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REVIEW:
FUNSKOOL G.I.JOE WILD WEASEL FIGURE
Funskool, the company in India licensed by Hasbro to produce 3-3/4" G.I.Joes for that part of the world, continues to turn out interesting new versions of popular characters, even as Hasbro carries on with their own new incarnation of the Joes here in the States. One of Funskool's newest
additions is WILD WEASEL, best known as the pilot of the COBRA RATTLER
attack plane, first released in 1984. Funskool's version is, for lack
of a better term, a somewhat more colorful version of the original.
The 1984 Wild Weasel was molded in a medium-to-dark red, and had dark
blue and black trim, with a black visor on his helmet. He also had a
The new Funskool Wild Weasel
is molded in a somewhat brighter red, with yellow and distinctly bright
blue trim, including a bright blue visor. But so you don't mistake this
colorful character for a good guy, a Cobra insignia has been stamped
dead center on his helmet. This was interesting as I didn't know that
Funskool had the insignia-stamping ability. Granted their figures have
tended to look a little more -- primitive, I suppose, than their American
counterparts. Not quite as professional, perhaps. In any case, Wild Weasel comes with a set of stickers that can be used on the notepad attached to his uniform if you so choose. Best of all, he comes with a working parachute! This was something that not even the original Wild Weasel came with. Granted, the original Wild Weasel came with an entire plane that is generally regarded as the second best right after the SkyStriker, so let's not quibble points here. The parachute is a nice piece
of work, imprinted with Cobra logos all over it. That, I have to say,
is sort of asking to be turned into target practice if you're coming
down in G.I.Joe territory, but from a toy standpoint, the result is
pretty cool looking. I have not yet "field-tested" the parachute,
nor am I likely to. I didn't have this figure sent to me from by way
of India just to hook him up to a miniature parachute and pitch him
over my porch, thank you very much. Besides I only live on the second
floor. With my aim he'd land on the roof, and I'd just as soon not have
to explain that one to apartment maintenance, and with their backlog,
he'd probably get picked up by a hawk for nesting material before he
could be retrieved. Okay, so I'm a little paranoid. You don't live around
here, Anyway, whether you actually
put it to use or not, the parachute seems well made, and is a nice little
bonus with the Wild Weasel figure. If you're like me and your criteria
for buying any foreign-made G.I.Joe figures is whether or not they're
an interesting enough recoloration, then let me assure you that Wild
Weasel definitely is. He's one of those characters that never got a
lot of coverage in either the comic or the cartoon, but had a really
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