1990 Vapor

My earliest childhood with GI Joe was strange to say the least. I had a handful of my own figures, mainly clearance priced 1994 figures that were lingering on pegs into ‘97. For the most part though, I mainly experienced the brand through my brother’s collection and through reruns of the Sunbow cartoon.

I was very opinionated about my brother’s collection. For the most part, I hated the lot of what he had, mainly because it consisted of oddly colored 90‘s figures and not any that looked like the guys I saw in the cartoon. With that said, a few figures always tickled my fancy regardless of if I knew the character or not, Vapor being one of them. This guy struck me as some kind of psychopathic, murderous cyborg who was immune to reason and overall a really though fight for some unfortunate Joes who might encounter him. I liked coming up with exaggerated villains like that…

As such, I have some rather fond memories playing with this guy despite his otherwise obscurity. I mean, really, if you just look at the figure you really have to ask yourself what on earth he is. His filecard is rather vague, saying little to nothing about his character. It’s not even totally clear as to if he’s a generic or a singular person, but I see him as the later.

Vapor has a decent sculpt. My favorite parts are his head and the Cobra symbol buckle on his chest. Nothing too remarkable other than that, but these are at least some decent focal points that give the figure a memorable appearance. As you might expect of a vehicle driver, Vapor has a slight lacking of too many painted details. The ugliest part of the figure is his solid red waist that gives him that “underwear on the outside” type appearance.

I like his colors a fair bit, being mostly grey with some red and black for details, and silver on his head. It’s a bit different, but his appearance looks somewhat cohesive with the A.V.A.C.’s, which is good. He was repainted only once into the Air-Viper for the 2003 Joecon, a decent figure although it’s colors arguable lack the contrast of Vapor’s. For that reason I think this one is the better of the two versions.

Overall, he’s a mildly interesting pilot and Cobra to come from the 90‘s. Given how saturated the line is with different Vipers, Vapor is refreshing change of pace. I’ve never used him in many dios, but he’s certainly worth using more.

1990 Vapor GI Joe 90's ARAH Hurricane Cobra

1990 Vapor GI Joe 90's ARAH Hurricane Cobra

More on Vapor (v1):

Forgotten Figures

Yojoe!

3DJoes

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