Renegades Firefly

by KansasBrawler

This version of Firefly is pretty important since its design is what truly sold me on the Renegades series. While I didn’t have The Hub in my area, I was never really that supportive of Renegades just because I despised what I saw of the animation style. I’ve never been a fan of overly-stylized animation. I prefer more detailed animation and while I thought the concept behind Renegades was an interesting take on the concept of G.I. Joe, the animation just killed it for me. However, picking up this version of Firefly was the first step in making me re-evaluate my opinion of Renegades and started my conversion to a fan of the series. I think it also helped that Hasbro really let their designers run wild with the new parts on Firefly, giving him a new head, arms and legs.

Firefly has always had a pretty specific look—gray urban camo and a balaclava—and this Firefly deviates from that idea pretty heavily. However, my first Firefly was the 1992 version and honestly, I see some parallels to that look in there, especially in the head sculpt. While at first glance, this appears to be a radical departure for Firefly’s look, all the basics are there. The head sculpt, while not a basic balaclava, is still a face-covering mask that reveals very little of Firefly’s identity. The sculptors still managed to get a lot of detail in what little of the face we see. He eyes are quite sinister and menacing and it’s clear that Firefly doesn’t really like you all that much. It also reminds me of the hat and facemask look my 1992 version had. The main body is covered by a large, somewhat bulky vest. While I don’t like how much it restricts his leg movement, it still looks very nice and is loaded with detail. Being a Renegades character, the vest has the requisite high color and I do think it adds an additional air of menace to Firefly with only his pair of angry looking eyes sinisterly peering at you over the collar. The vest is designed to be bulky and I can see it providing a degree of protection from the shockwaves from Firefly’s explosives and the rush of fire afterwards. The design of the vest is broken up quite nicely with a bandolier that runs across his chest. Attached to his belt, Firefly has a sheath for his wicked looking machete and a pair of grenades on the front with an additional pair of grenades on his back plus three more pouches. It’s quite clear Firefly is equipped for whatever mission he’s being sent on. Firefly’s arms are a very cool design. While the upper quarter of the arms look like a standard commando shirt, the rest of his arms are a bit bulkier, like he’s wearing thicker, long gloves made of Nomex to protect himself from the flames of his explosives. Like many late PoC and 30th Anniversary releases, he also gets additional wrist articulation. His left wrist can move left and right while his right wrist is articulated to move up and down. However, the up and down motion is restricted by the cuff of his sleeve, which is a bit of a drawback, but it really doesn’t impact its functionality that much. The articulation still allows Firefly to get into a really good firing stance with his very cool-looking AK-47. I also really like that he’s got four grenades strapped to his right arm. I like that he’s got easy access to some explosives that can be loaded into his grenade launcher. My only real problem with the design of this figure is that I’m not sure his legs look right. While everything else on Firefly feels like he’s wearing some light protective gear, his legs seem like the same type of clothing regular soldiers or paramilitary operators would wear and that just doesn’t make as much sense here. The sculpting is nice but it just seems a little out of place with the rest of the design. The look isn’t helped much by the tight spats he’s wearing over his shoes. They restrict the ankle articulation along the lines of the problem with the right wrist and when you go from bloused out pants to the very tight leg coverings, it kind of makes his lower legs look spindly, a look that isn’t helped by how unusually small his feet seem to be. If you look at the bottoms of his feet, the peghole eats up nearly the enter foot at its widest part and that’s awfully unusual. Firefly is apparently a big man with tiny feet and the problem with his lower legs does kind of hurt his look a bit.

One area where you can’t criticize this look for Firefly is his color scheme. The main body is dominated by the dark gray of his vest, but it’s a really nice color and works well here. However, to sell the idea that he’s wearing extra padding and protection, the base color for the mold is a lighter gray. The two grays complement each other quite well and really help tie this different look back to a more classic Firefly. To break things up a little more, Firefly also get a little bit of red trim at the base of his long vest and at the tops of his long gloves. Again, to me, that really helps set off those pieces as add-ons to his uniform to provide protection from his blasts.

For me, though, where Firefly really shines is in his accessories. While he’s not equipped with tons of gear, like other recent additions to the line, what he has looks good and fits perfectly with the character. I’ve already mentioned most of his accessories in passing previously but I want to devote more time to the pieces, starting with a pieces carried in his nice, bulky vest—his machete. It’s relatively basic, but it still fits pretty well with the character. I can see Firefly hacking his way through the underbrush to get to a facility he needs to sabotage, but I can just as easily see him taking someone down quietly with it if he needs to sneak in someplace. His AK-47 has clearly been modified, having removed the back stock and added forward grip and an additional sight, but the banana clip and the design are pretty classic AK. It’s a very nice piece and I honestly wouldn’t have any problem seeing it more regularly in the line. The AK-47 has a pretty iconic look, and considering Cobra’s terrorist nature, I can see some of the more experienced Cobra troopers running with one modified in this manner. His other weapon is a single-shot grenade launcher. Again, I absolutely love this design. It’s stout and looks like the type of weapon Firefly would use to soften up his targets before coming in if stealth isn’t necessary to the mission. Once again, I really hope Hasbro uses this accessory a little more, and honestly, I would have loved for this grenade launcher to have been used instead of the terrible 25th Anniversary Gung-Ho’s grenade launcher in the Slaughter’s Marauders set. It’s far more substantial, more realistic and better detailed than the other one and I really like how it looks in Firefly’s hands. Since he’s Firefly, he also comes with a satellite phone. I can take or leave this accessory, but it is a nice nod to the character’s original look. However, I would have liked to have seen someplace to actually put it. Since they were molding a new vest already, I kind of wish Hasbro would have found a way to make it possible for Firefly to carry the phone in one of his many pouches or just give him a radio like the PoC Shock Trooper’s and put a hole in the vest to attach it to. Finally, Firefly also has a large rocket or mortal shell or bomb. I’m not sure exactly what it’s supposed to be and it’s always been a little unclear since the first time we saw it with Resolute Roadblock. It’s a nice enough piece, but I’m not sure Firefly needed to have it.

Every now and then, you run into a figure that changes your mind on something. I’m very glad that Hasbro decided to make the Renegades figures fit in with the rest of the realistic look of the line. I’m quite certain had they gone with a more animated design, I would have passed this version of Firefly without a second thought because he wouldn’t have really looked like much of anything else in my collection. However, adding him to my collection really made me rethink the Renegades property. They turned the established Joe mythos around and really did something pretty special for the line. I just wish they hadn’t scuttled the show after one season to make room for the movie. Considering Transformers has been running both cartoon and movie lines together for the past few years, I don’t think brand confusion would have been an issue. The writing was solid and the while the characters weren’t quite the Joes we were used to as older collectors, they were similar enough to make us smile while simultaneously introducing a new generation of potential Joe fans to the characters we’ve known and loved for 30 plus years without getting too bogged down in the years and years of ARAH backstory.