Firefly works for Cobra Commander in a variety of capacities. As a man of many talents (all of them criminal), this mysterious saboteur
is a master infiltrator and an artist with explosives. He prides himself on his precision, creativity and reliability, all of which make him the go-to person for any job deemed impossible. He welcomes the admiration of others, but a large fee is the only reward that matters to him. When Cobra Commander wants a direct line of communication with world leaders, he turns to Firefly, who carries out his assignment - in his own unique, destructive and frightening way.
Okay, now this is just weird. When the movie Flash came out, everybody pegged it as a repurposed Resolute Firefly mold - it had the same armor, and some decidedly non-Flash-like sculptural elements on the back. Hasbro made no secret of its origins, and lots of people made Firefly customs using it as a base. Now we finally get a Firefly... and he's not made from that mold? The hell?
The only part of this figure that is shared with Flash is the head, which isn't exactly an ideal situation: Flash's mask has one seam running over the top, while Firefly's had two. It's a minor thing, sure, but when they've gone to such pains on other characters, it's worth mentioning, at least. The rest of his body comes from the Cobra Trooper, which does provide a fairly accurate amount of armor, but it's still not perfect.
Firefly's accessories include the usual Firefly
backpack - you know, the one with all the crazy sculpted details and the panel that opens to show his bomb-making tools. There's the silver and black Resolute Cobra gun, and the brown padded armor is removable. The set includes a knife for the sheath on the small of his back. Packaged next to him in the tray is the same cool three-piece missile launcher that came in the five-pack - good news for me, since my dog decided the other one was something she should eat.
The release of this seven-pack is a testament to patience. Stolen samples from the factories hit eBay last year, with people paying through the nose for Baroness painted blue or Destro without his accessories. A few single-carded Storm Shadows actually made it to stores in the Philippines, so he was another one. Now fans are complaining about having to pay $40 per set, but before these releases were announced this February at Toy Fair, those same fans were paying more for individual figures than it would cost to buy both sets. Resolute was a great show, and though this Cobra set isn't as good as its Joe counterpart, these are still very cool new versions of the characters.
-- 8/27/10