The Club cobbled Dial-Tone together from 25th Anniversary versions of Buzzer, Airborne, & Gung Ho and then topped it off with a new head. The best thing I can say about the head is, if you showed it to me and asked me who it was, I would know immediately. The sculpt is great, the mustache and beret look just right. The rest of Dial-Tone is a little off from the original. I’m mostly not a fan of Buzzer giving him that weird unattached left shoulder pad, but the figure works as a whole. Yes, the bandolier isn’t quite right, but if we’re judging this figure against other 25th Anniversary figures, that’s not a big deal. He measures up just fine.
The paint on my figure was pretty clean. There’s a noticeable issue where the green doesn’t quite reach the collar on the left side, but it doesn’t bug me. Dial-Tone is painted looking up though and I do hate that. Otherwise, the colors are right and the tampo on the left arm finishes off what is decent update to the original figure (only overshadowed by how awesome the 30th figures have become).
Articulation is pretty standard for this Joe. A ball-joints for the neck (that the sculpt limits to a swivel joint), shoulders, torso (limited), elbows, hips, and ankles, swivel wrists, and double-hinged knees. Everything except the head works pretty well, but I again find myself trying to measure this guy up to more recent Joes…
For accessories, Fun Pub included his classic backpack and rifle, but cast them in a much darker grey. I assume they’re from the original molds because they look particularly spot on. Dial-Tone also totes around a new pistol that he can keep in the holster on his right leg. I guess that since the reused legs had the holster, it was only fair he get a pistol to stow in there. Works for me. There’s also a 25th Anniversary stand for good measure.
Dial-Tone does include a file card (which I have naturally misplaced in the intervening months since he arrived). You can see a copy of it at YoJoe.Com. Dial-Tone was also available on card at last year’s JoeCon (which was very tempting for me, but pointless – I’d have to open him…). Mine came like this.
No, Dial-Tone isn’t a perfect replica of the classic figure, but that wasn’t really what the 25th Anniversary line was about towards the end anyway. I think most of themhad a foible here or there (the 30th figures don’t seem to have that little hiccup), but I learned to either appreciate them or overlook them. Dial-Tone is pretty much in line the rest of my 25th collection. He’s a good figure that represents a great piece of nostalgia for me. Though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want Hasbro to do a 30th version… or will it have to be 31st after we get through all the G.I. Joe Retaliation product? Either way, we need some more classic Joe updates… there’s a long list of figures I’d still like to see (after I snag Bruce Willis and the Rock, of course).
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LOVE that last pic!
as always great job!
Thanks, Doc!
Great review! Dial-Tone was one of my faves back in the day as well. Alas, I missed out on this one. Here’s to a 30th!
Thank you! I’d love to see Dial-Tone get a redo, but I worry any future versions might be his “sister”!
Those arms! They let him look almost like the weirdo 200x Joes (and they look weirdly soft sculptwise). But in all colorwise and reusewise they made it a working figure. I loved Dialtone in the cartoon and also love his vintage version figure alot…now i see the accessories, i want them hard for mine!! 😀
Those poofy sleeves do give off that look. LOL
I love that he got his classic gear. I’d love to see a 30th Ann communications officer though!
we had similar tastes. I had Dial-tone replace original cast favorite Breaker, mostly because of the “broken thumb issue”, as well as them both being the communication specialists. Crankcase, Mainframe, and Sci-fi were also favorites. And all but CC made the shortlist for those I’m planning to custom into 6″. (No decent fodder…looks at Steve Rogers again. hmm…..)
of course that said, I really don’t care for most of these new Joe molds, but I stumbled across Sci-fi last night and only hesitated a few seconds before deeming he was “worthy” enough for a new version. (Most of the originals were “lost” in storage.) I still passed on Renegades’ Scarlett, Tunnel Rat, and Ripcord numerous times last night. :/
I’d love to see some pics of your customs when you get ’em done. I’d enjoy some large scale Joes…
I have that whole case with the Renegades figs, but I haven’t opened any of the simpler ones. Lifeline, Airtight, & Law & Order are all as cool as Sci-Fi though!
That pic is very sweet in the classic sense. (Where do old soldiers go…?) I like this version of Dial-Tone a lot and it brings us closer to an updated Team ’86. (With the lone exception being poor Iceberg.) I mailed out a check this week, too. The Club is in dire straits right now, but I don’t want to miss out on Footloose, another favorite from the Joes’ glory days.
Thanks, Clutch!
I definitely want Footloose (and that Lost Adventurer honestly…) and I don’t mind helping the Club get back on its feet. Hopefully, they’ll be problem free for years to come!
Nice! The facial sculpt is excellent, but haunting in a way. I can’t seem to put my finger on it, but he looks like an actor or something, but much younger.
A figure like this makes me wish I still collected Joes.
The last pic is great! What other characters are in there? I’m not good on names.
I’m fairly certain that the headsculpt is based on Dabney Coleman’s visage as he appeared in the 1984 film Cloak & Dagger:
http://appatomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Screen-shot-2011-05-12-at-8.41.43-AM-232×300.png
Good call. I watched that movie as a kid and the resemblance is spot on. The other guys in the pic are (left to right) Mainframe, Lift-Ticket, and General Hawk. The one leaving the group in the earlier pic is Low-Light.
Wow! Great catch, guys!
And thanks for the hookup on the names, Clutch! I was going to have Low-Lightin that last pic, but his O-ring had not survived when I went to retrieve the 86 Joes.
That is a pretty good likeness! I kept thinking of someone like an amalgamation of a young Anthony Hopkins or Edward James Olmos. There’s some Roger Moore in there.
This was an easy pass last year, (and this years exclusive is a harder pass I wanted Footloose but I don’t think the club is taking care of the problems fast enough). His head Sculpt is awesome so are the accessories but Yuck, some one make Hasbro throw away that Buzzer torso sculpt and web gear. The only figure it works for is Buzzer but the Club Dial tone and both wide release Leathernecks have been sullied with those sub par pieces. Hopefully Dialtone will get an updated figure after Retaliation as in the last decade he has grown more and more on me (He will never replace Breaker), but until then I have his sister holding the Fort as 1 of only 2 Oregon Joes!
I never did get a Leatherneck! I could’ve maybe overlooked the Buzzer torso, but they never bothered to get his colors right and never game him a proper head. Lame!
I’m not old enough to have much love for Breaker it seems.
Excellent review, as always. Last pic is outstanding!
I was really, really looking forward to this character, and then they went and made him an exclusive. I really hate the concept of exclusives, especially when Hasbro does them, because they’re ridiculously hard to get hold of, especially if you live outside the U.S.A. So I’m hoping you’re right that they’ll do a 30th-Anniversary-style update of Dial-Tone, which will kick even more butt than this version, so I get a chance at him.
Thanks!
Exclusives do indeed suck. It’s like I said about Runamuck and Runabout – it was completely boneheaded to make the club exclusive so connected to another figure that blew out so quickly. Not having one ensures I don’t want the other.