Firefly (2002)
Firefly, what more can be said about the man? He’s been in almost every version of GI Joe from the 80s till today. He’s been a plain old mystery man, and he’s been a ninja with ties to Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. I think I preferred him as the mystery man who made select appearances. It’s kind of like the Boba Fett or Wolverine thing, where a little of the character’s coolness is chipped away with every detail we learn about him.
Being such an essential part of the storyline since the 80s, its no surprise that he showed up quickly in the relaunch series. It’s a new take on the old saboteur, and though the figure may be sporting a few too many pouches for my tastes, I appreciate the overall effort at changing things up. The chest armor and arm and leg bracers are new elements that adds something interesting to Firefly’s look. The armor, and even the chest holstered pistol idea, made another appearance in the Valor vs. Venom series.
He’s of the more lanky style that was prominent among a few of the GI Joe vs. Cobra series figures, and taken among his contemporaries, is a fairly nice figure. Unique new leg articulation incorporates a swivel above the knee, and also an ankle joint. These little additions make for a few more interesting posing possibilities, and the thigh swivel helps make the figure easier to stand. The articulation cut is cleverly hidden next to a leg strap.
Weapons were nothing too impressive, just a Sound Attack version of his old submachine, a black remold of the Beachhead rifle, and a handgun. Speaking of pistols, it must be difficult to keep them inside that chest holster, since it faces down. The figure also made an appearance as a Mission Disc figure, packed with a CD-ROM that included a PC game and two episodes of the classic animated series. Though the Mission Disc figure’s paint scheme was the same, it did include a black remold of the ’84 version’s weapon, as well as a few cool baseball style grenades.
Finally, there is a link to Snake Eyes, albeit subtle. He has lips.
I loved this version of Firefly back during the SpyTroops era. I was really excited to get a cooler looking Firefly. I loved the 1992 version I had growing up, but this version looked so much more intimidating and cooler. This is a Firefly I could see sneaking into a facility and causing chaos with explosive sabotage. While it’s a departure from his usual look, it’s still a great figure and one of the overlooked gems of the new sculpt era.
I wonder how he would look with the ROC version’s goggles on?
The thing about Firefly is that he showed up during a busy year where characters such as Zartan and Storm Shadow easily overtook him in popularity. (Not to mention the Baroness finally appearing in figure form two years after her own debut.) Competition was simply too fierce for him despite the cool similarities to Boba Fett. Things might have been different if he’d turned up the previous year since he was more comparable to militaristic characters such as Destro and Major Bludd. I always preferred Firefly as the shady saboteur that his file card made him out to be rather that the ninja hitman which he later became in the comic series. In addition, Firefly was not too prominent in the comic or cartoon, which might have also proven to his detriment.
Ironically, his various figure counterparts have overexposed him to the point of overkill since around 1992 or so, certainly more than usual in the last two decades. As such, this has also hurt his appeal. Still, he remains a favorite in the nostalgic sense, kind of like Boba himself before the Jango/cloning backstory was introduced or even Wolverine when you could only read about him in a single X-Men comic on a monthly basis, with the odd guest appearance every now and then.
Those upside down holsters seem a bit of a safty issue.
I picked up the TPB of the final original arah comics. I certainly prefer it to volumes 13/14 in which Firefly was a ninja master to rival Splinter
“Being such an essential part of the storyline since the 80s…”
Not really at all. He not much more than a named henchman until the 1992-1993 revelation of his connections to Snake-Eyes’s past. If it weren’t for that, he’d have still been a corpse in that freighter.
In that sense Firefly is like the original Star Wars trilogy Boba Fett, a minor character that can be replaced by another minor character without affecting anything. Then later, he was revealed to have had connections to major past events.
In the cartoon he gets credit for being one of the named Cobras who doesn’t participate in the creation of Serpentor (the others are Bludd, Storm Shadow, Copperhead and Wild Weasel, some of whom were mostly absent from season 2…Copperhead was entirely). Later Firefly backs Cobra Commander’s Coil (then disappears early in the 1987 movie after his Stun crashes).
@NegaT
He seemed loyal to cobra commamder as in INTO YOUR TENT I WILL SILENTLY CREEP, he comments on how the commander has been “Right in the past” [or something along that line]
I dont know why so many of the other cobra guys were so loyal to Serpentor. Serpentor was such a bonehead. Cobra commander had four victories in the cartoon and Serpentor had zero
I’ll take swivel thighs over rocker ankles any day of the week.
A pefect terrorist!