Unlike many fans out there, I wasn’t really looking forward to Blowtorch in this wave…to me, this assortment has been all about “Resolute”. Blowtorch was a character and a figure that I never cared about, and his specialty is one that is woefully dated in today’s military. Do we even have flamethrower specialists any more? Especially those in bright yellow and orange?
But from an execution standpoint, Hasbro takes a figure and character I never liked and turns it into an absolute home run. Stand this guy along Airborne, Snow Job, and Torpedo as early figures I never liked that have turned into Anniversary figures that look awesome. I never really found much of a use for Blowtorch back in the day, and honestly, I still don’t really know where I’d shoehorn him in, but at least in a Sunbow cartoon display he’ll fit in seamlessly with the other cartoon-era figures. Not only that, but he adds a nice splash of color as well. Can’t go wrong.
Speaking of colors, Blowtorch is a very bright figure, perhaps one of the first neon figures of the entire line, but for him it seems to work. With Arctic Snake Eyes legs and what looks to be Ace’s torso, Hasbro is able to cover the parts up with enough padding to totally separate this figure from the others. The head sculpt is great, the body parts are good, a very, very nice figure, one that stands out in spite of it not being a Resolute figure, the line that I am currently in love with.
The accessories here should be familiar to anyone with the old school Blowtorch, but everything that’s old is new again, and we end up with lots of new tooling that makes this gear shine. I love the thicker hose from the mask and the way it plugs into his vest, the flamethrower looks like the same old weapon from 1984. It all comes together well, and you end up with a very faithful reproduction of a figure we got back in the day. Not only that, but with the tab and slot on the flamethrower and backpack, you actually get some additional functionality that wasn’t available back in the day. You can also remove a panel from his backpack as well…this is pretty much the perfect example of what Hasbro’s capable of doing with their Anniversary homage's. They take a figure and make a faithful update to that figure, but use more modern day design and sculpting to add features to the figure that were not feasible back then. Some terrific additions to a very nice classic homage figure.
From the single pack format to the spot on colors, great new tooling, and a nice accessory allotment, this is a “must have” figure to fill in your G.I. Joe collection from 1984. For you vintage purists and Anniversary homage lovers, this figure is right up your alley. Awesome.
Tema: Wave 1, 2009 Blowtorch 
Dom Dic 28, 2008 9:21 am
