Recoil

Keeping with tradition on these profiles of mine, I am covering a figure mostly overlooked by all aspects of the collecting community and even by Hasbro themselves. In also keeping with tradition, I am profiling a figure from the late 80’s, early nineties, shortly after G.I. Joe hit the much aligned "Golden Age".

In my opinion, there are many gems in the later years, and in some cases some even better figures than what are widely considered the best of the line. Personally, I will take several figures from 1988 and 1989 to task against their competitors from ’85 and ’86. Without a doubt, both good and bad can be found with any of them, and in the late 80’s, I found much more good than bad.

As much a focus that the comic book series put on the infamous Long Range Recon Patrol, I am shocked that this figure, Recoil, was pretty much the only “LRRP” ever produced. In the comic, the LRRP’s produced such capable warriors as Stalker, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, and in my world, Recoil is no different.

Recoil is covert ops personified to me…silent as the wind, but sharp as a blade, holding within until the right time to strike, and then unleashing with an almost frightening fury. His personality matches that as well. He is a calm, virtually silent person in real life, prone to staring into the distance and not communicating much. But when faced with a challenge, he tackles it so intensely it’s almost scary. In my world, he and Claymore are pretty close buddies and both the resident Covert specialists in a team of Covert Specialists.

Recoil hit me pretty much right off the bat with his very, very cool mold. His sunglasses and green hat immediately give him a certain character that was Hasbro’s norm in their better days. His uniform was nicely designed as well, with some great little touches like the webbelt over his chest and all of the assorted weaponry and pouches adorned. In a series of beefy, muscle bound almost comic-like heroes, Recoil is slim and non-descript, fitting the personality of a covert ops man perfectly. He’s someone you wouldn’t pick out of a lineup, even after you saw him gun down your entire family right before your eyes.

His colors are somewhat of an odd choice, to be honest. I don’t picture a LRRP in desert tan camo, but still, it does work. The colors are muted enough to fit into almost any environment, be it the forest, desert, or even urban…it’s kind of an all-purpose camouflage pattern and color, not limiting him to any environment, and able to be used in almost every environment.

As with many figures in the late 80’s, early 90’s, Recoil came with a great assortment of pretty cool weapons. Granted, I have no idea what the heck to do with that oversized pistol/grenade launcher, but his machine gun, backpack and suitcase of claymore mines are all completely cool! I must admit, I HATE the baby blue color of the guns, but I should be able to remedy that soon… (yeah, Raven, I’m looking at you… :) ).

Overall, Recoil is an often overlooked character who deserves his time in the limelight. He should see some level of use in my diostories eventually, but not for a little while. Still, if he isn’t currently used in your collection, give him a chance…he might grow on you!

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