Hasbro ended the year strong with a last minute delivery of a bunch of Marvel Legends and one of my most anticipated G.I. Joe Classified figures, Mutt and Junkyard. Ever since I was a kid I always confused which was Junkyard and which was Mutt, but I think I finally got it straight. Let’s take a look and Mutt and Junkyard!
Hasbro is phasing out the plastic free packaging and this is our first example of the new Classified plastic-full packaging. I actually liked the Classified plastic free packaging and they kept some of my favorite aspects including the slimmer painted portrait on the front right and the sides and the rendered scene moves to the back. The retailer copy contains the following bit of character information straight from his old card back:
Mutt is a natural with animals. He likes them and they like him. The problem is that he gets along better with dogs than he does with humans. “If you’re sitting next to Mutt in the mess hall, don’t try filching anything from his tray-he’ll bite your leg off!”
The set comes with Mutt and Junkyard figures, 8 different hands (two gun holding, one fist, one chop, one point, and three signal hands), a mask, two goggles, two heads for Junkyard, a helmet, a pistol, a rifle, a nightstick, and a knife.
The pistol and rifle look familiar and I think they are re-use, I’m not sure about the pistol, but the rifle is definitely from Grunt. The guns are cast in black with a bit of green accent and can fit blast effects in the barrel. The rifle is a little softer than it should be and the barrel is a bit bendy. The rifle has a removeable clip that stays in securely and the pistol fits solidly in the thigh holster. The rifle is a bit disappointing since I’m so used to Mutt having a Mac 10. Now, I didn’t know it was a Mac 10 until I just googled it, when I was a kid I thought of any gun that looked like that was an Uzi. That said, his file card does say he’s qualified to handle an M-16 and I think that’s what his rifle looks like to me, so it kinda fits.
The knife is fairly small and stumpy but does have silver paint on the blade and it fits perfectly in the sheathe in the vest.
The night stick has more of a tonfa look instead of the stick with the loop from the original figure and I like the choice as this feels like a more versatile weapon. I do wish there was a loop on the back of the belt to store the thing.
The hand option are a fun extra and while they are designed for hand signals, I really like just having a fist, chop, and pointing hands options for Mutt. Some of the more closed hands work for things like petting Junkyard or feeding him doggy treats too.
I love the variety of looks you can get combining the mask, helmet, and goggle options in different ways. The mask has some very nice red and green paint highlights. The helmet also has a nice subtle dirty drybrush that brings out the texture and gives it a lived-in feel. The helmet fits a little more solidly when the goggles are on, but when they aren’t it’s still a tighter fit than Dusty or General Hawk.
My favorite accessories by far are the alternate portraits for Junkyard. The sales copy describes the alternate head for Junkyard as a “good boy” head and it’s a perfect description, he looks so happy and loved with his raised eyebrows and floppy tongue. The growling portrait looks appropriately scary too.
Sculpting is great on both of the figures, but Junkyard stands out to me since he’s so unique. The animal companions in this line are such a highlight, I swear I would totally buy a non-branded super-articulated animal line done by these sculptors. Mutt has a lot of re-used parts from other figures, but the original parts makes it feel all new to me. I particularly love Mutt’s aggro expression and how it even continues into the striated muscles of his neck. The vest also has a lot of nice texture and seam detail that pays homage to the original figure well while stepping up the detail. Even the pads on the gloves have lots of scuffs and ding details sculpted in.
The articulation for Mutt is Classified standard and he moves as you would expect. I was pleasantly surprised that his ab crunch works as well as it does with a full vest like that. Junkyard has articulation similar to Timber from the Snake Eyes packs with:
- Ball and socket head, neck, mid-torso and hips
- Swivel/hinge knees and paws
- Hinged ankles and neck
The joints all move pretty well for the most part, though the back leg knee joint is really tight. Where the neck connects to the body is a hinge with a ball joint on the end and the hinge up and down movement is hindered a bit by the vest. The vest isn’t designed to be removeable, but you can heat up the plastic and pop the front legs and neck off to slide the vest off and it allows the neck hinge to move a bit better. There is a bit of a gap, but you can hide that by tilting the neck a bit. The collar is easily removeable when swapping heads too.
The Paint is solid on these figure with nice face printing for Mutt and some subtle transitions from black on Junk’s brown spots. I especially like Mutt’s subtle five-o’clock shadow. I think I’d like a little wash on Junkyard’s teeth to bring out those details a bit.
Overall this is another home run set from the Classified team and a great way to end last year and kick off this one. The helmet and mask combinations for Mutt are a lot of fun and Junkyard is another wonderfully executed animal companion for the line. I like the idea of the signal hands a lot, but as I was playing with Junkyard I was thinking I would have preferred a neutral expression option for him.
My main gripe with the figure is the lack of MAC 10, but Marauderinc.com created a great little set of 3 dog treats and weapon with removeable magazine and suppressor that completes this set nicely at the great price of $1.99. The grip on the gun is a little thick, but Mutt can hold it.
I can’t wait to see what’s next for the G.I. Joe and their animal buddies line!
