G.I. Joe Classified Series Alpine review No. 133
Alpine was such a fun addition to the 1985 lineup of G.I. Joe. A mountain climber is such a specific skill set, but one that could be utilized perfectly with some creativity and imagination, which was plentiful in the cartoon and the comics. And it didn’t hurt that voice actor Lee Weaver gave Alpine such a great personality in the cartoon.
In the first five waves of the Real American Hero line, there was a new black character added to the team. I was a big fan of all of them, but I liked Alpine because he was a bit of a smart-a$$, didn’t take himself too seriously and had a secret weapon with his yodel.
As the Hasbro Classified Series team is adding more members to my favorite lineup — the 85 team, I was growing less patient waiting on Alpine’s arrival. Bazooka has been waiting for his BFF to join him on the shelf for a while, but he’s finally here and looks like he could be another standout for the CS series in 2024.
Let’s break it down and see if Alpine takes the line to new heights or if he’s going to get buried under a crushing wave of disappointment.
Packaging: Alpine has the newer streamlined packaging setup that seems a little too plain for me. It’s more the result of the generic black color scheme with blue accents. Can Hasbro use olive green as part of G.I. Joe packaging?
The left side features the stat skills breakdown while the right side has a cool drawing of Alpine preparing to scale a mountain. Over on the back we have the rendered action shot featuring Alpine on a mountain while fighting off Trubble Bubbles.
Alpine’s stat breakdown makes sense for the mountain trooper. He scores a 4 in environmental specialist and mountaineering; 2 in recon and a 1 in bladed weapons.
Likeness: Alpine always had a pretty unique look. Over the years some of his figures have leaned harder into the mountain trooper theme while others gave him a bit more adaptability for various climates.
This version is a modernized version of his original Real American Hero design with a few extra tweaks. He’s got a softshell jacket very similar to this one (over at my affiliate Amazon) with padded elements and paneling to help Alpine resist the elements. There’s also some really nice work on the zipper. This time it’s a full-length jacket that comes to his waist as opposed to his belly button.
To mix it up from the RAH figure, his rope line is slung over his left shoulder instead of his right. Alpine is rocking the fingerless gloves this time, but the white shirt underneath is intact. He’s got heavy cargo pants with padding and mountaineering boots. Along his unique belt are climbing hooks to add more to that authentic mountain trooper vibe.
Alpine’s head sculpt had a calm expression. That makes sense for a guy who scales mountains. He shouldn’t look panicked or nervous.
Alpine has a thin mustache and relaxed hair sculpt.
Scale: Alpine is an average height guy, which will make him eye to eye with his comic book debuting partner Quick Kick and looking up at his BFF Bazooka who uses the larger mold.
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Paint: Alpine’s color scheme largely matches up with his RAH figure with some notable changes. His skin tone is lighter to better match up with his appearance from the cartoon. That’s a smart choice since the other black Joes, besides Shooter, have been a darker skin tone. His white T-shirt now has his home state of Idaho complete with a tourist gift shop style design.
The green jacket has a good mix of black and brown to break it up. That matches the RAH figure very well.
His pants are a chocolate brown — another smart reason to change up his skin tone — with sharp paintwork on the details like his climbing hooks and the boots.
Articulation: Alpine sports the standard excellent Classified Series articulation, which allows him to hit some very fun poses.
Get your park larger rocks, your couches and your backyards ready!
Alpine has:
- head
- neck
- shoulders (butterfly)
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- mid-torso
- torso
- waist
- hips (ball-jointed)
- drop down hips
- knees (double-jointed)
- ankles
Accessories: Alpine has a good number of accessories — both sensible reuse and some new gear.
Of the older gear, Alpine has the grapple launcher previously used with the Alley Vipers. The grapple hook here is colored a burnt orange while the rest is cast in black.
He also gets the submachine gun from the Alley Viper with some green accents along the barrel and magazine clip.
Alpine also has the grapple line from the Arctic Storm Shadow.
New gear includes two climbing axes. These are nice additions and can also clearly double as a weapon if Alpine gets in a bad way against Cobra legions. They’ve got some paint apps with orange handles and silver blades.
Alpine’s gear is also removable so his goggles can be raised over the cap as well as his eyes. His cap is also removable. I really dig that the cap has the ridges and the two arrows like the RAH card art.
Helpfully all of his gear fits on his belt, which makes sense in terms of giving him the sleekest look possible, but I do miss his backpack.
Worth It? Alpine was always going to be worth grabbing for me simply because he’s been one of my favorites Joes since his introduction. I was able to use some GameStop discounts to get him for $15 making him easily one of the best Classified Series deals for me.
Even at the $25 price point, this is a really worthwhile figure to add to the Joe ’85 lineup. Amazon has him right now for $23.99.
Rating: 9.7 out of 10
Alpine is a very welcome addition to the Classified Series line. I like his sculpt and his gear is very cool though it does feel like he really should still have the backpack.
Where to Get It? Alpine’s wave hasn’t hit in full force at retail so it’s probably going to be easier to get him from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.