Wet Suit '01
Well, let me start this off by giving full credit to Entertainment Earth for allowing those of us far, far away from the nearest TRU or Target to get these as soon as (if not before ) fellow Joe fans in the bigger cities. The ordering process was smooth, customer service was great and they arrived right on time! So, I am happy to say, here is the first review for this new batch of great Joes, in a long, almost 20 year history of great figures.
Now, as always, I will give these profiles in order of favorites, starting with the least and working my way up. That way, we can get the messiness out of the way early and get on to the good stuff!
My first victim is: Wet Suit. It’s really not his fault, because as a character, Wet Suit is one of the greats. A bad-ass Navy S.E.A.L. with an even worse attitude. Great character, but for the most part saddled with below average figures. But the thing is, it’s not even the figures that are below average, really…it’s what you can do with them. As underwater experts, these molds are fantastic. Great detail on the wet-suits, nicely adorned helmets w/ lights, great accessories and all around pretty decent paint jobs. Only problem is, once you get them out on land, they’re pretty much useless. That I have some problems with. As some of you may now, I have a pet peeve with Joes who are too closely geared towards one climate. I mentioned it in the past with Whiteout’s and Big Ben ‘01’s profiles, and I maintain that attitude to this point. Desert troopers are fine, jungle are okay, but once we get to Arctic and Underwater, they’re just a little too limiting. At this scale it’s tough to do much with them, but if I have anything to complain about, it’s this. Considering how many figures were in the Joe line, I think this is a VERY minor bone, and one that cannot really be avoided. For every one of people like me who do not like them, there will be people who love the underwater troopers. The ratio is so low, that it’s a very minor complaint, but I digress…
The color scheme for this Wet Suit is pretty much the best I’ve seen for this particular figure. It’s similar to the ’86 version, but with more muted tones, using grays instead of greens. That’s a great move on their part, because it makes for a much more covert uniform. Now, if they could only get rid of that helmet, it’d be even better! Not that I don’t like the helmet for what it is, but like I’ve said, it is limiting to the figure.
Another minor gripe is the overusage of this character/mold/idea in the past. We had a version of Wet Suit that was almost identical to this one three years ago, do we really need another one? Not only that, but the excessive amount of water troops and vehicles in this recent line is a bit worrisome. However, from the sounds of the next series, things are turning up.
As far as figures go, this mold is fine, the colors are great, but it suffers from limited use and overexposure. Overall, a decent figure, but released at the wrong time. Still a pretty nice specimen, but the bottom of the barrel for these releases.
From the depths, the S.E.A.L.s brace for action!
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