Monthly Archives: March 2020

1986 Roadblock

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1986 Roadblock

Roadblock is one of GI Joe’s more iconic and interesting characters, who also received more toys during ARAH than most other characters. The truth is, most of these toys are pretty good too, though it might be fair to say this Roadblock has the least appeal of them. It’s a figure that falls into the category of “Things I own because I got it in a lot.”, but I’ve found some ways to use him, still.

I’ll go ahead and admit this isn’t my favorite version of Roadblock, though, I have developed a fondness for using him. The figure’s design is made iconic by his appearance in the movie, and really isn’t too bad of a look for a more futuristic figure. He matches up nicely with contemporaries like Cross-Country and Sc-fi, which also makes him a nice crew member for the HAVOC. Some of what makes the figure memorable to me is that fact that he looks very dated, and like something that would’ve only come out between ‘86 and ‘87.

Of course, when you put aside iconism, the figure really loses it’s luster. At face value, 1984 Roadblock was a good figure; he had great colors and a great sculpt that stood out without looking outlandish. 1986 Roadblock on the other hand, looks both outlandish and somewhat generic, too. The figure is mostly white with no significant details, and has a bright green vest with a few painted details on it. I won’t say the look is bad, but it’s certainly somewhat bland, and I think that’s why this design didn’t take off in the same way as 1985 Snake Eyes did.

The parts leave a lot to be desired with this one. You get a machine-gun and a tripod: that’s it. The parts are still pretty fun, but lacking the helmet and backpack from the first figure just makes this one feel like more of a downgrade. The LMG is much more generic and hardly feels as iconic as the Ma Deuce. On the bright side, the tripod is taller on this figure, so that makes it a little more practical to pose him with it.

Ultimately, this would’ve been a pretty good figure, but the main problem he has is that he’s probably the least good Roadblock from the vintage line. If you really have a hatred for Tiger Force colors, you might say he’s better than that figure, but that still leaves the original, as well as the Battle Corps and Star Brigade releases which are some of the best figures from their respective years. It leaves ‘86 Roadblock as a figure that really only appeals to fans of the movie, which there aren’t that many of.

1986 Roadblock is one of those figure that is common, and has almost always been relatively cheap. You can easily get one for $6 to $8, and it’s pretty common you’ll get one in a lot like I did. If you’re a fan of the cartoon, more precisely, the movie, there’s appeal in having this Roadblock. For any other Joe fan, it’s fair to say the figure doesn’t provide much.

1986 Roadblock vintage gi joe hasbro gi joe the movie arah
1986 Roadblock vintage gi joe hasbro gi joe the movie arah

1986 Roadblock Links:

Yo Joe

Joeaday

3D Joes

TBM Nocturnal Alley Viper (Night Viper colors)

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TBM Nocturnal Alley Viper

I’ve wrote about a lot of Alley Vipers here, so I was hesitant to keep making post about more of them. However, I’ve noticed how much the majority of my traffic tends to favor factory custom posts. So, despite the repetitive nature of staying on one single topic, it’s justified for the sake of increasing the amount of written information and documentation of these.

One problem that factory customs have run into, is that most GI Joe molds have a pretty finite life-span of straight repaints you can make before a figure gets boring. It’s a bigger problem for some figures more than others, as while I’ll likely purchase a Cobra Trooper in any color scheme conceivable, my interest in things like BATs and Alley Vipers is somewhat more fickle. After the first couple of recolors, I usually can’t justify more.

This particular Alley Viper avoids such a problem in part, because it disregards the standard Alley Viper paint applications, and has it’s own, truly unique deco. It does a surprising amount to highlight the detail of the Alley Viper mold in a way that other releases have yet to do. The contrasting black painted across the pouches on the Alley Viper’s chest really breaks up the look of the figure. The zipper that’s highlighted here is another nice detail that’s easier to miss on the V1 Alley Viper.

Another thing factory customs have been notoriously bad about, is matching the colors of new releases to vintage figures. In the case of TBM, both the Python Cobra Troopers and Python Night Vipers end up not matching so well with the colors on the vintage Python Patrol. This Nocturnal Alley Viper, however, does not suffer from such an ill fate. In fact, the green color of the figure is remarkably close to the V1 Night Viper, which really adds some appeal to this release for that reason. Of course, if you happen to own a Funskool Night Viper, the plastic is a slightly better match to that release.

The parts are the standard set you’d expect for the Alley Viper, including the original gun, backpack, and shield. The shield is a fairly interesting piece, as once again the deco has been creatively changed a bit. Replacing the standard camo is a large Cobra logo, which is distinct and adds something to the figure. My only problem is that the face of the Cobra doesn’t perfectly fit over the shield, but other than that, it looks pretty good.

This Alley Viper trends around $20, like many of the custom Alley Vipers that are still available. Given how much standard vintage Alley Vipers have always gone for, I don’t think this is too much to pay. It’s also appealing that you can integrate this figure with an existing squad of Night Vipers, which makes me feel better about only having one.

2004 Heavy Water (Glow in the Dark)

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2004 Heavy Water (Glow in the Dark)

The Spy Troops Heavy Water was a pretty cool looking figure, but as a character, was pretty much the same thing as the Sludge Vipers and Toxo Vipers before him. And, in a strange turn of events, the GI Joe Collector’s Club picked up the mold to release a glow-in-the-dark version a year later, which didn’t really seem to be something too many people wanted.

In general, I think this figure sheds light on one of the biggest flaws of the Collector Club’s business model. By design, many of their store exclusives and membership figures, such as this one, were intended to have limited accessibility. The figure is tied to having a club membership, which you have to have in order to buy more, usually obtuse figures. If it were released differently, this figure could have seen mild success. Instead, it floundered for being a weird repaint that was far too costly and difficult to obtain for what it provided.

Putting that aside, this was an okay idea for an exclusive. It’s niche, in a similar vein to the 2003 Inferno BAT made from translucent plastic. Similarly, this figure provides you with one of the franchise’s only glow-in-the-dark items, which makes for an interesting one-off kind of figure, that’s fun to display or take pictures of. With that said, I scratch my head as to why both this figure and the Inferno BAT, were adult oriented exclusives. Wouldn’t it have been better to target toys like this to kids?

The gimmick works well and the figure will glow brightly if you hold him near a lamp or flashlight before cutting the lights. I’m not sure how gimmicks like this will last over time, though at least for now I found both opportunities I’ve had to photograph the figure to be a lot of fun.

For parts, you get a speargun from Spy Troops Depth Charge, and a backpack full of hoses that connect to the figure. The speargun looks good with figure, even if I find it’s inclusion a bit strange. The backpack on the other hand, works well enough, but definitely makes the figure feel more cumbersome to me. It holds together pretty well and doesn’t seem too restrictive or fragile with all of those hoses, but it does make posing him more difficult, which I don’t like.

Other than that, there’s sadly not much to say about the GitD Heavy Water. It’s a figure that looks alright and serves one, novel purpose. Other than that, it’s a pretty good, but fairly bland New-Sculpt figure. In my collection, the figure serves no particular meaning, it’s just something fun to look at every once in a while. Likely, this is why the figure was a colossal dud met with little interest from collectors: it’s superfluous.

Amusingly, GitD Heavy Waters sometimes go for less than normal ones which were produced in far greater numbers. Let that sink in for a moment. When you find them, you can get this version of the figure for around $5, sometimes less. I remember once being told that it was dumb not to buy almost every Club and Con exclusive, because even if you decide later you don’t like them, they always go up in value. It’s a line of thought that’s reminiscent of a pyramid scam, and of course, you can see how untrue it was as the Collector’s Club brand fades into obscurity.

GI Joe Glow in the dark Heavy Water Toxo Viper TBM BAT 2004 Spy Troops Cobra action figure
GI Joe Glow in the dark Heavy Water Toxo Viper TBM BAT 2004 Spy Troops Cobra action figure

2004 Heavy Water Links:

Yo Joe

Generals Joes