1987 Blaster
The Battle Force 2000 was a relatively decent set of toys, although the extent of their quality ends at that. It’s such an odd sub-team of figures, mostly sold in two-packs and all with such an overbearing sci-fi motif, that they wind up among the likes of Cobra-La in terms of unpopular groups. I mildly like most of them, but they all have similar problems and are noticeably less nice than the figures released around them.
The characterization of the BF2000 is a little weak overall, and Blaster’s no exception to this. It’s a little hard to care for him too much when he’s barely utilized in the comics, and his filecard can be summed up as “hovercraft guy”. Then you have the sculpt, which is nice, but also lacks too many features that say a lot about him. Ultimately, it reduces Blaster to being more of a generic background role rather than being someone I can use prominently most of the time.
It should be said though, that Blaster is a good looking toy, and works well enough apart from his group. His sculpt is very asymmetrical and a little random looking, but I appreciate the sci-fi aesthetic they were going for with this one. He always reminds me of this corny illustration of a “future soldier” from a 1990 DoD video documenting the Advanced Combat Rifle program. Because of this, I’ve always associated Blaster as being a guy who mainly does demo-videos of suspect military designs that will never see the light of day.
One thing Blaster really has over most of his BF2000 buddies, is his color-scheme. He’s got a fairly unique deco and camo-pattern which looks very nice on the figure. There’s also a good amount of paint applications here, which make Blaster look very detailed. While I very much dislike his asymmetrical gloves and those weird ringlet things, it does look more detailed with the extra paint there, so the detail makes up for the weaker parts of the sculpt. The only real gripe I have, is that his elbows appear to be clothed, but are cast in flesh-tone, oddly.
His accessories consisted of a mask and a gun. The mask is usually long-gone with these, as was the case with the one I got in a lot years ago. It’s a very non-essential part though, and he’s rarely depicted with it. As for the gun, I’d really love to know what happened over at Hasbro when they designed the BF2000 weapons. It’s a very terrible, blocky sculpt that the figure can barely hold. Most of the BF2000 had terrible guns like this, and it’s a noticeable step down from quality featured among most of his contemporaries.
Blaster’s are common, and even when complete barely top $15. If you dig around, you can probably still get one cheaper, and he’s very common in lots. In the crazy world of modern Joe pricing, he’s pretty cheap, but that probably just underscores how ambivalent the GI Joe fandom is to this group as a whole.
Of all the BF2000 guys, Blaster is solidly in the middle of the pack, as I don’t care too much about him, but also can’t find too many faults with him.
The colouring is good, and there is some decent detailing, but he’s just kind of “there”. I like Blocker and Knockdown better, and that’s pretty much the existence of Blaster to me, the BF2000 guy I like more than Avalanche but less than Blocker.
His gun is probably the worst of the BF2000 sub team, which is pretty impressive, considering how bad a lot of them are!
Blaster is very much a product of his release time in my collection. I got him just at the end of my childhood. And, as such, he had a great, memorable run for a few months before my Joes were put away. Despite that, the figure didn’t hold up and I don’t even own one today.
BF2000 isn’t great. But, on their own, each can work outside of the team. Dodger and Blocker in particular do integrate with ’87 and ’88 figures. And, Maverick isn’t a bad pilot figure.
Considering the small parts and key release year, BF2000 must have seen a pretty large production run. While they’re not popular, pretty much everyone has a set. Yet, they stay cheap.
Blaster had always reminded me of the Rebel soldiers wearing Endor forest camo in Return of the Jedi.
It’s the sexy garters he wears, that’s why fans don’t like him.
He seemed ALIENS inspired but not as cool as Dodger or Repeater.
I didn’t have his Vindicator until many years later, so I never associated him with his vehicle. He was generic which was fine. There’s worse. He could be Grid-Iron or Bazooka.
You pointed out some details on Blaster that my brain never let me notice before reading this. I’m not sure if I should be grateful or upset for that! Great review and photos, though.
I like Blaster well enough, but only own a Funskool version. I think he looks great with his mask and the 92 Roadblock BFG slung over his shoulder, but he’s not a figure I think about all the time. He’s neat, but he’s never the first one I reach for.
His gun is very strange– it’s basically like a double handgun with an RPG launcher stapled to the bottom? I’m not entirely sure, but that’s the way I reconcile it these days.
The only BF2000 vehicles I own and like are the Skysweeper and the Vector. I’ve always gravitated towards the jets, as my dad was an aircraft mechanic in the AF. I actually really like Blaster, aside from his stupid gun. He’s probably my fave of the BF2000 dudes. As a kid, I used him as Maverick’s RIO/gunner in the Vector. They were the two BF2000 guys I played with the most and I still think of them as a pair, like Maverick and Goose, Hollywood and Wolfman, Iceman and Slider, etc.