2010 Flint (Vacation in the Shadows)
The 2010 Joecon set was an amusing and rather depressing event, which essentially only happened because The Club rick-rolled everyone with a very bad 2009 convention set. To make up for it, they pieced together one last o-ring convention set, before essentially making up some story about how all of the classic molds were destroyed, so don’t ask for them anymore. Given how crappy to Modern-styled sets were after this, I don’t think anything of value was lost by them ditching the o-rings, especially when you look at how phoned-in this convention set was. Still, there’s some things I like about it, including this weird Flint.
As the story goes, Hasbro would sometimes make requests for the convention set, and with this one, they wanted more high-profile characters featured in the set. Because of that, you ended up with a random Flint and Interrogator in a Action Force themed set. At the time (and maybe to this day) the random Flint wasn’t very popular, probably because the design has no particular inspiration as far as I know. Still, I kind of like it for that oddness, and also holding a spot as one of the last official o-ring figures we’ve gotten to date.
He’s mostly made from the body of ‘93 Duke, with the head from ‘85 Flint. Given that this Duke had almost no repaints, it was nice to see the sculpt make a return with a little more painted detail. The Flint head is one of the best vintage sculpts, so it looks good with the newer Duke body. All in all, the recipe makes for a decently satisfying repaint.
His colors are kind of… odd. Overall it’s a reasonable looking military uniform, but it doesn’t match with almost anything made before it. I appreciate this in a way, because it does mean the figure is relatively unique and stands out where you chose to show him. The flip-side of this appeal however, is that it means he really doesn’t fit in much with anything already in your collection. I don’t mind that too much though, as Joes (unlike Cobras) aren’t hurt too badly by a relative lack of cohesion.
His parts are lackluster, and seemed to just be a toss-in. Included was a forest-green backpack from ‘91 Dusty, and gray versions of ‘87 Outback’s gun, and the shotgun from one of the later 25th Anniversary Flints. The Dusty backpack was long over exposed from continual reuses during the 2000‘s, and the guns do little to excite. It’s kind of incredible how often we saw the Outback gun at this point, especially since it wasn’t a very good part to begin with.
For a while, you could get surplus Flint figures from China, sans parts. These were likely defects of some sort, but it was nice for meaning you could get a recent convention figure at a relatively cheap price (it’s what I did). Had it not been for that, I’d have probably never bothered with what otherwise comes across as a mundane repaint at convention pricing. I really miss those weird listings for cheap surplus figures.
Last time one of these Flint’s showed up on eBay, it was a NIB example and sold for $78. Sort of pointless to bring that up, as I feel this figure is obviously not worth that much, and that auction was likely just another example of the on-going market bubble. Figures like this one are getting harder to find though, and later Joecon sets were (supposedly) made in fewer numbers than earlier ones. Regardless, this figure is a novelty in all regards, and I have a difficult time understanding the satisfaction anyone would derive for paying prices like that for a figure like this.
This is the only Flint I don’t own. A few years ago, you could get them for under $15. People stopped selling them because they were so cheap. But, everyone’s gaga over every convention set except for 2005 and 2006. So, the Red Shadows hitting $100+ has pulled up even crappy figures.
I expect the market to crash pretty hard here within the next 12 months and figures like this one will likely plummet. I doubt the Red Shadows will as they’ve been popular for a while. But, the less than stellar figs are going to take a hit.
Pesto camo Flint.
I recall Hasbro wanted an actual GI JOE member in the set since the Con was at Rhode Island near Hasbro HQ. Maybe a straight up repaint of 1993 Duke would’ve been better.
The Club…they were happy to abandon both ARAH and new sculpt for what was in then, 25th “modern”. So much of their modern kitbashes look like crap on a stick.
“The Club…they were happy to abandon both ARAH and new sculpt for what was in then, 25th “modern”. So much of their modern kitbashes look like crap on a stick.”
You can say that again. Granted, many of Hasbro’s kitbashes weren’t all that great, either. For me, one of the most egregious was the PoC Steel Brigade figure, just as an example of how one bad part choice can ruin an otherwise stellar figure, as the SB ended up with PoC Snake Eyes’s torso attached to the PoC Cobra Shock Trooper’s arms and legs. This torso is rather too long and narrow for the included Shock Trooper vest, making the whole assemblage look extremely awkward (and preventing the vest’s button tab from properly closing), particularly if one tries to utilize the torso articulation. Why did Hasbro not simply use the entire Shock Trooper body, as they did with the later “Steel Brigade Delta” figure? The only reason I can think of is that someone must have been seriously jonesing for the old SB figure’s turtleneck sweater look, but the figure actually *includes* the separate turtleneck collar piece from “Resolute” Stalker and Beachhead, rendering the sculpted turtleneck collar of the Snake Eyes torso entirely superfluous….
This is one odd figure. He doesn’t fit the theme of the set, nor is he a particularly good fit for any other G.I. Joe figure, as you’d already mentioned. The whole Red Shadow bait & switch was another in a long line of Collector’s Club fiascos. Looking back the way they trolled the fanbase is a lot more obvious.
This whole set was pretty awful, the “Red Torches” were a stupid ass idea, what’s the obsession with Flamethrower troopers? The Red Shadow was a really bad amalgamation of parts, since it didn’t fit with it’s actual place in the pseudo G.I. Joe universe. The Interrogator was a nice figure, but ultimately insignificant, and the whole “TYING EVERYTHING TOGETHER” mindset of the whole 1964-ARAH thing was just baffling to me.
This Flint, could’ve been a decent figure if they made him “Skip” from Z-Force, and painted him accordingly, or just used the whole 1985 Flint mold. The headswap was just lazy. The blown-pen ink blotch camo was iffy, as it doesn’t translate to a 3 3/4″ figure.
I think the market’s bubble is ripe for a burst. There’s been signs of it coming lately, there was a reasonably priced Skymate visor for sale a while back, and it was up for 3 or 4 weeks. With the rush to re-open the economy, there’s going to be some real changes to life as we know it, and hard times are going to be coming some people’s way, unfortunately.
“…the whole “TYING EVERYTHING TOGETHER” mindset of the whole 1964-ARAH thing was just baffling to me.”
I think it originally goes back to the Marvel comics, where Larry Hama introduced Joe and Jane from the 1960s 12″ line as the predecessors of the ARAH Joe team in 1989, and things kind of snowballed from there, with the revived 12″ “Adventure” sets of the 2000s even suggesting that Joe Colton’s group was being sponsored by Destro’s family company, M.A.R.S.
I always forget this figure exists. But your photos definitely make me want to track one down. I love Flint and this is a pretty nice version. I kinda like the orange jumpsuit version more, but neither one is anything to sneeze at. This review also caused me to go re-read General Hawk’s full convention set review. I know not every figure in the con sets is a winner, but they’re still fun to look at and pine for. I wish we were getting anything even remotely similar now. I’d even pay $25 per figure.
I’m glad most of us in this small circle caught at least the tail end of the “fun figures available from China” days. I wish I’d been there early enough to scoop up one of these, though!