you a little short to be a Techno-Viper?” at least twice when they were on infiltration missions together.

As for the Grim-Viper, I was going to give him a more reasonable LMG instead of the mini-gun, but dang, he’s so huge that the regular sized one looks puny, so he keeps the mini.

The story I see on these guys is that they are recruited out of the regular Viper corps, chosen both for bulk and addictive behavior. Early in the training program they are willingly or otherwise introduced to a daily cocktail of massive steroids as well as highly addictive stimulants cooked up by Dr. Mindbender. By the time they are through training, they are enormous, as well as fully addicted to the treatments, which is ultimately aerosolized and pumped directly into their gruesome looking helmets.

On the battlefield, the GVs are extremely formidable, both for their size and weapons, but also because they will literally do anything their field commander orders them to do, just to get the next fix that is administered via radio control. GVs swing between a normal zombie-like state when the drugs wear off to an absolute berserker state when administered. The Joes made it a high priority to disrupt the communications between the field commanders and GVs to try desperately to avoid a battalion of huge, crazed, heavily armed terminators attacking them while fully activated.

Oh, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon finally reorganizing my home office to get my Joe collection off the top of my desk nook and onto some built in shelving. I no longer have a complete lack of space, and am actually looking forward to getting more figs to fill in gaps!

 

[nacho]

I did a little trim-job on the sides of mainframe's helmet, cut it back so it's not so close to his cheekbones. I think it makes all the difference in the world to how he looks with the classic headgear. The sides just came forward way too far and exaggerated the "kid in an adult costume" look that was already present with the TR buck. But at least he looks like he's wearing a properly sized helmet now.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Did you end up switching to the darker pants as well? I thought about getting a cheap NFTR to get the darker pants, but decided that MF was ok with the ones he came with.

 

[nacho]

I bought a $10 NFTR for that purpose, but when I got so irritated with the short-king figure, I just put him away and stuck with my PP Viper/BAT kitbash with GridIron gear.

The one I trimmed today was the office-studio figure, trying to make him better since I don't want to make a second custom. But I might end up doing the swap on that one.... however, I also picked up a clearanced Metal-Head (yeah, I bought that bad figure yet again) to potentially swap his lower half onto MF, give him a little height back. Not sure if it'll make his upper half look disproportionate, but I'm going to find out.

 

[nacho]

So I took the time to do the Metalhead leg swap on Mainframe... at first I wasn't sure, as the underwear is a little big, but fitting MF's gear/belt over the top of the diaper basically hides the extra, saved me from having to trim it down. And it's a snug fit, so his gear doesn't try to ride up... a nice side-effect.

While the torso and arms could be a mm or two longer to get the proportions spot on, it's not off enough that I'm likely to notice. The taller legs and better boots make a tremendous difference. I'll likely end up sacrificing another MetalHead to mod the MF I have in the home display.

Between trimming the helmet, the better boots, and taller legs, I genuinely don't hate this figure anymore.

 

[ThunderDan19]

At least from the pic he doesn't look disproportionate. On a similar note, open box NFTR showed back up on WM.com for $11 with free shipping from a third party seller, and it let me checkout this time, so I figured why not for the price. We'll see if it actually gets to me or not, but if it does, I might swap out the legs on MF after all use the best remaining parts from both versions of TR for an "ultimate."

Since I've relocated the collection, I'm on the hunt for discounted retros on cards to line the back of the shelves. I'm hoping for some good after-holiday deals, as long as they don't go completely out of stock before I catch them at rock bottom.

I'm also finding myself tempted by the heavily discounted Super7 Ultimates on BBTS. Getting the first three waves (12 figs, only 2 of which are duds) for $200 is tempting. The real question is whether the remainder of the figs, some of which are pretty good, will ever be discounted enough for me to consider before they disappear completely. That line is officially dead now, right?

 

[nacho]

As far as I know, yes. They have only put out three Joe Ultimate figures this year, all repaints (Red Laser, TF Flint, PP Destro). Last announced wave was cancelled, and so far nothing new has been announced in nearly 18 months. Even the assumptions that they were pivoting to a cheaper deluxe for mass market seem to have died, as in an interview, the S7 guy talked about how classified ate their lunch. So unless there is bombshell news anytime soon, we all assume the line is kaput. I think all of S7's Joe energy is on o-ring ReAction+ figures.

The ultimates are fun. Noticeably larger (7") and less articulation than Classified, but tons of accessories and oozing with straight from an animation cel sunbow goodness. At clearance prices, they're a steal if their vibe suits you. I love them. I've bought a ton of extras to make customs eventually, even 3d resin printed some upscaled heads to go on them. But those are probably a year or two away on the infinite custom schedule.

If you have the funds and space to display, go for it, as the deals likely won't get any better.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Yeah, I wouldn't be displaying them alongside the CS like the retro cards, and likely wouldn't even remove them from the boxes unless I got a wild hair and decided to start up a whole new display area. But that seems unlikely, knowing there will never be more than 20 or so (at least that I'd be interested in owning). But they really are unique.

As you mentioned, they are so spot on with the cartoon series that I want to have them simply for that glorious nostalgia. It really is a shame there won't ever be more of them. Their price point really hurt them, especially when CS was coming in under $25 per. I guess we'll see if they are still around the next time I have significant play money in hand. Then I will have to decide if it's really worth having them.

 

[nacho]

I recall being genuinely struck taking them out of the package, just how toon-accurate they are. Zartan and Major Bludd in particular. It's really impressive, given that hasbro has never been able to do anything that close, even when they try. The extra portraits and facial expressions really complete the package, along with the episode-specific goodies.

 

[ThunderDan19]

They certainly look it from what I've seen as well. You gotta wonder why Lenny and co. all the sudden decided to make that same cartoon SE since CS really doesn't suit it like the S7 line does. Similarly with all the MASS figs. It's like they felt threatened and just wanted to end the already struggling S7Us. Comes off a little dickish.

While I had no use for the overpriced 5 POA ReA figs, the S7s at least have a reasonable amount of articulation and truly leaned into the cartoon personas. While I never had the motivation to buy them at retail price, they at least stayed well within their lane, gave the customer a lot of goodies with each fig and really shouldn't have made the lower priced CS feel threatened anyway. It's CS that has been ducking into retro (not that I take any issue with that), but then also started dabbling into the 'toon, despite still having plenty of characters left to modernize and/or release as true retros.

I guess what I am trying to say is that, despite not being able to get the price point down enough to stay afloat, you could at least tell that the S7 people truly went all in with recreating those characters right out of their cartoon moments. For that reason, I hate to see them go, especially when it seems that the very company that let them license those characters seemed to randomly veer right into their wheelhouse to finish them off.

 

[nacho]

FYI, DD has S7U Bludd, Scarlett, and Trooper under $30, and they're running the monthly 15% off instock stuff (CHILL15). More than 50% off on figs from W3 and W5 is solid, as those weren't produced in the huge quantities of W1 & 2. Add those to the BBTS deals and you're not missing too many.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Man, it's been mighty quiet around here! Busy time of the year for everything but Joe collecting I guess, and the CS has pretty well peaked out until April or May, at least according to the next expected drop dates.

In the past week I have taken delivery of WS, the other divers and Sci-Fi, as well as retro Stalker and TV - which I managed to score for $16 per thanks to a free shipping coupon on Mercari. I have yet to open the divers and SF, and haven't placed the retros either. I probably won't get to any of that until sometime next week, as I'm away this weekend, but I am glad to have all those in hand now at least.

The "pro-seller" on WM.com (predictably) cancelled my $11+free shipping NFTR order. So much for the extra parts there. Now my attention is trying to get the remaining retros, the ones that I have any interest in having, for the best price I can. I was almost hoping they might find their way to Ollie's, who happen to have 25% off their toys right now, but am ultimately happy that they didn't. It demonstrates that the line(s) remain(s) healthy for the most part, and should continue on pace for now.

I'm also somewhat torn on Hawk and the MMS. I have accumulated enough play money to buy the set outright with no money out of pocket, but can't get myself to pull the trigger. I simply don't consider the set, at least in part due to the aesthetically altered missiles, worthy of the full retail price. It also doesn't help that, despite the fact that I actually like this one better, I already have a General Hawk in my collection too, so I don't need this set at all.

So now I roll the dice and wait. Which price will drop first or lowest - the MMS or the remaining retros - or will any of the retros go out of stock first like Duke did? I guess it's good to have something to pay attention to for the line right now, but I do wish they would just hurry up...

 

[nacho]

Nice little haul!

DD has the MMS in stock, so you can easily get it for 15% off and free shipping when the next coupon code drops (if there aren't any active now... I'm not sure). While General Hawk is the correct figure to go with my '86 crowd, Colonel Hawk just looks so "right" with my '82 OG boys. Grab one on sale, and when I get around to printing new classic missiles, I'll run out some extras

I haven't done much on the collecting front, but I've still been printing up a storm. Got the MOBAT printed, but assembly has been a slog. Cleaning all the flash and supports off 184 tread sections basically took me two weekends. But that tedious work is done, and all I lack is fitting the side skirts, assembling the engine detail, and decals.

AND... I've been feverishly printing the TTBP... took about 3 weeks. I was hoping to get it finished printing before the chaos of the holidays. Got the last part done on tuesday, starting printing some little simple honeycomb light guides for my little photography LED lights... and the printer went kaput. Printer nozzle clogged beyond repair, had to order a new one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But what are the odds I finish a round-the-clock-for-three-weeks project as the last thing before it goes belly up? It would have bugged the heck out of me if I still had one or two parts left. That hangnail would have annoyed me all through the holidays. So I'm glad it hung on as long as it did. 2700 hours and over 50 kilos of filament in five months... that's nearly 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Talk about utilization! IT was a lot of work and planning just to keep it running at that clip.

I think the new nozzle will fix it, but if not, I'm going to act like I got my money's worth and buy a new / better unit. The wife has been warned.

 

[ThunderDan19]

TTBP? Wow! That’s ambitious! And it must be huge! ‘Been watching a guy on YT that did a pretty cool Tomahawk and now he’s working on a Night Raven. Those are definitely going to need to be hung or will demand some serious shelf space! How do you plan to display the BP?

 

[nacho]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have an ocean backdrop I'll set it on for photos (might need a larger one?), but it'll be too big to live on a shelf. I might be able to assemble it in a way that is disassemble-able, but I'm not sure until I start putting it together. I tend to like to Kraggle bigger pieces for maximum stability. But at the least, I'll make sure the legs and all the armaments can come off so that I could stand the base platform itself on end on a shelf maybe... or at least fit it in a larger storage tub.

Size-wise, it's pretty big. Just looking at the various parts, I've wondered if it's really big enough for scale, but when I place a bunch of parts next to each other in their approximate assembly location, it looks pretty darn huge. The helipad alone is 13" square.

My holiday project for now is recreating the sticker sheet for the TTBP. All I have is a grainy, low-res image, so I'm remaking the graphics with photoshop. And on the computer control panels, I had AI to enhance and upscale the lousy graphics, and it did a stellar job, saved me a ton of manual work in PS... but it sucks when there is text. Try to upscale grainy text and it comes out looking like Russian.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Sounds like a lot of work, but at least we live in a time where projects like that can be done from home and don‘t require an expensive contract with a print shop. Heck, the 3D printing alone is a massive game changer for the CS line!

I know when I watched the video of the guy finishing out the Tomahawk, he was using hidden magnets for some of the parts (even the rotors if I recall). It drove home for me that flexibility could be an important element of these ginormous vehicles. If I were ever to go deep and invest in a TH like that, I’d need to easily, and without causing damage, be able to remove half the rotor blades, just to fit it atop my desk nook.

I don’t know if it’s even practical or not for the TTBP, but modularizing with manageable ways of partial assembly/disassembly would seem like a big help in finding space for display(s).

 

[ThunderDan19]

And… the predictable arctic repaints…

Hasbro G.I. Joe Classified Series Cobra?s Arctic H.I.S.S. Rolls Out & Three NEW Classified Series Figure Reveals

Cobra is rolling out for winter warfare.This is a limited-time pre-order, exclusively on HasbroPulse through January 4, 2026. Don?t miss your window to deploy

toynewsi.com

Cute… but pass.

 

[HUNMARINE]

They forgot to include the "G.I.Joe HASLAB ultra-color pencil set" with that trio, so you can color them into any fraction (jungle, desert, nigh ops...) you like to.

 

[nacho]

And… the predictable arctic repaints…

Hasbro G.I. Joe Classified Series Cobra?s Arctic H.I.S.S. Rolls Out & Three NEW Classified Series Figure Reveals

Cobra is rolling out for winter warfare.This is a limited-time pre-order, exclusively on HasbroPulse through January 4, 2026. Don?t miss your window to deploy

toynewsi.com

Cute… but pass.

I don't *need* them, but I'm a sucker for environmental repaints. They at least have a practical reason to exist, as opposed to the incessant Crimson and rainbow reissues of everything.

I'd prefer a blueshirt in a parka to all of the specialty vipers in white, but it'll make for a fun photo setup anyway.

 

[nacho]

Apparently the arctic repaints are a 3-pack. That's an extra bummer, as I'd have bought more Steel Corps for customizing some extra snow Joes. Probably going to be an overpriced pulse exclusive... so I might be out... or waiting for the clearance that may never come.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I got my Hawk/MMS ordered from AMZ. I tacked on a retro Recondo. Both were below retail, maybe not as low as I’d prefer, but it was all paid in play money anyway, so no real complaints. Now I’m just looking for one more MOC retro to finish out my “wallpaper” on the top two tiers of my newly claimed display shelves.

I’m kinda wishing I’d locked in Duke on sale before he dried up. Only BBTS has him now, for above retail. I haven’t committed on the Super7s from there, but If I do, he’ll surely be added to the loot. I’m back to playing chicken with “how low can they go before they sell out?” with those.

As awesome as they are, they are easy to hold on, since I haven’t committed to that line at all. We’ll have to see if I can make it happen or if I miss the boat.

 

[nacho]

FYI, Target.com has Law & Order on clearance for $28, down from $45. Not sure he'll ever get much cheaper.

 

[nacho]

Finally finished the PITA assembly of this beast. NGL, I'm pretty darn happy with it overall.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Wow! Totally looks to have been worth the effort though! The nostalgia buzz is strong with that one!

Is it actually scaled a little larger than the original was to the 3.75" figs? Steeler looks a little smaller in it than I remember from 40+ years ago.

Haslab missed the boat not making one of these. It looks amazing in its original scaled up form and would have been epic as an upgraded HL version.

 

[nacho]

Wow! Totally looks to have been worth the effort though! The nostalgia buzz is strong with that one!

Is it actually scaled a little larger than the original was to the 3.75" figs? Steeler looks a little smaller in it than I remember from 40+ years ago.

Haslab missed the boat not making one of these. It looks amazing in its original scaled up form and would have been epic as an upgraded HL version.

Yeah, it's a tad larger. I always thought the original was a smidge small, as Steeler stood too high and looked like a tempting target.

The design I found was far too small despite being billed as a classified design, and the guy who did the CAD recommended scaling it up another 25%... which is good because it would have looked absurdly tiny at the default size. Someone on the product page posted picks of their build at the default, and it looked silly. I don't even think he could have gotten a figure into it.

But even so, I have to move Steeler's holsters and pouches toward the front to get him to fit in the turret. The extra width of the removable gear is non-trivial, as I find that ARAH vehicles properly scaled up 167% for classified is still a tight fit due to all the thick gear getting in the way. So it's a balancing act about making everything look right AND still be practical/usable with the 1:12 figures.

 

[ThunderDan19]

And... I made the mistake of continuing to check AMZ for deals, and (naturally) now they have a 30% coupon on the MMS that would have saved me another $20 were it available back when I bought. While theoretically I could still cancel my MMS since it hasn't shipped yet, doing so would trigger shipping charges onto Recondo, which has arrived. So the best I could hope for would be to save like $13 and would still have to wait until the cancellation was approved before the gift card credit would become usable again, so probably another day or so.

It's just tempting enough to almost make me jump the hoops, but it's not like I have anything waiting in the wings there that I want to buy with that credit, so oh well. Like so many things, it just would have been better to just not know...

 

[nacho]

I'm waiting on Heavy Duty to go on clearance. I don't care about the figure, but I have a custom I want him for. And I assume the cop and fireman will drop substantially in the next few months too. I wouldn't mind getting some if they get below $20.

Overall, the Deluxe and Deluxe w/ Pet price points seem like a tough sell. They almost always go on clearance for a substantial discount. SnowJob is the only one I can think of that didn't, and he was Pulse Exclusive, IIRC, so the production quantity on him was probably an order of magnitude less than a figure that hits walmart.

 

[nacho]

Eddie asked for some pics with other stuff for scale...

With GridIron'd VAMP and AWE Striker...


With FH Skyhawk...






With Ramen Wolverine...





With "Tiger Orange"...

 

[nacho]

I got a few more scale-comparison requests...

 

[ThunderDan19]

I finally found the time to assemble the MMS and extract Hawk from his box. I have to admit that I’m actually pretty underwhelmed by it. Hawk doesn’t look quite as good in person as in the glamour shots, but he’s probably about as good as I could imagine, modernized while remaining relatively close to the original. He’s definitely the best part of the set, and really the only reason I got it. If anything, he’s almost too well equipped compared to the original.

As for the MMS, we’ve discussed the changes to the missiles already so I won’t dwell on that, but I didn’t notice until assembly that there isn’t a remote control station as there was with the original. Not like the standoff from the original was going to keep Hawk from being singed a little, but the control panel on the corner of this one would get him completely cooked by the rocket blast.

I wish they had recreated the remote launch box (or given us even an handheld laptop) instead of just packing in those same overused blast effects and extra generic rifles. And, for the same amount of plastic as all those, why not give us the Rattler’s missile trails instead of Scrap Iron’s? Feels mailed in.

I also opened up Sci-Fi and see what you mean about the head feeling off. It’s the helmet for sure. This one is very thin as opposed to the bulky original one. It’s almost too thin and form fitting to feel 100% legit, but I wouldn’t consider him much more than a background character so I can live with it. I definitely like the classic visor over the (can’t breathe!) full face shield.

My wife’s cousin is visiting so I have a little extra play time right now. Will it be enough to get me to take on the much more intensive task of setting up divers? Or will I just keep putting it off and go play more BF6 instead? Only time will tell…

 

[nacho]

Funny you mention the MMS... I've been looking at CAD designs that I can mod for classic missiles, and looking at different filaments that would be the best color match. I haven't settled on either yet, but I suspect I will in the next week or so.

 

[Dr Syn]

I got a few more scale-comparison requests...

View attachment 17586

View attachment 17585

View attachment 17589

View attachment 17588

View attachment 17587

Dang dude, how long did that take to print?

 

[nacho]

Dang dude, how long did that take to print?

According to my printer app, I started printing on 11/7, finished on 11/25... so 18 days? In total, the final parts took in excess of 224 hours to print... but, as usual, I had my share of failures and screw-ups that added to that total. Printing anything with this many big parts without a nozzle clog, power failure, filament tangle, or prep mistake is almost impossible.

Body is printed in Justmaker Forrest Green High-Speed PLA (almost 4 kg), 11 build plates, roughly 183 hours print time, not including my screw-ups I had to redo.

Treads were done in Anycubic black ABS (just under 1kg), ~41 hours total (six build plates full at just under 7 hours each)

So "only" 10-12 lbs of plastic and 18 days of printing with about 75% utilization... And none of that counts the dozens of man-hours of cleaning and sanding the parts, assembly, decals, etc.

.... i.e. you have to *really* want a MOBAT

 

[ThunderDan19]

WM has $5 Jodie Shooters right now, in case she has something to offer as spare parts. I added one to a pick up order, because cheap. I might try her head on an ethnic 60th Marine to see if it makes for a better version.

 

[nacho]

I think this is where I've landed on the MMS missile design. I had to do a little CAD work to slice and dice the design I found, make the connector match the official (better than trying to retrofit magnets or something), get it positioned in roughly the same spot, etc. The hasbro version is very joe-scale, so I wanted to make these larger, but not ridiculously so. I made the diameter about 10% larger, the wings substantially larger, and the length about an inch and a half longer. Should look pretty sweet without dwarfing the launcher.

Next week I'll do a test print with a couple of filaments, see which one matches the launcher color the best.

Then I have to decide what to do about decals.. to print, paint, or find a waterslide. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[ThunderDan19]

Now that looks more like it!

 

[nacho]

I decided the best way to handle the decals would be to emboss (a mere 0.5 mm) to make painting them easy (ish?).

I had to make the decals in CAD, and it was especially challenging to get the ones on the main body properly curved to the radius of the missile. And of course, the three missiles have different serial numbers, so it all had to be done in triplicate.

(Classified got lazy and made them all the same, but the serial # stickers on the ARAH missiles were all different... now you know... )

I really wanted the missile design to have the fins horizontal and vertical like the ARAH version, but the way the Classified launcher is designed, there isn't really room for properly-sized fins that way. The hard points are just too close together. So I had to have all the fins at 45-deg angles like the JoeClass missiles. Probably nobody but me would notice, but otherwise, I think it'll be a yuuuuge upgrade.



EDIT: I'm not printing the decals in color because of the inordinate time and wasted material with a zillion filament changes that would be required, but here's a rough representation of how it should look with the decals painted:

 

[ThunderDan19]

Funny you should mention the rotation of the mounts. I was thinking you’d have to go that route. At least it will match the mounting on the actual Hawk system. I’d say that their mounting the missiles parallel to the fins back in the day led to that funky extension arm that people get wrong half the time. The mounts are actually an improvement on the CS version.

On a different note, I finally got around to opening and setting up Ketchup, Mustard and Wet-Suit. They look pretty cool on display, but the divers are just about 100% recycled, though I don’t mind too much since I never got the 60th diver. At least they are stacked with gear, even if it’s sometimes brightly colored and fully repurposed, and most is all but useless in an “underwater” display. I have to see where I can find homes for the better guns.

Like so many other exclusives, their plastic is also more hard/brittle than normal, but not terrible. Seems like they must be getting made on the cheap compared to the fully original stuff. Ironic with recent price hikes. At least Target hooked me up with coupons. And now the prices have come down on Steeler/SF, so the divers can’t be far behind.

I used a twist tie to mount WS’s propulsion rig on his back and gave him Eel’s spear gun (got his OG gun a while back). It was an opportunity missed that H’bro didn’t make that propulsion mount a feature. Nonetheless, he does look pretty cool (even if a little technicolor), and even if he’s the only diver without an enemy to fight, at least until the Hydro-Viper comes along later this year apparently.

So far, my spindly arm stands are holding up under the weight of the divers and their gear. They’ve kept Torpedo, Eel and the Mandalorian’s Naboo ship (smaller scale of course) aloft for years(?) now, but I think WS with gear may be the heaviest yet, so we’ll see if he stays up. If it does, I’ll have to order more when HV drops.

I also got Shooter yesterday and opened her up. Man, what a truly useless figure. I couldn’t find anything to salvage so she got put away. Even her expression is less pleasant than the ethnic 60th Marine, who is my version of Shooter anyway. I really can’t complain though for $5, and hopefully something from that fig will come in handy someday. Meh.

With that, the only figs not extricated from their packaging are the last two 60th figs from Ollie’s. I don’t know what to do with them as of yet, but they’ll be around for when I can find a way to use them or their accessories. Bring on the next wave! (Oh wait, Chinese New Year…)