2004 Dreadhead Joe-Bob
Of the o-ring Joecon sets that were made, it’s probably not too much of a shock statement to say the Dreadnok Rampage set was probably the worst. Little things tend to make all of the figures wrong, like putting classic Dreadnoks in mostly uniform camouflage, or using a UK-inspired Tiger Force scheme for the Joes, that still doesn’t match with those figures entirely. Still, the biggest stinker in the set is the Dreadheads, and maybe none of them more so than Dreadhead Joe-Bob!
The Joecon guys were really big on coming up with these strange and arbitrary rules for their convention sets. One of their seeming rules was that every set have an army builder, so what did they do for a Dreadnok set? They shoehorned in a Dreadnok army-builder! It’s such a moronic concept, and yet they managed to probably do it in the worst possible way at that. They could’ve repainted random Cobra troops in the colors of the Dreadnok Ground Assault, or even the camo pattern from this set and had something slightly more enjoyable… but no. They opted to make a crap-ton of inbred cousins who are all nearly identical clones of each other.
All of the Dreadheads were made from the body of Muskrat and the head of the Aero-Viper. Besides having bare arms, there’s nothing about Muskrat that really screams Dreadnok at me. The Aero-Viper head does work fairly well, but this should’ve been a one-off character, not someone you get six of. There might’ve not been so many other molds that could pass for new Dreadnoks, but if they had to do an army-builder, Tiger Force Green Shirts or Steel Brigade would’ve been much better.
Dreadhead Joe-Bob finds even more ways to disappoint, as unlike the other Dreadheads, Joe-Bob is nearly identical to the Torpedo figure that was released to retail in the same year. Given the fact that that Torpedo figure is pretty cool too, this virtually renders Joe-Bob completely invalid (To be fair, I think Torpedo simply recycled the Dreadhead paintmasks. Doesn’t change the fact that now he exists, meaning you have less reason to ever want Joe-Bob.). I will say though, I find the Dreadnok tampograph on his mask to look rather nice and it’s very sharp for a detail that’s about the size of a small ant. Also, he has a green beard, so maybe he’s a crazy fan of Hatsune Miku.
His accessories are bland new-sculpt era junk, which includes a gray G36 rifle, a gray pump-action shotgun, and a clear figure stand. There must have been a real obsession with Heckler and Koch during the 2000‘s, since most the GI Joe guns you saw nauseating amounts of were H&K. The little shotgun is okay though, the sculpt is easy enough even for old figures to hold, and it looks decent.
Dreadheads in general are now pretty hard to find, I’ve not seen a listing for this particular one in a while. At auction, the last Billy-Bob that popped up for sale only went for $20. There for a while, Chinese eBay sellers were selling overstock Dreadhead Joe-Bob’s for low-low prices. And by a while, I mean probably years; nobody wanted this thing even for a few dollars. Dealers will occasionally sell one for around $60, but if you’re that desperate for a Dreadhead, this April Fool’s joke is definitely on you!
As a Joe completist, I bought the bagged version of this Dreadhead convention set but never bothered to open the figures, that’s how little interest I had (have) in them. I tried to offer them up as trade bait a few times over the years, but never found anyone interested enough to be worth my time, so I still have them, still unopened.
This is the only one I have…mainly because I found it at a local shop for $20 in 2020 or so.
These figures were so bad that they pretty much ruined my interest in the Aero Viper: which had been one of my favorite figures prior to 2004.
Supposedly, the original plan for the set was that the Dreadnoks were going to be different factions (hence the different color patterns) with some kind of beef with each other. But, that got abandoned.
This set was an absolute dud. Master collector didn’t sell out of them for years…even after they discounted it. The fact that many of the figures from the set now command stupid premiums, it just goes to show that a lot of newer guys are really willing to overpay for unpopular and pretty useless figures.
BTW, the photo where they’re stomping Sure Fire is magically composed. It’s just perfect posing and the colors of the figures pop!
I learned something new today: 04 Torpedo has the same paint masking as this 04 Dreadhead. 👀
The Smith and Wesson file names for the Dreadheads were tacky and stupid. So the family is a bunch of goateed rednecks? There’s a reason “Not based on any known, living persons” was a thing. Even stupider when the cousins had a beef with Beach-Head, meaning they grew up in Auburn, Alabama, but S&W’s corporate Headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. (Moving to Maryville, Tennessee this year).
And then the guy uses a Heckler and Koch weapon?
Yeah, thanks to Chinese sellers, I have this figure. It’s kinda meh. A lot of the con figures were, but their limited runs/availability made them more desirable than they deserved. Except the Dreadheads.
So basically, I could slap a Joe-Bob head I acquired on a extra VAMP w/Twin Battle Gun Torpedo and pretty much have the figure, arms aside?