2004 Big Brawler
Big Brawler’s a name pretty infamous to Joe collector’s who were around in the early 2000‘s. At best, I think he could sort of be described as a meme that represented the low-quality characters that were being created at the time. Some collector’s even seemed to feel somewhat insulted by the character. With that said, there’s some value that can still be gleaned when Big Brawler’s figures are taken at face value.
This particular Big Brawler reuses the part recipe and paint masks from the Tiger Force Big Brawler who came out the year before. In fact, many of the colors are the same as that figure, with the major differences being the color of his shirt, skin, and hair. Clearly, the figure was designed as a part of a set that was meant to be budget priced, and the fact that he’s not changed more can be easily overlooked. Back then it might’ve been less acceptable, but it 2019 without the other figure in my collection, I don’t mind.
His main fault as a figure is that the character is junk, and the paint is just a tad too limited. Particularly, the unpainted bullet belts on his legs just leaves a lot to be desired. At the same time, as he is essentially just a repaint of Salvo, it’s nice to see that Salvo didn’t become yet another ARAH mold that would be forever without a repaint (ignoring the other Big Brawler and Balrog). Of course, I think Salvo is superior to any color variant of this Big Brawler, but it’s still nice for the variety.
BIG BRAWLER started out in Army Intelligence before he was tapped to join the G.I. JOE Team, bringing an impressive catalogue of specialized skills and talents. Equally at home in dense tropical undergrowth as he is in concrete urban badlands, he has survival and observation abilities on a par with jungle cats and feral street criminals. Proficient in small arms, squad-level infantry weapons, and platoon support weapons, BIG BRAWLER also holds rank in several martial arts disciplines. Trained as a psychologist and having participated in several military psychological operations, he knows that as good as you are with a weapon, you can’t win a fight unless you can think three moves ahead of your opponent, and then have a surprise for him!
“Never start a fight you can’t finish, never drink water that a purification tablet won’t dissolve in, and always brush your teeth when you’re in the jungle!”
In other words, Big Brawler’s good at everything he does, and is trained and educated in everything. Also, he’s a psychologist… Man it’s not as bad as his original Rambo-wannabe bio, but this file is just dumb. It also really leaves Big Brawler without too much of a purpose, and definitely as a character to improvise with. I can’t think of much to do with him at the moment besides having him man vehicles and act as squad filler in dioramas.
His only accessory was a silver version of the customized M4 we saw around a few times in the New Sculpt era. It’s actually a pretty nice part, but it’s also extremely generic. I don’t feel like it does much to accentuate a character in need of some added appeal.
I’m having a hard time pricing this version of Big Brawler. I think I got mine in a lot about a year or so ago, but I really don’t remember anymore. And other than that he’s another bad victim of the GI-drought, where there’s nothing showing up on eBay routinely enough for me to say “that much.”. So I’ll assess the figure like this: The character is terrible, and the figure is mediocre. But he’s not badly colored and has the cool novelty of being one of a few Salvo repaints. So if you see him somewhere, he’s a decent addition for around $8, but at that, it’s a figure that any collection could do without.
2004 Big Brawler Links:
Why wasn’t it Salvo? Instead Low Light got a tan and stole Brawler and Salvo’s clothes.
The Vamp set was a mostly wasted opportunity for Joe figures. Torpedo ain’t bad, but also reminds me that Muskrat never got an entire reissue/repaint. Pathfinder was almost a reissue. (but at least had accessories)
Then again, we may have only gotten the VAMP set because TRU passed on Operation Crimson Sabotage.
Big Brawler is interesting, the first version looked like a then semi-famous interior designer, who had a meme (before they were called ‘memes’) which was a picture of him pointing and the words “THIS THREAD IS HOMO”, the Brawler meme kind of started when someone posted it on somebody’s highly arrogant attention seeking thread but it was changed to say “THIS THREAD IS BRAWLIN'”. Unfortunately it was done by a gimmick poster who most people didn’t realize was trolling the entire site, so it was taken and run into the ground, getting dumber and dumber each time someone attempted it. That gimmick poster is one of my best friends and I still talk to him everyday!
The Low-Light head Brawlers are interesting. They’re a good composite of the Outback mold, but they also manage to eliminate a bunch of different figures/characters. G.I. Joe probably would’ve been better off in the early 2000s there was Outback, Salvo and Low-Light rather than Big Brawler.