1993 Colonel Courage
GI Joe in the 90‘s is commonly associated with bright colors, busy sculpts, guys who wear too many grenades, and a lot of other EXTREME visual features. Colonel Courage is almost none of those things, and he might even be a bit boring.
Colonel Courage’s primary specialty is Administrative Strategist, or in other words he’s another member of GI Joe’s top brass. I guess by 1993 it was reasonable to put out another character in that role, but it seemed kind of redundant when there’s so many other strategists and generals on the team. As toys, it’s hard to find that much usage for General Hawk and Flagg already, then you get Courage and it just feels like overkill.
He’s characterized as being clean-cut, conscientious, and pretty much everything a Dreadnok wouldn’t be. You see that reflected in the sculpt’s more formal attire, though a sculpted dress hat might’ve been better than the helmet they opted for. There’s nothing really wrong with the character, but he isn’t needed in a way beyond using him for the sake of it.
Speaking of his sculpted on helmet, that’s something else I find limiting and frustrating about the figure. Really feels like there was no need for his helmet to be permanently attached, though interestingly it seemed much of the 93‘s were moving away from removable helmets. Besides a handful of sculpts (Including Muskrat and Mace who share the same helmet), most of the figures released in 1993 didn’t have removable helmets. No clue if that was cost-cutting or some attempt to keep kids from losing them as much, but it was a trend that sort of sucked.
Also like a lot of 93‘s, only Colonel Courage’s upper half is new; his waist and legs were pulled from Recoil. Another cost-cutting move that plagued this year, but in Courage’s case the part usage isn’t too noticeable. In particular I find it hard to recognize Recoil’s legs without their camo, so at least it works.
Colonel Courage is good about avoiding overbearing neons in his color scheme, ignoring a few of his green belts, but for his accessories Hasbro chose to match their colors to those neon green belts. Hard to care too much since he’s just a desk guy for the most part anyway, but these don’t really add anything of value to the package. The assortment of weapons included are the riffle from Airborne V2, Tunnel Rat’s LMG, the horrid Blaster gun, Shockwave’s pistol, Hit&Run’s knife, and Muskrat’s machete. A few of those parts are pretty cool, like V2 Airbourne’s riffle, but the rest fall firmly into the junk category. Oh, and a gold version of Barricade’s missile launcher for whatever that’s worth.
Colonel Courage’s who are complete often go around $5 and even carded figures go for around $13. It’s less often you see them for auction with more than one bid, so it’s safe to say he’s both common and unpopular. With that said, I do like this figure and would even go as far as to recommend him for a low price, should you be wanting to expand your upper ranks a bit. He’s not a bad looking figure at all, but he’s just not obviously useful or interesting, and feels a lot more like something that would’ve been packed with a vehicle in years prior.
He’s a stickler for regs but has a non-regulation beard?
Some folks hate his code name. It’s silly, but…nothing. It’s silly. The quasi-dress uniform with combat gear is also a little silly (and why two side arms?), but we had 19th century cavalry re-enactor Wild Bill around this time.
He was a decent addition that needed some polishing and better accessories. Yes, a removable helmet, too.
I’m not a huge fan of this guy. But, he’s OK. I found him at Meijer’s in 1995 or so. I think I got him the same time as the Blockbuster or Monster Blaster APC. The key for me at the time was the inclusion of Tunnel Rat’s rifle, even if it was the wrong color.
A good figure that would have been great with a removable helmet. I opted to use Courage as my GI Joe CO in the 90s instead of Hawk only because I like him better.
Sort of reminds me of V1 Duke, with the khaki shirt, yet green field trousers and boots. Maybe sort of a WWII vibe where you see soldiers and Marines in the field wearing khaki uniforms instead of green combat uniforms.
Removable helmets are non-negotiable for me. I can live with the multiple sidearms as long as the holsters look like you could actually have a real firearm in there, a General Patton homage.
Nice figure, if not incredibly hokey. The colouring is very reminiscent of the 1982-1983 figures (neon green included). Despite being molded on, the helmet seems to be the same design as the one that came with 1992 Duke (With the detail added to the forehead), which is a nice touch!