Art Design: The LIFE MAGAZINE and G.I. Joe series features a great idea that was done wrong. The box looks great, with the front of the box in the style of the old LIFE magazine, and the back has the very brief, typical Hasbro History Lesson which was probably written by somebody whose only exposure to World War II History was the Nickelodeon cartoon version of the Battle of Guadalcanal. The window box displays all the gear and the figure in plain view. There is a miniature LIFE Magazine included, but the 1:6 scale LIFE Magazine is just a picture of the cover. I thought the 1:6 scale would be complete too, like one of those miniature Bibles.
The Figure and Headsculpt: The headsculpt is the Normandy Ranger head with black hair. The Normandy Ranger was issued back in 1996? So that head is six years old, and Hasbro must have made millions of them, since they keep sticking the same head on nearly every set they issue. The figure is the Classic Collection Joe with bendable fingers. About halfway between the elbow and the wrist, this figure has the bendy wrist & hands attached. As you can see from the photo above, all of the fingers are bendable.
The Miniature LIFE: Unless you use a magnifying glass, nearly all of the stories in the 1:4 scale LIFE Magazine (February 1, 1943) are unreadable. The awesome photos of Guadalcanal are tiny, and the captions are even smaller. LIFE Magazine was the largest format magazine ever published. It was 16X20 during its original first run, and the whole philosophy of LIFE Magazine was its large photo coverage of the news, features, etc. So a minature LIFE Magazine is totally contrary to everything that LIFE once stood for. Most of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century worked for LIFE Magazine. Reproducing LIFE in such a small size does not do justice to the great photos inside the magazine. Since the miniature is not GI Joe scale anyway, I wonder why they did not reproduce it in a size where at least the text could be seen clearly by the naked eye? It would be too much to expect a full-size reproduction, but they could have done an 8X10" or 4X6" size instead of the tiny 2X3" version that is packed with GI Joe.
The Outfit and Gear: How many times can GI JOE repackage the same World War II sets and sell them as something different? It would be nice if they included some DISTINCTIVE weapons, war mementos, etc. to distinguish the Guadalcanal Joe. However, he looks like the same guy that came in the M-3 Vehicle, and in various other sets. Master hobbyist Mark Boyd pointed out that this figure is equipped with BAR Ammo Pouches in spite of the fact that he is armed with a carbine. The only thing special about this set are the 1:6 scale dog-tags. One tag says LIFE and the other one has the GI JOE logo on it. The tags are awesome!
The Price: This set is worth about $19.99. The actual MSRP was $39.99. I feel sorry for the Vets and any other persons who actually bought this underachieving salute to Guadalcanal at $40.00. I got it on clearance at Target for $9.77. A few days later they were $4.66 and finally sold out. It is too bad that Hasbro cannot commemorate one of the greatest, most brutal and bloody battles in U.S. History by issuing something that is not a re-hash of old parts and old heads. This set made me feel sorry for the thousands of Allied soldiers who lost their lives on Guadalcanal, and whose memory was commemorated by a second-rate effort.
Grade: D
