2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)
2020 brought us another wave of ‘85 Snake Eyes repaints from the Black Major before he officially retired the mold, and of them he made some intricate and highly interesting repaints. One that stood out to me the most was this Snake Eyes in Sightline colors, which looked especially nice for being a new Snake Eyes, and not a random Cobra.
The ‘85 Snake Eyes customs are something I’m glad TBM decided to do, because while army-builders are nice, I still have a desire for new and interesting unique characters. From this Snake Eyes mold, we’ve gotten a number of unique and interesting color schemes that add more to various segments of my collection than you could ever expect from a typical Snake Eyes figure. Adding to that, because they’re all repaints of a virtually unexplored mold, each figure feels new and fresh to me.
This color scheme is particularly striking and nice to me. I’m personally a big fan of digital camo patterns and I love the way it looks when applied to military items, fictional or otherwise. The downside is that it doesn’t blend in well with most of my vintage collection, as there’s basically no o-ring figures that have a camo pattern like this. At the same time, it’s also something I like about the figure, as there again it’s very fresh and new feeling. Preventing the figure from being too drab, he has red details painted all over him just like the 50th Anniversary figures that sported this color scheme, which finishes this figure’s deco off quite nicely.
For parts, you get the full ‘85 Snake Eyes kit, plus Timber, as you might expect. This time, the parts are rendered in light gray, which is a reasonable looking color. Like with many of the TBM Snake Eyes figures, the parts don’t contrast very well against the figure, I think black or green parts would’ve looked better here. Of course, there’s a plethora of other figures these gray parts would still pair nicely with, so they’re not without their uses. They just don’t look very good with this figure.
The quality seems only okay, at least on my figure. While the figures that came in the same wave as the Ghost Mortal were pretty solid, this figure has rather floppy arms and a molding defect on one of his lower legs. It’s certainly not something that ruins the figure, but at least from this one example, the quality seems like a downgrade from the first wave of ‘85 Snake Eyes repaints.
As of right now, this Snake Eyes is still available and somewhat easy to come across for it’s initial price of $18. For that much money, I’ll definitely pass on some of the sillier repaints. For an interesting and high quality color scheme like this however, I think the price is fair. I’d speculate there will be more demand for this figure when supplies dry up compared to his contemporaries, but that’s based on the assumption my opinions on this color scheme are fairly mainstream.
2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)
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This one looks nice. But, ultimately, I passed on him. The floppy arms kind of bother me as it makes it tough to pose the figure.
But, with all of BM’s figures that use this scheme now, you can get a nice matching team of figures. The Cobra Troopers who use it do look nice.
It’s also nice that if you want a Sightline, you now have an affordable and attainable figure for the character. I’m still not sure if the remaining Red Laser army Sightlines were ever distributed. But, they are approaching $200 these days…if you can find one at all.
I like this figure. I didn’t realize Sightline was a Hasbro creation, so now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
The digital camo, is definitely a unique look, and while it’s not a perfect match, it makes me associate this figure with the 87-88 era figures. Kind of like how in the 1993 Battle Corps line they had random repaints of Backblast and Keel Haul. It’s nice that he’s not Snake Eyes or a COBRA, too. I usually arm him with a rifle of some sort, just to separate him from SE.
I don’t care for the digital camo precisely because it doesn’t blend at all with vintage figures. I also find it aesthetically ugly. I fully understand that aesthetics are not the point of real camouflage, but for a toy, I prefer something that looks good to the eye.