He's going to be a new character in my Joe-verse too. I still need to flesh out his bio, but I've got an idea the direction I want to go with him (and I haven't even gotten the figure yet) http://sites.google.com/site/sgtdocsjoes/gi-joe/bench-press

-Doc

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You guys, the chainsaw is not unusual at all. I use him as a combat engineer. He puts his ax and chainsaw to use by building shelters, clearing landing strips, making improvements, reinforcing barricades, setting up temporary bases.

The combat engineer specialty is so important that a standard 12 man special forces A-Team always includes 2 of them! (Along with 2 medics, 2 comms guys, 2 weapons sgts.)

It's about time the Joes had another combat engineer, I believe the last one was Tollbooth!

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He's a new character-a Zombie Hunter, clearly.

I mean, what else would you need a shotgun, axe, AND Chainsaw for? Someone's gotta contain those Toxo-Zombie outbreaks.

I'm going for new character as well. Some people just like the same things so it wouldn't really be all that odd that two Joes have backgrounds that are pretty close and enjoy doing the same things in their off time. The Joe universe is getting pretty big so if you throw enough people together at some point you going to find two almost alike.

Is it just me or doesn't he look a little like John Goodman in The Big Lebowski?

Holy hell, that is Walter!

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New Character -

He is part of my newest Class of Joes as a Recondo and Pathfinder. To me he is Brawler's little (only by age) cousin (sort of a HD/RB relationship) who tries to tell people he's not related to BB. 1. Because his brawls aren't as big and 2. Because well you know

Currently serving on my Tiger Force team.

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I have hesitated to pick one up, only because I have the parts to make him already on hand, if I so desired. But if I were to make him as a Joe, I could see making his background be the starting point for a cross-over of old Big Jim and the Wolfpack characters. In his Wolfpack days, Bench Press was known as "Big Josh" McConnel. He is a cousin of Craig/RnR, and it was no surprise to Josh upon joining the team when he saw that the file clerk had erroneously listed his better known cousin's name instead of his own. Rather than seek to have the error fixed, however, he comedically uses it to his advantage, running up huge tabs at the NCO club in Craig's name.

I've been wanting to make a Big Josh custom for awhile, so maybe I'll just copy the Bench Press formula. The hatchet, shotgun and chainsaw with the in-store fig are all big selling points for this kind of character, were I to buy him, since Big Josh was the outdoorsman of the Big Jim crew.

For me, he'd be joining EXCAL rather than the Joes, but with a similar backstory, which would incorporate the Filecard name in a fun way.

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To me, Bench Press is an entirely new character. I don't get a Rock 'n Roll vibe from him at all.

On a similar note... 'Air Raid' from the new jet is apparently supposed to be Airborne.

But considering that 25th gave us an Airborne... and he looks the part... Air Raid has now become my 25th equivalent to Barrel Roll.

Freaky, because I was thinking of making his brother out of the exact same parts.

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