It does seem to many collectors that the years 2000-2002 were rather odd ones for G.I.Joe. The line was fairly minimal, and seemed to be trying to find its way back after its 1994 cancellation and two years of Toys "R" Us exclusive product. The package design was unusual, and figures were packaged in two-packs. Many of the figures were recolorations of existing characters, while the handful of new characters that came along, perhaps because of a lack of any other sort of media exposure at the time, seemed almost to be "filler".

This is a shame, because in my opinion, there were some cool new characters to come out during these years, thanks to some new headsculpts and decently creative use of existing body molds. One of these new characters was a G.I.Joe Team member named CROSSFIRE, who came along in 2001.

The name "Crossfire" had been used once before in the world of G.I.Joe, applied as it was to the very first radio-controlled vehicle to be part of the G.I.Joe line. It was released in 1987. Still, there's no reason that a code-name can't have more than one use, even between a team member and a vehicle. Just ask Avalanche.

Crossfire was billed as an Army Machine Gunner. Although certainly the team had characters like Rock 'n' Roll and Roadblock for this, if you're going up against a vast organization like Cobra, can you ever really have too many machine gunners?

Crossfire, as a figure, had an all-new headsculpt. Most of the new headsculpts during the 2000-2002 series were relatively ordinary, but there's nothing really wrong with that. It's a good headsculpt. The most notable feature is probably a slightly prominent proboscis, but it's nowhere near as big as the honker they put on the 1991 Duke. Crossfire has a somewhat longish face, with medium brown hair, and black eyebrows and eyes.

Hasbro, at this point in time, was trying to keep the uniform colors more subdued. There had been a less than positive reaction on some fronts to the bright colors that were prevalent during the later years of the original run of the Real American Hero. Crossfire is an excellent example of the more "military" color scheme that Hasbro was trying to employ at this time. His uniform is almost entirely olive drab green, with brown harness, ammo belts, belt, and boots.

One despicable practice Hasbro employed during these years was to smear watered down "weathering" paint on some of their figures. This generally looked abhorrent, and was certainly unnecessary. They did it somewhat to Crossfire, but due to his basic coloration, it doesn't affect him as negatively as it did some other figures during this time. More than anything, in his case it just looks like camouflage on his uniform.

The body-part choices for Crossfire are interesting. He has the upper body of Big Ben, the British SAS trooper. This particular torso, especially, has seen use whenever a figure calls for having a couple of well-detailed ammo belts cross-crossed on him. It has also been used for Schrage of the Oktober Guard, and Rock 'N' Roll from the comic-based sets. It's very nicely detailed here, with the ammo belts painted in brown, but the bullets themselves painted in gold. The harness underneath the ammo belts is also brown.

The legs of Crossfire are borrowed from Dial-Tone, another good selection. One especially nice bit of detail on the uniform is the American flag imprinted on the left sleeve of the figure.

Crossfire's file card describes him as one Bill White from Long Island. His primary military specialty is "Heavy Weapons Operator" and his secondary specialty is "Demolitions". Sounds like a handy obstacle remover in either case.

The file card goes on to say that even as a kid, Crossfire was more interested in how a toy gun worked, rather than actually playing with it. After any given Christmas morning, the floor would be a menagerie of assorted parts and pieces. When he was eight, his father took him to visit an uncle at Fort Bragg, where they chopped down trees with a Quad-50 machine gun. Personally, I'm not sure who to feel sorrier for -- the trees or somebody stupid enough to hand an eight year old a machine gun...

However, Crossfire managed to impress the Base Command's Sergeant Major, who instructed Crossfire in the finer points of military life -- such as how to assemble and disassemble various small arms, even in the dark. Small wonder that this young military prodigy went on to become a member in good standing of the G.I.Joe Team!

I feel that too high a percentage of G.I.Joe fans tend to dismiss the 2000-2002 series unfairly. They see odd package design and perhaps what they view as unimpressive characters, and they don't take a closer look at it. That's a shame. There ARE some interesting characters in there. Maybe they never saw much time in a comic book or an animated series, but they're still part of the G.I.Joe Team.

And that includes Crossfire. Interesting character, and a very decent figure, that works in very nicely with the G.I.Joe Team. Better than some, as far as that goes, especially if you're among those fans that prefer the figures that look as military as possible.

I hope you've enjoyed this look into the G.I.Joe Team member named CROSSFIRE!