G.I. J.O.E. - Lady Jaye

Courtesy of some very nice guys in the US, I was able to obtain a load of Retaliation figures for my collection. As many of you will know, I usually try to upgrade my figures by adding extra details. I liked the stock Lady Jaye figure. The factory paintjob is very nice, the articulation of what is in essence a Renegades Scarlett body is top notch. However, I like my figures to have an authentic weighed-down look of real warfighters and regardless how nice Lady Jaye’s soft armor looks, she’s missing some load-bearing equipment. To help that, I threw the plate carrier with mag pouches from a 25th Resolute Duke on her which fits sort of nice. Maybe I will revisit this aspect of the figure in the near future when I have the necessary parts. Pretty much all Tier One troops carry a pistol so I glued the right-handed holster from a movie Black Widow’s gunbelt onto her thigh. The pistol came from the spare parts box. The real piece de resistance was the head. While I like the stock Lady Jaye head, I thought the facial expression of the Marvel Thor Lady Sif head was closer to the actual looks of actress Adrianne Palicki. Slight dremelling of the neckhole makes the Sif head fit Lady Jaye’s neck nub perfectly. The watch came off an Avatar Corporal Something figure. I think small details like this add the final touches to the figures, even if they are “just” kitbashes.

G.I. J.O.E. - General Joseph Colton

When watching the numerous Retaliation trailers and teasers, we can see General Joe Colton wear brownish or olive drab fatigues. While I am still looking for a suitable body to build a movie-accurate version of the original GI Joe, I decided to use the ROC camo Joe trooper figure as a base. I exchanged the Popeye-like lower arms for 25th Flint lower arms, but kept the trooper hands. The jacket skirt came off easily and the gun belt from the Retaliation Ninja Duel Snake Eyes fits nicely. This belt not only has the correct left-handed holster (actor Bruce Willis is left-handed), but also a Kydex-type knife sheath on the right side. The skinner knife that came with Snake Eyes was relegated to the parts bin and a 25th Resolute Duke Bowie knife was used. I think this fits the Old School style of Joe Colton better. Since Colton also wears a shoulder holster in the movie, this rig was created by modifying a ROC General Hawk shoulder holster from the parts bin into a working one. A pouch for spare mags was superglued on the left shoulderstrap so now the good General (ret.) is ready for a serious gunfight. The Retaliation Joe Colton headsculpt fits the body beautifully. In my book this kitbash is simple yet effective and will stand in well untill a better body comes along.