The G.I. Joe Classified series is a little bit over a year old and I already had three Roadblock figures from the line when this Amazon exclusive version was announced, but I had to have it. When I saw it on sale last weekend at LA toy show Frank and Sons, I couldn’t pass it by and I’m not even that big a big Roadblock fan! Well, fourth time’s definitely the charm with this one, so let’s take a look at Heavy Artillery Roadblock!
The box is the standard Classified fare with some nice artwork on the front, back, and sides and those little game symbols on left side.
The figure comes with a pistol, a Gatling gun with removeable ammo barrel, and a helmet. The pistol is a pretty big honking gun, and while I don’t know if that’s accurate, it does look good in his hand. It is the same green plastic used on the Gatling gun and fits securely into the thigh holster. The blast effects from recent Marvel Legends figure like deluxe Black Widow do fit in the barrel with a little effort.
When I first saw that Roadblock came with a Gatling gun, I wondered what the heck Hasbro has against the M2 Browning Machine Gun, but seeing that it is the exact same weapon that came in the RAM Cycle sidecar it made a lot more sense as a money saving call. This Gatling gun does have a removeable ammo barrel that can slide on and off that did make me wish that Breaker’s gun had one too. Since they are the same weapon, you can transfer the ammo drum between guns. The gun barrel can swivel and you can shove those blast effects in there, but they don’t sink all the way in.
I think my favorite accessory is the helmet since it is one of the elements from the original toys that these figures missed for me. It fits on his head well and though it is not on there super tight. The original Roadblock figure can wear it, but it’s a bit looser since that head was smaller.
The sculpting on this figure addresses one of my main complaints about the original figure and has a larger, more proportional head with Roadblock’s classic mustache/soul patch facial hair combo. It feels kind of like the same guy, but it fits the body a lot better and definitely has a more classic card vibe. I think it does look pretty great on the other two Roadblock figures too, though they do look a bit shorter than this version. The Heavy Artillery head is slightly more wobbly on the other two figure bodies, but it’s not bad.
This figure does re-use a bunch of the previous Roadblock figure parts, but the torso, left knee, and head appear to be new. This torso does make him a little bigger than his previous releases. I think the drop-down hips on my figure were also low in some of the above comparison shots to add to the height difference.
The t-shirt on this figure is sculpted detail and the web gear is a lot thinner than what we usually see with Classified figures. That has it’s advantages and disadvantages for while it allows for more movement, I did find it a little fiddly to get to sit in place in poses and seems to be slightly warped.
The articulation is Classified standard and moves well for the most part, the one main weakness is the forward movement on the ankle is pretty limited which can cause balance issues in some poses. Roadblock has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket head, lower neck, and waist
- Hinged neck and butterfly pecs
- Swivel thigh, bicep, and boots
- Double hinged knees and elbows
Paint is solid with some good camo application on the shirt and a bit of a wash on the helmet to bring out the cool details on that piece.
Overall, I feel like this Roadblock is an improvement in pretty much every way over previous releases and is much more to my taste even though I did like the others pretty well.
