GI Joe:
Roadblock Mini Bust
Every combat team needs a good mix to be successful, just like the right ingredients in food. You have to have a good balance, with some finesse personnel and other specialists. Then you need plain old brute force, because the enemy isn't always in need of finesse and in combat there isn't much better than lots of bullets heading in the enemy's direction. For the GI Joe team, the role of brute force will be played by Roadblock, and if you don't like his performance just make sure you don't tell him.
The man who would take on the moniker of Roadblock started life in Mississippi as Marvin Hinton. He was a boy scout and even sang in his church choir, and he wasn't a bully despite his large size. He wanted to be a chef and to study at the Escoffier School in France and he was saving up to that end. Along the way he was recruited by the Army, where he was told he could train as a chef. That didn't really sit well with him and he ended up in the infantry learning about combat (something you can't learn in France).
While in the infantry he became proficient with the M-2 Browning .50 caliber heavy machine gun, and this lead him to the GI Joe team. They needed a big guy with combat skills and so he became a valuable member of the team. He also became the team's official food critic, and he's been known to have eaten bad food all over the world. When he gets a break he enjoys cooking his favorite - chocolat mousse.
 Roadblock is the fourth mini-bust in the Palisades line of GI Joe statuary, and he evens the odds at two Joes (with Snake Eyes) and two Cobra agents (Storm Shadow and Baroness). Cobra will take the lead with Destro as the fifth bust and then it'll be volleyed back to Joe with a Scarlett. Beyond that is Cobra Commander and plans after him have not been finalized yet. Joining the line of mini-busts will be a large statue line (with Cobra Commander and Hawk), a smaller statue line (starting with Zartan then the Crimson Guard) and a life-size bust line (kicking off with Snake Eyes).
The line of busts has an asymmetry in that each character is approached as an individual and so the aesthetic of the figures varies. In English, this means some have two arms, some none, some have one and some have guns or other weapons. They all have heads though. They also have standardized bases depending on the allegiance of the character, with a square base for Joes and a round one for Cobra, each with a logo or symbol embossed on it. Roadblock is also packaged in a window box so you can take a gander before you open him up for your shelf.
Roadblock takes a road that actually makes sense with his character. Even though he's generally known as a heavily armed character, the bust is completely disarmed except for a knife. Roadblock may be an arms specialist, but since his true dreams lie in the art of cuisine he's at heart a peaceful man, and the knife works as a great way to spread icing. However, when serving up his 'bullets ala Browning' he has been known to accompany the entr�e with a 'Bam!'.
So far the man that Palisades has chosen for every Joe bust has been Jon Matthews, and the trend continues. Jon did the sculpting work for Roadblock with some help from GI Joe fanatics Plan-B Toys to get the paints and prototype just right. Palisades made a run of 2,502 Roadblocks, just enough to keep Cobra out of town.
More Pictures of Roadblock
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