It's no secret that I despised the single card release of Major Bludd in the 25th line, for reasons so oft repeated I feel no need to delve back into any of them.

Why dwell on such minor annoyances when something as wonderful as the new Major Bludd included with the online exclusive desert Cobra set exists and makes the world a brighter place for doing so?

Seriously, this thing is so close to perfect, I was hesitant to even tweak it. But tweak I did, to add articulation to the armored arm (even though on this version of the character I think it's quaint/cool that it mimics the lack of articulation from the original) and to subdue those dog tags a bit (two quick holes under the folds of his collar, two quick snips of the chains and then a double tuck makes a world of difference). But even if I'd never thought to tweak the figure I'd be pretty deliriously happy with it.

Thank you Hasbro. You listened and you made it right.

Consider all else, even Action Attack, forgiven.

You would forgive...Action Attack?

Wow, you must be happy with this one.

I must say, at times, they have managed to win me over a bit on the 25A stuff, with the cool head of the Blue Baroness (she's got "femme fatale" written all over her), and the unbelievably beautiful sculpt that is Nemesis Immortal. But I can never forgive Action Attack. Never, I say!

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Nor I can forgive the AA Horror

But yes some 25th's really win me over, Destro, Storm Shadow and Nemisis Enforcer topping the list thus far.

Yeah, this whole desert pack is teh win. Why did they even bother with the other Bludd. I'm not too fond of two CGs though. If anyone wants to trade an desert officer for a desert CG...let me know.

I don't know why this couldn't have been the figure we got on the card. It's everything a brand new version of the original Major Bludd needs to be.

I mean the Zartan body figure was a f'ing joke on its own but compared to the "desert" version from the boxed set., it's just more of an embarrassment than before... and that's saying a lot; since IMO, 25th carded figure of Bludd is the worst figure in the line yet.

Umm, pics of your fixed Bludd, plx. I wanted to get this one but when I heard it used the same arm, I quickly decided against it. How did you add articulation, Spin?

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That was the nicest "This thread is useless without pix" I've ever read, Kil.



Fixed Bludd is in this group, posted last night:

http://www.joecustoms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=11931

As for the how-to, I sliced off the stiff arm just above the elbow and drilled a socket hole in the remaining upper arm. Then I took an elbow joint and forearm from one of the many black CCs I had lying around and plugged that in (removing the glove beforehand). Then I cut away the excess elbow and arm plastic from the lower arm I had cut off of Bludd until all I had left was the guantlet. Hollowing that out to fit the CC forearm was probably the most painstaking part of the process. Used a drill and an exacto to do it. The arm now bends and swivels at the elbow, and swivels at the wrist as well as the edge of the guantlet. It's pretty cool.

(sigh)

and here I was hoping for something more simple. You could have said "magic" and it would have made more sense to me.

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I really really like this entire desert set. Even the pointless CG are damn nice figures.

The mine detector is really warped because the way it was packed and the cord sucks because it really doesn't stay connected to the backpack at all but that I think might just be my only complaint about the set. Seriously, this set is most definitely worth the money.



The flamethrower trooper is definitely my favorite of this 7-pack. It's a really great use of the Barbecue mold and Torch's gear.

But then reading the filecard just sweetened the deal for me, I realized the figure is supposed to be a new version of the Incinerator!

I guess Hasbro's just keeping it simple with the troop classes in the Anniversary line for filecard names so they ditched the 'Incinerator' title to minimize convolution, but this new trooper's FC text is *almost* word for word off the FC for the 1991 silver-domed dayglow orange eyesore, like the “…pungent whiff of gas, charcoal, and metal.” That’s just rad!


Yeah, like a lot of characters over the last 6 years, there's been reworking of the original text with a couple new lines of substance added and the original name removed but I was thrilled to realize again that Hasbro really WAS paying attention to the RAH line when they were planning this set of figures. I know the figure is repainted parts but it looks fantastic and it IS still a [renamed] update to a latter-day “classic” trooper, which I wasn’t expecting at all.