G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trailer!

HELL YEAH!

GI Joe: Renegades - Duke

Hasbro did a great job bringing Duke from the Renegade series into toy form. The accessories are a bit weak. Four pistols? Really, Hasbro?

The head sculpt is excellent, probably the best Duke head sculpt ever. Personally, I like this new head sculpt on the Resolute body.

So the Duke on the right is my "default" Duke.

Cobra Viper - 30th Anniversary

The year 1986 was a great year to be a G.I. Joe collector. One of the best Cobra troop builder figures arrived on the scene - the Cobra Viper. The new look of the Cobra foot soldier was vastly improved over the plain Cobra trooper from 1982. A new helmet, improved sculpting, simply, effective accessories - you know you needed a bunch of them to fight against G.I. Joe.

With the rebirth of GI Joe in the 25th anniversary line, the viper was reborn as well - much to the scorn and derision of GI Joe fan. Odd sculpting, poorly poseable legs, and those hands - those horrible hideous hands. Was the viper to be lost forever and only remembered as this 25th anniversary nightmare?

There was a new attempt at retooling the viper, but it was not much of an improvement.

Fortunately, Hasbro revisted the Viper for the Pursuit of Cobra line after the Rise of Cobra movie line. The sculpting job was incredible, but still the fan boys were whining. The new version was not close enough to the look of the original viper. Fan boys wanted the red gauntlets. Also, due to poor distribution and running changes, that blue gloved viper was very difficult to find.


Thankfully, Hasbro reissued the Viper as a part of the 30th Anniversary line, now with red arm guards, similar to the 1986 original, and an assortment of weapons. The body made use of exsisting pieces from other Pursuit of Cobra/30th Anniversary figures and the vest of the 25th Viper. Nearly everything worked. Joe fans now had an awesome update to the classic 1986 Viper. The new Viper came with 5 different weapons that could be used to create quite an impressive Viper assault team. Something about the way the arms moved and the size of the traditional Viper rifle made it very difficult for the Viper to hold his new version of his traditional assault rifle. With a quick comparison to the original, it is quite obvious that this new 30th Anniversary figure is a worthy successor to the original 1986 version.

Cast out the sad 25th attempt and embrace the 30th goodness!

A great alternative to the Viper's assault rifle is this one produced by Marauder Gun Runners.
An exceptionally sculpted assault rifle, it works extremely well with the new Viper. Two problems - I don't think Marauder is producing the gun any longer and I only bought two.
Damn...

No worries, Marauder Gun Runners has a huge assortment of weapons that work great with all of your GI Joe figures.

Cobra Iron Grenadier

I'm kinda sorry I got this guy. I wanted the smart gun, from "Aliens" so I got him. I thought it would be cool. I was wrong..this guy sucks. He's bulky. He's Steam Punk, he's a reject from a video game. The smart gun is TOO BIG. It's belt fed...it doesn't have the steadi-cam rig to hold it like in the movie. The helmet is the head. The catchers gear is stupid.. I hate him. The 10yr old says he looks cool. But he's useless. The 47 yr old says blah...just blah...sorry, I just can't do anything with it, and I don't care.

The Corps!

Ok so today I was hungrey for some new toys...
I got a few things from The Corps!. I got a 3 pack of figures that came with a cool hooded figure with some kind of video game looking NVGs, a mild bearded figure, and a bald guy with NVGs pulled up. I looked at the heads and said, they gotta get transplanted...I perfected the carve and drill technique some time ago. Another discovery, there are 2 styles of neck post with these guys. A full on ball and a square based post. Now why is this important? welll, it means the heads will transplant onto PTE figures VERY easy! But that's another post... Any way, these guys are USELESS!! The pack came with an OK but not good dirtbike for background use, a really crappy tracked thing that got tossed. And useless floppy weapons. I got a single fig, a Nick Fury looking head. Same story as the others, useless. And then I opened the STORM STRIKE swing wing fighter. It looks like a cross between a FireBat and the F22 Raptor and a bit of Tomcat. It has lights and sound. Two bombs and two missile-let thingys. It seats one pilot (not included). The plane is ok, the digi-flage is painted on, but there is an odd protective cover over the wings. Now, my 10yr old brain says "COOL!" it is at least as good as the Firebat/Skysweeper. And to me, better. Did I mention the retractable gear? Of course the 47 year ols says this thing is kinda tad pole-y. It's fat at the front and sadly dribbles to scrawny with pityful tail fins. Gotta fix them. It is really gonna be a Cobra bird. I won't get another one, but I do intend to get a few of the FANG looking helos. And the Vamp looking truck looks nice. And to go with my AT yellow Dauphin, I intend to get the lil 1 man lil bird helo, and it's yellow time for it too. Is The Corps! worth getting? Only if you're willing to cut/chop/hack/paint and discard. But it is nice to see stuff cheap enuff to be able to do that with. Wait until I get some pics of my new figs.

Black Dragon(fly)

M.A.R.S has given us the BLACK DRAGON. A tilt rotor attack craft, armed to the teeth.
It is fast, agile and hostile. The Dragon is a small ground attack craft, it carries mini gun in it's nose, a retractible cannon and a decent bomb load. The twin tail allows a margin of safety from damage.
The plane is capable of VTOL or rolling take offs. It noisy as the two 10 foot three bladed props spin in counter directions but at an insane RPM. The Dragon is not intended for use in civilian roles or in airports close to human habitation. But ease of use on the ground is very good,sweep the wings back tilt the rotors and a crew of four can handle the plane.There is no stealth features built in, it depends on small size and speed for survival. It's crew of 1 flies by wire and and thrugh the use of sensors and Flat panal displays. The Black Dragon. M.A.R.S industries Mustang of tommorrow.

So the 10yr in me says "FREAKIN' COOL!!!!" This thing LOOKS awesome. Tilt rotors, sweeping wings (ok for parking only) button deploys weapons, opening cockpit with a good looking figure.
All black, no stickers is a drag..but it's really cool!!!

The 47yr old says, Dragon? Dragonfly maybe.Flimsey wings, useless hard points on sweeping wings but the real steel (or carbon fiber) can't sweep and fly, the rotors don't fold (PTE has folding rotors on all it's helos)
The chin gun sucks, the snap open gun really sucks and the bombs just tumble out of their suit cases. Retractable landing gear looks neat, until you realize the bicycle style tandem gear is un balanced. Thankfully M.A.R.S. provided non rotating half wheel skid things on the suit cases to balance the Dragon. Hmm...This thing looks like a gull winged sailplane with engines...
A crew of 1 flies it, and evidently he won't be over worked, since there is nothing in the cockpit with him but a joystick he barely reaches. Course, he doesn't have to reach it, since he can't see out. Yup, the same devious designer who laid out the HISS and the Ghost Hawk, cocooned the pilot into this thing. And worse, getting out and avoiding a firey death is going to be tough. The solid steel or carbon or whatever canopy opens forward, agaisnt the wind. And if the luckless Viper GETS it open, I think he stands up and pops his 'chute, like the great p38 ace Richar "Dick" Bong. heh heh, he said "Dick and Bong. a Dick Bong"....
About the decals. There are none. Part of me says FANTASTIC! So I can do what I want which translates into "I leave the damn decals off anyway". Another part of me says POOP! I bet they had some great decals planned for this thing.
Another thing before I go. I thing the bomb suitcases should have bee turned the other way, they look better. Also, this ting looks about the size of a Global Hawk. Which is how I intend mine to be used, as an UAV for Cobra.

So, it's been a while, Life got in the way of playing..
But lucky me, I have a son and a wife who enable me.
So, let's see, I got a New Viper with shiny face, A Stalker, a Black Dragon , a Punisher figure, another Rocket Duke, a wolf hound on sale at Tuesday Morning and a Polar Sharc. The last two were 23 bucks total.

So I'll talk about the figures now, and get back to a 10 yr old in a 47 yr old body later.
So let's see. Sgt Stalker....Are kidding me? This guy is really cool, can't say enough good things about him, great look. Great gear. That's it. That's all the good things I have to say about him.
The colors COULD be worse, but then, they could be a lot better...Now, sculpt wise,everything is cool,even his "Revolutionary freedom fighter power to the people" head. Sucks as a Joe figure head though. Looks good on several other black bodies. Just not as a joe.So he gets the older Stalker head.

Viper with the shiny face...This is another slam dunk. Except for the head. I'll keep it, it's pretty darned neat.but I think it'll be replaced with just about ANY other Viper head I can find. But this guy ROCKS!

Black Dragon Pilot. Not bad, usable. HEAD SUCKS! What is up in Hasbro? They seem to kill good figures with odd heads. But I'm odd, I see most folks are lovin' these heads.

Wolf Hound Driver. Great looking dude. GOOD head. And that's about it. Blah figure for any use except snow. Can't wait for snow.

Polar Sharc driver. I was handed one of these figures last week, and then I got a complete sub and driver set. More on sub later, but the figure? Not bad, swapped one head ,left the other. Blay figure for any use except snow. But hey, that's what snow is for.

The Rocket Duke, is well, a Duke. Head swapping madness continues...

Punisher. This guy looks pretty good. And is almost useless. Weapons are badly done and too big.
Articulation sucks and can only be made better with work.. The head is good, but the neck post is different. drats! I tried to put a trench coat on him, but he's too muscled up.

Which leads me to a new figure I made. Ta black snake eyes body, a blue lined cobra commander coat and a ROC Zartan head. Paint Zartan's hair black and BAM! You got a Punisher. Well, you gotta make the skull shirt. but there you go...


Now except for the Staker, all figures are colored fine. All have good articulation (that I improve with a hobby knife). All come with fantastic sculpting. The gear is excellent.The weapons that the new guys come with are cool, the Viper's rocket launcher is cool, the rocket is removable. Very nice... Stalker has the COOLEST pistol and silencer set up. Too cool!

I've finally seen an Iron Grenedier or what ever he's called. Meh. and a Toxic viper or Bio viper, whatever...Meh...but I'll likely get them both.

What a sorry site to see...

yeah, Wess and I haven't posted lately. Either there's nothing much new out there, scalper's are snatching up the new figures or we're broke. We'll get back in the game soon!

Pursuit of Cobra HISS

So, thanx to my friend Tom, I own 2 of these now. So how does the 10 year old in me like them?

Well, first, MARS industry has once again produced an amazing piece of gear to Cobra's spec.
Amazing if you like an armored death trap. Seems they forgot what they were intending to. The thing is massive! and while better than the FURY, it is begging for a LAW,Hellfire,TOW, DRAGON or just a hard poke with a sharp stick and it's game over. The weapons can't defend it from in close fighting, there's no depressing or elevation of the weapons. The heavy gun is a 1 shot weapon, the automatic weapon is fairly fixed. There is this really neat feature, if the the really tall vehicle isn't TALL ENOUGH, it can pop up and become taller. Which is cool looking, but then exposes the soft under belly to that sharp stick I was telling you about. BUT the trade off is at least in the pop up, it makes up for lack of a turret, and the whole massive body rotates. The HISS has a crew of 2, but the gunner has to be gymnist to mount up. The driver is fully protected by a windowless cab. As a weapon of war, it's a failure. As a weapon of terror and oppression? It works. Black is evil, brown is practical. I say go EVIL!!!!

Does the 47 yr old man in me like this thing? HELL YES! It's too cool. In a Falling Skies kinda of a way, it ROCKS! It even reminds me of Rock'em sock'em robots,see below.
Does the 10yr old like it? Hell YES! It rolls, it transforms, shoots, it carries dudes,and mine are black! But.....I have 2.....and 1 doesn't like to stay tucked in. They both pop up like champs, almost pop up and over. I'd hate to be in the thing when it pops up....BAM! we put more HISS crews on sick leave than any othe viper. And then my #2 HISS, doesn't tuck back in. It takes a lot of effort to lock it in place. You think you got it, and BAM! it's pops up again. That's ok, since when it pops up, it fires it's 1 missile....BAM! WOOSH!!! oops......

But this is the vehicle to get in the joe world right now.esp from Ross....Thanx again TOM!!!!

In dealing with others and making deals for toys, I am on the Flying Dutchman walking under a ladder behind a black cat on Friday the 13th while a banshee screams in the distance causing me to break a mirror. Tom and I made this deal, a simple one really, he picked up some new Hiss tanks for me, and all I had to do was send him the money. And then I lost my OT at work. so the extra "blow" money was gone. It was tough go, since I had had years of OT. Could be worse, I still have a job. But scraping the money together was a bitch, but then some computer work came my way. YAY!!!! SO, I send Tom the money and some heads,(Joe heads not horse). Except y....It was returned to me as undilverable, I got a lil post card from mailman, I have a package at the post office, which is of course closed by the time I get the post card. They close at noon evidently, and package is too big for my mail box. Along with the card, is my envelope to Tom. Well, to Tom if he lived CALIFORNIA ....turns out there is no corrosponding address in Ca.
And Tom lives in Ga.

WHICH PROVES the US MAIL runs on PEOPLE. Anyway, so I got the mail, re-did
the envelope. Went to the post office and thought how nice and quick this
will be, there's no crowd.
A crowd needs people. There were no people. It was deserted. So Tom's envelope (I let my wife address this one) was dropped in the slot by the door. Now my wife will have to go back across town monday to get the package. And Tom's money and heads, which we have been waiting for officially for a week and really much longer, is due his house (his correct house) by Tue, or Wed. Or who knows?

Resolute Cobra Troopers

Just because they are cool. That is all.

A Look Back - The Killer Whale - GI Joe 1984

The Killer WHALE (Warrior: Hovering Assault Launching Envoy) is easily one of my top five favorite "classic" GI Joe vehicles. Something about it was just a whole lot of fun. There is a command post for the Whale's captain, Cutter, and a co-pilot. Two machine gun mounts allowed two more troops to defend the Whale and the body opened up for a small strike force to prep for assault.

This picture is from yojoe.com's page for the Whale - an excellent example of a minty fresh Whale.
Many years ago, much of my GI Joe collection was put into storage or sold off. The Whale was not going to be sold. It just went into storage and didn't handle storage very well.

Here is the sad condition of the Whale after taking it out of storage. Dusty, dirty and in unknown condition. I had removed many of the pieces and stored them in the cabin.
Pulling everything out of the cabin revealed some surprises and some bits of tragedy. Inside the cabin were all the parts of the Whale - machine guns, cannon, depth charges, missile launchers and the fan assemblies. Plus two Mega Vipers and one Annihilator, all three with decayed o-rings.

The worst part of the condition of the Whale was the vertical blades of the fans. The thin plastic tabs had become brittle and had broken. Plus some the bottom tabs of the blades had popped off. Sad shape.

I was determined to salvage these blades because parts for the Whale, especially the fan parts, have become very expensive.
I used small strips of plastic glued to the blades to secure the two parts of the blades together. Blue painter's tape secured the blades while the glue dried. After much cleaning, the Whale began to look more like its old self.
Once everything was back together, the Whale was back in shape and ready for combat missions against Cobra. The Killer Whale easily makes a transition to the modern era Joe figures. These pictures feature an assortment of 25th Anniversary, Rise of Cobra, Resolute and some simple customs.

The Whale is currently back in storage, but a much more secure storage with attention to the delicate nature of the fans. I really need to bring it back out and take some pictures with the new Pursuit of Cobra figures.
The Killer Whale is one of the high points of the Real American Hero era and works great with all incarnations of GI Joe figures. If you have one, keep it, treasure it - it's an excellent vehicle!

A Look Back... The Raider - G.I. Joe 1989

I thought that I would take a step back in time and look over one of the older vehicles from the original Real American Hero line from the 80's. Back then, I was obsessed, to say the least, about getting nearly everything from the G.I. Joe line. Hasbro dominated the action figure aisle with this line. Huge amounts of retail real estate were devoted to G.I. Joe, especially during the 80's when the line was just huge.

Unfortunately, I have sold off a large portion of my original vehicles. Please don't ask me if I sold them for decent prices. Mostly not... yard sale type prices for some of them. Ugh!

So I thought that I would look at one of my favorite vehicles from the 1989 series, the Raider. This very unusual vehicle just appealed to me with the odd style of the construction. A lower chassis with four tracked drive units and big cannons on the main body. The domed cockpit was also an interesting look for this armored fighting vehicle.

Searchlights topped off the top of the body. There are two platforms on the sides of the body to allow more troops to ride along. The front mounted "photon cannons" and side mounted "laser blasters" look pretty cool, but c'mon, photon and laser blasters? Seriously? They still look cool, though!

There is just something about the style of the vehicle that just appeals to me and made me keep this vehicle. Is it practical in a "real world" style? Well, maybe, not much, but maybe. If you consider that the bottom is made up of the drive units with the rear of the body being the main engine or power plant, then, yeah, it could work. It still looks a bit vulnerable from the sides. i don't think that it would really make it as a "real" military vehicle. But it's a toy, so who cares?

The cockpit opens to reveal a space for two drivers, Hotseat and one other. I still have the original driver, he is just in storage right now. I have my two "kickstart" figures from the Steel Marauder mechs taking control of the Raider right now.

So now the vehicle design begins to get a bit crazy. Hasbro was all about play value for these vehicles and realistic practicality didn't always apply. The rear section of the body actually slides open, revealing two giant missiles ready for launch. No spring loaded action here, just physical work and imagination.

Does it look cool? You bet! Do I like it? Yeah, but not so much.

Wow, check this out. The front track separates to create a smaller recon vehicle with a tiny cockpit for another Joe. Stop the madness, Hasbro!

So here is a look at the Raider all separated into its component pieces. No thanks.

Just in case you needed more info, the body does have fold-down legs to allow it to remain standing. No thank you.

I like the Raider fully assembled, without these extra features. No hidden rockets, no mini scout vehicle, just this odd-looking fighting vehicle.

Compared to the new Vamp and Hiss tank, the Raider still works pretty well with the modern line. I'm hoping to use the Raider in more diorama shots with the new sculpt Joes. Still a great vehicle!

Pursuit of Cobra Steel Marauder

I remember when the Steel Marauder and the Cobra Deviant came out at regular retail. I thought that they looked pretty cool, but didn't really want to drop $19.99 for each of them. All I needed was a little patience!
After last Christmas, i went by one of the local Walmart stores and they still had a couple of the mechs - one of each. A quick test scan - $9.99 each! Sold!
A few days ago, actually on Father's Day, I stopped by the nearest Ross store and spotted both at the low price of $7.99 each. I didn't really want another Deviant - weapon arms are a bit lame, so I picked up another Steel Marauder.

The GI Joe mech is a decent toy. Hasbro used the mech from the small Sigma 6 line amd upgraded the cockpit to allow the bigger Joes to fit inside. With the claw arm and the multiple missle launcher, this thing is much more formidable than the Cobra mech

The driver, Kickstart, is pretty decent. Another Franken-Joe from Hasbro. I didn't realize that Kickstart actually makes use of Airborne's head. Great job by Hasbro with the reuse.

The mech looks formidable and ready for a fight. One interesting element of both mechs is that the arms are interchangeable. You can switch out the arms with the Cobra Deviant mech or, in the case of multiple mechs, arm them with specific weapon arms.

Here is a close-up shot of the cockpit of the Steel Marauder. Very detailed and a great use of the control arms. The Deviant mech is the same.

Both of my Joe mechs together. If you notice that the one on the right is missing a missile, I have it -somewhere. I remember seeing it in an odd place amongst all of my Joe storage - I'll find it eventually.
With both arms switched to the missile launchers, this mech can pack a serious punch!

The two claw arms together looks pretty cool as well. Much better than the Deviant mech!

Now this is a bit much. Just a little too excessive! The arms start to sag at the connection points and I'm sure that there would eventually be too much strain on the conncetors. Okay for one picture, but don't leave them like this!

I have always been a fan of mech suits, even back to the days of Playmate's Exo-Squad line. Playmates did an outstanding job with those mechs, smaller scale with even more articulation. Hasbro did a decent job with their two mechs. Perhaps Hasbro will revisit this vehicle with the new movie line?

G.I. Joe: Renegades

If you haven't seen G.I. Joe: Renegades and you are a fan of G.I. Joe, especially the 3 3/4" figures, I have a question for you. What's your problem?

I've been recording Renegades since it started and I've been behind six episodes. I'm working on catching up today.

this is a damn good show. Animation? Yeah, different style, not really detailed. So what? The stories are kicking ass!

Two more episodes and I'll be caught up. New episode tomorrow.

And Hasbro is putting the show on "hiatus" so that there is no confusion between Renegades and the next movie. Yeah, okay... Bad move, Hasbro.

I hope Hasbro at least allows Renegades to be released in a DVD collection. I'll buy it!

Pursuit of Cobra General Hawk

General Hawk gets an upgrade in the Pursuit of Cobra line. All of the previous new sculpt versions were basically remakes of the original o-ring versions. The first was a remake of Hawk from his original style. The next was my favorite, the newly promoted General Hawk in his brown bomber jacket. Very cool updates, but an upgrade was needed.

General Hawk gets an upgrade that gets him out from behind the desk and into the field, fighting Cobra on the front lines.

Hawk comes with a pretty decent set of accessories including a back pack, the rifle from the ROC General Hawk, a Shock Trooper's mini machine gun and radio, helmet, goggles, a pistol, and the briefcase that came with a Destro figure - w/o the MARS embossed letters. Plus he has two sets of web gear - Beach Head's resolute web gear and somebody's pistol/shoulder harness. Good stuff! Fully loaded, Hawk is ready for some serious combat.

The base figure for General Hawk has already been showing up in fan pictures as a troop builder. I agree, this figure can easily serve as General Hawk and just about any other troop that you may decide upon. Sometimes, the heads of the assorted Joe figures don't always swap very well. Just a minor issue with head swaps.

I used jungle assault Duke's head so that he can join Hawk on missions.

Of course, Steel Brigade troopers can also join in for added firepower.

Pursuit of Cobra Cobra Troopers - Upgrade

Just switched out a few bits of gear to give these guys an upgrade. Everybody gets goggles from the Shock Troopers. I like the goggles on these guys better than on the Shock Troopers.

I switched out the web gear on three of these guys, using two sets of black GI Joe web gear and one set of web gear from a MARS trooper.

These guys also needed back packs. I used the small back pack pack most commonly found on Resolute Cobra troops, two ROC Snake Eyes packs, and a ROC Viper back pack.

Pursuit of Cobra Cobra Trooper

When they original Cobra trooper came out way, way back in 1982, I was okay with the figure. But once the various specialist versions of Cobra soldiers - vipers, eels, snow serpents, Crimson Guard, range vipers, etc - the standard Cobra soldier was sort of left behind. Abandoned because the newer specialists looked much better.

Along comes the 25th Anniversary line with a new version of the stalwart Cobra soldier in 2008. Improved, but still a little off. The figure suffered from many of the flaws from the early 25th line. Wobbly legs, arm articulation a little off. Just didn't really work for me, so I never got into them too much and only bought a few. I wound up trading most of them to Wess.

Here comes 2011 and Hasbro gives us this guy. Damn! A much improved version of the Cobra soldier. Using design elements of the Pursuit of Cobra line, Hasbro has really created an excellent version of this trooper. Almost...

So here is the trooper out of package with all of his gear. An RPG, a sniper rifle, a knife, two silenced pistols, helmet, web gear and a roll of barbed wire. Really? Barbed wire? A dumb accessory when it came with Dusty, just as bad with this guy. Hasbro did a great job with the figure, but the gear should have been kicked up a few notches.

Two silenced pistols! Very cool, but the pistols are so thin that one is too loose in his holster. Be careful with those silencers, kids, you might and probably will lose them!

The figure is another Hasbro "Franken-joe" and that's just fine. It looks like Hasbro used the Shock Trooper arms and torso, Snake Eyes' legs, and a Resoulte Trooper head. The helmet seems new, very similar to the Resolute trooper helmet. The web gear comes from the original 25th soldier. A great combination of parts that just really works well together.

Here's the trooper holding his two weapons that are included. Not bad, but he needs more weapons!
From left to right - the AK-47 from the Jungle BAT, a standard Viper rifle and a Marauder NVR (?).
Trying out a couple different options for goggles on the helmet. Left - Para-Viper goggles, right - Desert Viper goggles. Both seem to work pretty well for the trooper, but the Shock Trooper goggles really work the best. (Pictures later!) The goggles for the Shock Trooper just don't seem to work for that figure, too loose on the helmet.

A quick comparison of the original 25 th version with his upgraded counterpart. No contest.

Another comparison between the original 25th, the POC upgrade and the Resolute trooper. I am definitely planning on troop building the new Cobra trooper. I just don't know the amount that I'll stop at. Of all of the assorted Cobra soldiers, the largest quantities are as follows - 9 Elite Vipers (ROC), 10 Resolute troopers and 20+ BATs. I think I may go up to around 9 or 10 of these guys, I'm at 3 right now. Twenty BATs is a bit out of control. But if sometime in the future, these guys show up at discount retailers, I know I will get out of control and load up. The Cobra soldier finally gets a respectable figure.