The Flamethrower trooper is something I remember as always being part of the old green army men sets I would play with before the days of Joes and He-Man, though I don’t really remember playing a lot with Blowtorch when he was first released. He stood out as insanely colorful even back then, especially amongst the slightly more realistic military greens of the earlier figures. This version is a bit more muted than the vintage figure, but colorful in it’s own way. Let’s take a look at G.I. Joe Classified Blowtorch!
Blowtorch comes in the usual Classified packaging which features a nice painting of him in action on the side and a render of the toy in an environment on the back. The highlight of that was seeing a Bridgelayer in the backdrop doing its thing.
Blowtorch comes with some good stuff, most of which can be stored on his person, including three flame effects, blowtorch, hose, pack, pistol, and removeable helmet and mask. The pistol is a pretty standard looking gun cast in green plastic. It’s a bit on the rubbery side, but the barrel is short enough that this isn’t really an issue. It has no port for the blast effects, but fits solidly in the holster.
The pack is re-use from Torch and resembles an old army flamethrower pack a lot more than the vintage figure’s pack did. I kind of miss the angled pieces on the bottom, but I think this is pretty effective. It is a little plain and could use a flame symbol or danger decals somewhere. The flamethrower can be shoved into the slot at the bottom of the tank for storage, though it’s a bit awkward looking.
The flamethrower itself looks cool to me and the extra tank and metal plate in front of the trigger add some interest to the overall look. It’s funny, in my memory he had a yellow flamethrower in the vintage line, but every pic I’ve seen shows a green one back then, so I guess my mind is playing tricks on me. The flamethrower attaches to the pack via a rubbery hose we’ve see a lot in the line and it works well, but I don’t love the way it just sticks straight out to the side sometimes.
The effects are also re-use from Torch and are pretty nice. I feel like the longer ones want to droop the longer they are in there, so the little tiny flame is the one I use on the shelf.
They look nice as is, but a little bit of light shining behind them makes them sing.
The helmet and mask combo is my favorite part of the figure, though it’s also the worst QC issue on my copy. They are two pieces that fit well together and while he can wear the helmet without the mask it’s a little loose.
I love that the goggles are clear so you can see his eyes, however my figure didn’t get fully painted so part of the mask that should be black around the nose is still clear. I can fix that fairly easily, but I don’t want to be doing that sort of thing. The mask attaches to a little chest box via fairly flexible tube, so that doesn’t hinder articulation, but the mask does interact a bit with the open collar to make him a bit stiff around the neck. The chest box pegs onto the chest overlay so it swivels and can be removed easily.
Sculpting on Blowtorch is really nice. The original figure had these circular pieces on the chest and legs that almost looked like octopus suction cups to me as a kid. This version they are a bit more detailed and sci-fi looking, which is a cool effect. The general design vibe is similar, but the detail is turned up a bit. The red chest armor also has some more elaborate panel lines than the original’s six segments.
The paint is good aside from the mistake on the mask. The colors are way more muted here than the original with the red tending towards burgundy and the yellow towards a mustard. There is also a pretty prominent addition of black as an accent color and silver for the armor circles. It definitely adds to the modernization feel and makes me wonder how it would look in the classic color scheme.
Articulation is Classified standard with one big omission of a boot cut. It’s a shame because it seems like it would have fit easily at the ankle or the big pant cuff. Articulation moves well otherwise, except where the collar interferes with movement. He’s got one of the more limited barbell joints in the top of the head, but it doesn’t matter much because of the helmet. The ab crunch is a little limited by the overlay, but still gets one click forward and would move backward all the way if not for the pack.
Overall, I’d say this is a pretty successful update of the vintage design into a cool, modern figure. I did have some articulation gripes, but found I was able to get him into the blowtorch using poses I wanted to hit. I am really curious to see some repaints of this guy in the vintage style. The green weapon also makes me want to see what the character would look like in an all green OG13 paint scheme, though as is he’s a nice addition to the varied colors on the Joe shelf.
