Translucent action figures have always held a special fascination with collectors. The GI Joe Collector's Club (alternate link) is offering a free translucent super-articulated GI Joe as part of its membership kit. If you were a club member by February 17, 2002, then you received the special clear Joe for free. Members who join after that may purchase the figure while supplies last. This figure is a limited edition of just 5,000.

Like most exclusive offerings from the GI Joe Club, this figure is packaged in a plain, plastic bag. When you open the bag you see that the figure comes complete with some clear accessories. He comes with a boonie hat (like the one packaged with the Vietnam M60 Gunner), a belt and large knife (recently offered in Secret of the Mummy's Tomb set), and a gun, which was released in the GI Joe Night Ops set.

The figure comes in at least 3 different headsculpts, the WWII Joe headsculpt, the LSV driver, and the one recently featured on the Vietnam Combat Engineer, as the one pictured. Which one you get, is random, and there may be more headsculpts.

Since this is the new super-articulated GI Joe, it is loaded with articulation. Points include neck, mid-torso, waist, hip, calf, three point knee articulation, ankle, shoulder, bicep, three point elbow, and wrist. The hands have the new Gung-Ho Grip so they feature index figure articulation, and the other 3 fingers open and close as a unit.

The elbow and knee joints are white on this figure and the head is frosted. It doesn't take away from the figure, and this may be due to the types of plastic used on these pieces.

with regular Super-Articulated GI Joe for comparison
(Click on image for much larger image)

This figure doesn't come with a back story of any sort. It is up to your imagination to figure out why he is invisible. Is this Joe and alien invader, or the result of an invisibility experiment gone awry? You decide and the only limit is your imagination.

Words and pictures by Jim McCaslin.