Welcome to Charlie Clone's All Action Figure Revue at SWAFT.info!

Join me as I review The Corps! Commando Force: Elite Edition: Force Commando with Battle Gear (Gunner O’ Grady model). This figure was purchased for $.97 (plus tax) in Walmart. It was distributed by the nebulous Lanard company in cloying Sugar Creek, MO.

As always, this is a toy for kids three and older. Two year olds, like Charlton Heston, have a hard time distinguishing firearms from candy.

Ah, The Corps!, or, as it is affectionately known in collector’s urban slang, “ghetto G.I.Joe” (not to be confused with the Bronze Bombers). We’ve all seen these figures littering the aisles of Walmart or the local drug store. They are so popular and mainstream that I almost feel like I am selling out, but it’s still a budget-priced figure so it’s fair game. Besides, I acquired this particular dollar-figure precisely because I saw some Website selling it for like five bucks or something ridiculous, so I’m really just showing off. Normally, I’d be suspicious of any capitalist venture that bases its operations in a communist country known for its religious persecution and complicity with insane Korean tyrants, but the Lanard Website swiftly allayed my fears by emblazoning the word “INTEGRITY” across its home page (before showing a low-budget flash animation of a fishing boat hauling its cargo overseas).

The folks over at Lanard assure us that they are good people, committed to making the world smile with its plastic wonders, or, according to Lanard’s own self-description, “Lanard is a Western-led Asian toy company with a global outlook...We offer the world our strength in design, quality and service, as well as our expertise in aggressively priced China-based manufacturing. We focus on meeting the most rigorous design, safety and quality assurances requirements of our diverse customers.”

The basic concept of any The Corps! figure is easy enough to understand: confuse distracted grandmothers and visually-impaired uncles by making a toy that vaguely resembles the G.I. Joe figure that twelve-year olds really want.

And this figure does bear uncanny resemblance to a certain member of the Joe Team, specifically First Sergeant Duke in his ninth and tenth avatars. This shouldn’t be surprising, since these versions of Duke were released in 2002 (and bear a 2001 date stamp). The figure I’m reviewing is stamped 2003.

FEATURES:

The Corps! have always stayed balljoint to balljoint with the Joe team in the global toy arms race. Back in the action figure heyday of the 80s, The Corps! featured the same superlative articulation as Hasbro’s Real American Hero. Therefore, a less knowledgeable action figure aficionado than myself might be a bit shocked by the seeming loss of articulation in the 2003 model of Gunner O’Grady. I’m talking specifically of the loss of the o-ring waist joint.

However, consider that Duke version nine features the same lack of articulation. That’s right, years of combat had taken its toll on the lower backs of the Joe team, “O-Ring Syndrome” they called it. Thus, by the time of the 21^st Century Action Figure Renaissance, Duke re-emerged from his retirement lacking the full-waist articulation of his earlier incarnations. No doubt thinking that this new swivel-only waist was some form of advancement in action figure technology, The Corps! intelligence agents directed their high brass to follow suit.

That being said, Gunner O’Grady sports generous articulation for a mere 97 cents: ball jointed neck, fully rotating shoulders, jointed elbows, hips, and elbows, swivel biceps and waist, and footpegs. Those o-rings are only going to rot and snap anyway. Who needs ‘em?

But as the previously edgy Jareth the Goblin King once said, more or less, “It’s not who does it first, it’s who does it second.”

Sure, Gunner O’Grady might sport an ungainly large head and awkward features, but, in this case, the amount of detail on the knockoff actually surpasses that of his more expensive predecessor. Check out that handy helmet-mounted flashlight, always cool bandoleer, camouflage accents, and special coat of battle grime (as an imaginary aid for children whose parents won’t let them play near actual dirt). Heck, they even molded on a little extra rubber bit from his chinstrap.

--Charlie Clone