1989 Tiger Sting

Posted on June 27, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Tiger Sting

Tiger Force vehicles! The Tiger Force vehicle colors are cool and iconic, I love them. I think at one point this used to be a cool alternative opinion that made you different from the crowd, but now everyone loves everything that’s been lathered in bright colors and reminds them of the good times prior to the turn of the century… Which means I can’t be cool just for liking toy jeeps and aircraft in tiger colors anymore.

The Tiger Sting is a repaint of the VAMP Mark II, just in the colorful Tiger Force team colors. I find it interesting that it’s a repaint of the VAMP and not the Cobra Stinger, seeing as how Tiger Force and Python Patrol did a lot of faction swapping; the “Sting” in the name would also make more sense as a Stinger repaint. Maybe there was a miscommunication at the factory? Either way, it’s the requisite repaint of what is probably GI Joe’s most iconic and popular vehicle, so it does the job regardless of what the thinking was behind it.

Speaking of the parts it uses, the domestic release on the Tiger Sting uses a mixture of ‘82 VAMP and VAMP Mark II parts, namely, it uses the upper hull of the original VAMP that doesn’t feature a lot of sculpted details. Later in the UK and a few other European countries, it was released using the upper hull of the VAMP Mark II, with the little shovel and tarp on the hood. I assume the smooth body was used to help the tiger-face decals adhere, so the different parts might negatively impact that.

For me this one’s another childhood item that came from my brother’s collection, not something that I ever picked out for myself. Part of the reason I think GI Joe vehicles really went down in quality towards the end of the line, comes from the fact that most of the vehicles I liked as a kid were repaints of older 80‘s items like the Tiger Sting. The childhood armory featured mostly vehicles released between ‘90 and ‘94. For the most part, my focus was put on the Tiger Sting, the Lynx and the Sky Sharc, whereas I don’t remember ever having much fascination with the Badger, just as one example. A lot of the older vehicles seemed more compact and easy to play with, compared to monstrosities like the Attack Cruiser.

I don’t find the Tiger Force vehicle colors to be all that unrealistic, at least not by GI Joe’s standards of fluorescent grenades, android soldiers and whatever the HISS Driver is supposed to be. During the Korean War, there was a kinda famous M46 Patton painted up with a big goofy tiger face in the front, and at least half of the tank was bright yellow. I remember seeing the thing a long time ago, but now I can’t find anything decent documenting it, at least at a glance. Realism aside, I like the colors because they look nice. The Tiger Force color-scheme is distinct and stands out immediately. With the Tiger Sting here, I really love the way that it’s colors contrast so much against green tones you see around your yard or parks in the Summer, it’s really nice in photos.

Complete Tiger Stings can run around $80, but any small defect can bring that price down to around $50 to $40. Finding one with all of the missiles, the steering wheel, gas cans and no damage to the doors can be some work. I take the liberty of assuming they didn’t make as many of these as they did VAMPs and VAMP Mark II’s, so that probably also affects the pricing. Personally, I think this one’s worth the premium, as it does feel like one of the only Tiger Force vehicles you really need.

1997 Destro

Posted on June 20, 2023 by mwnekoman

1997 Destro

At one point in life, I had two Destro toys I found superior to most others: ‘92 Destro and ‘97 Destro. With these, I didn’t feel like I needed any other o-ring Destros, until I changed my mind and decided ‘83 was the best. For the most part, I still like the ‘83 figure more, but the V3 sculpt has it’s charms, and the ‘97 repaint is a great representation of it.

I often forget that this figure is the retail-release version of the infamous Pimp Daddy Destro. It’s funny really, that that figure gets so much press, either just for it’s sheer absurdity or for the fact that it’s rare, while this one remains an obscurity like virtually every other repaint from the ‘97 – ‘98 line. That’s a gimmicky part of collecting I’ve never seen the appeal of, but then again, I’m glad that not everyone likes everything as much as I do, or GI Joes would be more expensive than they already are.

Destro V3, which this figure is a repaint of, features a very bulky sculpt. At a glance it looks quite a lot like Destro’s original design, but it’s fairly different in a few ways. He’s picked up some shoulder-pads, some bulky shin-guards, some leggings more reminiscent of the Iron Grenadiers figure. Still, most of the important details like his little medallion remain the same (well, it’s a different necklace now, but it’s there), which is interesting given that not so many ARAH redesigns kept much from figure to figure.

I quit liking ‘92 Destro quite as much once I realized how poorly his proportions match up with anything. His tiny head in particular tends to bother me, though the massive muscle-guy-90‘s shoulders limit him a bit too. At one point this bothered me an awful lot, but I realize that most of these issues just seem more apparent because of the transition in sculpting styles. Next to ‘84 Cobra Commander, he looks silly and rather out of place; next to ‘94 Major Bludd, he looks pretty decent. It’s a very exaggerated looking figure, but he has a home among his contemporaries.

Of course, this post is about the ‘97 repaint. He came in the “Cobra Command Team” set with Baroness and a blue battle-armor Cobra Commander. As the story goes, originally him and Cobra Commander were going to be the V1 molds, but like with so many others from this point, the molds were gone. From what I can see of the prototype, the V1 Destro repaint they were planning was a lot more boring than this one, so I guess I’m glad it never happened in that way.

This is a nice set of colors for Destro and the V3 mold with it’s added details does really well with it. The heavy use of burgundy with black, red and silver for details is eye-catching, and also a fairly inventive new color-scheme that manages to look appropriate for the character while also seeming totally new. For an added bonus, they chromed his head, which I think makes him look a lot more interesting overall than if it were just silver paint.

Like ‘92 Destro, he comes with a big, bulky pistol, a disk-launcher (with three disks) and a stand. Some of those disk-launchers are black, some are pink. As a kid I really liked his pistol, just for the way it looked. As far as looks go, it is fairly decent, but it’s hard to ignore how badly scaled it is when considering the fact that it’s a handgun. Of course, I can’t place what kind of gun it is exactly, and while I think it’s probably an original design, some of those 90‘s Joe guns were based on some very obscure firearms, so maybe it’s better than I think. The disk launcher is alright for a missile launcher, it’s fairly fun since it’s a stationary item. Oddly there’s no spring in this one, I think that’s universal on this release, but I’ve never been sure since no one says much about it.

Most of the ‘97 Destro’s I see loose are missing the launcher, which I’d guess is because most of the adults that bought these probably tossed that aside while contemplating the real and present danger of the Y2K bug. Without it, you can get a nice example for around $7, which is nice. Carded Cobra Command Team sets seem like they’re coming down in price, so with a little waiting you might get one of those for around $35.

1997 Destro Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

1993 Law

Posted on June 13, 2023 by mwnekoman

1993 Law

As it turns out, government propaganda isn’t a popular thing. Doubling a toy’s price to include a missile launcher with a light was also not such a popular thing. Because of this, the DEF line wound up getting canceled, and all of it’s 1993 releases incorporated into the Battle Corps. I tend to find that all of these ‘93 DEF guys are odd, but most of them are good none the less, which is the case with Law.

Law is a figure I’ve not paid attention to for the longest time. When I started collecting, I did not have much tolerance for figures in the colors you often found from ‘93. The drastic redesign on this figure was off putting, and it was even more so when I had Sonic Fighters Law to compare him to. Even back then I had a lot of interest in the DEF and Headhunters, but Law was too much to ever really consider. At some point a few years ago though, neon became a fascination of mine, so this Law has some new life in my eyes. He’s especially helped by the fact that I ignored him for so long that now he feels kind of new.

The new design is a drastic change from his ‘87 look, but if you pay attention he actually looks really good. If he were in dark and drab colors this figure really wouldn’t be too far off from the geardo/dark and gritty esthetic that’s been popular since the 2010‘s. He’s wearing a mask with chemical filters on it, which I imagine protects him from both friendly usage of teargas and also exposure to drugs and other chemicals, since some might get aerosolized during a fight. It’s a really cool detail, although I have to admit the idea doesn’t really translate well onto the figure’s sculpt, compared to his card-art (similar to DEF Shockwave and his helmet). He’s fully decked out in body-armor too, which is unique looking and makes for a pretty cool figure, Law might be able to survive a few blasts from a Headhunter’s shotgun.

I think where this figure really falls flat is the coloring. Bright-blue, light-gray and neon-yellow make for a figure with colors that are both bright and not too compelling. If there was ever a year of figures that was neon, it was 1993; despite that, many of his contemporaries had color schemes I felt were a tad more interesting. The Night Creeper Leader with his tiger pants is a fine example. Roadblock, Gung-Ho and a few others also make really good use of colors that contrast better with the neon. Law here mostly features colors at a similarly bright shade, which just makes him look more boring than he should.

You may have noticed that Law’s dog, Order, is no longer present. This was a veiled commentary on America’s decent into becoming a police state, as now you have Law but no Order… Just kidding. Law includes ‘91 Sci-fi’s gun, ‘91 Grunt’s gun, ‘92 Roadblock’s knife, missiles, stand, and a shield for his missile launcher, all in bright yellow plastic. The shield that fits over his missile-launcher was a pretty cool little gimmick. His guns are pretty terrible choices and he doesn’t look swell with either of them. At the very least the Roadblock knife was a cool inclusion seeing as to how it’s a nice and also seldom seen sculpt.

V3 Law’s are still purty cheap, with complete figures weighing in at around $12 and carded figures only going up to $20. Finding carded figures is still pretty easy, since he’s from the point where speculators began hording figures knowing that one day random 90’s GI Joes would make them rich. He’s not a must-have figure for any reason, but if you have a fascination with imagining inner city America as a war-zone brimming with neon-clad commandos, which I do, then he’s pretty cool to have around.

1993 Law Links:

2005 Zarana

Posted on June 5, 2023 by mwnekoman

2005 Zarana

I didn’t plan on writing about a Zarana figure again anytime soon, after all, I just wrote about ‘86 Zarana not all that long ago, and that post still reflects my feelings really well, both on the character and her sculpt. This Zarana however, is a comic-pack figure, and those are melting so fast, I wanted to take at least of few extra photos of mine while she still looks okay.

V1 Zarana has always been relatively cheap and common, and this figure’s updated head sculpt arguably looks worse than the original’s. Relative to your other options, I don’t mind it very much, but it doesn’t look great. In the 3-pack, the main appeal was Cobra Commander and Zartan, while Zarana was just kind of a toss-in. Still, this wasn’t a terrible comic-pack, in fact, it was a pretty good one overall. Besides the ugly head, Zarana’s main flaw is just that she wasn’t really as needed as a new Zartan and Battle Armor Cobra Commander. Despite that, this sculpt still seems a lot more fresh than most of what they put out with the comic-packs.

Overall, the colors are a lot more desaturated and toned-down compared to early comic-packs. Zarana’s pink shirt and bluejeans look really dull now, but that’s not horrible, just different. Bright colors seem more suited to Zarana since she’s really a terrorist punk, but not a commando, so dulling her down is mildly counterintuitive. The duller colors used on these Dreadnoks would’ve translated better onto some of the prior comic-pack releases such as the First 13 guys, but like with many lines of GI Joe toys, Hasbro learned about a year too late.

Fortunately for me my figure seems to be aging well, though I know for others she’s discoloring badly. I recently audited my comic-pack figures and found myself to be lucky that not so many of my figures are discoloring or developing torso-cracks. Of course, it’s probably just a matter of time before she turns; my Thrasher looked okay until maybe just a year or two ago, but now he’s quickly joined the ranks of Scrap Iron and the JvC Alley Vipers.

Something I do find to hate about this Zarana though, is her loose grip in her right hand. She’s packaged holding her cutter by it’s stock, so virtually every copy of this figure has a really loose grip on her right hand. I tried fixing it a little with hot water, but that’s fiddly and it didn’t improve much after my first attempt. I find myself endlessly irritated that the figure was negatively impacted by packaging I immediately threw away.

She comes with both of ‘86 Zarana’s parts, a backpack and her cutter, so that’s really nice. Both parts are also rendered in nice black plastic, which I like a lot. Not because black is the best color, but because Zarana has a fairly nice and seldom seen backpack. In red, it doesn’t look swell with too many other figures, but this black one could go well with quite a few. Also, it’s nice they brought her cutter back, but it still sucks and I never use it.

A mint complete ‘05 Zarana seems to run around $20. Sealed in her 3-pack, you can get one around $60. Back when the whole set barely ran $15, there really wasn’t a lot to lose, but for that much money these figures are a waste of time. Looking around, I don’t see too many Zarana’s discoloring badly, but they have the possibility of doing so at any time. She was okay as a pack-in, especially if you normally didn’t feel inclined to bother with a V1 Zarana and her crappy glued torso. For $20, there’s a lot of better figures you could get, especially ones that aren’t made of sus plastic.

2005 Zarana Links:

Forgotten Figures

Joe A Day

Half the Battle

The Viper Pit

Monthly Archives: June 2023

1989 Tiger Sting

1989 Tiger Sting

1997 Destro

1997 Destro

1997 Destro Links:

1993 Law

1993 Law

1993 Law Links:

2005 Zarana

2005 Zarana

2005 Zarana Links: