Meant to do this earlier, but now that this wave is seeing broader release, I thought I'd weigh in on what may be the most consistently awesome batch of Joes i've seen in a while.

Now to preface, I'm the kind of guy who, when he sees a movie or reads a book, always judges its quality based on one criteria first: Could I have made it better? I'm sure this sounds egotistical on the surface but, if you're a customizer, you know that;s half of why this segmnent of the hobby exists. So, rather than providing straight up reviews of these figures, I thought I would compare them to some customs I made of the same characters and, until now, was very happy with.

First up, Airtight:

Straight off you can see Hasbro took pretty much no liberties with the classic 1985 design. In fact, I'd say this might be the most slavish/perfect recreation of a classic era look since the 25th line began. But that only gets you so far in my book. In fact, if what you saw above was all there was to Airtight, I'd give him a 7.5 out of 10 (which is also what I would have rated mine before receiving this wave).

For my Airtight custom, I added a holster for a sidearm because, hey, he has the word "trooper" in his job description. Hasbro threw in a shotgun with the new Airtight, which makes little or no sense to me ("Hey, I work around volatile chemicals. What I need is a boomstick!"). I also made the helmet removable, a feature Hasbro's new release matches as evidenced below:

What's under the new Airtight's helmet is totally appropriate and cool, elevating his score to an even 8 (could've gone 9 if they'd tossed in an alternate head with no hood and featuring the Norman Osborn hairdo from the Sunbow toon). And I enjoy the fact that (silly shotgun aside) he came with the alternate tank backpack and what looks like a hand-held sample collector/sensor (though I think I like the look of the similar accessory I used for my custom better).

All-in, with the added play value, I give Airtight an 8.5 out of 10 and downwardly revise my lemon yellow, kneepad-wearing stand-in to a 6 (maybe I'll convert him into Clean Sweep or someone similarly silly).

Next up (alphabetically) is Law:

Now I've already established that total faithfulness to original design and color scheme aren't huge sticking points for me, but by stripping away enough hallmark elements from an established character, you can make him unrecognizable as who he's supposed to be. I don't think Hasbro's new Law is that far off the mark (especially if you consider later versions of the figure during the old-sculpt run), but it doesn't scream "I am THE Law!" either. Little things like the style of his pants throw me off. In that regard, if I were just going on pictures of Hasbro's new law vs. mine similarly geared up, I think I might rate mine higher (say a 7.5 for mine vs. a 6.5 for the big H). But looks aren't everything.

In the picture above you can see I stuck pretty close to the original Law's accessory load -- baton, uzi, helmet, dog and leash. Hasbro's, meanwhile, is geared up Pursuit of Cobra style. He says to my Law: "I see all your gear and raise you -- a lot!" New Law's got not 1 but 2 pistols (probably because they decided to go with those Renegade Duke legs and the built-in holster), a shotgun (which I rather dig) and a submachine gun. To me that starts to feel like overkill. The handcuffs he comes with, for instance, are cool but he's got no where to carry them. I do like that his belt holster can double as a place to store his baton when he draws his magnum (nice sidearm choice, by the way) and the fact that Order can hold things in his jaws and turn his head is pretty darned cool.

Also, once the helmets are off, I rather like the fact that Law's complexion and features indicate some ethnicity (as does his file name).

So, all -in, I probably give new Law a 7.5 (with the comically oversized badge being offset by the added play value) and he could be an 8 or better with a new set of legs, I think. My Law, I believe, starts to lose points once the play value factors in, so I'll call him a 7 in the cold light of day with no real room for improvement. Maybe I'll find a market for him among the purists who think his shirt needs to be red.

Lifeline is probably my favorite of this wave and may well become one of my favorite figures ever. Just look at how silly he makes my custom (which I was quite proud of once) by comparison:

Hasbro's new Lifeline looks pretty much like he jumped off the 1986 card art. That starts him at 7.5. I used to think mine would be an 8.5 if I ever got around to painting the helmet. What the heck was I smoking? Try 5.5. And that's before we start comparing play features and accessories:

Just looking at the figure itself, it's an improvement on the original Lifeline design (and not just in the way modern era figures are all an improvement on old-sculpt designs). he's got better articulation, functioning holsters for his hypo-gun and his hypo-critical (for a pacifist) sidearm, and his helmet comes off. In fairness, my custom's helmet also comes off and he does have one functioning holster, but look how much better these features were incorporated on Hasbro's. About the only thing mine has going for it is a removable light on the right thigh. Not sure what Hasbro has sculpted on to Lifeline's leg there, but I also can't say it detracts any points from my rating of their figure -- which has climbed to 8.5 while I've been typing (mine may have skooched up to a six because of the light thing -- whoopie!).

The stretchers are a wash for me, but I think new Lifeline's is probab;ly more accurate for a modern EMS guy or paramedic, so I'll concede that, too.

Now zoom in on those emergency medical kits. Holy cats, but Hasbro pulled out all the stops on this one. Not only does new lifeline's kit come with the expected oxygen mask, but it and the tank are totally removable. So's the IV bag and hose that attaches it to a figure's arm. This thing even has removable defibrilator paddles. The fact that all of this stuff actually fits in the kit AND there's still a ton of sculpted in, well-painted details inside makes my recycled 1986 original kit look, well, let's just say if I were a sick Joe I'd rather have someone carrying Hasbro's new stuff, which elevates new Lifeline to an even 9.

Now Hasbro was not 100% perfect in its accessory allotment for new Lifeline. They gave him an assault rifle (and frankly one of the cooler looking ones I've seen in a while -- sorry I didn't get a pic of it), which I think the character would've dropped like it was hot in just about any established media depiction. And they didn't give him that signature backpack, which I always thought was one of the cooler pieces of tech in the old-sculpt line. Mine, on the other hand, has the backpack, which might edge its rating up to a 6.5 except for how easy it is to just move it over to the new guy and take him from 9 to 9.5:

The ONLY thing keeping new Lifeline (with a pilfered backpack) from a 10 in my book is that his shades aren't removable.

The last Joe in my roundup is the one I was most looking forward to and, while he's exactly what I expected, I think some of the shine came off him in comparison to Lifeline. Here's new Sci-Fi next to my custom of the character from late last year:

New Sci-Fi is a bit of an anomaly in that the designers clearly felt empowered to update features of his look but, for some reason, held firm to what I always considered Sci-Fi's goofiest attribute: his bright ecto-green coloring. Tim e and nostalgia haven't made me feel any better about that green and, by comparison, I actually prefer the more subdued tone i used in my custom. Also, I wonder if some of the updates to Sci-Fi's overall design weren't just Jim Lee-style techno kibble. I don't know that touches like the exaggerated forearm and shoulder pads or the random hoses on the knees add much to the overall look. Howeveer, i have to say that the way they did the helmet(s) on new Sci-Fi was a brilliant touch and, for me, raises the standard for removable headgear on figures going forward. On looks and my preferences (for a less busy design and less day-glo color), I give Hasbro's new Sci-Fi and my custom roughly equivalent 7.5s. Now on to play features:

I've already said I love new Sci-Fi's helmets. The head underneath, however, I feel is needlessly covered with what looks like an astronaut's cap. I realize sculpted hair would've made it much harrder to have the helmets fit properly, but an alternate, hoodless head would've been a nice touch. Beyond that, there's really not much to new Sci-Fi's accessories except that the gun stores on the backpack in a slightly more iinnovative/natural-looking way than the 1986 version's did. With the removaable and extra helmets, I give new Sci-Fi an 8 and my custom stays at 7.5. I'll admit theirs is better, but it could be better still (and will be once I find a decent unhooded head for it).

I didn't get any Zombie Vipers. I'm still kind of on the fence about whether I need/want any. But, given the overall quality of the rest of this wave, I wouldn't be surprised if I found something to love about those, too.

Really like this way of doing the reviews, Spin. Very unique!

Did you just trim down the backpack peg on Lifeline's comm pack to make it fit in the smaller back hole?

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It's interesting to see the side by side comparisons, but I did have to read through it twice to figure out which were yours and which were Hasbro's...

I want to get all of these, they look so good.

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That was a great review. One thing you left out of your review as a customizer is color matching ir painting red, yellow, and neon green.

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Great reviews!

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