Resolute Roadblock

By KansasBrawler

Resolute did a lot of great things for the Joe brand. I appreciated the more adult oriented cartoon and the modern take on the Joes was very well executed. However, it was pretty unfortunate that Hasbro couldn’t go all-in on the concept because they had to shift gears over to Rise of Cobra so quickly. There were a lot of great character designs that deserved to be immortalized in plastic form. Thankfully, Hasbro was able to eventually get those designs out in the two Resolute figure seven-packs. Out of all the redesigns, I was looking most forward to Roadblock. The designers did a great job with him and his look translated very well to action figure form. Hasbro didn’t let this figure go easily since they used all but the head of this figure for Rise of Cobra Night Adder and the whole figure was released with the Rise of Cobra Outpost Defender but he was missing his signature new vest. However, it wasn’t until the seven-pack that we got to see Resolute Roadblock released as he was intended.

Though both Night Adder and Rise of Cobra Roadblock preceded this figure in release, all the parts those figures used were originally designed for Resolute Roadblock, so to me, that means those parts were designed for use here first. Roadblock’s design hearkens back to his original look, but it’s all been updated to reflect a modern military aesthetic. The first thing you’ll notice about Roadblock is that he’s big. Considering Roadblock hauls around a heavy machine gun as his personal weapon, that’s a great call. I’ve said before that part of what I love about these modern figures is that big characters can actually be big. I have fond memories of my vintage Tiger Force Roadblock, but he was built just like everyone else in my childhood collection. My Battle Corps Roadblock seemed a bit bigger (and I think was a tad broader than other Joes), but he was still lacking the height I thought he needed. However, even with all his faults, I had to appreciate the first 25th Anniversary Roadblock figure because he actually looked bigger than the rest of my Joes. Resolute Roadblock continues that development and he looks even better because Hasbro ironed out the kinks in this new construction style by the time he was released. His legs are large and look strong. Like the rest of the Resolute Joes, he’s wearing combat spats over his boots and large kneepads. Up top, Roadblock is built huge and while he’s technically designed to be shirtless, he finally gets reunited with the great vest that was
designed for him back in the day. This piece was released with Night Adder but not with the Rise of Cobra Roadblock figure. I liked this vest so much, I bought second Night Adder just for the vest so I could give it to Rise of Cobra Roadblock. The vest looks like a heavy bulletproof vest with a lot of pouches attached to it and some additional ammunition carried up on his shoulder as well. Roadblock’s arms are equally big and the large size actually allows the joints to be obscured a bit and let him look just a little more natural. I don’t know why the articulation looks a little more obvious on the smaller arms, but the shoulder ball especially looks far less pronounced on these larger arms. Roadblock’s head is an excellent piece and is full of detail. He’s got a pretty stern stare and a bushy mustache and, surprisingly, a soul patch. I kind of like that Roadblock’s changed up his facial hair a bit in the intervening years. Plus, the mustache and soul patch combination actually references the Battle Corps figure, and any time you can reference that figure, that’s a good thing. This version of Roadblock is hands down the best modern take on him out there. They took his original look and updated it very effectively to make him look like a modern military operator.

While his look may have been updated quite a bit, Hasbro wisely decided to keep his colors the same as the vintage version to help tie his history into this modern take a little bit. Roadblock’s pants are an orangish-brown, just like the vintage figure. However, to reflect the more modern aesthetic, his kneepads are gray, his combat spats and the fabric on the kneepads is brown and his boots are black with some silver on the toes. It’s a solid look and while it’s a bit more colorful than his vintage look, it still references it quite effectively. Roadblock’s vest is green with some additional paint detailing on the bullets. He’s got the Resolute Joe logo on his left pec, and that’s a nice little touch. While it’s not as good as the Pursuit of Cobra logo, I do like this one as well. Roadblock’s gloves are done in a matching green and it gives some nice cohesiveness to the figure. Roadblock’s skin tone is a bit darker than his more recent figures, but it does remind me a bit of the darker skin tone on the Battle Corps Roadblock figure. Despite the dark skin tone, his black facial hair stands out nicely against his skin. While I don’t think figures have to reference their vintage looks all the time, the vintage color scheme on this more modern take on Roadblock works very well.

To help flesh out the figure, Roadblock comes with some great accessories. Truthfully, I don’t quite know why he has two of them, but his third one is just excellent and it offsets the weirdness of his other two pieces. Starting off small, Roadblock comes with some sort of bomb. I think it’s supposed to be a reference to the rocket that was fired at Roadblock’s team during the firefight he has with Destro and Baroness in the HAARP facility, but I’m not ever sure that’s where this came from. Plus, if that is what it’s supposed to be referencing, why not give it to Destro or Baroness since they shot it? It’s not a bad piece, I just really don’t know why it’s there. Along the same lines, Roadblock also comes with a very large entrenching tool. This is a very well designed piece, but like the bomb, I’m not sure why he has it. I don’t recall any entrenching being done in Resolute, so it’s just there. It does look good plugged into his back, though, so at least Roadblock can carry it on him, unlike the bomb. The main event is Roadblock’s new machine gun. This gun first came with Rise of Cobra Repeater, but it’s clear it was meant to come with this version of Roadblock before it got postponed. It’s a dead ringer for the one Roadblock had in the cartoon, and I like it when accessories look like they were pulled right off the screen or page when they’re something that’s this good. It’s an iconic piece with a nice silhouette and it looks great in Roadblock’s hands. There’s a place in the side for you to plug in a belt of ammunition, and unlike some of the modern machine guns, the bullet belt fits in securely. While the first two accessories are somewhat head scratchers, this modern machine gun fits perfect with Roadblock and is so good, I’m kind of willing to overlook the two weird pieces.

After watching the Resolute cartoon on [adult swim], I was kind of bummed that the only screen accurate figures we got were Cobra Commander, Duke, and a Cobra Trooper. Don’t get me wrong, they were all good figures, but there were so many great new character designs in Resolute that deserved to be made into action figures that it was kind of a shame we were only getting three of them. Thankfully, Hasbro really liked Resolute and so they found ways to get some of that unreleased tooling out. Eventually, there was enough support for the Resolute seven-packs, which was great, because without them, we wouldn’t have gotten great figures like this one. Even though this wasn’t the first time we saw all these parts, it was the first time we saw them all together, and that helps make this version of Roadblock feel fresh. Tying the figure back to his vintage roots via his color scheme was a great call, and this is an excellent modern interpretation of Roadblock, and one I’m glad to have in my collection.