Strontium Dog - Johnny Alpha

The Strontium Dogs storyline focuses on Johnny Alpha, whose mutated eyes allow him to see through walls and read minds. He is responsible for such legendary achievements as destroying the Wolrog homeworld, leading the mutant uprising on Earth, and bringing Adolf Hitler to the future to face trial. His legendary career and his assistance to mutants in trouble - such as donating a large sum of money to the Milton Keynes ghetto in "Mutie's Luck" - have made him an icon to Earth's mutants. He is a highly skilled and dangerous fighter.
A dogged bounty hunter, Johnny never gives up in the pursuit of his quarry. While he does work for money, he possesses a conscience and will often take a job, forego payment or sometimes drop a job entirely: in "The Doc Quince Case", he immediately relented and rescued a man he'd hunted down, and in "The Slavers of Drule" he took an assignment to track down a group of slavers because he felt it was the right thing to do. He also can be extremely vengeful when angered, as shown by his actions towards Nelson Kreelman and Max Bubba.
He is the son of Nelson Bunker Kreelman, a bigoted politician who drafted the anti-mutant laws and gained power on the back of bigotry. Despised, abused and hidden away by his father, Johnny escaped at a young age and joined the Mutant Army, becoming one of its key leaders by age 17 and playing a major part in the mutant uprising of 2167. He never revealed the identity of his father, changing his name from Kreelman to Alpha.
In this post I'm taking a look at the six different figures I have of Johnny, produced by various companies.

Starting at the left are two versions of Johnny produced by Wargames Foundry. The figure at the far left was one of the the first figures that Foundry made based on characters from the 2000AD comic, and he is my favourite version of Johnny. The figure second from the left is too tall, too static and the face is off. He's my least favourite version of Johnny. Crouching down is the Indyclix version of Johnny. He is the most chunky of the figures but he is nicely posed and sculpted. I prefer standing figures to crouching or kneeling figures so it is unlikely I'll use this figure very often.

The other three figures were all produced by Warlord Games specifically for their Strontium Dog skirmish game. I do like the version of Johnny holding his pair of pistols a lot, and he's my second favourite sculpt. You'll notice that the Warlord Games figures are slightly smaller in size to the others and are more realistically proportioned. Moving on, is a special edition figure of Johnny with his Electronux and rather unusually, without his helmet. This figure can only be acquired if you buy the Strontium Dog rulebook (priced at £20) or the Strontium Dog Collection 1 bundle for £120. I do like this figure. Finally, is Johnny riding a skimmer (also known as a hover sled or hov-bike). His face is obscured by a pair of goggles and a scarf covering his mouth and nose. This is a wonderful figure made of resin with a few metal parts (upper body and handlebars). I like the dust cloud effect, showing it is moving at speed. I might not use this figure very often but I'm happy to have it in my collection.
Do I really need six versions of Johnny Alpha? Of course not! But I'm such a 2000AD fanboy that I had to have them all, and it's not as if they were all released at the same time. When I use Johnny in a game I'll most likely mix up which figure to take depending upon circumstances but for the most part it'll be a toss up between the original Foundry figure or the two-guns Warlord Games figure.