Centurions: Jake Rockwell with Fireforce!

02.07.2011 - The Centurions. One of the well-known cartoons from the mid-1980s that spawned interest in collecting the toy line. A personal favorite will always be Jake Rockwell the Land Operations Expert. The only Centurion who has a weapon system for flight (Hornet) aside from a wide array of arsenal for ground assault. Rarely you'll ever see a Jake Rockwell action figure still complete and packaged. Mostly you'll some loosing its color or the main accessories, that came with the figure itself namely Fireforce.

Jump after the cut...

I acquired this rare piece online when someone was selling it and I caved in. I bought the figure in May 2008. Jake was a personal favorite that I can't afford as a twelve year old. Back in the day it was being sold for PhP 600.00 pesos.

Usually after school I hang out at the old Santa Ana Market, where there's a small store there selling toys. Those days there was no retailer who would bring these products. You get the stories these where sold in the black market for a lower cost. In those times PhP 600.00 pesos is a lot of money, and I would rather have seven G.I. Joe figures being sold for PhP 80.00 than one Jake Rockwell.

So I have no choice to afford a Centurion back then. Fast forward to the time I bought this figure. I felt like a kid again wanting Jake Rockwell so badly. I thanked the seller who I didn't knew who follows my interest in toys. He looked up to me being a fan and even gave a discount for it.

Happy with my purchased I head home but I didn't get to open it. Until i had my free time from all that chaotic work. At first I was thinking of not opening it, but I'm not a sealed collector and Jake needs to breath.

There it was tied in the old fashioned twisties that are made for reorganizing your computer wires. Probably in those times they didn't thought of that idea, but simple enough to tie the figure from its internal cardboard. I don't know about the sealed smell inside the back, but it felt the figure has been breathing there long enough to be free. Probably this figure was sealed since it came out in 1986.

After removing Jake Rockwell from its eternal slumber I gently use a cutter and opened up the parts of the Fireforce Weapon System. I kept the box back wrapped to its bubble and look at Jake being perfect as if Kenner just sent it to my mail.

Window packaging is rarely defined back in the day, but now if you look at it Hasbro had used this concept in their Transformers Classics Toy line.

Jake Rockwell came with seven pieces of accessories, which includes the helmet. An instruction manual and a colorful poster/catalog which featured the other products from the Centurions toy line.

For a figure ahead of its time Jake Rockwell is articulated, though he doesn't have a waist joint due to the mechanism inside his exo-frame.

His arms can't do wide stretches and can't even do splits, but his legs is wide enough to do the v-split. He has good head rotation which he can perfectly look up, though not miss out that he has knee and elbow joints.

There are seven exo-holes in the front and the back of his torso. The center piece has a ratchet joint mechanism, which functions for some non-firing weapons to rotate. His left and right arm has three exo-holes which you would consider a peg for more attachments. His shoulders also have two exo-holes in his left and right. His thighs in his left and right have two of each of those exo-holes. There's three in each of Jake's legs as well.

The joints are still tight since its been sealed in the box, and never was opened until June 1, 2008 where I conducted a photo review. Due to its time being sealed there was already discoloration on the figure. The body and its thighs had retained the slight dark yellow colors. But the arms and legs from the knee are all bright yellow.

I kept the figure sealed in the ziplock in storage until I started using Jake Rockwell as one of my subjects for Toy Photography.

The Fireforce Weapon system is made of seven parts, and can be you to mix n'match with other weapon systems (sold separately). The only gripe I had is that the bazooka tend to fire without warning. Its a big yellow plastic missile would really give you a red spot in the skin if fired point blank.

I guess for the reason why child safety has reduced spring firing weapons to smaller figure as Jake Rockwell is close to 7-8 inch figure.

Overall Jake Rockwell would be more awesome if he had all his weapon systems like the Detonator, Hornet or the Wild Weasel. The Fireforce is a "starter pack" Weapon System and its fun to own one of the rare toys that Hasbro (which bought out Kenner in 2000) can no longer manufacture for the modern times. Unless I may not be mistaken if they did it in G.I. Joe scale similar to what they did with Matt Tracker or M.A.S.K.

Jake Rockwell earns 5 out 5 starGEEK points for something nostalgic, and should definitely need some serious revival for the modern times.