This isn’t the first time the Joe team has had action figure versions of its “greenshirt” force, a group of generic soldiers that first filled out the ranks among the named characters of the Sunbow animated series. If there was a battle scene, chances are these guys were running around in the background, shooting or running to man a cannon. A lot could be said about the need for background fodder among an elite team of counter terrorists, but remember, somebody has to maintain and clean all that fancy equipment.

The previous version of the generic Joes were the 2005 Infantry Division, based on Real American Hero molds. While those figures were all green, and an attempt to echo the look of the 1982 Joes, this group more closely follows the two-toned uniforms of the Sunbow cartoon. They’re similar to the animated scene fillers, but not exact. This is also yet another example of the tragically unposeable arms of the early 25th anniversary molds, this time courtesy of the first Duke. It’s a shame that those arms continued to see use, since the same year produced a Tiger Force Duke with much improved forearms.

The file card of this particular figure (or four figures, since they’re all basically the same) mentions that GI Joe infantry troopers are a top-notch part of the team. I always thought that the greenshirts were more along the lines of recruits, not yet ready for code names and the like. Yet the storyline on the package itself talks about these particular troops as recruits. I’d say I was confused, but it’s just a toy; I should really just relax.

Even as a kid, I wanted to see a toy version of the nameless background soldiers of the cartoon. This figure came close, but I still would like to have a Sunbow accurate version to populate the back of my Joe toy shelves.