1983 Will Bill
Wild Bill finds himself in a tough spot in my collection. I sort of like using him, but I have no attachment to the character, and I don’t own a Dragonfly for him either. Besides this ‘83 Wild Bill, there’s a couple of other iterations of the character I own, most of which are nice figures too; it’s just I don’t really have much use for the character. Still, he’s an early figure that’s memorable in comparison to later vehicle drivers, so I thinks he’s worth a look.
Oddly enough I think what bothers me so much about him is the cowboy motif. This coming from a guy who mildly enjoys Cobra-La and ninjas, for some reason a cowboy doesn’t sit right. Which on my end is rather silly, as really he’s a reasonable looking figure. I just dislike the motif on a very subjective level, and that’s all there is to it. Probably, I wouldn’t have this slight against the figure were I born closer to his release, as I think cowboys were a lot more popular in the early eighties, but by the time I came around, they were lame.
The sculpt is pretty nice and simple. Personally, I feel like his head detracts a lot from it, as in general it’s way too big. Other than that, it keeps with the early line’s style of simple designs with tasteful amounts of detail. I think the sculpt on his chest with the oddly unpainted dog tags is particularly good looking, and a shame we never saw it used anywhere else besides the Funskool release.
The paint applications are about what you’d expect for a vehicle driver, though I take some interest in the bull tampograph on his belt-buckle. It’s a very small, silver paint application, which of course means it’s prone to wearing away, but as it’s such a small detail, most likely go without noticing it. I also found it oddly nice they painted his revolvers white, when nothing else on the figure is this color, and they could’ve just as easily painted them the same color as the knife of his chest.
I’ve never felt like Wild Bill was so married to the Dragonfly that it’s wrong to use him in other vehicles, so that grants him some usefulness in my collection. The only thing is I don’t like helicopters and aircraft very much. So ultimately, Wild Bill is limited to only the occasional use with a Tomahawk or maybe a few of the other oddball helicopters I have like the Retaliator. Of course, of those two the only one I really like is the Tomahawk, so to that end, there still isnt’ much to do with him.
So have crazy 2020 prices made Wild Bill a coveted and expensive figure? In truth, not really. You can get a mint with filecard Wild Bill for around $8 still, which is not much more than he’s ever gone for. Of course, you might have to look around to get one with both a nice bull-buckle and nice white pistols, but he’s a common figure that still is only worth a few dollars, which is good.
Dragonflies don’t age well, the rubber rotor tips make the blades droop. And the skids are prone to breaking.
Wild Bill is very overused character, at least in the comics, but I still don’t hate him. The other copter pilots lack much personality.
As RTG pointed out, his gloves really needed to be painted.
Wild Bill is an interesting figure, because he’s not outright bad, he isn’t very good either, and some of that is just due to a lack of paint apps (Not often is white the most exciting colour on a figure), but there are some limitations from the sculpt, the open shirt is iffy, and the head is too big.
Still, I’ll say this is the best example of the character, the cowboy motif is goofy, but not overbearing. The 1992 version is someone with a Beatles haircut dressed up like he’s gonna raid Cuba with Teddy Roosevelt.
A-Man’s right, though, Wild Bill is very overused. In the comic, there were plenty of stories that they could’ve replaced him with Lift Ticket, and there wouldn’t have been any real change to the overall story, and might’ve given Lift Ticket that personality he lacked.
I’ve tried to profile Wild Bill for a while. Each time I try, the piece ends up being about the Dragonfly instead of the figure. I don’t have any real memories of the figure, per se. I loved the comic character. But, I was always sad that his figure didn’t live up the way he was shown in the book.
The 1992 figure painted like the 1983 would have been awesome. Instead, we got him in Cobra blue. The best thing about the 1983 is that the Funskool version is just so out there and ridiculous. The colors better fit the limitations of the mold.