So Mandingo set the bar REALLY high...so what we need to do now is lower our expectations waaaaay way way down to like shortbus level. We there?... Good, let's begin...
Up until this JoeCon Mission Brazil 2 Leatherneck, Hasbro saw fit to give us two other Leathernecks... both of which were packed in with a vehicle and were lame excuses for the classic LN (though the version that came with the tan AWE Striker was a much better Mission Brazil than this JoeCon version)... and this JoeCon version is no different... BUT, of the three, he's the best by far... and IMO, likely the closest we'll ever get to having an "accurate" representaion of the 1986 classic LN... and that's exactly why i picked him up off eBay for $45 shipped... Yeah, it did hurt to pay that for one loose figure... but again, it's probably the best we're gonna get and it's an EXCLUSIVE, so, ehh...
Aside from being less than accurate to his OG counterpart, he's really not a bad figure... He looks cool, and i'm BIG fan of the PIT Commando vest used on him, thought obviously this time it's in tan... I can't help but think though, that had they used a different vest, they could have put the dark green paint apps on his shoulders and have been that much closer to the ARAH figure which they were clearly trying to emulate... Another great selling point for me is the use of the torso originally used to make 25th Dusty from the DVD set. I love it... it's a great sculpt for one, plus it has the extra waist articulation that i believe no other Joe figure has (besides Joes that use the Dusty torso). The rest of the figure though, is made up of parts I'm much less impressed by... the Gung-Ho head, AGAIN?!.... ugh, enough already! I would have preferred the PoC Recondo head with a new 8 point cap. Then there's the Snow Job legs, and they too have been used to death. The lower portion of them is fine if used with a different upper leg, but then the knee would have been an issue, which I also don't like here... though had it been painted with the same camo scheme as the rest of the figure, wouldn't have been so bad. Heck, now that i say it, the uppers would have been fine too had they camo'd the black—things—on the front of LN's upper legs also.. Lastly, we have those damn Duke arms...they suck major a$$ for holding, well, anything. The one good thing about them though is that they are classic-Leatherneck-accurate with the forearm cuff... so much so that i choose to use them on my custom LN.
The bad bad things?... for one, you can't use the backpack on LN with the vest on. The holes in the vest and on the torso of the figure don't line up., so if you want to use it with the vest on (who doesn't?) you are forced to elongate the hole in the vest on an EXCLUSIVE $45 dollar figure. Not cool. Plus, due to the pockets on side of the back of the vest, the backpack sits cockeyed... nothing too noticeable, but it is there. Another bad thing is, at least on my LN, that the peg and socket on his right arm do not line up correctly, making it super easy for his forearm to fall off. Go ahead—adjust his gun, or arm position, see what happens, LOL... Something minor, and typical of most figures with removable vests, is the inability to put his arms down at his sides; this hinders a lot of poses and kinda looks weird. As you can see in the pics, thats as low as they go...
His gear is nice—basic really—nothing over the top... of course, there is the PIT Commando vest that I so love. He also comes with an M16(?), a Desert Eagle(?), a machete and a backpack that's had its rounds in the 25th line... Oh, also, a two-peg stand and a VERY flimsy file card... (Which is consistent wit the entire set, btw -Rex)
The paint apps, like all the other JoeCon figures reviewed by Mandingo, were great... especially the camo. The skin tone is nice too, matching all my other figures, though I don't mind variations in skin tones from figure to figure, it just makes it difficult to swap parts when customising. The eyes are very well applied—no wonky cross-eyed-ness or strung-out buggy eyes like 25th Ace. His left arm patch is nice and crisp too.
I also took this opportunity to show off the brick wall i made using Mandingo's tutorial and used it as a backdrop... very easy to do, and the results are so cool.
All in all, Leatherneck is a decent figure, even if he lacks in the accuracy department that the nostalgia freak in me so desperately desires.
Outta 10, i'd give him a 7, mostly for crappy parts re-use.
Up until this JoeCon Mission Brazil 2 Leatherneck, Hasbro saw fit to give us two other Leathernecks... both of which were packed in with a vehicle and were lame excuses for the classic LN (though the version that came with the tan AWE Striker was a much better Mission Brazil than this JoeCon version)... and this JoeCon version is no different... BUT, of the three, he's the best by far... and IMO, likely the closest we'll ever get to having an "accurate" representaion of the 1986 classic LN... and that's exactly why i picked him up off eBay for $45 shipped... Yeah, it did hurt to pay that for one loose figure... but again, it's probably the best we're gonna get and it's an EXCLUSIVE, so, ehh...
Aside from being less than accurate to his OG counterpart, he's really not a bad figure... He looks cool, and i'm BIG fan of the PIT Commando vest used on him, thought obviously this time it's in tan... I can't help but think though, that had they used a different vest, they could have put the dark green paint apps on his shoulders and have been that much closer to the ARAH figure which they were clearly trying to emulate... Another great selling point for me is the use of the torso originally used to make 25th Dusty from the DVD set. I love it... it's a great sculpt for one, plus it has the extra waist articulation that i believe no other Joe figure has (besides Joes that use the Dusty torso). The rest of the figure though, is made up of parts I'm much less impressed by... the Gung-Ho head, AGAIN?!.... ugh, enough already! I would have preferred the PoC Recondo head with a new 8 point cap. Then there's the Snow Job legs, and they too have been used to death. The lower portion of them is fine if used with a different upper leg, but then the knee would have been an issue, which I also don't like here... though had it been painted with the same camo scheme as the rest of the figure, wouldn't have been so bad. Heck, now that i say it, the uppers would have been fine too had they camo'd the black—things—on the front of LN's upper legs also.. Lastly, we have those damn Duke arms...they suck major a$$ for holding, well, anything. The one good thing about them though is that they are classic-Leatherneck-accurate with the forearm cuff... so much so that i choose to use them on my custom LN.
The bad bad things?... for one, you can't use the backpack on LN with the vest on. The holes in the vest and on the torso of the figure don't line up., so if you want to use it with the vest on (who doesn't?) you are forced to elongate the hole in the vest on an EXCLUSIVE $45 dollar figure. Not cool. Plus, due to the pockets on side of the back of the vest, the backpack sits cockeyed... nothing too noticeable, but it is there. Another bad thing is, at least on my LN, that the peg and socket on his right arm do not line up correctly, making it super easy for his forearm to fall off. Go ahead—adjust his gun, or arm position, see what happens, LOL... Something minor, and typical of most figures with removable vests, is the inability to put his arms down at his sides; this hinders a lot of poses and kinda looks weird. As you can see in the pics, thats as low as they go...
His gear is nice—basic really—nothing over the top... of course, there is the PIT Commando vest that I so love. He also comes with an M16(?), a Desert Eagle(?), a machete and a backpack that's had its rounds in the 25th line... Oh, also, a two-peg stand and a VERY flimsy file card... (Which is consistent wit the entire set, btw -Rex)
The paint apps, like all the other JoeCon figures reviewed by Mandingo, were great... especially the camo. The skin tone is nice too, matching all my other figures, though I don't mind variations in skin tones from figure to figure, it just makes it difficult to swap parts when customising. The eyes are very well applied—no wonky cross-eyed-ness or strung-out buggy eyes like 25th Ace. His left arm patch is nice and crisp too.
I also took this opportunity to show off the brick wall i made using Mandingo's tutorial and used it as a backdrop... very easy to do, and the results are so cool.
All in all, Leatherneck is a decent figure, even if he lacks in the accuracy department that the nostalgia freak in me so desperately desires.
Outta 10, i'd give him a 7, mostly for crappy parts re-use.
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