G.i. Joe Classified # 174 Budo
Kyle A. Jesso hails from one of the last great samurai warrior families of Japan. Gifted with swords from his ancestral line on his eighteenth birthday, Budo joins G.i. Joe to stop the threat of Cobra.
The headsculpt for Budo is pretty good.
Lol… just to make sure no one wears his tactical samurai gear by mistake.
I really love the homage to the Japanese G.i. Joe logo from the 80s that’s been tampographed onto the armor’s sleeve here.
Budo comes with a sidearm mounted on his left thigh.
He has a short sword that can be sheathed on the left side of his belt.
Since Budo is meant to be a more contemporary samurai warrior (he even loves heavy metal rock music), I guess he’s OK with using guns. He even has extended mags on his sidearm.
Lol… even his helmet has a radio mic built in. This guy is no tradition purist, that’s for sure.
Of course, Budo’s main weapon is his katana.
Naturally, if all else fails, ol’ Kyle Jesso can whip out this machine gun to even the odds.
Removable ammo mag.
Well… at least Kyle knows when to bring a gun to a gun fight.
Classic Samurai Armor Budo – you can swap out Budo’s default armor and equip something fiercer on him. He looks tons better with this armor on.
To equip the armor, you’ll have to remove the default pieces. The belt can be unbuttoned on the left side.
An original concept for this release, this armor looks really more interesting compared to the default version. I can’t help but think someone on the design team was playing Ghosts of Tsushima when they came up with this idea.
With this armor on, Budo has a total of three swords on him. Two can be sheathed on his right hip.
His two swords are of varying length. The swords when used in tandem are called Daisho, meaning “big-little”, giving the samurai (aka swordsman) more versatility in combat. The shorter sword is called the Wakizashi and used for close quarters combat or to behead an opponent.
Budo’s main sword is his long katana, which is sheathed on his back.
“It’s… It’s the ghost!!” (I can never get tired of hearing enemies scream that when I activate the “Ghost Stance” mode in Ghost of Tsushima).
Lastly, the set provides an alternate “long haired, unshaven” look for Kyle.
The headsculpt looks really good.
Overall, I love it!!! I never really thought of Budo as a cool character back in the day, but the Classified design team really amped this guy up for this release! The base figure is a nice update to the classic toy, which I honestly found boring back in the day. They managed to make it look interesting without making him look goofy.
But it’s the additional armor pieces that really make this figure super impressive. I don’t know if it’s just me, but for anyone who’s played Ghost of Tsushima, then you’re in for a real treat with the second armor set. A really nice bonus to add on to a samurai-based G.i. Joe figure.
Hasbro’s internal oddball codename for pre-orders for Budo is “Quinn”.
Gold
