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[olyeller01]

The reviews from Ol Yeller just keep coming.  Today we have the Target-Exclusive "Rescue Mission" four pack.  This pack is the latest in the growing line of Target Exclusives, and retails for $19.99 US.  It includes four figures: 2 Neo Vipers, Duke, and Snake Eyes.

I'm sure you're saying MORE Neo Vipers, and another Duke and ANOTHER Snake Eyes?

Well yeah, what'd you expect?  The three most over-produced figures of the ROC line are finally all together in their own set.  This pack is noteworthy for one reason of course, which I will get to shortly.

First up are the Neo Vipers.  They are variations of the first Neo Viper figure, and look very similar to the one included in the "Senior Ranking Officers" TRU Cobra set.  The box lists them as "Naval Officers" which may explain why their bodies are metallic grayish-teal instead of black.  All accessories are the same as what came with the single-pack Neo Viper.  I will say that I much prefer the blue color the the same old BLEH black.

Next up is Duke.  Duke uses Breaker's body but with a Channing Tatum head, of course...which in turn looks way too big for the body.  Black shirt with a gray pattern on it, and the camo pants are strictly shades of gray now instead of the blue that was mixed in with the previous ROC Joe camo scheme.  Duke has one of the USP pistols, one of the bullpup assault rifles that I don't care much for, and an odd accessory: it looks very much like the back end of the really neat assault rifle included with PP Snake Eyes, but it looks like the barrel has been chopped off.  WTF?  Strangely enough the new City Strike Duke comes with one too, apparently.  My pic didn't turn out but you can see what it looks like easily by going to any website selling CS Duke.  Duke also is not lucky enough to warrant a vest or backpack, not even Sgt. Stone's vest like the AOTP Ripcord came with.

Before I get to the meaty point of the review, I feel I must note that many of the accessories come bagged with the figure stands.  Some are obvious as to who they belong to, others not so much.  There's a trench knife included which is probably for Snake Eyes, as well as one of the tiny switchblade-looking knives that I'm not sure who it was intended for.  There are also not one or two but THREE of the Big, Stupid Launchers, though one appears to have at least a LITTLE usefulness: it's the same one included with "Desert Ambush" Scarlett and it is outfitted to be used as a zipline.

Now for the meaty part of the review.  We get to Snake Eyes.  WHY OH WHY you ask is the review of Snake Eyes version...well, Yo Joe had the one included with the Arashikage cycle as version 45 so it's probably version 48 or 49 with Arctic Assault and City Strike SE counted in...why is this figure so meaty?

Because he has City Strike/Resolute SE's body with Paris Pursuit SE's head, and he's solid, jet-freaking-black, with the exception of a lone red Arashikage symbol on his right bicep.

Seeing this figure makes you realize why City Strike SE is going for $25 US or more all over the 'Net.  The sculptors really did a bang-up job on the Resolute SE and I'm very glad we got this figure, and that we'll get City Strike SE (if any of us can ever find him, that is).  This is the ultimate ninja commando, and will remain so...until I get my hands on the City Strike SE anyway.  I have to hand it to Hasbro that they can make 50 versions of the same character and still impress the crap outta me.  Twice.  They did it with PP SE and they've done it again now. 

This Snake Eyes comes with one of the now common ROC USP pistols, and the very small submachine gun, sword, sheath, small backpack, and climbing spikes included with CS SE.  I only have two tiny, tiny niggles with this figure.  I wish his neck was just a tiny bit longer, as I think he'd look more proportioned.  And some of you may love this, but his sword's all black too, and I wish they'd sprung for a silver paint app on the blade.  One other thing...the all black is very, VERY cool don't get me wrong and the figure looks great, but unless you really examine the figure closely the black hides all the great detail that went into this figure's sculpt.  From the side buckles on the boots to his finely-sculpted six-pack, this figure just plain rocks.  And fortunately we still have City Strike SE's gray color scheme to show off the details...

Should you buy this pack?  Many of you out there won't be able to hold out on it just because of Snake Eyes.  If you're trying desperately to find a City Strike SE, you MAY very well like this figure better and can get him cheaper (with three other figures as well) than what CS SE is going for online.  Well, at least US residents or Canadians with US buddies or that frequently cross the border can get it for that price, but you get the idea.  As for the other figures, you either love or you hate the Neo Vipers by now and if you buy a bunch of multi-packs (like me) you already have a ton of 'em, but the color scheme on these two is WAY better than the regular Neo Vipers.  As for Duke, well...Duke's pretty much a binner (you know, you take him out of the package, look at him, and throw him in the storage bin with the rest of your Joes That Suck, right next to the Mole Pod ), and I'm still puzzled by the chopped off(?) gun accessory.  So consider it one very worthwhile figures, two useable figures, and one useless (to me anyways) figure for $20 US. 

Obligatory pics:http://s635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Figure%20Reviews/?action=view¤t=Picture.jpg

[Scramble]

Those Neo-Vipers are much blue than I expected. You're right, though, it makes them look much better than the black ones.

[Pete The Greek]

Yay, more repaints.  Way to go Hasbro   

[Kronz]

I don't care if they're repaints, but it is frustrating not knowing if these will ever show up at Zellers. Personally I'd buy any of the ROC 3.75 stuff just because I like buying toys at retail. Trading for stuff or paying a lot to get it imported takes nearly all the fun out of toy collecting for me. Hasbro could have had me as a completionist for this line if they'd just reined it in a bit. Even if they'd only had 50% of the ROC stuff they've released it would have still been more than enough and tough to keep up with. As I am kind of giving up. Whatever I find at retail is what I get.

[Pete The Greek]

I don't care if they're repaints, but it is frustrating not knowing if these will ever show up at Zellers. Personally I'd buy any of the ROC 3.75 stuff just because I like buying toys at retail. Trading for stuff or paying a lot to get it imported takes nearly all the fun out of toy collecting for me. Hasbro could have had me as a completionist for this line if they'd just reined it in a bit. Even if they'd only had 50% of the ROC stuff they've released it would have still been more than enough and tough to keep up with. As I am kind of giving up. Whatever I find at retail is what I get.

I gave up a while ago.  I expected the ROC line to be over priced and full of repaints, just the the TF movie line.  Hasbro met those expectations.   However, I didn't expect this many US based exclusives.   

Most of the figures that I have gotten from the ROC line were bought in Canada and on sale.  Otherwise, I really have no interest in hunting them down.

[olyeller01]

After initially going pretty crazy over the ROC figures myself, I've slowed down quite a bit (exclusives not withstanding).  Night Adder was the last ROC figure I bought and it had been quite a while before him.  Plus the only reason I got the Rescue Mission pack was because of Snake Eyes. 

There just aren't that many of the new figures that really catch my fancy.  After City Strike SE, I probably won't buy much else other than the SNAKE armor, the Wal-Mart exclusive small playsets (Outpost Defender etc) and the exclusive vehicles like the Rage.  I also refuse to pay over retail as every ROC figure I've wanted has shown up usually sooner rather than later.  Even Pit Commando is pretty prevalent now.

Yet with the 25th line I was preordering all the time to make sure I'd get them and I never passed on a figure I found at retail because I could never be sure I'd see it again.  I'd also snatch up several of the troop-builders at once to make sure I'd get them.  And the ROC figures clog the shelves.  Gee Hasbro, do you see a trend here?

[Scramble]

Yet with the 25th line I was preordering all the time to make sure I'd get them and I never passed on a figure I found at retail because I could never be sure I'd see it again.  I'd also snatch up several of the troop-builders at once to make sure I'd get them.  And the ROC figures clog the shelves.  Gee Hasbro, do you see a trend here?

Having to buy 25th ASAP or online because you may never see them again versus any figure I want available at retail? Maybe it's just me but I'd say the trend is the distribution problems are over. Hasbro, keep up the good work.