"Exclusive figure". A term that screams pain and misery for a lot of collectors due to the extra difficulties. For Transformers, especially during the War for Cybertron Trilogy, complete teams would be divided thanks to exclusivity. One of the worst offenders of this recently was the Earthrise release of Starscream, where if you wanted to complete the six main Decepticon Seekers, you would have to find five of the six in three different retailers (at least in the U.S.). For international fans, the product even coming to your country isn't a guarantee. Just because a product might be exclusive to Target U.S. doesn't mean it's exclusive to Target/ Target equivalent stores internationally. When you have a line like G.I Joe Classified, where retailers are barely stocking the mainline where you live, let alone getting store exclusives like the "Cobra Island" subline, then your best option is to look elsewhere and hope the price isn't too high. So how did I get a Firefly? Facebook. Facebook contacts and Buy/ Swap/ Sell groups might not be the official way to get the products, but when the demand isn't meeting the supply, you go elsewhere. Was Firefly worth the trouble, though?
To start with, Firefly is, for the most part, a repaint of another Cobra Island figure, Beachhead. As tempting as it would be to do a dual review of them, I don't own a Beachhead. He and the Cobra Island Cobra Trooper are the two big holes in my Classified collection so far. It would be great to review at some point, but that won't be anytime soon. The two significant differences between them are the accessories and the ab crunch blocking vest the two figures have. Like with Roadblock, I am not a fan of these vests in execution, but I'm willing to make an exception for Firefly due to the design and the intended purpose of the vest. It's an explosive resistant vest meant to protect the wearer from heat and blasts from explosives, so a thick vest that's harder to move around makes sense for the character. I love the sculpting on it, things like the pockets at the front, the crotch and butt flaps, the grenades on one shoulder, with a shoulder guard on the other; it's well done. My only real complaint with it comes from the figure's neck. Thanks to some Q.C. issues, the neck on my copy of Firefly is a bit stiff, and when you combine it with the vest's neck protection, getting the head into positions that require him to look down are just a bit harder than they would otherwise be. I've been able to do it on mine, but it's often required taking the head off the ball joint, positioning the neck, and then putting the head back on.
While I like Firefly's accessories, in theory, the execution is hit and miss for me. He comes with a handgun which... ok, tangent for a moment. One point I see brought up now and then that has people split, most leaning towards viewing it as a negative, are the weapons looking like Nerf Guns. I honestly don't see that comparison as bad, as the sculpting on many Nerf guns is very impressive. Most of the Nerf guns I have seen and used are only held back (in terms of a visual design) by their colours to ensure they comply with safety standards and don't look like real firearms. If you give them a better paint job, one that doesn't scream, "I'm a toy for kids to shoot with!" most Nerf weapons can look like really intimidating weapons. One of the frequent reasons I hear about it being a bad thing is the desire for realistic armaments, which is a fair reason, at least for G.I Joe. But for Cobra? I don't see the appeal. Most of their technology has often aired on the sci-fi side of the spectrum anyway. What realistic vehicle is the H.I.S.S. tank supposed to be? The S.N.A.K.E.? Serpentor's Air Chariot? The Trouble Bubbles? To my knowledge, the A-10 Thunderbolt doesn't have VTOL capabilities, and the Blackbird didn't have a second vehicle that attached to the top of it. So, why is Cobra using weapons inspired by a toyline that blends realistic design cues with futuristic ones a bad thing?
Alongside the excellent looking gun, Firefly comes with a pair of goggles that he can wear, a backpack to store most of his gear, a cluster of Dynamite sticks for an explosive, a drone, and a tablet controller for the drone. The only two significant problems are the dynamite and the tablet. The tablet can barely stay in his hand, and it takes next to no effort to pop it out, while the dynamite doesn't fit at all. I cannot for the life of me get him to hold the dynamite. Supposedly, the drone can carry the dynamite, but the connection for it feels, to use a Lego building term, illegal. It feels like connecting the dynamite to the feet of the drone puts strain on the drone's legs and could break them. With all of his gear on him, along with his grey camouflage look, he stands out in a good way when standing alongside your other Cobra figures, as the grey stands out nicely among the mainly dark blue, back and red aesthetic.
While Firefly is a nice figure, the question about "is he good?" comes back to the issues related to the distribution of the Classified line, especially Cobra Island branded figures. He's a solid figure overall, not the best, but not the worst. He's average for the Classified line, which is still very impressive considering other 6-inch figures in other toylines. But was he worth the inflated price I paid for him second hand because there was no hope in him getting an official release here in Australia? Not really, no. If he were spectacular, then I would say it's worth getting him, but because he's only an average figure in an exclusive line, it's hard to not look at the effort needed and go, "he's not worth it".
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