1985 Snow Serpent

Posted on July 23, 2018 by mwnekoman

1985 Snow Serpent

Although the ARAH line was long and prominent through the 80‘s and early 90‘s, 1985 sticks out as probably the zenith year of the line. This year gave us some of the most beloved characters and figures, like V2 Snake Eyes, Flint, and Shipwreck, as well as the most iconic playset, the USS Flagg. The toys were great, the cartoon and comics were going strong, and the Snow Serpent is no exception to the high quality standard we saw that year.

Army builders don’t always have the best bios, but the Snow Serpent’s filecard is pretty cool. It establishes from the get-go that these are the most highly trained, dangerous soldiers in the Cobra hierarchy. “Snow Serpents are the Arctic Specialist branch of the Eels (COBRA Frogmen)” I really like the continuity this set’s up with one of his contemporary figures. The focus on their rank also helps give the figure some substance beyond being another niche Cobra.

Building an army of Snow Serpents has been a long and hard task, and I still don’t have that many. So in my army, these guys remain an elite, highly trained force like in their file cards, while some of the V2‘s and few other later arctic Cobras function as the cannon fodder of their division.

The detail present on this figure is amazing. The Crimson Guard and Eel were both pretty nice, but the Snow Serpent is simply in a league of his own. There’s just so many folds, pockets, pouches and buckles, he seems to have a greater sense of depth to his sculpt than many of his contemporaries. The head has a particularly great look, with it’s face mask, goggles and ridges along the top of his helmet. It’s really neat how much this design has going on, and how well the figure represents it.

One of the best aspects of the Snow Serpent are his accessories. He includes a parachute, backpack, mortar, snow shoes and AK-47. This is a lot of parts, especially since most figures at the time just included a backpack and a gun. Like the figure, the parts feature a lot of nice sculpted details, especially the detailed folds in the backpack. Sadly I’ve still not acquired a 100% complete example, but most of these parts were reused a few times, so it’s pretty easy to augment one with some similar parts.

Snow Serpents are not cheap, but that’s to be expected for a figure that comes with a lot of parts and hails from such a popular year. Complete figures routinely go for around $25, and even without parts they can go for around $9. My personal strategy for acquiring these is to buy cheaper ones that still have a part or two, and slowly acquire enough parts to complete a few while gaining some extra figures for filling out my army and using in dioramas.

1985 Snow Serpent Links:

1993 Keel Haul

Posted on July 16, 2018 by mwnekoman

1993 Keel Haul

If you own a V1 Keel Haul, I think it’s fair to say you might be lucky. You might have a lot of money now, or you might’ve lucked out and acquired one from Hasbro Direct in the 90‘s. If you were extremely lucky, you had rich parents who bought you the USS Flagg as a kid. But in the case you never acquired one in one of those scenarios, there’s this Battle Corps Keel Haul from ‘93, the one for us poor kids.

This figure is another one I had frequent access to as a kid. He was always there, always in the Joe tub, and yet I have hardly any memories of him. When I was young, the only figures I especially went for were robots and ninjas. Occasionally, a few other interesting looking soldiers would get thrown into the mix, but Keel Haul was far too mundane to really fall into that criteria. At most, I think I used him a few times as a drunk boat captain who was haplessly murdered by the Frag Viper and Vapor, but that’s about it.

It’s sort of odd, because Hasbro didn’t resurrect too many early 80‘s molds for single card releases at this point. We got things like the Steel Brigade and Ninja Viper as mail away items, or a few repaints from as far back as ‘88 with the Astro Viper, but nothing as old as an ‘85 mold.

Thankfully, there’s not a real loss of quality here. The figure’s colors are mainly blue, dark green and some brown. Not quite as nice as the original, but perfectly fine in its own right. I could imagine a lot of ways that a 90‘s repaint of this figure could’ve gone wrong, with unwanted fluorescent colors tainting the sculpt, but everything’s kept surprisingly reasonable looking here.

There’s a cool little variant of this figure regarding the logo on his back. Normally, the logo is large and takes up most of his back, but on certain figures it’s small and is placed just below his neck. I’ve acquired both figures by chance, but at the moment I forgot what I did with the tiny-logo variant (hence, no picture yet). According to Yo Joe the smaller logo is rarer, but I don’t know by how much. It’s a cool thing to look out for if you’re into variant collecting though.

The weapons he includes are okay overall. Cloudburt’s MP5SD is a nice gun, and I never mind it’s inclusion. The knife and Eco Warriors Flint’s gun are forgettable at best, though at the very least the knife seems like it’d be somewhat useful. It’s a very generic lot of parts, but he doesn’t lose much from the original, and isn’t a character in great need of an arsenal anyway.

Keel Hauls carded or loose, seem to go for around $10. Carded examples are quite common, but don’t go for much more than a loose figure. I really enjoy having Keel Haul in my GI Joe roster, but he’s not a character I have much investment in, so this figure is perfect for my needs. Someday when I’m really bored, and have a lot more money and space, I’ll bother getting the V1 and USS Flagg. Until then, this version fills the void nicely.

1993 Keel Haul Links:

Yo Joe

3D Joes

2004 Scrap Iron

Posted on July 2, 2018 by mwnekoman

2004 Scrap Iron

2000‘s era Joes were myriad in missed opportunities, but every now and then Hasbro produced an excellent figure that made great use of a vintage mold. For the most part, that’s true of the Scrap Iron from the 2004 Cobra Strike Team – Urban Division set.

The Scarp Iron mold was one that had been acquired by Funskool in the 90‘s but then returned to Hasbro in the 2000‘s upon demands by collectors. Hasbro used the mold to make two figures, this fantastic one, and a horrendous comic-pack figure. Most of the molds they reacquired from Funskool were never used much, or were only used for one or two crappy repaints, but that thankfully wasn’t the case with Scarp Iron here.

During the transition, some of the mold seems to have been lost. So the arms and legs have been swapped out for the same combination used on the 2004 Infantry Forces. It’s a good fit, and oddly enough I feel glad for the swap. Now he’s more similar to the contemporary Cobra Trooper of the era, and it provides some variety if you’ve collected a few versions of Scrap Iron already. I also feel like the Thunder arms are a bitter fit for this figure than the Infantry Forces.

Frankly, this may be the best color scheme Scarp Iron’s ever been sold in. The solid black with red ties him into the colors for most of Cobra’s classic armory, and especially pairs well with the SMS. The paint applications are further complimented with some brown for the boots and gloves, blue for the collar, and some grey to break up his helmet. There’s some really blase figures with far fewer paint applications from around this time, so one like this really stands out in my opinion.

The parts are a comical example of how lazy Hasbro got with accessories in the 2000’s. Scrap Iron is known for his trademark missile launcher, but now it’s no where to be seen. Instead, we have the Range Viper’s backpack in green, as well as his grenade launcher in black… sans the magazine! Lastly, he includes the twin barrel laser riffle from Sonic Fighters Major Bludd, because the other gun wasn’t just crappy and random enough.

At one time, this figure was common, and pretty cheap. Collector’s hoarded the Cobra Urban Division set for it’s high quality army builders and were left dumping the Scrap Iron and Storm Shadow on eBay at a pretty high rate. But, a lot can change in 14 years, and now this figure isn’t as common. I personally found two eBay listings for this guy in the past three months, which actually makes him more scarce than Funskool Tripwire for comparison. When you find him though, they look to be selling around $11, which is fair enough if you like Scrap Iron enough.

2004 Scrap Iron Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figures

The Viper Pit

Monthly Archives: July 2018

1985 Snow Serpent

1985 Snow Serpent

1985 Snow Serpent Links:

1993 Keel Haul

1993 Keel Haul

1993 Keel Haul Links:

2004 Scrap Iron

2004 Scrap Iron

2004 Scrap Iron Links: