Monthly Archives: June 2018

2003 Convention Falcon

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2003 Convention Falcon

I think on this blog I’ve had a habit of being harsh on convention figures, including popular ones like the Iron Anvil and less popular like Buzzer. Falcon puts me in a weird spot, because I think this figure has some serious issues offset by some highly attractive elements as well.

The 2003 Convention set is not held in great regards by most collectors I encounter. I attribute this largely to the somewhat bizarre figure choices for the set, and also to the fact that a few of the figures were of questionable quality. Oddly enough though, this set’s one of my personal favorites. Compared to other items the club pumped out, everything here except for the Cobra Commander is fairly unique and original, which scores a lot of points with me.

Falcon is in uniform colors with the Lady Jaye and Major Storm in the set. This cohesion makes the figure a lot more fun and I enjoy the trio as a team. The deco looks really solid, and the paint applications also highlight all of the sculpted details present on Falcon.

The construction is where this figure is fatally flawed. Although the upper half is of V1 Falcon, the waist and legs are from V1 Grunt… This combination of parts looks extremely awkward. The difference in sculpting between the ‘82 figures and the ‘87 figures are like night and day, and the proportions look mildly off like this as well. It’s such a shame, as almost any other set of legs might have matched better, but instead they went for this.

I acquired this figure without his parts, but it doesn’t really matter to me as they’re a pretty generic set. He came with the M4 from V11 Duke, the M16 from V2 Ripper, V1 Shockwave’s pistol, and Red Star’s backpack and knife. In other words, a selection of generic parts ranging from mediocre to terrible.

As you might expect, a fifteen year old convention figures isn’t the easiest to find. But they show up, and don’t go for an awful lot when they do. The few I’ve seen of late have gone between $20 and $30, but I’d bet more often you could acquire this figure for $20. For that much, I think there’s a lot of other Falcon figures that are a bit nicer you could acquire. The figure certainly isn’t bad though, and personally I enjoy the camo and novelty he provides enough to overlook his flaws.

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2003 Convention Falcon Links:

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Black Major Custom Python Troopers

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Black Major Custom Python Troopers

The world of custom/bootleg GI Joes has been pretty amazing in the past couple of years. The Black Major, in particular, produced some amazing work and even brought back the classic Cobra Trooper mold for a few new designs. I was really impressed by all of the new Black Major Cobra Troopers, but as Python Patrol is my favorite Cobra sub-team, I chose these to look at first.

I’m a huge Python Patrol fan. Sure, a few of the vintage figures were a little on the strange side (The Python Guard), but making a new sub-team out of all of the classic Cobra army builders and giving them jungle themed colors was one of Hasbro’s better repaint ideas for the time. On their own, a few of them can be a tad gaudy, but they function well when teamed with each other. Cobras from different eras could sometimes look a little awkward together, but the uniform colors of these help them avoid that.

In terms of quality, these are probably some of the best and most solid feeling Black Major figures to date. The plastic feels really close to the vintage plastic, and the joints on all of mine are very solid too. Generally I’m not too picky when it comes to the quality on custom figures, but these are extremely well made feeling.

The color pattern used on these Black Major custom Python Troopers is familiar and unique all at the same time. Overall, they’re most similar to Python Copperhead, but they have a lot less black on them. There’s quite a focus here on the green shades of the figure, and it finds a nice blend between somewhat realistic jungle colors and the Python Patrol’s neon tones. I do notice the yellow seems a little dull on these, and while I’m not sure as to if that was or wasn’t intentional, it goes along well with giving them that vintage charm, minus a bit of the neon.

Another thing I like a lot about the most recent TBM Troopers is the accessories. While anyone who’s collected a few of these should have plenty of dragunovs by now, at some point he started including AK47‘s and Viper backpacks too, giving the trooper a more well rounded selection of accessories. I’m hugely appreciative to have a pile of the Cobra Officer’s AK47 lying around, as it’s a fantastic looking accessory that’s unfortunately hard to find.

The after market prices on these were somewhat interesting to see, now that the supply of them has mostly dried up. From what I can tell, they go for around $12 to $15 at the moment, like most other recent custom Cobras. The thing is, they don’t really show up for sale all that often, since these aren’t produced in great numbers as you might expect. I think the saturation of figures is keeping the prices lower for now, as there’s so much to chose from I think certain figures just get missed.

Gi Joe action figures Cobra vintage V1 Python PatrolGi Joe action figures Cobra vintage V1 Python Patrol Bootleg Custom

2003 Overkill

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2003 Overkill

In the early 2000‘s, I was still a kid. So the online exclusive BAT 6-pack was an item I had absolutely no clue existed. Had I known about it then, I can guarantee you I’d have passed on it, as I really had no interest in characters and molds that weren’t from the Sunbow cartoon. In the late 2000‘s though, my interest in older figures had broadened and I eventually came across this set floating around for some odd amount of chump change and ordered one. Chief among the figures that appealed to me in the set was this Overkill, a character I’d never owned before.

The 2003 BAT 6-pack wasn’t a bad idea from Hasbro, as back then more than ever were collector’s demanding army builders. The execution however, was far from perfect. Taken in on their own, the two varieties of BATs are interesting, fun figures and the Overkill repaint is a fine reuse of that mold. All of these things together, however, aren’t overly compelling for an army builder set. No one wanted unique characters packed with army builders, and the Inferno BAT is far too odd and niche to illicit collectors to hoard large armies of them. So, the set flopped and the figures were easy to acquire for pennies on the dollar for years after it’s release.

In a way, that means this Overkill repaint owns a good amount of the blame for killing the BAT 6-pack. Though for me, it was a cool character to expand my Cobra roster with for basically nothing, so I was rather ecstatic to own him years ago.

In a lot of ways this figure is a serious upgrade over the ‘92 version. The colors maintain some brighter shades that make a character like this fun, but are far less gaudy than on the ’92 figure. Many of the details have been highlighted on this version with paint applications not present before, which also helps me appreciate the sculpt. I think one of the best examples of this is the figure’s head, where before it was just gold plastic with red eyes, now he has separate colors for the different sections of his head. It’s surprisingly detailed honestly.

The parts are also pretty cool. All of the original Overkill’s parts are here, just now in black. I think Overkill’s gun and arm attachment are pretty strange, but there’s a lot of detail on them that’s easier to digest in black compared to fluorescent red. Plus any ARAH figure that kept his original parts in the 2000’s was something to admire.

At one time, you could buy the entire BAT army builder 6-pack for as little as $6. That however, was at the height of this item’s saturation. Now, these are a bit harder to find, and you’ll see the full set or single figures sell for random, and usually very stupid prices on eBay. Of course, you can also grab a surplus figure from China for $6.50 shipped. I think this is a pretty underrated repaint, and although that’s a lot more than he used to cost, it’s still a high quality figure I think is worth that much.

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2003 Overkill Links:

Forgotten Figures (Inferno BAT post, but still relevant)

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