Well, this is it: I've finally decided to start reposting my old "Alexx Shorts" G.I. Joe reviews. They're the reviews that lead to what eventually became this blog! I'll be posting them in straight copy-and-paste format, separating them with bold dotted lines so you know where they begin and end, and then I'll post some final thoughts on what I think of the figure currently.
For those unfamiliar: I used to take random pictures here and there, but by the time the Rise of Cobra toys came out, I was getting annoying with how much people had been bashing the figures which were clearly better than the previous 25th Anniversary offerings. I set out to show people how awesome they were, and things went from there, forming into "Alexx Shorts", named so because I thought I was going to keep to a short format with a few pictures. I did not do that.
QUAID!
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Behold, the Dennis Quaid action figure!
Yay! Seriously though, he really looks like Dennis Quaid! If I was Sienna Miller, I'd be ticked! I mean, you've got most of these figures looking like their actor counterparts, and this one is spot on! Yet, the Baroness figure is....well, it is what it is.
This isn't a little review of that poor Baroness, though, it's a review of Dennis----I mean, General Hawk! (Quaid).
I got this figure for the accessories, but he ended up being a pretty cool figure! The articulation works well, and the blank t-shirt body actually allows him to wear ANY of the webgear from other figures. I noticed some folks talking about how thin his legs are, but if you look at the whole figure, he's actually well proportioned. He's just a thin guy! The arms match well with the body, and I think those make the leg's thinness okay.
Anyway, the gear is still a great reason for getting this figure:
You get another one of those awesome jetpacks, a briefcase with some nano rockets, that cool looking rifle, and a pistol that fits very well in his holster. Given the kinda random gear (haven't gotten to the movie yet) I imagine you'll be passing them around to the figures. That doesn't leave Hawk out, though, 'cause if you have a Pit Trooper, you've got gear for Hawk!
He's pretty versatile, holds weapons well, looks official, and can easily be battle ready with any extra stuff you have around. Also, if you want to do a mix of classic and new stuff, he looks kinda cool with the other Hawk head:
Fact of the matter, though, is that he's so different from Hawk that you'll most likely be using this as someone else
I encourage you to, though! If you're getting him as a representation of Hawk from the movie, then this is perfect! If you're getting him for the gear, then you're getting a cool figure along with the stuff. Also, if you're not interested in a Dennis Quaid figure (what's wrong with you!?) then the figure is obviously still fantastic with whatever head you put in it's place. The thin body and plain t-shirt allows for just about anything! I don't see a reason to skip this one unless you don't customize, don't like the jetpack, or....well I don't know, he's useful on so many levels!
Meanwhile, in the 50's idea of the future:
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Agreed, once again! Past Alexx is on the nose, and I believe I ended up buying two of this guy so I could keep him as Quaid and use the other for parts. Can't remember what I did with the parts, but I'm sure the belt was passed around a bunch until I found a home (a basic gun belt is hard to come by). And you can never have too many jetpacks! This was a great one to reuse (I believe it originally came with a Resolute Duke) and I still love it to this day. On top of that, you've got an opening briefcase, which is always cool, and there's enough room inside to hold other things, beyond nano-rockets. Heck, I'd say he was a total fodder figure if I wasn't inordinately excited to get a Dennis Quaid figure.
And I was.
And I still am.
Seriously, I don't think he's stand-out enough to hunt down, but he was fun for the time!
On the subject of Hawk, I think I can easily rank the original 25th Hawk pretty high in the top 10 worst molds from the 25th line. And they kept using it again and again and again...
ReplyDeleteThe one with the jacket? 'Cause yeah, that one SUUCKED. The elbows barely moved, the hands...well you can see them. Ugh. The rest of him is nice, but once you remove the ability to hold things, it kills the whole figure.
DeleteIf you're talking about the green one.....well, I can't fully agree. Is it ugly, in terms of what they can do with a sculpt nowadays? Sure. But it MOOOOVES. All the articulation works, the hands are THE BEST out of the 25th guys (seriously, cut the index finger free and there is nothing they can't hold) and you can pull off a realistic two-handed pose with no effort. Match that with the blank body (you can pretty much put any armor or harness on it) and I can certainly see why they used it so much. Once again: It doesn't stand the test of time in terms of looks, but it sure as hell works as a basic toy.
Totally the jacket one. The elbows and worthless hands. The hilarious neck ruff that's supposed to be a collar. People used to grouse about the Duke Arms, but for me Hawk Arms were way worse. At least Duke could hold things. Green Hawk is fine, and yeah that body was A-OK for the line. Wasn't it originally for Snake Eyes?
DeleteYeah, I was at least able to flub Duke into a two-handed position. Hawk had to be forced and just....ugh. It's a wonder how things turn out like that when they had already previously done good things. Kinda like Major Bludd and his immobile arm. Why the hell would that be nostalgic? We're getting classics remade with better articulation (more or less)! Why recreate a friggin' immobile arm?
DeleteAnyway, yeah, the other body was originally used on Snake Eyes, and thankfully they used it a lot. They kinda nailed it there (though like I said, it ain't the prettiest compared to some later stuff, or what people have been doing independently, like Marauder) and the hands were hands-down (pun intended) the BEST of the 25th figures. Which I guess ain't saying much, because many of the 25th figures were kinda shit. At the time it was like "Well, this is what we got!" but once Rise of Cobra stuff came out (and then Pursuit) you could see all the glaring mistakes of the 25th figures.
Good figure this. They used this torso on a few of figures since (Resolute box set FLint & Beachhead, 30th Law and some club figures).
ReplyDeleteHell I just used the torso for an Outback update custom.
OOOH man I didn't realize that Law used this torso! Figured I should have noticed that. Would have been nice to get that Resolute set too (not sure why I skipped it).
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