Operation: Sand Sting (Adventures of GI Joe 2010)

I’ve said this many times: I admire figures that can store their equipment on their person.  There’s something impressive and realistic about a character schlepping his gear around. It shows just a little more attention to detail on the part of the toy maker, and I’m always appreciative of the effort.

Operation Sand Sting presents a look that exemplifies the future tech theme of the Adventures of GI Joe 2010 line. No one would mistake this figure as an attempt at portraying a current day (for the year 2000) soldier. It pushes past the slightly-in-the-future vibe of the Real American Hero era, and well into science fiction territory.

In this adventure, Joe is dispatched to the desert to destroy a group of “brain bombs” about to be dispatched by the syndicate (a shadowy organization in the 2010 storyline). He’s equipped with one whopper of a sniper rifle with working scope to get the job done. Maybe someday this era will be linked to the Real American Hero in the same way the collectors club is attempting to unite RAH with the Adventure Team. Hey, it could happen. Maybe some small scale figures based on this forgotten 12 inch line could be made as well. The club would have one buyer for the set at least.

The big feature of the figure is the modular rifle and its ability to break down and store on the body. The legs have a fairly intricate elastic belt system attached, with loops around the thighs and waist. Each piece of the rifle (aside from the scope) has a specific spot into which it slips. Each one stays in place well, and the figure remains quite poseable even after all of the gear is stowed about the figure’s lower half.

The face mask and armor are where the figure truly passes into a science fiction look. The armor and uniform reminds me of another 80’s sci-fi action figure/cartoon property–Spiral Zone. Those figures also featured removable body armor and boldly patterned cloth costumes. They were themselves a throwback to the large scale Joe. Wow, it’s like a weird circular time warp of action figures.