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Last year when we discovered Final Faction, the biggest surprise was that this one-dollar action figure line had plans to release a vehicle. How would that work? Well, it's been a little wait, but we finally have our answer.
The Arrow ATV has a compact design that allows it to easily zip through the most rugged terrain while defending the Earth from the Kharn alien threat. With the Arrow ATV Armor & Weapons Pack, it's virtually indestructible.
The Arrow ATV is sold in a small, horizontal box rather than a blister card like the rest of the figures, and all the parts are sealed in a plastic bag inside. Like the GI Joe vehicles of yore, you need to assemble the pieces yourself: attach the engine/seat to the chassis, then the control stick, snap on the wheels, put the two halves of the outer frame together, plug the top on, add the headlights, and finish by putting the complete roll cage onto the rest.
GI Joe has had its share of small vehicles,
so this isn't outside the realm of what we're used to. It's like a baby brother to the AWE Striker, but where that was a dune buggy, this is an ATV: namely, a single seat for a single driver. Though by sitting in it rather than riding on it, it's more like a suped-up go-kart. The base and wheels are molded from grey plastic, while the roll cage is olive drab. The lights are painted red, which is an unusual color for non-brake lights to be. The engine is sculpted right behind the driver's seat, and there are faux shock absorbers hiden by the front wheels. There's a lot of detail for something that only costs a buck!
The Arrow (which gets its name from the shape of the bars on the front end) does look oddly narrow head-on, but that's just because
we're used to seeing vehicles built for two people to ride side-by-side; besides, the text on the box already handwaved why the Alpha Team would design their ride to be so thin. You can fit one figure in the driver's seat, and there are two pegs on the back so more can hang on for the ride. In fact, we'd have reviewed this sooner (found it at about the same time as Torn and Churro), but chose to wait until we had enough figures to fill up a photo nicely.
There are rolling wheels, but nothing else in the way of weapons or accessories - for that, you'll have to get the aforementioned Armor & Weapons Pack - or shop somewhere else.
See, despite the Final Faction line being created by and sold exclusively in Dollar Tree stores, it's apparently proved popular enough that other companies have taken notice. While you can buy the Arrow ATV and the Weapons Pack individually at Dollar Tree, you can get both
of them, fully assembled (with extra paint apps), plus a bonus pack-in of Scope, in a $5 box set available at Family Dollar. That's right: this store-exclusive line is now being sold to other stores to sell! Hot dang, way to go, Final Faction! Even now that Dollar Tree has had to raise its prices due to inflation, it's still cheaper to get the ATV, accessories, and Scope directly from them ($3.75 vs. $5), but it's undeniably cool that competitor stores looked at these toys and said "hey, we're willing to pay for the right to carry these for our customers too." I can't even think of an example of that happening before.
The Arrow ATV is a fun little set, definitely worth the dollar it costs. And obviously it can be even more fun with the add-ons.
-- 06/10/22
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