01.22.04
GI-Joe Spytroops
  
    I was shuffling my small pile of Joes around into a larger box and decided maybe I 
would throw up a short review of each of them. I'll start off by saying that I really 
hate that these come in 2-packs. One, who knows which guns go with which figure. 
Sometimes you can sort of tell, but there is always one that could go with either. 
Two, to get a really bad ass guy like say, Destro, you'll get saddles with some extra 
looser, like Grunt. Anyway, on with the show! By the way, these are all GI Joe team 
members, Cobra will come later.
  

Flint (Warrant Officer)

    I love this guy's boots. They are huge. Well, maybe not huge, but they are pretty 
big. I picked up this guy with one of the Value Packs Wal-Mart had over the holidays, 
and didn't originally but the set for this guy, but once I actually had him in hand I 
found it was a really nice figure. Flint comes with a large strap on backpack (Not one 
of those peg-hole packs), a pistol, and some camo netting. The camo crap is pretty 
useless and can pretty much be tossed aside and I'm sure some of the other weapons 
in the set were for Flint but he doesn't need anything else. Flint just seems like 
the kind of guy who doesn't need big weapons to kill things. Flint comes Recommended.
  

Depth Charge (Underwater Demolitions Team)

    This guy actually came attached to the Ninja pack with Kamakura and Night Creeper. 
They weren't originally a set, but over the holidays Wal-Mart carried 2 packs of the 
individual carded 2 packs (4 packs). Depth Charge however comes alone in his single 
carded pack since he includes a little Jet Ski boat thing. Depth Charge comes packed 
with some scuba gear as well. The Jet ski is a pretty neat accessory however. It 
essentially has two configurations, one with a pedestal control panel for standing 
on, the other has the control panel fold under so the rider can lay down on the thing 
like some sort of weird raft. Depth Charge also features wrists joints to allow him 
to grip the handle bars of his vehicle properly presumably, and while he also has 
ankle joints, his ankles just spin uselessly instead of hinging like a useful ankle. 
While this figure is kind of cool in conjunction with it's 2-pack companion Night 
Creeper's scuba outfit, on it's own I'd say it's only "ok". I generally find aquatic 
based toys to be pretty lame, maybe I don't take enough baths or something, even if 
I did, a lone Joe would be pretty lame.

  
Grunt (Infantry Squad Leader)

    What a lame figure. He even gets a dumbass name. Part of the problem with this 
figure is the crappy accessories he's saddles with. See, the gimmick of the Spytroops 
line is that half the figures come with some sort of "disguise" pieces. For example, 
Night Creeper can disguise himself as Depth Charge with the scuba gear attached, the 
illusion almost works since they have similar overall color schemes. Grunt on the 
other hand comes with some sort of Generic Cobra armor. Well, SOME of it. If they 
had given him something to put on his chest it almost would have worked. As it is, 
Grunt includes a pair of red shin guards, a pair of red gauntlets, and a red Cobra 
mask thing. This makes for a great disguise except that the rest of his body remains 
completely exposed. Since he's wearing green pants with a green tank top, the only 
Cobra soldier he'll be impersonating will be one that fell asleep halfway through 
removing his armor. It also doesn't help that all the best weapons in this set 
clearly belong to Destro. So what's left for Grunt is a boring pistol (That I gave 
to Flint because Flint is a bad ass) and an machine gun. Final line, Grunt is not 
recommended, except that he comes packaged with Destro.


Cross Hair (Infiltrator/Sniper

    This is probably one of the cooler Joes I have, and probably the only one where 
the crappy camo netting thing actually works. Pretty much everything about the look 
of this guy says "Sniper", which is good because that's what he is supposed to be. 
He even comes with a nice long-range rifle, one that looks much better than the 
smaller more modern rifles I've gotten with a couple other figures. He also includes 
a removable hat and a piece of camo netting. He looks really nice lying down while 
wearing the camo netting. The only thing he needs is wrist joints so he can properly 
hold his rifle. Actually maybe some sort of additional shoulder joint as well. 
Strongly Recommended. 

  
Wide Scope (Special Weapons and Tactical)

    I'm thinking SWAT is "Special Weapons and Tactics", and apparently Hasbro couldn't 
get the rights to use that phrase because this guy is indeed a "Tactical". That's not 
a spelling error on my part. Hell Tactics wouldn't really work there either. It's too 
bad his color scheme isn't as dark as that pictured on his Bio-card. He could be pretty 
bad ass looking. Unfortunately, his uniform is very very bright blue. This stands out 
even more when he's paired with the generic SWAT troops I have of the same scale. Part 
of the reason I wanted this JOE SWAT soldier was to go with my other SWAT figures. Wide 
Scope DOES come with a pretty cool little Dog The dog does not feature any sort of 
joints but it does come with a crappy leash thing. He also includes a large Riot Shield 
and crappy Sniper rifle. Oh right, and also a Baseball Bat/Beatdown Stick. Gotta love 
when they include such a gratuitously violent accessory with a figure. Neutral Overall, 
but he comes with a pretty cool and generic Cobra BAT Trooper.