Sure Fire (2001)

I’ve wondered about the 2001 GI Joes, with their odd renamings and new head sculpts. Remolds of Roadblock, Torpedo and even Duke were turned into new or different characters. Some of it I’m sure was due to rights issues with names, like Shockwave, whose moniker Hasbro also couldn’t apply to its Transformers brand. Creating new Joes was at least a way of getting a little more variety into the line, rather than rehashing all the old guys again. The biggest down side of the series for me was the drabness of some of the figures, particularly those with paint wipe decos. That’s not to say I don’t like this figure, as he’s decorated in a nicely subdued shade, like his pack mate, Low Light.

Sure Fire is basically the DEF Shockwave with a new head. The body is one of my favorites of the 90s, and can be used in a variety of ways, from CID agent to a generic urban or SWAT trooper. Even though Shockwave’s cool shielded helmet didn’t make the transition, the repainted Law helmet works nicely, considering he’s military police as well.

For a newly sculpted head, it’s not a bad change at all. However, the paint apps on the head aren’t quite up to the standards of the Real American Hero years. Mine is rather sloppily painted, and Sure Fire ends up with a couple of caterpillars stationed over his eyes. Funny enough, the next release of the character brought back the old Shockwave head. A simple swap can solve the odd eyebrow issue, since I don’t think electrolysis is an option for tiny plastic faces.

 

11 comments

  • The 97-2000’s stuff certainly had some mix ups. I get the impression that Doubleblast and such were meant to be new characters but Hasbro had to make do with what they had.

  • Wow, in that angle the head sculpt looks like Jim Parsons (aka Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory.

  • Just a heads up for everyone. I’ve deleted one comment in this thread due to personal comments about an individual. I have no idea what would spur someone to do such a thing on a toy blog, but I will not allow those kinds of discussions in the comments. Let’s all play nice.

  • Nice looking figure, the original DEF Shockwave was a terrific mold, and it works well here too.

  • @Troublemagnet
    I think the D.E.F needs to come back. Perhaps this time without neon orange holsters [muskrat] and no head mounted rocket launchers [Muskrat again]. I say that as Breaking Bad is so popular and i’m worried it might encourage people.

    @Rob
    I wish you moderated the general chat on Star wars T.O.R. I play it as its how i keep in touch with my brother and his wife. We cant do anything on it lately without someone making vulgar comments.

  • Bland as can be, but not a bad figure. I think he’s better as a generic military police type, not a high ranking officer. It’s interesting that they didn’t reuse any of the ARAH Collection heads in later vintage mold releases.

  • Right now I’m concentrating on finishing up my Battle Corps collection along with vintage Star Wars figures. I’m guessing that these repaints from the A Real American Hero series will be next, followed by the new sculpt era and then maybe Sigma Six. Probably done by 2020…

  • The head would make for a great Agent Coulson of SHIELD custom.

  • Not a fan of the head sculpt, but the rest of the figure (especially the colors) looks really good.

  • @Clutch
    Are you going to add Yakface and Vlix to that collection?

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