Weird is a synonym for Funskool, and like any other Funskool figure, Tiger Force Lifeline is pretty strange. If his colors were based upon the original 1986 Lifeline, I imagine this would be a mostly mundane release, but that is not the case here.
Lifeline is a favorite figure of mine, like most of the figures from 1986. It was a year of figures with fun gimmicks that provided interesting roles for GI Joe and Cobra. Tiger Force Lifeline provided an interesting version of the character in team specific colors that were also a fun alternative to the original. This version however, looks almost nothing like either of those toys.
The colors are very bright on this figure, palette wise they resemble the 1993 Cyber Viper more so than Tiger Force Lifeline. The differences are exacerbated if you look at the green chest variant I’m showing here. Compared to the Hasbro version, the Tiger stripes have far less definition and look almost more like cheetah spots. Interestingly, there’s some red paint applications on his pouches that the American release never had. It’s pretty nice they painted them, although I think the red on top of his other colors actually serves to make him look even gaudier.
He includes the same parts as the Hasbro release omitting the oxygen mask, albeit in worse colors. Now his case is solid orange, while the gun and backpack are flat grey. Really nothing much to see here, but at least he has most of his original parts, which you can’t say for every Funskool figure. With that said, I don’t think you’ll miss these parts very much if you get one from a vehicle pack-in as I did.
This figure is a novelty, if you want something exotic and foreign looking he does the job well. However, Funskool figures have become something you have to hunt for if you want one at a remotely fair price. Back in the day, I got this figure for something akin to $1, but these days Funskool figures commonly sell for $15 to $20. For that much, it feels hard for me to justify figures like this, but that’s only because I can remember the way things used to be in terms of Funskool pricing. Still, this figure’s appeal is limited to his novelty as a brightly colored international variant, so unless you think that’s cool he’s an easy pass.
So what vehicle was he packed with? I only ever got the Funskool CLAW and it was not one that ever came with a random figure.
I acquired him MIB, without whichever vehicle he was packaged with. So unfortunately I don’t know which one he came with. :/ Did most of the smaller vehicles not include figures?
The boxes had some “free figure included” label or printing if they did. Figures were apparently random (meaning a Joe could be packed with a Cobra vehicle and vice versa), and there were some odd variants that appeared that did not appear carded.
My CLAW didn’t even have labels.