2003 Crimson Guard Immortal
If you just went by names and themes that seem popular with collectors, it’s hard to imagine that the 2003 CAT II and it’s driver, the Crimson Guard Immortal, have spent most of their lives languishing as undesired clearance items. Personally I chalk that up to poor execution, but I don’t really have too much of a personal investment in this Crimson Guard Immortal either, and he’s without a doubt, more popular than the vehicle he came with.
A big deal in the 2000‘s was that Funskool had many of the popular vintage molds that fans wanted Hasbro to make new figures from. So about a dozen and a half of these molds were recalled by Hasbro and put to use for a handful of repaints before disappearing forever. Ultimately, I think it’s better to have a few more new toys to collect than a few more thousand Funskool figures that are off somewhere where I’ll never see them. Of course, the big disappointment was that Hasbro (and the Club) didn’t really do anything with these molds, and only used them for a short window at that.
The Crimson Guard Immortal is an interesting character. By his file card, he seems almost just like a new version of the standard Crimson Guard as opposed to a new rank in Cobra, but I suppose there’s a little fun in being able to interpret him as either one (‘91 catalog just refers to him as “Crimson Guard”, so he’s really a V2). Another interesting thing I never noticed, is that he’s apparently always been a vehicle driver with the original being “Licensed to operate: All Cobra land and air vehicles, including Hammerhead and Hurricane.”. The Spy Troops release modifies this text to “Licensed to operate: All COBRA land and air vehicles, including Cobra Cat-2”. Reducing a CGI to being a generic vehicle driver doesn’t really strike a chord with me, but at least there’s precedent for it!
This figure goes the route of the Python Guard, with the crimson he’s named for represented by a few details rather than his main color. So this Crimson Guard Immortal is mostly a dark gray with some red on his mask. I think it’s a little weird that a Crimson Guard Immortal who drives a big red Crimson Attack Tank is for some reason mostly grey, especially when black with a little more red would’ve been a nice reference to the original CAT’s colors, but it looks nice enough, so whatever. The tone of the grey coupled with his red mask makes me think of Interrogator, but I’m not sure I’d have them be related in any way (in my own fiction, of course).
This figure comes with no accessories, which makes him seem a little more bland than he already is. Of course, the original Crimson Guard Immortal’s accessories aren’t a set I find essential to the figure, despite that he has a leg peg that’s specifically designed for those parts. The wacky guns-akimbo set up was barely okay for Rock&Roll V2, but doesn’t really seem so natural for a lawyer/tank driver.
So the steadiest price I can currently discern for the 2003 Crimson Guard Immortal is around $40. This figure used to never go for half of that, but the Coof-Collectors pushed prices up above where they currently are, so $40 seems fair now. Personally, I’d much rather stock up on two or three of the ‘91 CGI, or frankly any other version of the Crimson Guard than this one. This figure isn’t bad, but he also is rather lacking in any substance to make him worth that much. Another thing, you might notice he’s made from the cursed 2000‘s plastic that spontaneously yellows for no reason, so keep that in mind too.
I still maintain that the CGI mold was planned as the 6th figure in the 2005 TRU CG set. However, the club grabbed it for their shitty Destro (after they declined to use the 1988 mold) and that forced Hasbro to scramble and we ended up with that poorly thought out Firefly. And, that also helps explain the oddball colors on this one since there were plans for a properly colored one just a few months later.
The CAT was a disaster. I’m not sure if it was ever actually sold in stores. I think it ended up a, de facto, online exclusive. I think they dropped to like $6 each and guys bought a bunch and threw the extra tanks away since they were worthless at the time.
This guy was available from Asia for quite a while. And, they super cheap. I should have bought a bunch of extras, especially if they are $40 figures today.
I’m pretty sure the CAT II wasn’t in stores. I think I even wasted a lot of gas checking the KBs or toy liquidators looking. (I never saw Crimson Sabotage, either, which was…apparently in stores). I eventually got a pair online. I can’t remember for how much. I haven’t looked at it in years.
I can’t imagine tossing the tanks, but I’ve heard of people tossing toys rather than reselling them. There’s one major toy youtuber I downvote and dis for admitting he does that.
When o-ring prices were low, I got a couple of the CGIs from that guy who did dio stories with a character named Pitfall. I don’t even remember his name or his site’s name. I heard he got a life and left GI JOE behind. Lucky fellow.