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Firefly (Retaliation)

April 17, 2013 | By Errex More

Other than Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, I would say that Firefly is one of the more iconic characters in the vintage G.I. Joe line, as evidenced by the couple dozen versions released for the character since then.

We didn’t really got to see Firefly in the first movie, even though he was prominently included in the Rise of Cobra toy line, but in the new G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie we finally get to se him in action, as well as a movie-inspired action figure.

Firefly’s new uniform looks more like an X-Treme Sports outfit than a genuine BDU, but from what I understand, most PMC’s seem to favor that trend nowadays. The jacket has a nice amount of detail sculpted in form seams, padded sections and straps, which make cause legs to look rather plain by comparison.

The default head is a very good portrait of actor Ray Stevenson, of Rome and Thor fame, although it looks a tad big when compared to the alternate, balaclava-covered head. The bare-face Firefly has several scars running above the left eye and a serious expression that was also well portrayed in the masked head.

Firefly got a reduced articulation count because of the need to balance the cost with the included pack-ins, but he still gets as much articulation as the vintage ARAH version, consisting of:

• Ball jointed head.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Floating torso.

• Ball jointed hips.

• Hinged knees.

The functionality is pretty much the same as in the original Firefly, even though the actual construction of this figure does reflect the current trends in action figure design like having injection-molded nylon joints instead of aluminum rivets and rubber bands.

Firefly’s jacket is quite nice, decorated with interesting designs stamped at the back as well as Cobra insignia painted over the breast and the left arm. The jacket also displays bright yellow piping along the arms and a gray camo spots that match the pattern applied on the masked head.

There is an odd issue with the forearms though. These are molded in translucent green plastic and display paint only on the inside of the piece. By contrast, the hands only have paint on the outer surface. Remember this because it has to do with this figure’s gimmick. The legs are simply left in the color of the plastic with only block color applications for the details.

Firefly comes with an interesting selection of accessories. First off, he comes with a couple of holsters on his legs that can be popped off quite easily. In these holsters, Firefly carries a couple of pistols of different shape and size, which are actually the same molds we got with the G.I. Joe Trooper released in this same line.

Firefly also comes with a small vehicle, some sort of combat sled that carries a canister of (presumably) explosive material that can be ejected at the touch of a button. The sled has another button that causes the handles of the vehicle to light up. Supposedly, the idea was that the light from the handles would propagate to the translucent plastic on the forearms causing them to light up as well, but in practice, this doesn’t really work as expected.

It could be that the light is not bright enough, or the plastic on the forearms isn’t as good at reflecting the light but, either way, it just doesn’t work as advertised. The sled itself isn’t a horrible mini-vehicle; it has nice proportions and is very detailed, but all the same I am left wishing that they had just given Firefly better articulation instead.