June | 2019 | The Viper Pit

1994 Payload (Version 4), Star Brigade

One sad flaw of the Star Brigade line, is that ultimately most of the figures are repaints. 1994 brought more new sculpts here than the previous year, but the line remained saturated with older sculpts. Some of the repaints are of superb quality no doubt, and while that may not describe this Payload figure, he certainly looks decent.

Payload is a recolor of Eco Warriors Barbecue, and this figure is one of three repaints of that figure in the Star Brigade line. It’s really astounding they recolored this mold that many times over the course of a few years, and in a way it diminishes the significance of a few of the figures. Of them, this black and blue variation is the one I find the most appealing.

The colors are quite strong on this version. It reuses most of the paint-masks from the previous green Star Brigade Payload, but loses one paint application on the chest. Of the two, they’re pretty similar and it’s quite subjective which one is better, but for whatever reason I think the blue and gold looks more interesting than the green and silver.

I’ve never commented on this sculpt before, but I feel it works much better as an Eco-Warrior than an Astronaut. Star Brigade Roadblock for example was a perfect mold reuse for this line, while Payload here feels a tad forced. Something about the shape and folds of the suit just don’t strike me as a space-suit in the slightest. The head sculpt is probably the coolest part of the mold regardless, with the translucent visor and painted face underneath.

As a kid, this guy and all of his repaints were consistent villains in my scenarios. For whatever reason Eco-Warriors Barbecue struck me as an unfriendly looking character, so I turned him into a more Overkill-like cyborg character who worked with all of his repaints for Vapor. His face under his visor was all that was left of his humanity, and was being preserved in fluid, hence the need for the suit. I think their minds might’ve been linked through the Internet too.

One thing this figure has over his green counterpart, is vastly superior accessories. He comes with ‘92 Shockwave’s XM-15, Ambush’s EM-2, Updraft’s pistol, and ‘91 Low-Light’s knife, all in a nice shade of light gray. It’s a huge upgrade over fluorescent red, and for some spare parts these were some decent weapons at the time. Most of the sculpts are good, and light gray is a workable color.

So in the end the figure provides a nice alternative to an already pretty decent sculpt, with some decent parts as an added bonus. The downside is that he’s a pretty rare figure, and on top of that you usually find them carded more often than not. This puts the figure around $25 typically, and requires some hunting at that. It’s not more than the figure’s worth, but the green ‘93 version provides most of the same entertainment value for a lot less.

1994 Payload Links:

1993 Colonel Courage

GI Joe in the 90‘s is commonly associated with bright colors, busy sculpts, guys who wear too many grenades, and a lot of other EXTREME visual features. Colonel Courage is almost none of those things, and he might even be a bit boring.

Colonel Courage’s primary specialty is Administrative Strategist, or in other words he’s another member of GI Joe’s top brass. I guess by 1993 it was reasonable to put out another character in that role, but it seemed kind of redundant when there’s so many other strategists and generals on the team. As toys, it’s hard to find that much usage for General Hawk and Flagg already, then you get Courage and it just feels like overkill.

He’s characterized as being clean-cut, conscientious, and pretty much everything a Dreadnok wouldn’t be. You see that reflected in the sculpt’s more formal attire, though a sculpted dress hat might’ve been better than the helmet they opted for. There’s nothing really wrong with the character, but he isn’t needed in a way beyond using him for the sake of it.

Speaking of his sculpted on helmet, that’s something else I find limiting and frustrating about the figure. Really feels like there was no need for his helmet to be permanently attached, though interestingly it seemed much of the 93‘s were moving away from removable helmets. Besides a handful of sculpts (Including Muskrat and Mace who share the same helmet), most of the figures released in 1993 didn’t have removable helmets. No clue if that was cost-cutting or some attempt to keep kids from losing them as much, but it was a trend that sort of sucked.

Also like a lot of 93‘s, only Colonel Courage’s upper half is new; his waist and legs were pulled from Recoil. Another cost-cutting move that plagued this year, but in Courage’s case the part usage isn’t too noticeable. In particular I find it hard to recognize Recoil’s legs without their camo, so at least it works.

Colonel Courage is good about avoiding overbearing neons in his color scheme, ignoring a few of his green belts, but for his accessories Hasbro chose to match their colors to those neon green belts. Hard to care too much since he’s just a desk guy for the most part anyway, but these don’t really add anything of value to the package. The assortment of weapons included are the riffle from Airborne V2, Tunnel Rat’s LMG, the horrid Blaster gun, Shockwave’s pistol, Hit&Run’s knife, and Muskrat’s machete. A few of those parts are pretty cool, like V2 Airbourne’s riffle, but the rest fall firmly into the junk category. Oh, and a gold version of Barricade’s missile launcher for whatever that’s worth.

Colonel Courage’s who are complete often go around $5 and even carded figures go for around $13. It’s less often you see them for auction with more than one bid, so it’s safe to say he’s both common and unpopular. With that said, I do like this figure and would even go as far as to recommend him for a low price, should you be wanting to expand your upper ranks a bit. He’s not a bad looking figure at all, but he’s just not obviously useful or interesting, and feels a lot more like something that would’ve been packed with a vehicle in years prior.

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1993 Colonel Courage Links: