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This set really took many folks by surprise (myself included) when it spontaneously showed up on Toysrus.com. The price was $30, and no one could really figure out just what the set might contain. Would it have one figure with loads of different accessories? Would there actually be three figures? Would the characters be named or not?
Well, we got our answers from GIJoeclub.com shortly before the set started hitting retail, and the answer is a bit of everything. The Land, Sea, and Air set is a three-pack of "Combat Squad" figures, though they have, for the most part, much more Sigma 6-based accessories. All three figures are repaints with rehashed weaponry and the same Combat Squad stuff we're used to...so how is the execution?
It's not too bad, really, especially for the price.
I must admit, for a price of $30.00 I initially suspected that the Land, Sea, and Air set would most likely just be a single figure with various different gear allowing him to be outfitted in several different uniforms depending on the environment. After all, for $30.00 we got a Paratrooper Duke and Snake Eyes, right? How could one expect any different? Well, imagine the pleasent surprise when the set was actually revealed to be three different figures, and not only that, but three totally new characters! Very cool. Each figure obviously is a repaint of an existing figure, with some parts alterations...some of the paint changes make sense, others don't really, but the entire set is still pretty cool all told.
The first figure I'll cover is "Backblast" who really doesn't resemble the character he's named after. No dark brown hair, no bushy moustache, just the familiar Grand Slam head sculpt with blonde hair instead of brown. I find myself quite pleasently surprised at how much like Duke this head sculpt looks with the blonde hair. A pretty cool side effect, however unintentional it might be.
From the neck down, the figure itself appears to be a pretty vanilla repaint of Grand Slam, being clad in an olive drab green base, with trim of light brown throughout. It gives off a pretty generic military feel, but unfortunately doesn't leave the figure looking very exciting. In fact, I'd definitely say that Backblast is my least favorite figure of the wave. It's nice to get another large, beefy heavy weapons expert to support Heavy Duty, Grand Slam, and Leatherneck, but there isn't really enough different and interesting about Backblast to make him shine.
The weapons do help somewhat. I'm no fan of the oversized mortar/rocket launcher that originally came with Desert Long Range, but I absolutely love the v.1 Duke Switchfire/submachine gun combination, and I will fully support any time that Hasbro cares to release that particular weapon. He also comes with Grand Slam's helmet in green and gray, which is another cool touch as well. None of it really screams "Backblast" to me, and the figure is fairly bland all told, but for this price, getting three decent quality 8" figures isn't anything to complain about, especially because the other two offerings are pretty darn cool in their own right.
For more details on the weapons, as usual, hit up the Tech Specs.
Next in line is Deep Six. I must admit he's about the last character I figured we'd see in the 8" scale, but I'm not complaining. I can't really figure out what the need is for so many water-based soldiers in the small team that is Sigma 6, but the figures of all in fairly decent quality, so I won't complain too much. From Sea Ops Duke to Wet Suit and Torpedo, each figure has had some great qualities and excellent accessories, and Deep Six is no different.
Like the other water-based figures he uses the same basic tooling as Sea Ops Duke, which is fine with me. From the detailed weight belt around the waist to the wet-suit like footgear and the long sleeves, this figure works quite nicely. He uses Long Range's head sculpt which actually works for me, even though Deep Six has never been represented in this way before. I really like that head sculpt, though, so I can't complain.
From a color perspective Deep Six using the familiar black base Sigma 6 style uniform, but with yellow trim. It ends up fitting him in fairly well with the Wet Suit, who is more of an orange shade. However, with the black color of the uniform, it doesn't end up being overly bright, which is nice. Even with some slight color differences between this figure and Torpedo and Sea Ops Duke, he fits in pretty well over all.
Deep Six ends up mixing things fairly well accessory-wise. While Torpedo and Sea Ops Duke come with Duke's gear, Deep Six ends up coming with Wet Suit's stuff, so it doesn't seem too similar. However, he also comes with the spear gun that Duke comes with, and the same knife that Long Range came with. It ends up being a nice allotment of sensible accessories that works pretty well. I love that knife, love that scuba tank, and really like the helmet, too. Unfortunately, because of Long Range's ponytail, the helmet doesn't really fit seamlessly over his head, but it works well enough, and as you can see from the picture above, you can't really tell there's an issue at all.
All in all, I'd say Deep Six is a better offering in this set than Backblast, but isn't quite as cool as the last figure I'm reviewing, who really steals in the show, even with a somewhat sketchy head choice.
So Backblast is the somewhat generic and relatively unexciting Land part of the set...Deep Six is a better figure and the Sea part of the set...and Barrel Roll represents the "Air" part of the set, and really steals the show. Perhaps it's my love of the Barrel Roll character, or maybe it's because I've loved the Jet Wing Duke gear so much...heck, I'm a big fan of the Joe version of Firefly, too and this figure uses his body. So for a repaint, this figure encompasses a bunch of cool different elements that are favorites of mine, so it should be no surprise that I really like the end result.
Now, of course there is that pesky head sculpt issue. I actually don't mind it a whole lot...Duke has a decent head sculpt and it has the potential to look generic with different hair colors. But the problem is they toss that painted brown "porn moustache" on there and it ends up looking a bit cheesy. I'm not every sure why they did it (except perhaps to make the head not look so much like Duke) since Barrel Roll doesn't even have a moustache. Heck, I would have loved to have seen Firefly's smirking mug with brown hair, too, that would have rocked, but as it is, it ends up taking a little bit away from the character.
The rest of the figure uses Firefly's Joe body, which is cool with me as it gives him a somewhat different look compared to your typical Sigma 6 themed Joes. The overall color scheme is reminscent of the Torpedo repaint, only reversed with the gray being primary and the black being the secondary trim. This works for me, because it gives Barrel Roll a more "covert ops" look, which fits his personality and specialty a bit better than a brighter color might represent.
Now to me, the highlight of this figure is absolutely the accessories. I always thought that it was kind of a bummer that Jet Wing Duke was somewhat short-shipped because his Jet Wing and accessories were so cool. From that closed in helmet, to the spring-loaded jetpack, he had all sorts of cool gear that a lot of folks were missing out on. Now with this set, that gives more fans the chance to own this great gear, which is nothing but a good thing, in my opinion. I LOVE the fact that one of my favorite characters comes with one of my favorite 8" scale accessories, I think even for a repaint, Hasbro really hit a home run with this figure, and it brightens up this entire set (even though the other two figures are relatively cool anyway).
All in all, the Land, Sea, and Air set is an impressive box set for the price. $30.00 is the price of 3 Soldier figures, and you're getting a lot of great gear in this set for that price. Heck, Paratrooper Duke and Snake Eyes at one point were $30.00 apiece, and there is so much more value to be had in this set that it makes the purchase almost a no-brainer. Sure you could argue that it's chock full of repaints, but the changes are solid, the accessories are cool, and they're all new characters, so it's tough to complain. Considering Combat Squad figures are $15 a pop, getting essentially 3 of them for $30 is a bargain.
This would appear to be the swan song for the 8" scale. That is a massive disappointment to myself and to a lot of the 8" fans out there...Hasbro was doing some incredible things with this line, taking some great new concepts some fantastic sculpting, and some of the best representations of these classic characters that we've seen in years. I'm one of the lucky ones who has really gotten into the Anniversary line, so I at least have some enjoyment with the G.I. Joe brand continuing, but for a lot of folks, this was the end of an (all too short) era. Hopefully with the movie launch in 2009 Joe will explode enough to warrant some more additions to this great scale, but until then we'll just have to enjoy the figures we have (which is a very simple proposition).
Thanks for the great two years, Sigma 6...it was a blast! Here's to some more fun down the line...
