Art Design: A Carded figure with trademark art on the front of the card, and a nice layout of photos and art on the back of the card. Also included is an Official GI JOE File Card for Beach Head. The file card tells you about the training and attitude of Beach Head, and is a collectible cut-out card.
Figure and Headsculpt: The figure is the Muscle Body 2 that has the big biceps, and it has Gung-Ho hands. The waist only turns round and round, and has no other articulation. In this sense, it is more like a Marx Doll than a GI Joe. The headsculpt is slightly different. Hasbro seems to have decided to save money and yet provide different headsculpts by tweaking old faces. Check some of the new ones out, and many look like the Pearl Harbor faces, but the nose or the mouth are slightly different. Beach Head looks like one of the Pearl Harbor Joes, but he is slightly modified. I do not think every new headsculpt has to be entirely different, so this tweaked head is fine, but the lack of a waist is really a GIANT STEP BACKWARDS for Hasbro. I guess if they go back to stiff-arms and stiff-legs then perhaps Hasbro will get the license to produce THE MAN FROM UNCLE action figures?
Outfit and Gear: The outfit is a molded on green shirt and orange and green Halloween pants? I like the pants, but they are definitely the kind of uniform you would expect in Uganda? Sierra Leone?? Aruba??? There is a rubber jacket with painted-on grenades and ammo clips. I like the jacket, but it really is strictly retardo. This is the kind of outfit that would cause fist-fights at school-yards. It is the kind of GI Joe that kids would have to keep at home and never show their friends. The rubber web-belt looks like it was imported from Mongolia. Among all the useless, non-working pockets and pouches is a long holster that is flat and looks like it might be for a machete that was not included? Submarine Sandwich?? But the best gear is the M-203 which has a giant knife attached to it, bayonet-style? I really liked this M-203 and knife. But I have been told that you cannot attach knives to the missile launcher? I bet Rambo could have rigged one up like that. The M-203 actually shoots those little bitty pointed plastic sticks that they remove on other sets due to "safety concerns."
Price: If you buy this set at K-Mart , Target, or Wal-Mart it is either $9.99 or $10.99. If you buy it at Toys R Us it can range from $10.99 to $17.99. TRU prices items based on their geographical data, so that stores in areas with a high density of children and/or higher income will usually have higher prices.
Grade: D+
