As a guy that's pretty limited on his GI Joe knowledge, I didn't really know much about Firefly coming into this review. But after spending some time with this new fan-chosen GI Joe Hall of Heroes release, I've formed a very distinct opinion about this toy. Read on to see if Firefly managed to impress me (for AD's 100th toy review nonetheless), or instead just needs to self-destruct.
Name: Firefly
Line: GI Joe, Hall of Heroes, Figure 2
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Released: 2nd Quarter 2009
Price: Online: $9.99-$14.99
Scale: 3.75 in. (figure is 4.00 in. tall)
Accessories: "Backpack" with detachable something, storage locker (with removable flashlight, bomb, gasoline tank, and a wire-cutter), walkie talkie, sub-machine gun, assault rifle, pistol, goggles, gold Cobra stand.
Hasbro has managed to work in a lot of clean details into such a small action figure. Firefly features so many little nifty sculpt elements, that I can hardly mention them all. There are an abundance of naturally hanging cloth wrinkles, as well as realistic folds and intricacies on the various pouches, straps, buckles, and stitching that made their way into the sculpt. It would be pretty easy to leave all these details out, but thankfully Hasbro goes the extra mile on their Joe molds, and we can see the positive results here: there's never a boring spot to look at because the design is so dynamic and full of cool visual aspects. This attention to detail also comes to the forefront with his hoard of accessories, each accurately modeled and properly proportioned with lots of details. In a broader sense, this is just a nice looking figure. His proportions are near-perfect, and because of the added costume accessories (like his shoulder straps and belt) he stands out visually from some of the "skinnier" Joe figures. He looks armed to the teeth, and it's a great effect. This is an attractive figure, from the textured and laced boots, all the way up to his well-shaped head.
Speaking of that head, this face sculpt doesn't have a whole lot to offer, given that it's mostly covered by his mask, but the eyes that are visible have an effective angry expression. The fact that his nose is visible through the "cloth" mask is a nifty look, and the grooves running along the top of the mask just add to the overall positive appearance. His head looks even better with the goggles on, and although they might just be a hair too large to look perfect, they fit perfectly after multiple uses, which was an initial unfounded concern I had. As is my usual experience with Joes, it's a little difficult to get weapons to fit into his hands naturally; they either collide with his forearm awkwardly, or don't fit into the shape of his hand well. Only the weapons he includes seem to suffer from this, as all the other accessories work well in his hands. There are two packs that fit into the hole on his back, but they don't rest particularly well, neither shaped to the contour of his body, nor willing to go deep enough inside to please me, penetrating far enough into his hole (they don't go all the way in, okay?). I'm also slightly unclear as to what one of the accessories (the thin silver one) is supposed to be. I'm taking it as a detonator [it's a wire cutter!], but I certainly can't promise that. This might just be a product of my ignorance or a problem with clarity in the sculpt/design. The only major problem that comes to mind with Firefly's sculpt is that his backside is a little barren and doesn't look particularly amazing in any way.
Sculpt Score: 8 / 10
Firefly has a basic color palette, and one that is very similar to the color of my background. It's a nice gray color with perhaps a small tint of blue. This is offset by black costume elements like his straps, belt, boots, and gloves, as well as some silver and red here and there. Although he' a little muddled upon first appearance, these colors are a good look once you've had time to differentiate costume elements. All the same, a little more contrast in color couldn't have hurt too much. There is some camouflaging to break up the visual, but it's really difficult to see too, except in the brightest light. The accessories are each appropriately colored, although a little light on paint applications, coming off looking pretty simple. The detail-work on Firefly himself is surprisingly good, especially when considering his scale. The cut lines at his boots, gloves, and straps are all clean, although hard to see due to the similar colors. The finer elements of his accessories, such as his chest straps, goggles, and backpack are also really crisply applied, and even the cobra symbol on his shoulder looks perfect. His face is painted almost perfectly, with absolutely no slop and clear features. His display base is molded in the Hall of Heroes gold standard, and it looks great. This paint job just suffers from a simplistic color model and simple accessories, but gets the costume features spot-on.
Paint Score: 8 / 10
Firefly benefits from what seems to be the modern GI Joe standard when it comes to articulation. As seen in the image above, he has plenty of different joints, and you can find some life-like poses using them. The only improvements to this model that I would suggest are swivels at the biceps and thighs, which could provide just a few more interesting poses than the current option. His neck is extremely limited by both his sculpted collar in the back, as well as the straps over his shoulders, meaning it's only got about 15 degrees of horizontal movement. All other joints get their full intended ranges of motion, and all of them are plenty tight to hold poses, even with accessories in hand. Nothing feels gummy, weak, stuck, or like it might break, so that's always a relief and helps retain some points. Although this figure has a few points that are typically pretty ugly to the eye, the costume accessories do a great job of hiding them, particularly at his hips (covered by the belt), and his abs (covered by the harness). Having such a diverse ability to pose and still looking good while doing it makes this an almost perfect set of articulation.
Articulation Score: 9 / 10
Despite any problems mentioned above, this is my early favorite for most fun 3.75 inch figure of the year. He may not have an amazing design, any cool "grab you" attributes, nor even an interesting backstory and name. But all you need to do to see why Firefly is so fun is look at the picture above. He comes with an army of accessories. As a matter of fact, if you count everything that isn't a part of the figure itself, there are 15 accessories. There are so many different ways to pose this fellow, and even more ways to play with him. Even better is the fact that most all of the accessories store inside containers or fit right on the character himself. That's always enjoyable to mess around with, and helps avoid the frustration of losing pieces. He also has a great set of articulation to make posing a blast, plus some nice packaging with dynamic artwork and a cut-out biography card that adds to the collectible element. I really can't think of much that this figure is missing; he has more than enough fun for one person, and there aren't any quality control issues or frustrating problems that lower that perfect score.
Fun Score: 10 / 10
Although this Hall of Heroes Firefly does cost considerably more than an average GI Joe single: $10-$12 vs. $7-$8, there is still a lot in the package to make this a worthwhile deal. A dollar or two cheaper would have made this an unbelievable deal, but given the bevy of accessories, high production values, and improved packaging, it's hard to complain a lot. Then again, you could get a nice, and much larger, 6 inch figure for this same price, and this figure is a rerelease of tooling we've already seen before. It's all really going to come down to how big of a Joe or Firefly fan you are; if you love everything Joe, then he's worth every penny, but if you just want to get your feet wet, your money might be better spent elsewhere. Either way, he does seems able to stand up to pretty rough play, and should be happy standing on your shelf for years to come. There aren't any broken or missing parts, and he's going to provide hours of entertainment for a while to come.
Value Score: 8 / 10
Summary
8 - Has trouble using his accessories effectively and looks a little bland from behind, but otherwise features some crisp details and a cool style.
8 - Firefly himself looks a little muddled and his accessories are too simple, but the applications that do exist are all very clean.
9 - Could just use a couple more points, but the ones there look good, offer good poses, and all work splendidly.
10 - There are so many fun accessories, plus he has great articulation and interesting packaging.
8 - Pricey for this scale and we've seen this all before, but he does include a ton of accessories and is well constructed.
Overall Score: 86 / 100 - This is a Great Toy
Firefly might not look like an interesting character, but he's well made in all technical categories and he's a load of fun with all his accessories.
P.S. This could be the figure I'm giving away this month, just leave a comment for a chance to win (if it's the one).
-The Articulated One (thearticulatedone@articulateddiscussion.com)
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