Ripcord (2011 Renegades)
I’d like to call this post part of my “cleaning house” entries. Here’s a little peek inside how I manage this crazy endeavor that inexplicably continues despite my flagging sanity.
Every few days, I venture into my collection, which is divided into sections consisting of 1) Vintage figures painstaking stored in those cute little tackle box thingies with the movable dividers, and 2) everything else strewn among various bins, baggies and boxes. I pick out a few figures that I find interesting, and snap a few pics. Most of these become the subject of blog posts. Others languish.
Can you guess where Ripcord here has been since about ten minutes after I opened him months ago? Yeah, he’s in a little baggie somewhere. He’s not what I would consider one of my favorite figures of recent memory. In fact, when I shot this particular photo back in January of this year, I thought “Hey, I’ll cover this guy because he’s new. That’ll be fun!” So time passed, and many many many other figures caught my fancy and were photgraphed and written about in the pithy patter you’ve come to expect. Meanwhile, Ripcord’s pic has been sitting in my blog pictures folder, mocking me, stupid yellow glasses and all. But no longer. I’m cleaning house, Mr. Weems (if that is your real name), and you’re not going to taunt me any more!
What can I say about this figure? I suppose it’s well put together, a finely sculpted and detailed example of modern action figure design and execution. It should be a rousing success, right? My problem is, it’s danged boring, and more than a little goofy. Not goofy in the way I like, either. Maybe it’s because the Renegades design here just doesn’t translate well into a more realistic style. Poor Ripcord looks like he can probably barely move, what with all the layers of plastic accouterments hanging from his person. Don’t hate on me if it’s actually realistic paratrooper gear, by the way. It still looks unwieldy. The head also looks strange for some reason, I think partly because the eyes on mine are painted in a way that makes him just a little bit cross-eyed. Overall, the fun factor with Ripcord is a big zero in my book.
So there, I’ve gotten it out of my system. Renegades Ripcord is done. The healing can begin. Oh, there is one positive for me: with the helmet on, his head doesn’t look that bad.
He’s a dull figure, but he had a great base body. Ditch the accessories, give him different accessories and you got a more exciting character. I gave my figure ‘Retaliation’ 3-pack Snake Eyes’ webgear, RoC Pit Commando’s helmet w/ clear visor, PoC Low-Light’s backpack, and PoC/30th Steel Brigade’s bazooka & missile pack (attached to Low-Light’s backpack) to make a demolition man.
Even after having finally watched the RENEGADES cartoon (and enjoying the Ripcord character a lot), I saw this guy clearanced recently and I still just couldn’t pull the trigger. For some reason, all geared up, he didn’t look nearly as fun a figure as he could have been. I agree that with some different gear, he might have worked better, but for me, what killed him was the head sculpt. Ripcord in the cartoon (and even the card art) looked like a happy-go-lucky type of guy who had a job to do but always had fun with it. The personality is just totally lost with this figure.
The helmet looks more like the one on ’88 Charbroil’s card art than the crappy piece of junk he ended up being packed with. I’d get the figure for that reason alone.
This figure stinks. His helmet was used immediately for a an Eel I’m working on and the yellow goggles are cool, but the rest of the figure is garbage. Am I the only one that thinks Ripcord should be caucasian? If Hasbro wanted to showcase a Joe of color, why not use another from the line or create a new one? I would have liked to see Stalker in the Rise of Cobra/Renegades instead of this guy who should be white.
Racist much? Don’t claim purist for characters either, there’s no reason Ripcord or any other white character has to be white. I’m guessing it bothered you Renegade Lady Jaye was latino.
The screaming about race change going back to Wayans’ casting for Rise of Cobra bothers me.
I hate prejudicial attitudes.
Saying that you don’t like that they changed the character from black to white is not racist. And yes, you can say I am a purist for the characters and like them how they were originally. That has nothing to do with racism. Jeremy made a legitimate comment about the character. You are overly sensitive to race. Get over it.
This is one of the major reasons I frown upon the “re-imagining” of white characters as other races; the inevitable onslaught of holier-than-thou lemmings screaming imprecations at anyone who dares disagree with the change.
Awesome action figure. One of the best recent G.I.JOE’s molds. He’d be a perfect 30th anniversary Sky Patrol Static Line version.
I like this figure. But like Kansas Brawler I agree its a horrible reflection of the cartoon Ripcord… This figure is awesome but he needs a much more appropriate headsculpt.
Change for the sake of change is pointless. I didn’t like that Wayans was cast as Ripcord, because Ripcord IS white. As said above, if they wanted to use a black character, there was Doc, Alpine, Stalker, Roadblock (who will now be Hawaiian in all future waves I guess) and Iceberg just to name a few. My problem is NOW for the foreseeable future all itinerations of Ripcord will be black. So despite all the Ripcords recently released, the “real” Ripcord was in a multi-pack with a confusing filecard that belonged to several different characters. IF there had been a good, creative reason to make Ripcord black, I would be all for it, but instead it was casting and had nothing to do with making a good story. As for THIS Renegades figure, I think he’s OK, but in my display his helmet stays on, as he looks nothing like the character in the show.
Just feeling the need to step in on this thread, and remind everyone that above all Joe A Day is meant to be fun and funny, so let’s not vilify one another, and I direct that to both sides of the conversation. Please be respectful, regardless of your views. I don’t care what race Ripcord or any of these toys are. And that’s an important point to remember here. We’re talking about toys. Little 4 inch pieces of plastic, be they white, black, or even neon green, should not be cause for us to be at one another’s throats.
Apologies
It’a a nice figure.
I don’t get the hate. Sure, it doesn’t look exactly like in the cartoon but so does the other figures from this line. And if anyone is having problem posing him, all you really have to do is push the right strap aside and he could hold his rifle with two hands.