Between 1998 and 2005, there were too many Fireflies. Hasbro repainted the mold every chance they got. The thing is, though, most of the repaints were pretty good. And, 20+ years later, it's nice to have a rainbow of Firefly figures to choose from. Among all the Cobra blue, grey, black and unproduced homage Firefly figures, we also got something completely weird: the 2002 Gift Set Firefly.
There's no reason for this figure to exist. But, I'm glad it does. We get Firefly in a red color that isn't crimson and, really, isn't even all that Cobra. It's bright and vibrant. He's offset by a greyish-blue hue that's used to color in his details. If that weren't enough, he's wearing gold boots. But, the best part is that his head is a poo-brown mask. If this sounds a bit ridiculous, that's because it is.
But, somehow, this figure works. It works because Hasbro didn't do enough offbeat stuff during the repaint era. And, it works because, after tons of great repaints, good molds also need to exist in far out colors that are non-sensical for the character. It gives the line some life when it everyone wanted it to be "super duper pooper scooper serious".
It's like a bad Black Major figure.
ReplyDeleteIt's SO Black Major-ish that it might have been what inspired Black Major to make figures in the first place
ReplyDeleteOne of the rare misses for me in terms of o-ring figures. This set as a whole was a mixed bag but the colors used just made no sense for Firefly but when looking at the set as a whole it's pretty obvious red was the color chosen for the Cobra figures. I just really disliked the gold and brown used for the head and boots. The Fast-Blast vipers look really great though.
ReplyDeleteI like him! He looks great with the AV pack, give him their rifle, too!
ReplyDeleteI DO like the bluish-gray color that was used in the straps, etc. Other than that, I've always found this to be a low-effort mish-mash of colors. The gold boots and gloves, especially, turn me off. It's almost as if Hasbro was trying to out-Funskool Funskool with this guy
ReplyDeleteKudos on your efforts to make his look as presentable as possible, though. I agree that the Alley Viper backpack looks great on him.
If his boots/hands/head were black, he might look kinda rad.
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