Airtight (30th Anniversary)

by KansasBrawler

You’d think that the original hazardous materials trooper would have gotten an update in the original Eco-Warriors subset, but Airtight kind of got ignored back then. Hasbro wasn’t about to make that same mistake twice, though, and he finally got some attention in the 30th Anniversary line. While he’s branded as a Renegades figure, the figure clearly shares more similarities with the original version than the modernized Airtight from Renegades. I do have to say, the Renegades take on Airtight was great and I’m really glad they used that as an excuse to bring him into the modern line, but I’m also glad they stuck to his original look instead of the cartoon look. They’re not that different, but the classic version is a bit more basic than the Renegades design. Airtight is a figure I never had any affinity for. However, the modern update looked so amazing, I desperately wanted him in my collection. After a little eBay luck, I was able to do it, and while I paid a little more than I like (I think the Wave worked out to $15 per figure and I generally draw the line at $12.50), I’m very glad I did. The figures from the last wave of the 30th Anniversary line are all gems, and even though I didn’t have an opinion of Airtight back in the day, I’m definitely an Airtight fan now.

Airtight receives an all sculpt and they really didn’t pull any punches here. While some of it saw use in the Marauder’s set as part of Barbecue, the parts were all initially designed for Airtight, so I’m considering him an all new figure. The whole body is nicely detailed. It looks baggy and tight at the same time. While I’ve never seen hazmat suits in real life, from what I’ve been exposed to from the media, I’d say they did a spot on job making this look realistic. The sculpted wrinkles fall in all the right places and the suit looks very natural when you take a look at where the suit is tucked into the boots and gloves. Airtight looks like he stepped right out of the movie Outbreak and that’s definitely to his benefit. To help break up what is essentially a basic jumpsuit, Airtight also gets a vest that looks like his original chest piece. While I’m not sure what all is exactly on his chest plate, I’d imagine it has a wide variety of monitoring functions built into it, both for the external environment and for Airtight’s own oxygen supply. Once again, the details look like they stepped right out of 1985 but they’ve been given a nice facelift to reflect the modern toy-making technologies. Airtight also gets a brand new head sculpt underneath a removable helmet. I’ve sung the praises of giving figures removable helmets in their modern updates, and Airtight really benefits from it. He’s wearing a hazmat hood under his helmet and Airtight’s got a really stern look on his face. I understand that someone who works with hazardous materials would probably be a pretty serious dude in the field, but I do kind of wish his face reflected a bit more of the “weird prankster” characterization he got in Larry Hama’s filecard. In both the Sunbow cartoon and the original comics, Airtight was kind of a weird guy but I don’t really get that from this head sculpt. Maybe that’s the concession they made to the Renegades take on the character who was far more serious than either of his other media counterparts. All seriousness aside, though, I’m glad we finally get to see a little more of Airtight’s face. I like my Joes to be a little more humanized. I never had a problems with Cobras with full face helmets that meant we never got to see what they looked like underneath, but Joes just seemed wrong if I couldn’t see what their faces looked like. Now Airtight feels a bit more like an individual rather than a faceless guy and I’m glad for it. While the personality it has doesn’t fit quite right for Airtight in my mind, his face has personality and I’m happy we get to see it. Of course, to make sure he can survive in hostile environments, Airtight also wears a helmet and once again, the design team did an excellent job recreating his original look in a new style. It’s got that same classic, bulbous design that the original Airtight had, but the details are sharper and again, it’s removable, which gives him a couple more points in my book right there.

Of course, Airtight wouldn’t be the same without his yellow and green garb and he looks great here. The green looks suitably military, but where they really succeed is in the way they managed to make the yellow look good. From what I’ve read, yellow is one of those colors that’s kind of tricky to work with when it comes to making toys, but they really pulled it off here. The yellow is bright, like a hazardous materials specialist would wear in the field, but there’s a slightly darker yellow wash over it that helps bring out the wrinkled detailing and also tones down the yellow so he’s not garishly bright. The black trim on the helmet looks sharp and helps break up the green up there while still looking realistic. The paint detailing on his chest panel is well applied and that’s kind of a make-or-break place. If the sensor displays are just a little off, it really kind of ruins the illusion, but they are spot on. The green boots and gloves look sharp, though there is a bit of fuzziness on the tops of the boots. It’s not bad, but it is something I noticed while giving the figure a lot of attention while I was reviewing him. His paint job is still great, but your mileage may vary a little. I feel I got lucky since I wasn’t able to find these guys in person that the paint is very good. I’m not ridiculously anal retentive, but had there been a big paint error, it would have been kind of disappointing.

Airtight gets a pretty impressive kit of accessories. He’s got two different equipment sets, and in my mind, they both have very different functions and I really like that. The first set of accessories is what Airtight carried around back in the day. Airtight has a sniffer-gun (that’s what it was called back in the day) that attaches to his backpack via a hose. This was a specially modified rifle that could also be used to clean up toxic spills. A little fantastical, yes, but it’s still a neat idea. This gear looks very much at home in Airtight’s hands and thanks to the added wrist articulation, he can hold it in a dual-handed grip very realistically. The other set of accessories in my mind is tied more to the Compound Z subplot in some of the filecards. You can equip Airtight with a backpack oxygen tank, a radiation detector and a shotgun. I can just see Airtight being the first Joe on the scene following a Compound Z outbreak to collect samples. It’s his job, but he’s not going in unprepared. If zombies are around, you’re going to need some additional firepower and nothing says “zombie-hunting” like an assault shotgun. The shotgun is the only reused accessory Airtight gets. The 25th Annivesary Falcon came with it, and I really like it in Airtight’s hands. I’ll freely admit that Airtight is displayed with his more traditional gear most of the time, but I’m glad they gave him the additional gear. I like when a figure’s equipment gives me story ideas just from looking at it. While I don’t have the resources to do dio-stories, I can just see the possibilities of the above mentioned “Airtight: Zombie-Hunter” scenario, and it looks pretty cool. It doesn’t happen a lot, but sometimes Hasbro’s accessory choices just inspire me.

Even though I never had any attachment to Airtight, just looking at the figure, I could tell there was something special about him. Regardless of his Renegades branding, this is an amazing modern update of a classic figure. Even though he never got much attention from Hasbro (seriously, as much as I love Flint, how can you not make Airtight the leader of the Eco-Warriors?), it’s clear someone on staff wanted to rectify that situation and they really pulled out all the stops on him. He got everything that the original Airtight had, and they even fixed a perennial flaw of figures from the first few years, permanent helmets. Add in the extra gear he picked up that, at least in my mind, ties to the Compound Z story and you have a real hit. Even without the backing of a cartoon, Airtight comes ready for adventures just based on the figures that were released around the same time as he was. I do wish the last wave of 30th Anniversary figures had been more plentiful at retail, but at least I was still able to get them without paying ridiculous scalper prices for them, so I’ll count that as a win. Airtight (and his wave-mates) is a great figure and I’m happy to have him on my shelf.