2000 Major Bludd
I really like Major Bludd, he’s a fun character, and most of his toys are good (with the exception of 25th Major Bludd. That one’s really bad!). But writing about Major Bludd toys as too much of a regular occurrence could make my blog a bit tedious. Though, nothing else really strikes my fancy at the moment, so I figure I might as well profile another one.
I got this figure in a lot sometime in either ‘09 or ‘10, for peanuts. At the time, I already had an ‘83 Bludd, so I didn’t have a lot of need for this one. Though, there was some novelty in having a brown version that can bend both of his arms, he was always overshadowed by the cadre of other ARAHC figures I found more interesting at the time. I really regretted missing out on the ARAHC line when I was a kid, so I when I started buying figures loose, I found it exciting to track these down for relatively low amounts of money. Despite that, I’ve tended to find my ambivalence to this figure has become a pattern relative to the entire series, where most of the toys are nice, but usually get out-shinned by something similar from another year.
2000 Major Bludd is an odd duck, because the truth is he’s a pretty alright looking figure. The problem he runs into though, is just that there’s so many other Major Bludds that do the same thing, better. When I say that, I’m mainly talking about Chinese Major Bludd, which has the same head and similar colors, but with a more interesting selection of body parts. Were it not for that figure, this would probably be the best toy of Major Bludd.
Normally it’s a nice thing when you get a subdued repaint of a neon-90‘s toy like Super Sonic Fighters Major Bludd, but, that figure already came in great colors, featuring primarily dark blue with some yellow details. It’s hard to call this one superior because of that. That doesn’t make him bad either, it’s just the other toys seem to invalidate him a bit. I also think the deco suffers from being rather flat, as he doesn’t have any of the green details you saw on the ‘83 figure.
The only part besides a figure stand included here, was his original double-barreled laser rifle, now in black. A little creativity from Hasbro could’ve gone a long way to make his parts more interesting, but that’s a funny thing to complain about, since this section is where I normally complain about the superficial inclusion of Rock Viper rifles and SAW Viper backpacks with 2000‘s figures. This little gun’s not that bad, and it’s nice to have it in black too, as I could imagine it looking good with a few of Cobra’s sillier characters like Overkill or Mindbender. It’s just not great with Major Bludd.
It’s not every day you find one of these being left to open pricing, but it’s regular enough you can get a BiN for $8 or less. Carded sets with the Rock Viper (Range Viper), go for as little as $10, which is probably a better value. There’s so many Major Bludd’s to choose from, it’s really hard to say anyone needs this one. Despite that, it’s a relatively solid figure, and represents ol’ Sebastian well enough. I also realized Chinese Bludd’s have become a lot harder to get, so in lieu of that one, this one’s probably become a good option again.
This figure has aged well. And, as the vintage plastic gets more brittle, it’s good to have a really solid Major Bludd available with the newer, softer plastic mix.
I’m not a fan of the gear. But, you can set him with ’83 gear for relatively cheaply. But, there’s a variety of 2000’s era weapons that really work with him, too.
I now some quirky folks like to army build character figures, but 2000 Major Bludd is a bit much.
The three-color on the body does kind of make him bland. The 16 grenades are still a bit much.
It funny Hasbro decided after this release that his double barreled weapon is an underwater weapon of some sort.
I love that picture with the Troopers. Classic, but new versions. I also like the rifle you gave him. I’ve never been a fan of either the 1983 or the 1991 weapons for him; I think a seasoned mercenary would probably have a trusty favorite assault rifle, rather than using weird experimental weapons.
I like this version a lot but I do find I use him less after getting the Chinese version. The Super Sonic version was my first Bludd as a kid, so he’s pretty worn now–I should probably upgrade him–but as a result the mold has nostalgia value. (I know people hate the grenades. I don’t mind.) I’ve been amazed at how cheap it still is to army build those “Rock”-Vipers, especially if you buy the 2-pack and re-sell Bludd.
This is a really nice figure, and one of the few times Hasbro did the “Take a 90s mold and give it the original colour scheme”, and it’s something that actually works pretty well. Though like you said, the lack of a colour like the green does kind of dampen the figure somewhat.
The grenades are a bit much, but it’s nothing too goofy, the head sculpt here is very nice, even if it takes off the scars of the original Bludd figure. Still, it’s one of the better design 90s updates of a classic character.