Agent Mouse

by KansasBrawler

Ah, Agent Mouse…another one of the Retaliation controversies that wound up not being such a big deal when all was said and done. When it was revealed that Joseph Mazzello (most noted for his role as Tim in Jurassic Park and a later prominent role in The Pacific), a lot of people were upset at the casting of a young pretty boy as a character not even in the Joe mythos to appeal to the ladies (though coincidentally, there was a character named Mouse in the Screaming Eagle but these characters were unrelated). Once the movie came out, though, (mild spoiler alert on a movie that’s been out on DVD for a while) young Agent Mouse died off just about as quickly as the rest of the Joes and really, I found his presence to be somewhat refreshing. I don’t mind the inclusion of the occasional new Joe character, and I’d rather have Agent Mouse get killed off and unusable for a later movie as opposed to either Low Light or Barrel Roll since I have a lot deeper attachment to those two Joe snipers. However, even without the long-standing attachment to the character of Mouse, I was still pretty excited to have a chance at getting him in the Tactical Ninja set, even though I’m a little confused as to the choice of putting two non-ninjas in the Tactical Ninja three pack.

At his core, Agent Mouse uses a lot of the mold from the G.I. Joe Trooper, and I like that. As a relatively new member of the Joe team, I can see him still wearing something a bit closer to the standard Joe uniform as opposed to his own special gear. However, he does get new arms that (unless my eyes are a bit off) were originally seen in the Hasbro Concept Case at Joe Con on the classic style Flint that they messed around with but weren’t going to release. While they weren’t designed to be a rolled sleeve version of the G.I. Joe Trooper arms, they share enough of the similar details that they work well here, like Agent Mouse just rolled up the sleeves on the BDUs before heading into battle. I also like seeing these parts out there since I’ve been a little annoyed at Hasbro that they never really got around
to making pair of arms with partially rolled up sleeves since the original 25th Anniversary Duke. Those arms were bad when they came out and they got even worse as the line moved away from its origins. Coincidentally, though, these arms do have a little bit of the same problem as the original Duke arms. For some reason, when I pulled mine from the package, his right arm was twisted the wrong way at the elbow. If the arm is positioned backwards, you lose a lot of poseability, however a simple rotation of the arm at the elbow does do wonders. The problem comes from the way the cuff is placed on the arm. If the arm is rotated the wrong way, the bottom cuff comes into contact with the joint at a different spot and the bend isn’t nearly as good. You can kind of see it in the pictures because I didn’t notice this until after I’d taken the pictures last year. I’d only discovered this weirdness and the really easy fix when I was moving him around on my desk while doing this Field Report. The left arm shows a clear space between the cuff and the elbow joint when it’s bent. That’s how it’s supposed to be. The right arm doesn’t have that space and so the arm doesn’t tuck up as nicely against the joint when bent, so he can’t bend the elbow all the way up. The head sculpt also looks very nice and while I wasn’t familiar with what Mr. Mazzello had done since Jurassic Park, I can definitely see an older version Timmy from that movie in this head sculpt. It’s not perfect from every angle and if you have the helmet on, the similarities aren’t as strong, but it’s also pretty clear that the Hasbro designers have gotten a lot better at capturing the likenesses of real people since Rise of Cobra.

Agent Mouse also gets a pretty nice accessory complement for a movie figure. We’ve gotten used to a lot of good accessories and the movie line kind of cut back both on terms of quality and quantity, but I really find myself liking everything about Mouse’s kit except the fact that they made his guns a weird gold color. Once again, Agent Mouse finds himself borrowing pretty heavily from the G.I. Joe Trooper and once again I’m okay with it. He’s packing the sniper rifle and the tactical rifle that the G.I. Joe Trooper came equipped with and both those really fit well as weapons for this character. In the movie, Agent Mouse was one of the Joe team’s snipers (complete with remote-guided bullets) so the sniper rifle fits with the movie’s characterization. However, a sniper rifle isn’t useful in all combat
situations so he also has a rifle better suited for closer quarters combat. His vest is also technically the first appearance of the nice vest that Ultimate Flint will be wearing and I think it’s a great piece. It’s a nice throwback to the plated look of Rise of Cobra’s reactive armor gear yet it looks a bit more like a military operator’s gears as opposed to a superhero’s. The back of the vest also has a sheath for a small knife. As much as I like the addition of small knives, this one doesn’t work that well. First of all, the sheath’s placement isn’t that great and it’s a little awkward to take it out and place it back in the sheath. Secondly, it’s really small and it doesn’t fit his hands that well at all. Honestly, his guns aren’t the tightest fit in the world, but the knife doesn’t stay in his hands at all. I find that to be a pretty big flaw for an accessory, though some of the blame does lay with the way his hands are molded as well. Finally, Agent Mouse also gets a nice, futuristic helmet. While it looks a bit like a bike helmet, it’s also based on some of the designs the military created as a part of its Future Warrior initiative. I like that Hasbro has stuck with that whole “fifteen minutes into the future” design aesthetic from Rise of Cobra, and they really did a better job at pulling it off in Retaliation. My only real gripe with his helmet is that the fit is just a little too tight in my opinion. While it doesn’t cause the paint to rub off when removed, I have yet to try and take the helmet off without popping his head off the first time. I’m glad they’ve done a better job at making helmets fit, but I’d appreciate it if I didn’t accidentally decapitate him every time I want to take a look at him without his helmet.

The paint scheme on Agent Mouse isn’t overly complicated, but it does a very good job at making him blend in with the rest of the named Joes from the movie. Clearly, the look is based on the North Korean raid/desert ambush and it really looks nice. While desert figures to me have a tendency to look rather drab and boring if not done right, there are enough different colors on Agent Mouse that I don’t mind it. While the base color is a light tan, he’s also got some darker tan detailing and some black accents on the arms and legs. The black and blue vest really helps break up the tan but I would have liked to see a little more detailing on the vest—primarily that the vest looks too clean. Ultimate Flint’s version of the vest has some scratches in the paint job so it looks like he’s worn it in battle. I do think the bright blue on Agent Mouse’s vest makes that cleanliness stand out a little more. I would have liked to see at least a little bit of a wash on it to make it look like Agent Mouse has seen some action on the battlefield. I realize Hasbro has occasionally gone overblown on paint washes in the past, but the armored vest looks like he just put it on instead of having worn it through battle a few times. While the clean look of the blue is a little off-putting, I do like seeing that Agent Mouse did something to personalize his gear. If Ultimate Flint is to be believed, the vest’s base color for the armor is gray while Agent Mouse decided to add a little flair to his government-issued gear.

Agent Mouse is a really good figure. While he’s pretty generic, he still has enough personality to sell being a named character in my Joe universe. The actor likeness is good enough and honestly, in my opinion, if you’ve got him wearing the helmet, the likeness is weakened enough you can use him as someone else if you don’t like Agent Mouse after his brief appearance in Retaliation. I think Agent Mouse is another figure that would make a decent stand in for Grunt because he looks like your basic military man and I even see a little bit of Spearhead in his look for some reason. Agent Mouse is a good figure that I think should belong in anyone’s collection, and I’m sure did since he was in a relatively popular three pack. He and Airborne look very good together and I like when there’s a degree of uniformity between figures that packed together. While Tactical Ninja Snake Eyes definitely wound up as the odd man out for a couple reasons in this set, Airborne and Agent Mouse work very well together and look like they belong in the same unit, so much so that they’re displayed together right now. If I had the camera skills and space to do diostories like other Joe collectors out there, I’m quite certain you’d be seeing Agent Mouse and Airborne working together in the field since they just look like they belong together as partners like Alpine and Bazooka or Flint and Lady Jaye.