Something that a lot of folks, a lot of Joe fans especially, have complained about quite a bit over the past few years is how characters don't resemble the past versions. While that is a valid complaint in some ways, I like new concepts and new ideas even when it comes to existing characters. I don't mind established people looking different, especially in the Sigma 6 world, which is meant to be a different "universe" so to speak. That being said, the fact that we already got an established "Recondo" in the Sigma 6 world a few months ago, I really can't figure out what the motivation was behind making this figure Recondo as well. This figure looks absolutely nothing like the Adventure Team version, which negatively impacts the affect of the figure overall. For that reason, I will most likely use this figure as Hit & Run, which is something I don't do all the time. I usually prefer to use established characters AS those characters, but in this instance I love the Adventure Team Recondo so much that I just can't overlook his distinct appearance and "pretend" that this figure is him as well.

Another reason I feel the need to make this figure a different character is because I like it...I like it a LOT. And I want to use this figure in tandem with the existing Recondo on my Jungle Operations team, so he needs to be a different guy in the end.

Initially I thought this figure would be somewhat crappy except that the well designed elaborate camouflage jacket ended up saving it. Now that I've got it in hand, I think the opposite is true. I actually find myself liking this figure a lot more without the jacket, which came as a big surprise to me.

At first glance, this figure looks pretty funky without that jacket...he's got a whole lot of monotone green from heck to calf, and not much style or pizazz. The green is a somewhat bright shade (though not overly so) and totally ignores the sleeve lines on the Camo Long Range torso that this figure uses. Still, I find the massive use of green strangely appealing and the way it works with the black boots and gloves is surprisingly effective.

The coolest, most distinctive part of this figure is, without a doubt, the camouflaged face paint. The colors and the paint style work incredibly well, and do an awesome job of adding a nice sense of style and design aesthetic to a figure that could have been pretty boring. Tunnel Rat's head is an odd choice, but the blonde hair and facepaint do a great job of really separating this character from that one. At first I thought we might have a "pea head" affect, but once I got the figure in hand, I didn't really notice it that much and all told, this seems to work fairly well. The boonie hat even fits seamlessly over his knit cap, too.

As I said originally I surprised myself by actually enjoying this figure more without the jacket than with it. The modified black Snake Eyes harness with the twin holsters really does a fantastic job breaking up the somewhat boring green color and gives this figure a lot of style. He's got a great Sigma 6 "feel" to him and comes with a bunch of great accessories, too.

Those twin holsters fit two Switchfires which I'm thrilled to see, I really love those pistols. He's got Long Range's awesome knife, Shipwreck's sword (using it as a machete), the boonie cap from Desert Long Range. Those accessories all work very well in this fashion, and they're cool weapons to boot. He's also got that great 12" scale AK-47 which is surprisingly in scale with these somewhat smaller figures. All geared up, even without his jacket, the figure looks great and is a lot of fun.

At first I didn't love Recondo, but I saw a few pictures from board members, and started changing my mind a bit. Even with Tunnel Rat's head, the hat and jacket improved things tenfold and the figure really started growing on me. Now that I have the figure in hand, I really, REALLY like it. Like it a lot. I might even say this is one of my favorite Combat Squad figures so far, though it does get slightly edged out by Shockwave. The colors are a bit bland, but with all of his gear and that great camouflage face paint, all in all, this figure has more than enough selling points. It's tough to use him as Recondo, but I'll find some way to integrate him into my Jungle Ops team, he's too cool not to.