Monthly Archives: February 2021

2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)

Posted on by
3

2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)

gi joe bootleg the black major 2020

2020 brought us another wave of ‘85 Snake Eyes repaints from the Black Major before he officially retired the mold, and of them he made some intricate and highly interesting repaints. One that stood out to me the most was this Snake Eyes in Sightline colors, which looked especially nice for being a new Snake Eyes, and not a random Cobra.

The ‘85 Snake Eyes customs are something I’m glad TBM decided to do, because while army-builders are nice, I still have a desire for new and interesting unique characters. From this Snake Eyes mold, we’ve gotten a number of unique and interesting color schemes that add more to various segments of my collection than you could ever expect from a typical Snake Eyes figure. Adding to that, because they’re all repaints of a virtually unexplored mold, each figure feels new and fresh to me.

This color scheme is particularly striking and nice to me. I’m personally a big fan of digital camo patterns and I love the way it looks when applied to military items, fictional or otherwise. The downside is that it doesn’t blend in well with most of my vintage collection, as there’s basically no o-ring figures that have a camo pattern like this. At the same time, it’s also something I like about the figure, as there again it’s very fresh and new feeling. Preventing the figure from being too drab, he has red details painted all over him just like the 50th Anniversary figures that sported this color scheme, which finishes this figure’s deco off quite nicely.

bootleg snake eyes parts

For parts, you get the full ‘85 Snake Eyes kit, plus Timber, as you might expect. This time, the parts are rendered in light gray, which is a reasonable looking color. Like with many of the TBM Snake Eyes figures, the parts don’t contrast very well against the figure, I think black or green parts would’ve looked better here. Of course, there’s a plethora of other figures these gray parts would still pair nicely with, so they’re not without their uses. They just don’t look very good with this figure.

The quality seems only okay, at least on my figure. While the figures that came in the same wave as the Ghost Mortal were pretty solid, this figure has rather floppy arms and a molding defect on one of his lower legs. It’s certainly not something that ruins the figure, but at least from this one example, the quality seems like a downgrade from the first wave of ‘85 Snake Eyes repaints.

As of right now, this Snake Eyes is still available and somewhat easy to come across for it’s initial price of $18. For that much money, I’ll definitely pass on some of the sillier repaints. For an interesting and high quality color scheme like this however, I think the price is fair. I’d speculate there will be more demand for this figure when supplies dry up compared to his contemporaries, but that’s based on the assumption my opinions on this color scheme are fairly mainstream.

gi joe bootleg the black major 2020

2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)

Photo by DreadnokDread

Forgotten Figures Review of Bonecrusher (His wave-mate)

1989 TARGAT

Posted on by
6

1989 TARGAT

I’ve talked before about a few figures that I used extensively as a kid, which included the Frag Viper and Vapor. The third figure I used almost all the time was the TARGAT, who was another major member of my Cobra-robot army (I didn’t have the filecards and I liked androids, so most of my Cobras were reimagined as robots). Because of that, I’m pretty sentimental towards this figure and his Star Brigade repaint, but objectively I do think he’s one of the better Iron Grenadiers.

The TARGAT is a “Trans Atmospheric Rapid Global Assault Trooper”, who deploys into orbit from a space shuttle, and then flies to their mission area on earth, according to his file card. With some suspension of disbelief, it sounds neat, though personally I just see them as normal paratroopers. Maybe the whole idea is a bit cooler in the comics, but I just started reading the Marvel run again and haven’t gotten to the issues where they show up (if they do).

There was some nice uniformity on the colors of the early Iron Grenadiers. I like that the TARGAT keeps the red and black theme of the Iron Grenadier, but replaces the gold with sky-blue. It’s attractive and different looking, while still fitting with the established look for the group. This was something I didn’t like about the later convention Iron Grenadiers, like the Iron Anvils, where they went to strictly using the black/red/gold pattern with no changes. It makes the figures too generic when they all have the exact same colors.

The TARGAT is a pretty nice mold. There’s a fair amount of detail on it, but it’s mostly kept to little things like the stitches on his chest or the ribbed part of his uniform. I always really liked his head and visor combo, especially as a kid, and I think it was executed a slightly better than the fragile mask on the Alley Viper. The belt of grenades around his waist exemplifies the start of a trend we saw more of in the 90‘s, but here it’s not too overdone.

Originally he included a pistol, a control stick, a hose, the visor, and his flight unit with folding wings. The flight unit is really cool, it’s bulky and surprisingly large for a pack-in item. The control stick is extremely small, so although it was a nice detail, I tend to ignore it since it’s usually missing and doesn’t add much. The pistol is also an interesting, if not somewhat weird part. It’s made of a flexible plastic and clips onto his bicep while he holds it, I guess to make it easier to use while he’s flying? It’s unique at the very least, though personally I think it’s easy to replace with a normal gun.

I find it somewhat surprising as to the amount of repaints this mold received. After this release, it showed up again in ‘93 for Star Brigade , and sans the head as Create-a-Cobra, before going to India where Funskool used it for their own version of the Star Brigade figure, followed by a recolor as Street Hawk. Then, the mold was returned to Hasbro, and was used one last time for the convention Coil Troopers (with a Decimator head). All of those mold uses were pretty good, though personally I think the original here had the best colors of them all.

Complete TARGATs can trend around $25, but ones missing just the control stick go as low as $10. I don’t really think that part adds that much to the figure, which means this guy is still a fairly affordable and fun army-builder in 2021. After getting a couple mostly complete examples, I enjoy picking up the occasional extra with only his visor.

 

1989 TARGAT Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Half the Battle

2005 Storm Shadow (Comic Pack)

Posted on by
4

2005 Storm Shadow (Comic Pack)

In modern times, I have mixed feelings about the 2000‘s comic pack figures. Most of them were not very good, and they had all the negative hallmarks you’d expect from a post-’94 figure. Yet, compared to now, most of these sets seem like dreams. 3 figures with accessories and a comic for something like $10? In a world where AWE Strikers run $25 at retail, I really miss the ability to get that kind of value in a GI Joe item.

Storm Shadow here is an especially nice offering from the line, as it’s the closest thing Hasbro’s ever given us to a V1 Storm Shadow reissue. I think people have a tendency to overstate the degradation of vintage plastic, but discoloring happens on a much more regular basis, to the point that I think for some figures it’s inevitable. I don’t mind it so much anymore, but it’s nice having a stark white Storm Shadow, who’s also a little more safe to play with.

For the most part, the entire vintage mold is intact, save for the biceps, which were switched for ‘91 Dusty’s. The size of those muscles doesn’t really blend well with the early-80‘s sculpting, but overall I’d say it looks good, and I like the more comic-accurate appearance. It’s not better than ‘84 Storm Shadow’s look, but it’s an okay alternative, and introduces some nice variety if you already have a few version of the mold.

Paint applications are very similar to the ‘84 figure here, but done in style of all of the 2000‘s Joes with a smaller, more intricate Cobra symbol, and peachy-skin. The skin tone really drives me nuts here, particularly because this would be such a good alternative to the ‘84 figure were it not for this. It’s also kind of weird for a Japanese guy to be such a peachy-reddish tone, as I don’t know of any Asians that would tan this color.

His parts are okay. The excellent kit from the original Storm Shadow, which was kept with the ‘97 release, is unfortunately gone here and replaced by a new-sculpt sword and scabbard. It works as something different, but I think these parts pale in comparison to the original selection. The softly sculpted details on the scabbard/backpack look especially out of place, which was a common problem when Hasbro paired new accessories with old sculpts.

Overall, he’s not the best comic-pack era figure, but he’s certainly decent and is made better for being a solid alternative to ‘84 Storm Shadow. 16 (almost 17) years since his release, the figures are holding up pretty well (unlike contemporaries such as Scrap-Iron), which is nice, seeing as how I can play with this figure without the fear of damaging an overpriced original. Nowadays, I see sporadic auctions for this figure that go for well more than $20, but there’s no consistent pattern to the pricing, and examples sold carded or in lots are often going for less than ones sold by themselves. I chalk that up to nooby tomfoolery, and I don’t think anyone should pay more than $10 for this figure.

2005 Storm Shadow Links:

Half the Battle

Joe a Day