While the GIJoe Classified line is slowly finding its footing, many collectors still wish it were a little less “reimagined” and a little more reminiscent of the classic 80’s figures we all grew up with.  I must admit that the designers have made strides in this direction with each passing wave, but we’re not quite at that sweet spot yet, and patience has never been one of my strongest virtues.  Thus I felt the need to classic-up some of these modern figures.

Painting Scarlett, Duke, Flint, and Lady Jaye were pretty straightforward, and giving Beachhead some camo pants was a minimal-effort endeavor.  But Gung-Ho was another story.  Finding a proper vest, mixing that perfect shade of light blue, hand-painting his Marine tattoo… those were more challenging tasks.  But look at that, 1000% better than the stock figure, in my opinion.

And making a Quick Kick from Shang-Chi, while an obvious repaint, wasn’t trivial.  The sash is a piece of thin styrene with fix-it sculpt over the top of it, sculpted to look like cloth.  Then I carefully glued it to only the lower part of the torso on the front and back, so he still retains the ability to use the ab crunch joint.  Overall I like that solution far more than trying to use a fabric.  No offense to all the Mezco fans out there, but cloth on a 6″ figure just looks unnatural and goofy to me.  Cloth gives them a “Mego” appearance that I find beyond distracting at that scale.

Overall, I’m pleased with the latest editions to the retro Joe team, and I’m anxious to see what the designers at Hasbro have in store for us in 2022.  Maybe they’ll save me some work and make the new figures even more reflective of their classic counterparts.

‘Til all are one, collecting is half the battle!