Firefly (2002 Sound Attack)
When does a repaint pass from odd to over the top? I think when gold boots and gloves come into play, there’s no turning back. This exclusive Firefly very nearly reaches Funskool levels of craziness. But you know what? It somehow works for me. It’s a crimson Firefly!
First off, who wouldn’t mind having a crimson Firefly? It’s been done with Cobra Commander, the Baroness and Tomax and Xamot, so why not some of the other top named Cobras? I suppose you can’t truly call this a crimson paint scheme, but maybe Firefly is allowed to add some touches of his own. I would have liked a grey camo mask, but this one echoes the then recent release of the same mold. And who would have figured him for a gold bling man? In all seriousness, the sound attack eight pack in which he was included had a share of decently repainted figures, as well as a couple stinkers. Firefly for me falls somewhere in between.
You may be wondering what kind of strange growth his rifle has sprouted. That’s a Sound Attack tab, part of the main line’s gimmick of the time. The tab fits into a slot in any vehicle equipped with the Sound Attack feature, and when a button is pressed, the specific sound of the weapon is heard. It’s a sort of a cousin to the Star Wars line’s Comm Tech chips, which could be scanned with a special reader to produce sound effects and voices. I find the Joe concept of working the sounds into vehicles to be a more interesting integration than what Hasbro did with Star Wars.
While having the ability for your vehicles to make any number of sounds is a nice innovation, the downside of the process in this case is the huge tab on the weapon. It really hurts any display potential, and is doubly annoying since the original Firefly weapon is the one with the tab attached. I’m just glad they didn’t decide to do the same to his original field phone. Although, with a huge tab attached to the side, kids wouldn’t be able to suck the phone up their nose like in the old days.
He should be all gold! ALL GOLD!
The infamous poo head firefly. It’s so terrible it’s cool. In a funskool wild bill cool kind of way.
Oy, this bad boy is loud. I imagine he would be hard-pressed to sneak into an installation and do his work without being spotted. A subdued red might of been better. What’s worse is the brown mask, which doesn’t go with the red and gold. As for the chip on his gun, while it’s pretty big, I can see it as something to catch spent bullet casings.
I was thinking of making this into a Crimson Guard saboteur, replacing the head with something else that a 2004 CG helmet could fit over. From there, I’d paint the gloves, belt, and boots black, along with the straps; paint the dynamite military green, the grenades and belt buckle silver, and the turtleneck and arm accouterments black; give him one of the countless reuses of the Firefly backpack, an old school CG rifle, and an explosives pouch.
“Although, with a huge tab attached to the side, kids wouldn’t be able to suck the phone up their nose like in the old days.”
Is THAT were those mini phones went off to? Yuck!
Switch the gold for the blue or vice versa and this guy would look better. At least he’d pass for a Firefly in CG gear, maybe hired by the Twins to blow up something as part of their unit.
The sound gimmick almost worked except for the tab thing. Give me old fashioned built-in electronics on the vehicles (like the vintage Star Wars spaceships) and I’m happy.
this figure is bloody awful
This figure is all kinds of awesome.
Some early test shot runs were this strange shade of green.
Goofy releases like this don’t bother me as long as there’s at least one good colored version of the mold, and there were quite a few of Firefly version 1.
GASP!
Perfect for red shadows customs . Its been done before, which is why I bothered to collect these when they first came out.
Was Firefly’s usual outfit in the wash when he got the call from Cobra Commander for an immediate assignment?
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