lightpg

I was cruisin' on the Internet late one night, when I noticed Sgt Rock on sale at Small Blue Planet. I picked one up ASAP. This is a GREAT figure and well worth the price! The short version of my review is: if you like ME/TC/Vintage figures and don't have Sgt Rock yet, then you're missing out!!!

Here's the box. Notice the awesome artwork by Joe Kubert! Verrrrry cool! The sides of the box show Jackie Johnson, Little Sure Shot, Bulldozer, and Little Sure Shot.

Originally I hadn't planned on picking up any of the other figures in this series, but after looking over Sgt Rock, I'm going to keep my eye out for the others, too!

Upon opening the box, the first thing I noticed was the extremely heavy-duty cardboard the box is made of. This coffin box is a really tight fit for the fully clothed Rock, but Small Blue Planet packed this figure in a large outer box filled with a gazillion packing peanuts. Very good packing job, SBP!!!

Here's a pic of the jacket that was included in the set. It is tagged "Sgt Rock" which is nice. the shirt was tagged, too. Neither the white T-shirt nor the trousers were tagged, unfortunately. The Field Jacket also had 4 pockets: the top 2 pockets are cargo pockets, but are non-functional. The field jacket also has a waist tie which is a nice touch, but I'm not sure how "authentic" is is.

The figure also came with dog tags which appeared (to me) to be of the Cotswold variety. Too bad they didn't say "Sgt Rock" on 'em! Rock came with the white T-shirt in the pic at right, but I'm not sure why... I don't recall Rock ever wearing a T-Shirt.

The trousers were pretty well detailed with cargo pockets on each leg (non-functional), and a full set of belt loops. A belt was also provided. The belt buckle looked to me to be the same little buckle companies use on their rifle or pack straps. The trousers were very long, so it was easy to tuck them in and still have room to blouse them.

The boots were great! I haven't seen this mold for boots anywhere before. They had molded laces on the bottom part, but the upper half of the laces were actual laces! Groovy!

Here are some of the markings on the Sgt Rock figure. You can see the DC logo at the nape of the neck, but the Rock butt is marked the same as the other repro Joes with the GIJOE trademark information.

The Sgt Rock head sculpt really rocks! As you can see here, he's got the tough-guy grimace along with the Mr Potato Head "Angry Eyes" as well. The eyeliner is a little thick, IMHO, but other than that, it's a great paint job and cool sculpt. The 5-o'clock shadow was well done and the hair detail is a nice touch.

The accessories that came with the set were interesting. The helmet was great, with the oversized sgt stripes on front. It had a textured finish and a leather-looking chinstrap across the visor. This had come loose during shipping but pressed back down ok as it had so me adhesive on the backside. The ammo belt is one I haven't seen before, with big goober-lookin' bullets. The D-Day armband was odd in this set. It had a velcro closure and just seemed out of place on a Sgt Rock figure. Maybe he wore one in the comics, but not in any I've kept. The .45 Thompson sure looks like Cotswold mold to me.

Inside the helmet was a thin rubber pad that doesn't add bulk, but helps keep the helmet from slipping around on Rock's noggin. The elastic chinstrap underneath is a 2-piece version. You can see how the "leather" strap was just glued inside the helmet. Still, it looks pretty cool, with that oversized rank on front.

Including the jacket, arm band, T-shirt, and ammo belt were nice, but I can't imagine why they did such a thing. The Sgt Rock I remember didn't wear a T-shirt, arm band, or field jacket. He always had 2 ammo belts, not one. He also wore a Garand cartridge belt and carried a canteen, too! I ditched the unnecessary accessories and hit the junkbox to come up with the figure at left. THIS is the Sgt Rock I remember! Too bad DC and Hasbro didn't save the money on the unnecessary accessories and add useful ones instead!!!

Now Sgt Rock is ready for combat. Although you can't see it in the pic at left, I've sewn a snap underneath his collar on each side and sewn the other part of the snap to the ammo belt, so now they will stay during play but can also be removed (in case Bulldozer runs out of ammo!).