Wild Bill (2000)
I used to think this figure was a bit of a boring repaint. I guess I was usually looking at it in bad lighting or something, but I could have sworn that it was mostly grey, and covered in the same sort of washy texture that was common in previous series. I was wrong. Setting it up under the lights, I was surprised how much I liked this color variant.
I don’t know much more to say about the figure beyond the paint job, as I’ve covered the original. I suppose this could stand in as a Night Force version with its more sundued and generally darker color scheme. Unfortunately none of the Battle Corps original’s uniqie acccessories (aside from the hat) made the trip over to this new version.
On a totally unimportant side note, the head sculpt of this version of Wild Bill has always reminded me of MST3K’s Doctor Clayton Forrester. I even attempted a custom using the head back in the 90s. It’s a good thing I got married, had kids and stopped having the time to devote to such strange behavior.
This is another solid 2000 repaint. This mold was a fave of mine from the ’90’s when I found the ’92 version at retail. Seeing it recolored was cool. Ravenviper made up a pair of pistols for him back in the early days of casting that I still have. They add to the figure.
I’d have loved if Hasbro had revisited this mold repainted like the ’83 version. That would have been awesome.
The yellow on the original version always bothered me, so this is an improvement. Definitely a more fanciful Bill versus his Army flight suit v1, but it’s a good figure.
Unlike the 2000-2001 figures, he had hard plastic hands. It’s a bummer. the Lamprey from the Man O War was the same way.