Ever since first seeing Long Range at the convention in 2005, a lot of Joe fans (myself included) immediately were drawn to Long Range. His serious face sculpt, slicked back ponytail, trenchcoat and larger-than-life sniper rifle really brought an element of coolness to him, and made him into a pseudo anti-hero in the same vein as The Punisher. In fact a lot of people compared him to the Marvel Comics vigilante, and I didn't necessarily get the comparison. Besides the black hair and the weapon, I'm not sure what he has in common with that character (sure, they both wear trenchcoats, but so did Fox Mulder on the X-Files, and no one made the comparison there... ;) ).

I still really like Long Range as a character, and he is probably the first Sigma 6 created character that has gained a serious following and has pretty much outshined the original Real American Hero version. With his western roots and backstory, I guess it only makes sense to make him the resident desert expert as well, so I suppose that fits his role. But how does this figure succeed in that regard?

Honestly? This figure isn't all that exciting.

Anyone who knows me or has read my past 3 3/4" reviews knows that I'm not really big on climate-specific characters or uniforms. While the Sigma Suit isn't necessarily restricted only to a desert climate, it still doesn't really do anything new or give me anything that I don't get elsewhere.

The figure itself looks to be a straight repaint of the Long Range figure, without a whole lot of retooling. Instead of black and gray, we get black and light brown/tan, and you really end up with a somewhat bland color scheme over all. He retains the look of the original Long Range, which is great, because I love that figure, but the additions do not make up for the subtractions here, and not only is the desert figure not that great because of the climate restriction, it's just not that interesting of a figure at all. What is interesting to note, though, is that at least the head sculpt appears to have been modified on this new Long Range, and it's actually a pretty serious improvement, I think.

Desert Long Range is on the left, the standard one on the right, and it looks like there have definitely been some refinements, unless it's just the angle playing tricks. The chin looks drawn up more, the nose looks less "pointy"...the sculpt just looks more realistic in general. It's an improvement, but not one that is really worth spending ten bones on.

The color pallet here is actually a little different than I was expecting. Rather than swap out the gray color for the tan, instead the armor pieces, kneepads, and boots are colored in tan. I like this in some ways, because it maintains Long Range's "color", but still makes the figure look somewhat desert-themed in nature. When it comes right down to it, though, the color change isn't that exciting, and if there were a color in existance duller than gray, it would be tan.

Then we get to the weapons...and my non-excitement continues.

If you ask me honestly, the mortar in general is probably one of the dullest weapons on the planet. I never really liked Short Fuze, and while I did like the figure of Downtown, really, the restrictive nature of the mortar just makes it a pretty unfun weapon. It's a static weapon that can only be used in place, and only used as a ranged attack from behind cover. There just isn't much "fun value" to it, and it being the primary weapon here really lets me down. I mean, the mortar can be removed and used as a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher which saves it somewhat, but still, having a rocket rather than a machine gun or other rifle as a primary rifle does nothing for me.

The other accessories are all pretty nice. I like his hat, and the cloth scarf is pretty neat, too. His belt is made very nicely, I dig the canteen, and the holster works very nicely. His revolver looks somewhat dated, but is still a neat western-themed weapon to go along with the western-themed weapons the original version came with (especially the shotgun and knife). The pistol makes for a nice backup weapon, though I would prefer something with a little more "punch". If you want more weapons details, check out the Tech Specs page, as always.

When you boil it all down, this figure adds nothing that you can't get with the original. Granted, it's sold at the Soldier class price-level, which is a nice $5.00 difference, but losing out on the trenchcoat, the terrific sniper rifle, and the great shotgun/knife really isn't worth the difference in price. I see no real reason to recommend this one over the Commando version. Spend the extra five bucks, you'll enjoy the figure a whole lot more.