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Well folks, until the next % off sale on the Joe Vehicles and Three-Packs we've reached the end of my reviews for the time being. Unless I change my mind and pick up SE's single carded version... But that being said, I wanted everyone to get a chance to read SS's review I posted last night before adding the final review.

And this is going to be for what many are saying is the best SC release from Wave One of the Retaliation line, let's see if they're right.

7) G.I.Joe Trooper:
a) The Packaging: Yadda, yadda, yadda.

b) The Figure: G.I.Joe has long held itself as being the unique soldiers and characters that represent the best of the best. There has only ever been a very small contingent of Joes who are the Joe equivalent to Cobra's massive faceless army of troop builders.

Steel Brigade, G.I.Joe Pit Commando, Greenshirts these are pretty much the extent of Troop Builders on the Joe side.

And now Hasbro introduces us to the G.I.Joe Trooper, some fans call it the Master Chief of the Joes due to certain similarities. Personally... I don't think so.

The Joe Trooper is the only non-ninja from Wave One to get the full treatment when it comes to articulation. He has the standard 16+ points of articulation, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists (swivel and pivot), abdomen (hampered by his Tac Vest), hips, double-knees, ankles (rocker and standard ankle articulation whatever it's called.)

As a faceless Joe Footsoldier or Stormtrooper this character comes with a veritable armory of accessories, but first we'll discuss the sculpt work and details.

He's a solid looking figure with some great work on the details, his uniform has many creases and things molded in to simulate someone who's been out battling on the front lines for a while, he's got pouches, straps, everything. His sculpt work is highly impressive, comparing him to someone like Steel Brigade or the Pit Commando I'd have to say he could almost surpass them. Though I think the SB has a slightly more nostalgic advantage than good ol' Joe Trooper here.

The green fatigues and the initial head sculpt look is why people liken this to a HALO inspired figure. The Joe Trooper's primary head (the one he's got straight out of packaging) has him wearing a full facial environmental protectiv helmet. It's design appears to be made up of two parts that go over the face hidden underneath, the first part is the front facial mask a sort of airtight thing to protect from the sands of the desert or the harsh cold bitting winds of the arctic tundra. There's hints of a rebreather or gas mask around the mouth area and opaque blue eye protection, like a visor or something to filter out harsh lighting conditions.

It is all very HALO like, but since I don't follow HALO I'd have to say it is what it is. Perhaps inspired, but not directly related.

The second part of the mask/helmet is the cap looking piece, seeing the sculpt you can clearly see where the seams for both halves of the helmet would be located, if for example the Joe Trooper were to wear only the part that looks like a Military Cap/Baseball Cap thing and not need the mask part for the harsh environments thing. Am I being very clear?

Ok, enough of the sculpt work and stuff, let's move on to the accessories!

No zip lines, no overgrown missile launchers, no funky weapons of any sort. The Joe Trooper is, an all environments foot soldier for the Joes who comes loaded for bear, that is his gimmick and that's all he needs.

He has... Removeable Black Tac Vest, Removeable Double-Knife Sheath (A very loose accessory held on by a simple peg in hold, it likes to come off fairly easy), two distinct and unique looking knives with each one having their own sculpt/design for said sheath, one large tan (Or blue variant) protective cloak (for concealing body in desert environments I'd imagine, the blue perhaps works well in urban environments? I don't know, it's a really neon looking blue and I don't have it personally yet in my collection), three large rifles/automatics of varying types, two pistols, two smaller hand-held revolvers (I think), one spare head with mohawk cut (Think Ninja Force Zartan, only less obtuse), an extra gas mask for entering truly hazardous areas (tan or blue depending on the cape/cloak), one orange spade/shovel/trowel and a large gray backpack for storage.

And boy are we talking Storage, much like with certain members of the PoC line (Snow Job) this figure can hold all of his accessories (Unless you don't want to hinder his articulation for poses in which case the cape/cloak is an optional item for full on stoarge); his backpack is sculpted to include four seperate holsters for all of the smaller pistols, a large something-or-other where the extra gas mask helmet sits, an indent with a peghole for the tacky looking orange shovel, two L shaped grooves where the stocks or two of the rifles can slide in to be held in place (or the handle of the third gun which doesn't include an ammo clip/stock thing.) and, where the peg is situated for sticking into the backhole there is a special scoop for holding the spare mohawk head. (It will not however hold the HALO head when you switch them around unfortunately.)

I look at this figure's load out and I can't help thinking, Lone Soldier surrounded by Cobra Troopers, he exhausts the ammo in one gun and moves on to the next and the next, and in the end, if any are still standing he can beat them to death with the shovel. When it comes to Joe Troopers they have to have something of an edge over all the faceless grunts of Cobra, and this accessory load-out is definitely that.

The only serious flaw with these accessories is the orange shovel, it is actually made in the same gray plastic as the rest of the arsenal, Hasbro went out of there way to coat it with this, tacky neon 90's era Joe orange that is much brighter than Duke's duller orange weapons and still just as obnoxious. If they wanted to make it a different color from the grey why not simply mold it in black or silver? A rich silver colored shovel with a brown painted handle would be a lot more realistic.

Remember those land mines that came with City Strike Firefly? There are two non-removeable sculpted in mines on the top of the backpack, that's something that is a nifty looking molded detail.

There are only two problems with this figure aside from that orange colored shovel accessory. Minor problems at that, when he's all kited out with his gear he can be extremley back heavy to the point where you have to fiddle a bit with the legs to get them just right, and speaking of the legs, the sculpted detailing of the pants legs are both a blessing and a curse, the numerous folds and creases in the pantlegs makes it very difficult to get this guy to actually have straight feet. (I half suspect that the lower legs below the knee were inadvertantly turned the wrong way round in construction, because the feet will actually flatten out better when facing backwards.) This flaw in his feet means that he has a bear of a time standing with straight legs. And getting him to stand completely straight with his backpack on is all but impossible. A real pain and semi-aggravating design flaw.

It wouldn't be so bad if Hasbro had kept the figure stands in.

Overall rating, Solid 5 out of 5 for me. Minor flaws and problems aside this figure is well worth the money, there are no large missile launchers to worry about, and he's decked out with so many guns he could be a one-man killing machine all on his own. Considering how difficult he is to find at Retail I'm not alone in sharing this belief, even the Scalpers are going after this one as opposed to most of the others, not even the ninjas are being scalped as bad as the Joe Trooper is. And he's one to a case, making him really tough to track down. I'm hoping to get a second one, and perhaps a third one if I wind up with two tan versions because I'd kind of like to have one tan and one blue, but I'll take my Troopers where I can find them.

That's all from me for the immediate future, once I get the other three vehicles and the Ninja Dojo set expect to see this thread updated again, and I promise, once I have all of Wave One that I'm interested in I'll take some pics and stick them up here in their own seperate post so you can get to see the figures I've been talking about. Bye for now, and YO JOE! (Or if you prefer, COBRA!)