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G.I. Joe Convention 2017 Maverick

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One year after the movie Top Gun changed the landscape of fighter jet films, a pilot joined BattleForce: 2000 named “Maverick”.  Coincidence?

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As far as pilot figures go, Maverick didn’t blow my socks off (notice a trend with these BattleForce: 2000 characters yet?).  A strange flight suit with bizarre chest armor and  a flat out weird flight helmet all add up to a bizarre amalgamation that doesn’t really fit the specialty.  Not as detailed or realistic as Slipstream, not quite as unique or interesting as Ace, Maverick just kind of hovered in between and didn’t make much of an impact.

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Heck, he didn’t stick around long enough to make much of an impact.

So what could they do with this current iteration of Maverick to improve on him?  Well, turns out they did a pretty good job.  The figure is tall and slender, much more streamlined than the vintage version, and while this more stylized helmet somewhat resembles Maverick’s, it looks a lot cooler (in my mind).  Bulky arms and legs fill out the flight suit style quite nicely and the modern parts provide decent articulation and sculpting crammed full of excellent  detail.  I actually love Maverick’s build a lot more than I thought I would.  Unlike the vintage figure it looks and feels much more like a flight suit, but with the addition of Matt Trakker’s armor system, still retains that technical look of the original BattleForce: 2000 pilot.

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The updated parts, the updated helmet, and you have a pretty awesome new version of the character which actually makes me wish he wasn’t dead.

Accessories

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Maverick comes with a great helmet (repurposed from Rise of COBRA among other places) a reproduction of his vintage submachine gun and a removable pistol that slides back into a holster on his right hip.  Great accessories, all told, and unlike many of the vintage weapons, I actually don’t mind this one at all.

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Maverick’s a really solid update to the original.  Great flight suit build, cool accessories that compliment it, and a paint scheme that pays homage while still feeling somewhat fresh.  Good job on this one.

BattleForce: 2000 Maverick
  • Character
  • Sculpt
  • Articulation
  • Paint Deco
  • Accessories
3.5

Summary

Yay a removable helmet! Of course it’s not a NEW head or helmet, but we all take our small victories somewhere. In all seriousness, Maverick is a really solid update to a mostly subpar original version, with a great looking flight suit, modernized helmet, and vintage accurate color scheme. He’s not going to win any “best of” awards, but he’s a good update and the figure feels fresh.


[wpebayads]

Kick Ass Customs – Battleforce: 2000 by Heretic

Who would have thought anything sporting the “Battleforce: 2000” moniker would be considered “kick ass”?  Honestly, even the shameless fanboy that I am, I didn’t find much redeeming about Battleforce: 2000 back in the day.  Well, except for Dodger.  He became a really interesting character after he survived the bombing run that killed the rest of his team, and his figure was definitely the best of the lot, but beyond that, the figures were clunky, the weapons were horrible, and even the face sculpts were doofy looking.  Those plastic empty shell vehicles that formed into the lamest “base” I’d ever seen certainly didn’t help either.
But leave it to a G.I. Joe fan to polish up Battleforce: 2000 and really make it cool.  For whatever reason these designs really did NOT work for me in 1987, but seeing heretics awesome work bringing them to life in the 25th Anniversary format is a totally different story.  These figures look fantastic.  They call back to 1987 perfectly, yet with the larger, somewhat more streamlined figure design these days, they really end up looking better than they did back in the day.  Awesome looking customs and very faithfully represented.
I found these customs on The Terror Drome initially, and you can check out Heretic’s custom page here.

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