Sneak Preview: Joe Trooper from G.I. Joe: Retaliation!

Hot off the boat, we take a sneak preview of the G.I. Joe Trooper from the movie G.I. Joe: Retaliation!  Check it out now!

When the images from the new G.I. Joe movie appeared, there was a wealth of responses from extremely positive to negative, and few points in between. As a primary G.I. Joe collector, this of course had my interests blooming. One of the major figures that stuck out was the new G.I. Joe trooper, as he bore an awfully uncanny resemblance to Master Chief from the Halo franchise with the helmet and green gear. It became even more peculiar when the shots and photos shown the figure in his green outfit, but a (somewhat Cobra) blue gas mask and cape. Not only did it have a helmet and a gas mask, but this figure also came with a mohawked nameless head.

Firstly, I can tell you that the head is a great sculpt. Really life like. The mohawk came out really well and is nicely painted. It turns out that the gas mask is no longer blue, but is now a carmel brown color with a red visor. The mask fits completely over the face and chin, but leaves a lot of the back of the head open. The Master Chief helmet is an angular helmet with a blue visor, and yes, it definitely resembles the Master Chief helmet. The helmet is an interchangable head and is large enough to look like the helmet is over the head, but not too much so to where it looks goofy on the figure. The trooper has a brown part of a hood or kerchief around his neck, that looks a bit incomplete. It looks better with one of the masks on, but with the bare head, the hood sticks out. The figure has a soft goods multi-layered harness and strap set that has canisters, various belts, and what I guess is chest armor on it. The details on the harness and straps are amazing and precise. The arms are given wrinkles and multi-layered fabric around the shoulders and wrists for some depth, and there are pouches and some type of devices around the wrists. The black gloves have padding on the back of the hand as well as padding on the knuckles for some pretty detailed hands. Here’s an interesting thing… It looks like they are sculpted to have multi-articulated hands, but they only swivel. It looks like hinges were supposed to go on the hands, but later cut out. Green baggy pants with silver kneepads with black boots finish off the look of the figure.

The articulation for the Joe Trooper is your basic modern era G.I. Joe figure: Head/Helmet rests on a ball post, ball hinge shoulders and elbows, swivel wrists. A torso joint allows for forward wiggle, but also goes side to side even with the harness in the way. The hips are on a ball pin, and the knees are on a double hinge, and do a good job folding back on itself. The ankle articulation is where the figure takes the biggest leap from standard G.I. Joe joints. The ankle has a hinge joints based off of the leg. Most G.I. Joe ankle joints in the modern era are ball joints with the joint being on the foot. It provides for some pretty solid movement, and the joints stick in place, which is about all you can ask. In addition, they have rockers on the feet to allow some sideward sway on the feet for better positioning. This really does improve the figure’s posability, allowing for more bent leg posing.

As for gear, he comes with a mask, helmet, backpack, a cape, a shovel, three large guns, a small handheld gun, and two knives and a double sheath. Mind you, this was not a figured pulled from the shelves, so there could be either extra items or items missing. As it is, he’s loaded down with accessories. Most of the material can be stored on the backpack. The problem is, the backpack peg is so long, you can’t really use it without the cape on, and the cape is more of a hassle than it’s worth. The now carmel color cape is a hard plastic, and is pretty unforgiving in terms of posing. The guns range from an assault rifle, a grenade launcher looking gun, and a sniper type of gun. They fit easily in his hands and can be posed in natural positions.

In a quick glance, the figure is awesome. He’s a bit tall and slender, his legs are pretty long. He can hold everything he comes with (or, at least, everything my figure came with), and can be positioned in dynamic poses. I’ll definitely be buying quite a few of these, I can only hope the rest of this movie line will impress me as much as the Joe Trooper has!

Tags: 1/18th, 4", G.I. Joe, Hasbro, Joe Trooper, Retaliation