Charbroil

Height: 10cm to top of head.

Articulation: 22 points total- ball-jointed neck; 5 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, universal-joint elbow, forearm swivel; mid-torso ball joint; 5 points each leg: ball-joint hip, double-joint knee, universal joint ankle.

Colors: Molded red, gray, silver-gray, black, translucent red, and white. Painted yellow, black, silver, gray, and red. Vac-metal silver head.

Accessories: Flamethrower Backpack, Missile Launcher, Stand.

Author: RAC

(more...)

Charbroil is a member of the GI Joe team and specializes in the use of flame-based weapons. Incorporating the latest gas propellents and flammable liquids, he designs flamethrowers that can undermine Cobra fortifications and scatter a blockade of Cobra Troopers.

Red and yellow! Guess who is not in the Rise of Cobra film at all. Charbroil is a pretty straightforward-looking update of a 1988 figure. Though not a perfect visual match, since his helmet's very different now and the rest of his gear is borrowed from fellow dispenser-of-flame Blowtorch. I've read that Charbroil is a clever mixture of pieces from Blowtorch, Resolute Duke, and some new material. It doesn't surprise me, as Hasbro is good at reusing molds, and the mix-and-match nature of GI Joe molds makes it even easier for them than it is for, say, Transformers. So: we know he looks good, but how is he otherwise?


The Figure

First off, I like the helmet: the shape is oddly Gundam-esque to my eye, and the chrome visor gets your attention- I actually noticed it before the red suit. This is accomplished cleverly, with a chromed head glued inside a helmet- thus you get a really, really shiny visor, and Hasbro gets a helmet mold for reuse somewhere down the road. The downside is that the socket for the neck joint is really stiff, and it kind of "clicks" once before the head is snapped in place properly. If he looks like a giraffe when you pull him out of the package just push the head down a bit further, it should be fine. (Interesting detail: his neck is painted silver! Kind of odd, especially when you take the head off and see the chrome jawline under the helmet...)

 The gray chest piece is weathered nicely, and on close inspection it sure looks like Charbroil is a man who spends a lot of time around fire. The chest armor is also removable, and covers a plain red shirt with two pockets. One nice touch: next to the small propellent tank on the chest, there's an alternate socket for his flamethrower weapon. (I was going to say that a propellent tank on your chest would make a great target, but hey, so does the big one on your back, so...) I'm not sure if the tank on the back of his belt is more propellent, or a fire extinguisher. It kind of looks like a fire extinguisher, but it matches the other tanks on his body so probably not- and I like the idea that Charbroil is so committed to his purpose of setting things on fire that he's essentially made himself into a walking fuel tank. He also has a sidearm, but sadly this is a molded-on display piece as opposed to a real pistol accessory. The rest of the suit is primarily red, with some yellow accents that are, oddly enough, all on the front of the suit only. That does bug me a little- it's such a Bandai thing to do.

The neck is tight, but the head turns a full circle and it gets a little front-to-back tilt, even! The arms are mildly restricted. The shoulder joints don't swing out fully perpendicular to the body, though they do turn all the way around even if they do it at an odd angle. The elbow doesn't bend to my minimum expectation of 90 degrees, and in fact because of the molded elbow pads you can't straighten them all the way either. This isn't too unreasonable on a figure that's presumably wearing some pretty heavy flame-resistent gear, but I'd still prefer more, especially with a two-handed weapon to consider. The upshot is that the pads are on the lower arm, so they don't restrict the swivel. The torso joint is great: no restrictions on swivel, and great front-to-back tilt. I tend to keep him hunched forward so the armor plate meets the belt. The legs fare much better than the arms too, and Charbroil has no trouble doing a split or sitting down. You get very close to doubling the knees over completely, but it misses the mark by just a bit. The ankles lean forward just enough, lean back more than enough, and most importantly all the leg joints are all strong enough to hold a pose. But I don't like the scalloped shape of the ankles, as it means you have to work around those curves as you pose.


Accessories

-Flamethrower Backpack

In-package, you get a gun and a backpack, and a cable that connects the two. The backpack plugs on very securely, and since it passes through the gray vest, it helps keep that part steady. It's more sophisticated looking than the flamethrowers I've seen elsewhere, which tend to just be a bunch of fuel tanks strapped to a guy's back. (Well, fuel and propellent tanks, apparently.) I have no idea what Charbroil is carrying that would require the fancy backpack, so I'll just go with "it looks neat." (And really, would a simple bunch of tanks look right with this guy? I think not.) Likewise, the rectangular box on the left side pops off and reveals what looks like a simple control panel underneath, and I'm presuming that's just there to look neat as well.

The gun is a two-handed weapon, technically. "Technically," because as usual you're unlikely to find any natural-looking pose where Charbroil is holding the weapon with both hands. If you put the stock hanging over the arm, you can do it- but how much sense does that make? While the stock can be put to use if you don't go for the two-handed grip, maybe it's best if you don't- it's very thin, and mine is showing stress-marks already. The cable that connects the gun to the backpack (or the vest!) is very flexible, and so far shows no signs of wear despite being molded gray and painted red. If it were a little longer, it might be more fragile, but that would've fixed the storage problem. The backpack's connector for the hose has two sockets- on in front, one in back -and basically it works best to put the hose in the front-facing hole for when the gun's in use, and the rear-facing one when it's tabbed into the side of the backpack. Not quite sure why it's set up that way, but it strikes me as slightly silly at the very best. Still, it's a fairly neat and intricate accessory, and everything is functional and doesn't fall apart easily.

-Launcher

Pretty big, even when compared to some of the other launchers. This one also came with the mass-market Destro from the RoC line, and it's a good choice for Charbroil, being covered as it is with a bunch of small propellent tanks. Moreover, they've included a textured missile painted to look like a ball of fire. The other thing I like is that it has hard-plastic handles, finally! But I'm just not thrilled with the look and size of the thing overall. It's technically one of the better examples of a missile launcher in this line, but it's just too bulky for me.

-Stand

Another dogtag-styled stand with Charbroil's name printed on it. Useful, though he can stand just fine on his own, even when toting the big launcher!

Closing Remarks

Charbroil is Excellent. He looks neat and I like his primary accessory- and even the launcher, which personally doesn't do anything for me, works perfectly. And he's colorful and eye-catching even before you factor in the shiny chrome visor. Unless you're trying to stick to characters from the movie itself, he's definitely worth it.

-RAC