Zombie Initiative Ozone

by KansasBrawler

I realize the original Eco-Warriors subteam gets a lot of well-deserved criticism for both its inception (trying to jump on the popularity of environmentalism in the 90s) and its gimmick (water-triggered color-change plastic). However, the one thing I loved about the original subset was that it was mostly new characters. By 1991, we were starting to see a lot of redesigns of classic Joes (11 of the 17 carded figures from 1991 by my count, if you include Crimson Guard Immortal, were updates of older figures). While some like Dusty or Grunt probably needed it, I liked guys like my original Mercer and my Battle Armor Cobra Commander so I didn’t really see the need to get new figures of guys I already had. Conversely, only two Eco-Warriors characters were redesigns so there was a lot of room for my kid brain to have fun. I liked getting new characters over reinterpretations of existing characters for the most part. It meant I got to discover a new member of my team. When the GIJCC updated the Eco-Warriors, I was a little concerned that they’d stick to Flint, Barbecue and Deep Six since they were established characters. Thankfully, they went with what I consider the better way by reuniting the original Eco-Warriors for the first time since 1991. While Ozone may not have been my favorite original Eco-Warrior, the GIJCC’s take on him really does make me appreciate not only what the original figure had going for him, but also the GIJCC’s ability to make amazingly faithful updates of some pretty funky-looking figures using mostly existing parts.

Whenever I was trying to part out the Eco-Warriors for hypothetical custom figures, Ozone was always the toughest nut to crack. He had an incredibly distinctive look and there weren’t a lot of parts that could easily replicate them. However, taking parts from some unusual figures, the GIJCC did a really good job of aping Ozone’s original design while not having to drop a lot of money on new tooling. The legs come from the Pursuit of Cobra Tornado Kick Snake Eyes and it’s honestly pretty amazing how well these parts stand in for the original Ozone’s legs. The original figure had shin armor and high kind of funky boots. The Tornado Kick Snake Eyes armored legs fit this aesthetic surprisingly well. It’s a great outside-the-box choice and like Cesspool’s use of the Sci-Fi legs, they may not the obvious choice, but they really do a great job of replicating some of the more unique details from the original mold. Ozone’s torso comes from Retaliation Ninja Duel Snake Eyes. Using this here isn’t quite as successful in terms of repurposing parts. I’ve always remembered the original Ozone as having worn some pretty impressive chest armor and this look isn’t quite armored enough for my tastes. Really, the Pursuit of Cobra Desert Assault Duke would have worked pretty well here. However, I can understand why they didn’t use that piece here. The high collar would have interfered with using the Retaliation Cobra Trooper’s webgear to recreate his chest grenades. The Retaliation Cobra Trooper webgear here was a brilliant call by the GIJCC. While I would have preferred a little more substantial chest armor, if I have to choose between the armor or grenades, I’ll go with the grenades. They’re a more important detail in my opinion. His arms come from Rise of Cobra Flash with Retaliation Ninja Duel Snake Eyes’ hands thrown on to give him some added wrist articulation. These are a great stand in for his original arms. The added details help make him look like he’s wearing more of a combat oriented protective suit. On top of all these parts, Ozone gets a new head. It’s not my favorite new piece, but it still passes the squint test on Ozone. I’ll admit, I kind of wish his facial expression was a bit more extreme like on the original figure, but you can still tell that Ozone is a pretty intense guy. Thankfully, though, they included a very faithful recreation of his helmet to help offset the fact that I’m not necessarily a fan of his head sculpt. He shares his helmet with Flint, but Ozone’s been wearing it since 1991, so that’s who I’ve always associated it with. It looks a bit like the helmets the good guys on M.A.S.K. wore, but it makes sense in the context of a more combat oriented protective suit. His head is fully encased in metal with a rebreather in front to provide oxygen and neutralize the dangerous chemicals he has to deal with in the field. As I said, finding parts to recreate Ozone was always a bit tough, but the GIJCC did a great job finding good enough analogs that I have no problem accepting this design for Ozone. It had enough nods to his original look while updating a bit since I’m sure protective CBR protective gear has also improved a lot since 1991.

The original Eco-Warriors were pretty colorful and Ozone was no exception. Mercifully, though, his color scheme wasn’t quite as blindingly bright as Flint’s so the GIJCC was able to use the same colors as the 1991 version without having to tone them down a bit like they did for Flint. I fully support this decision. As I said at the end of my Flint review, I kind of like seeing some color back on my Joe display shelf. At his most basic, Ozone is wearing a light blue cleansuit with  some blue and yellow armor to reinforce it with some bright green trim detailing and bright green grenades. However, I do have to complain about one issue. Like the original Ozone, there are a lot of details on the arms that go unpainted. They did hit the bicep strap and pads, but I would have liked seeing a little paint on his gauntlets. I think it would have sold the combat cleansuit aesthetic. The green stands out very nicely on his chest and on the thigh armor. Much like Cesspool’s purple battery packs, it’s not a direct reference to the original figure, but he did have some sort of bright green tech detail on his right leg, so I’m glad they updated it here as well. The color scheme works well and it’s probably my favorite color scheme for Ozone and over the course of three years, he had a lot of different ones. It makes sense to use the Eco-Warriors color scheme, but considering how much more beloved the version 2 color scheme was, I could have seen the GIJCC going with that one just because it was the most common Ozone color scheme out there even though it wouldn’t jive with the rest of the E.C.O. Force team.

I’ve touched on some of his accessories already. The helmet is an excellent piece, but beyond that, I find myself just a little underwhelmed by the rest of his gear. Ozone’s primary weapon is the sniffer and backpack that 30th Anniversary Airtight came with. It’s not a bad piece and does give a little wink to the crazy vacuum gun that some of the Eco-Warriors figures (including Ozone) came with, but at the same time, I strongly associate that piece with Airtight. While I understand that hazardous materials specialists would probably have similar gear, it’s a little bothersome to have Airtight and Ozone sharing the same equipment. I understand that military squads have built in redundancy, but two guys equipped primarily with the sniffer gun seems like a little bit of overkill to me. I kind of wish the GIJCC could have found an excuse to drop some tooling dollars on a new cleaner gun that looks like the 1991 version, but I understand that it’s a very specific piece without a lot of reuse potential so I get why they didn’t do it. The Airtight gear does look pretty nice molded in blue and Ozone holds it well, but there’s still a bit of an element of been-there, done-that with Ozone’s primary weapon and I always hate it when I get that vibe from a con set figure. Ozone gets the small silver pistol that the Retaliation Cobra Trooper came with to fill the holster on his webgear. It does give him a little extra firepower since I’ve never been totally sure if Airtight’s sniffer was a gun too or not. It’s a great pistol and it’s not one I have in my collection, so I like seeing it here. His final accessory is a nod to the comic that came in the set. Ozone was the primary Joe lab tech that came up with the Z+ compound and when they rescued the infected Steel Brigade Commander, he put an oxygen mask with a Z+ tank over his face to cure him before the Compound Z turned him into a zombie. It’s a nice little artifact from the comic, but at the same time, again, it just leaves me a little cold. I wish his accessories inspired me like Flint’s or Clean Sweep’s do. They’re not bad pieces, but they’re just not that exciting either.

Ozone was the one E.C.O. Force character I wasn’t strongly attached to going in. However, the great figure has really made me appreciate the 1991 design and the skill the GIJCC has at picking parts to recreate his signature look. While I think his gear is a little weak, Ozone is still a very well-executed figure. Plus, with all the gear that the Danger at the Docks set has in that footlocker, I ought to be able to find a suitable primary weapon for him that fits the funky E.C.O. Force aesthetic but still actually looks like military hardware. Ozone is a surprisingly solid update of a figure that doesn’t get a lot of love from collectors but still deserves some attention. The Eco-Warriors may not have been the best subteam out there, but I really loved the original lineup of figures and I’m glad that I’ve got them all on my shelf for the first time 23 years thanks to getting Cesspool from FSS. While I hope that the GIJCC avoids too much interplay between con sets and FSS lineups, I do like seeing a bit of synergy between their two major product launches. It’s a bit more synergy than we see Hasbro having with its own Joe line sometimes.