bithomas wrote:
(2) No one really knows. The cape is blue supposedly only on the first shipments of the figure, and later versions have the cape/gas mask in brown.
I seem to remember reading around the time the first press images came out of the Wave 1 movie figures that the Joe Trooper's blue cape and mask were supposed to be a Cobra disguise. I can't remember where I saw that, though (I want to say MTV's news site because I think that's where the images debuted, but I'm not sure), so for all I know it was just speculation.
I've actually been pretty pleased with the Retaliation stuff thus far, but I'm coming at it from a customizing angle. As fodder, the figures are great: Mouse, the red Shock Trooper, and even the Roadblock figure (once you get rid of the ridiculous holsters on the legs) are really nice pieces, and there's a part or two on most of the figures that's worth having. The Dark Ninja is just a rad figure any way you look at it, and I've bought several without any real plan for them beyond having them all look awesome together. It's a nice enough figure that I'll think of something. I'm really looking forward the wave with the "ultimate" Duke and Roadblock, as well: it'll be great to have some fairly generic modern-military figures to play around with.
Oh, and I finally found a Retaliation Joe Colton figure who looks like he can read at an adult level. Out of probably 15 or 20 I've seen, this is the only one whose eyes are a respectable distance apart.