Flint (2013)
What a difference a little paint and parts swapping can make. I wasn’t overly impressed with the Duke figure upon which this Flint is based. I suppose some of it was due to the color, and some the character. The prospect of more Channing Tatum Dukes on the pegs doesn’t fill me with excitement.
Flint here is another placeholder until we get an “ultimate” version later. I think the figure fulfills its role well in the meantime. The addition of web gear disguises the mold a bit, and the splash of contrasting color blocks along with a subdued camo makes for a nice look overall. The head sculpt is very well done, and Flint finally gets a removable beret. Cool!
If you don’t like the figure as movie Flint, just give it a head swap to make any number of other Joes or even nameless troopers. That’s a fun element to these less than movie accurate figures. They can be a blank slate for some cool customs.
It wouldn’t be Retaliation without some sort of zip-line, and luckily Flint is equipped with one of the better working types. Flint gets a backpack that can shoot down the line thanks to the spring loaded claw missile. I’m having a lot of fun with these, and all this focus on zip-lining has me pining for a revival of another 80’s property that hasn’t gotten its due: Sky Commanders. It may not have had the deepest storyline or the marketing oomph of GI Joe, but there were some fun times to be had with that toyline’s unique gimmickry.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to scour my GI Joe parts bin for a suitable base with which to make a General Mike Summit custom. All that Phaeta Seven floating around the High Frontier isn’t going to contain itself. Hotwire!
Sky Commanders, now there’s a blast from the past. If the figures had been more detailed and better articulated, that line might have really gone places.
It’s great to see a Flint with removable beret even if Lt. Falcon beat him to it by a couple of years or so.
This guy isn’t so bad, and the removable beret is cool, but I was really surprised how much of this guy shows up as the Retaliation Alley Viper as well…
Yeah, Hasbro is definitely getting a lot of milage out of that Retaliation Duke mold…at least it looks better here (and on the Alley Viper) than it did with Duke. That said, even though I’m a huge Flint fan, I’m definitely biding my time for the “Ultimate Flint” slated for later.
If you ask me, FLINT should have been the star of R.O.C. He was in the A.R.A.H cartoon more than DUKE and just about every other peice of JOE media
Hasbro probably owns the Sky Commanders rights and could make the characters part of GI JOE like they did Matt Trakker.
Or Stalker, who always seemed to be Larry Hama’s favorite in the early Marvel run.
Sorry, I was trying to reply to Skymate’s comment there, don’t know why that didn’t work…
I’m surprised that this is the same head they’ll use on that Ultimate version later; it looks oversized here. The webgear helps bulk him up, but I’m not sure the parts work very well together. Still better than that Duke, though.
Just thought of something. Has FLINT had as many incarnations as DUKE? It always seemed odd to me that DUKE’s popularity seemed to peak at ’85 and after that, nobody seemed to care about him that much. I remeber at school, FLINT was everyone elses favorite so why is DUKE always the poster boy for the brand?
Excellent action figure!