2005 Firefly
The 2000‘s comic 3-packs were pretty notorious for their poor execution. This Firefly, however, has always been considered an exception to that, by most. It stands out, as for years most of these figures saturated clearance isles and were things nobody wanted from the aftermarket. There’s some reasons why this Firefly is a step above the standard fair for these releases, though, I also imagine he’s popular just because he’s Firefly.
Probably the worst thing about this figure was that he came stuffed in a pack with Scrap-Iron and Serpentor. Really, that shouldn’t be a bad thing, but it should be obvious that Firefly is way more popular than his packmates. A problem with multi-packs, is that the strongest figures rarely as often help oddities sell as it is that the oddities drag down those strong figures. Generally, Serpentor is not so popular, and there’s pretty much never been anyone with a desire for play-doh Scrap-Iron. I was able to get the whole set MOSC years after it came out for near retail price.
A recurring trait that ruins many of these figures was their ridiculously small heads. Firefly is nice, because for some reason his head is only somewhat small. He also has a really tight head-sculpt with a pronounced expression under his mask. It looks intense and has a bit more character than his first sculpt. It’s certainly one of the few cases where this head is a decent alternative to the vintage head it replaced, which usually was not the case with these releases.
His colors are fairly strong. Hasbro had done pretty much anything you could possibly want from the Firefly mold up to this point, so returning him back to his original grays was a good choice for a send-off. Another thing I like about this figure, is that it’s much easier to see a lot of his nice sculpted details in comparison to V1 Firefly. In contrast to his light gray tones, he features a lot of black and silver on his various straps and holsters, which does well to highlight those details.
For parts, you get all of ‘84 Firefly’s gear, just now in black. That includes his KEDR-B submachine gun, his backpack with tool tray, and his tiny walkie-talkie. That’s not too special for Firefly, but it’s another thing that strengthens the quality of this release regardless. I was always much more fond of the olive color used for the original parts, but the full roster of gear in black looks okay. It’s weird how Firefly’s gun is somewhat married to the character, I guess KEDR’s might’ve been a little rare until they were fully produced in ‘94. Though in a Joe-fan’s mind, you’d think this would be a decent sidearm for all of your HISS Drivers and Motor Vipers, ignoring the suppressor.
Somewhat of an oddity that this figure made me realize, is that most people take horribly boring photos of Firefly. That includes myself, as most of my photos to this point are ones of Firefly standing around in the dark. It seems with others if Firefly isn’t in the dark, he’s being used almost interchangeably with an army builder or some mook. It’s just something odd to me, as you’d think the beloved Cobra saboteur would be in a lot of places doing exciting things, but most of us just seem to show him standing around. It doesn’t have much to do with this figure, just something I noticed I’d like to work on, personally.
Comic pack Firefly goes for about $18 loose and complete, and from $50 to $70 sealed. It’s a nice figure, so in the current market I can understand why he’s developed some value. The people paying $70 for sealed sets however, are certifiably nuts. It will be funny once the bubble bursts and “I paid a lot for that!” becomes a common catchphrase. Paying huge premiums for common, junk comic-pack figures is about is absurd as it gets, especially when you consider that many of these figures are yellowing in package, or now feature cracking chests. It’s very telling of the market insanity that people would pay so much for figures this shoddy.
The Viper Pit 