While I would like nothing more than to come in here and talk down the latest "Duke", "Snake Eyes" or other core character rehash, I just can't do it in this case. Well, not entirely. The figure does end up very, very cool all things considered, but you gotta think that there could have been another way to do this, however with some simple paint changes, there can easily be a resolution.

First of all, the Duke figure itself looks great, very reminiscent of the Commando Series 1 figure with similar design asthetics, but enough minor alterations to make him nicely different. However, I do think Hasbro could have done a few things to make this more palatible.

Ultimately, though, the Duke figure looks neat from a pure figure point of view. He retains a lot of the core elements that worked well in Commando series 1, with a nice dark blue and black paint scheme. However this new figure has a much more "scuba suit" look with long sleeves and without the clunky oversized boots. These changes make the figure look a lot more nicely streamlined over all and give him an immediate more stealthy look to him, which is very cool, especially for those water insertions. They also added some cool pseudo face camouflage which gives him an even more "black ops" look, which I think is very nice. It gives him a serious edge, which you can't go wrong with.

Overall the figure looks very cool, but there are some things that could work better. First of all, I know Hasbro must release the core characters on a regular basis to try and draw in the kids, and for the most part it seems to be working to me. Whenever I see Sigma 6 on store shelves, Duke seems to be in short supply, so it would appear that there is a demand for him, and with this new sea ops gear, perhaps demand will even increase. I mean even without the scuba gear on, this figure is definitely usable as a generic commando type, which is where my issues kind of lie. It would have been nice to get a Torpedo or a Wet Suit out of this figure (although to be fair, just a little bit of paint would fix it) but ultimately having yet another Duke seems somewhat forced. Still, though, the figure IS a cool one, I just wish we could have gotten someone else out of it. A lot of folks have sort of argued the fact that accessory packs might work better than pseudo-repaints with new gear, but I'm not sure I agree. Based on the amount of gear that Sea Ops Duke comes with, I'd say even an accessory pack would probably run $6-8, even if you just take packaging into the equation and such. Personally, I'd rather pay a few extra bucks and get a figure along with it. However, when you start talking about doing Commando figures this way, unless there are significant changes, I'm not sure I'll be able to retain my support for that idea.

Now regardless of how I feel about the figure, the name of the game here is accessories, and Sea Ops Duke has them in SPADES. This is a major selling point for this figure and Hasbro has done a fantastic job with them. More coverage in the Tech Specs page as usual, but suffice it to say, the scuba gear, the mini-sub, the torpedo launcher, and the Switchfire pistols are all important componants to a very cool, very successful accessory compliment that blends interactivity, coolness, and usability into one perfect group of neat sea operations gear. Many of these parts work together well and still exist and operate nicely on their own as well.

Another really cool new aspect of the figure that is somewhat understated is his webgear. It's a nice simple over-the-shoulder elastic webgear system with twin holsters at each rib that hooks the Switchfire pistols into place nearly perfectly. A very cool addition to the figure that may go overlooked, but is a major part of this figure's success. These little things are what really make a lot of these Sigma 6 figures cool.

All in all, it would be easy to cast this figure aside as being yet another Duke rehash and a shameless re-release of a core character, but the figure itself has some nice changes that make it cool, and the accessories are terrific and it adds up to an extremely nice package altogether. If this figure had been a Torpedo or Wet Suit figure, I might go as far as to say that it was my definitive favorite of the wave. As it stands, though, it isn't quite, but it's very, VERY close.