1987 Cobra Maggot

Posted on July 31, 2023 by mwnekoman

1987 Cobra Maggot

Although it gets somewhat away from any sort of real-world vehicle, a popular gimmick of the late 80‘s was vehicles that split into smaller items and battle stations. Within the sci-fantasy world of GI Joe, it works incredibly well and made for some classic vehicles, which includes the Mean Dog, the BUGG and the Maggot, among others. All of those toys represent vehicles that could never really exist, but are still very good just for the high amounts of play value they provide to a collection.

I really like artillery items. To me, these have been my favorite GI Joe vehicles since I was a kid, as it acts as a simple objective for either side to be fighting around. I don’t know if this was inspired by video games I used to play, or if I just have a better memory of a few game stages that lined up well with my imaginations, but either way, a vehicle like the Maggot was really all I would need for a play session. Of course I didn’t own a Maggot until I was 16, but that doesn’t matter.

The Maggot splits into three smaller items, which grants you an immobile turret, a front-cab, and a command station. Without the turret, the other two components don’t do a whole lot in a action-oriented sense, but it still provides some fun opportunities. Flipping out the legs and setting up the turret is fun, but the main point is that it reveals the computer station underneath. This is a well detailed and fun little compartment to stick a figure, and it adds a lot of play value to the Maggot as a whole.

With the turret on it’s own, one issue that arises it that it no longer has the ability to aim left or right. For that reason, I much prefer the look and function of the Maggot with all of it’s components together rather than them being separated. While I’m focused on the turret/main gun, something I find frustrating is that mine no longer holds up very well. The gun barrel is given tension by a clip in it’s socket, that I assume has warped just enough over time to no longer hold the gun up on it’s own. Frustrating, but it’s 36 years old, so what can you say.

The front cab is fun too. The idea of it just rolling off on it’s own seems a little funny to me, but I guess it could be used just for towing extra turrets, so one cab could move two guns from location to location. This part of the vehicle has two guns, and the removable engine cover (Under the cover, you can also see the main gun’s loading system, which is neat.). I wish the driver could be hidden a little better inside the vehicle, but it’s alright as is.

I think a strong appeal of the Maggot is the way it looks kind of similar to a WWII German self-propelled gun. The shape of the turret especially reminds me of parts of the Hummel and a little of the Nashorn, mainly for the open-topped design they went with. It does a lot to make the vehicle seem more realistic and grounded, which I think strengthens it’s appeal as something that’s both fun and reasonable looking (rather than something like the Mamba, which is fun, but definitely not reasonable looking).

You can get a complete Maggot for around $30 on a good day, and prices right now aren’t much worse than what I remember from over a decade ago. There’s a radar dish that goes on the front cab’s rear gun, which is usually missing, though it’s not something that seems to carry a ton of value either. There’s enough demand for it that reproductions exist, which of course is another option if you feel like going that route. Regardless, the Maggot is a fun toy that doesn’t cost a lot of money, which probably means it’s still underappreciated.

1987 Cobra Maggot Links:

Forgotten Figure

3D Joes

2002 Alley Viper (Version 5)

Posted on July 24, 2023 by mwnekoman

2002 Alley Viper (Version 5)

At one point in time, this Alley Viper was one of my absolute favorite Cobras. If I ever had to trim my collection down to a hand full of figures (never gonna happen), this would be a Cobra I’d never want to get rid of. And then they fell victim to the yellowing so many 2000‘s Joes have become prone to, effectively robbing me of one of my favorite figures. To this day, I’ve still not really figured out what to do with them.

I wasn’t collecting in 2002, so I don’t have any thoughts or memories about this figure in regards to when he was released. I got mine sometime around ‘11 if I recall; I was stuck at home and was playing around with a hookey survey site to earn more toy money. They gave you more money in the form of Amazon gift cards, which wasn’t bad since a lot of 2000‘s items like this still saturated Amazon back then, often for reasonable prices. My circumstances were odd, and it was a really bad time, so now I find myself very sentimental to these as one of the few things I got genuinely excited for from back then.

The colors are really fantastic on this release. For some, they definitely might be too bland, but for me, this was a nice scheme that combines a shade of blue (not Cobra blue, but it still works) with urban camouflage. The camo is created from grey and white marbled plastic with the black spots painted on, so it’s not only complex, but also slightly unique from figure to figure. At a time, I really couldn’t stand the fluorescent colors of the ‘93 Alley Viper, so having a version of the sculpt rendered in nice, muted colors was all I really wanted. The grey matched up decently with the Cobra Night Watch troopers too, so that was something.

Now however, all of those grays and whites have turned unfortunate shades of yellow. I do nothing with these figures now as I’ve been unable to decide whether I should repaint them to match their original look, or just live with them as they are until they crumble. Having figures I do not use seems like a real waste, but painting them would make them feel like customs. Interestingly, the red repaint of this guy shows no signs of discoloring, which makes that one not only a better alternative, but also sheds some light on how inconsistently these figures are degrading.

Also, I suppose it’s worth noting that this figure features all of the mold changes made from the ‘97 release. So now he features the obnoxious neck-tab for making him a fake swivel-neck. Likewise, the legs were swapped out for V1 Duke’s, since the original sculpt was lost. There’s about a decade between when Duke’s legs were sculpted and when the upper body of this Alley Viper was sculpted, so to say they don’t quite match up might be an understatement. I don’t think it looks bad though, as Duke’s skinnier legs don’t throw off the proportions too badly.

Besides the mask, the only original Alley Viper V2 accessory to show back up with this guy is his shield. On one hand, that’s all he really needs, but the Tomax/Xamot gun really doesn’t work here at all. The Big Bear backpack looks pretty decent, it’s generic compared to the classic Alley Viper backpack, but it’s still a decent piece of gear that does it’s job. There’s also a little figure stand in there too, which never hurts.

Seemingly regardless of the yellowing, this Alley Viper will still fetch a solid $10 to $15 when otherwise mint and complete. Gotta admit, the yellowing really kills this figure for me, and I find paying that much for a grungy, niche repaint a little perplexing. I guess some people just don’t really care so much about discoloration any more, which is reasonable, given that it’s almost inevitable for figures like this one.

2002 Alley Viper (Version 5) Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

Joe A Day

1993 Outback (Version 4)

Posted on July 17, 2023 by mwnekoman

1993 Outback

V1 Outback is one of my favorite GI Joe figures. He looks cool, he has great accessories, a great character, and in general, fits the part of the kind of moive-like action hero who can sometimes fight big battles all on his own, if your imagination works that way. All of that together makes for a character we should see more often than we do, but his fourth (kinda third) toy from Battle Corps left a lot to be desired.

So originally Outback V3 would’ve been apart of the Eco Warriors, but that sub line was canceled similar to DEF, and it’s releases were moved over to the Battle Corps lineup of ‘93. The colors on this release are extremely bright, which is fairly similar to the tones you typically saw from Eco Warriors. The figure was then promptly repainted into some new colors more similar to the Battle Corps toys, and that’s where you wind up with version 4.

This Outback has a curious look to him, to say the least. For some reason he’s wearing a hardhat now, which makes him look more like a random lumberjack or construction worker. His shirt and pants are also much more on the plain end, and he doesn’t seem to be wearing anything that would protect him from the dangerous chemicals the Eco Warriors would typically encounter. To make him even better, he’s primarily green and khaki, with bright blue and orange details all over, in addition to some little bits of gold and black. I really can’t think of a figure that had more random colors than this one.

Gotta be honest, I find almost nothing redeeming or fun about this figure. A lot of the ‘93 redesigns were on the controversial end, like with Dr. Mindbender or Law, but those toys at least have some interesting visual elements going on with them. This Outback however, just looks really boring. The design is bland and doesn’t really seem to serve a clear purpose. Even the infamous Fishn’ Trip Bazooka from that year looks a lot more appealing than this figure does. In decent colors this mold might be salvageable, but there’s not much potential that was wasted here.

For accessories you get a tree of bright red parts, featuring Hit&Run’s carbine, Big Ben’s LMG, Ambush’s EM2 rifle, two missiles and a figure stand (as well as a blue missile launcher). It’s weird how almost every other Joe included some kind of knife or machete, but the survivalist just comes with random guns. At the very least, they are good guns, so if you’re another individual who’s developed a fondness for bright parts, you could probably find some uses for them. They don’t really make this Outback a good toy though.

Almost every Battle Corps Outback you will find is MOSC. Carded, he’s worth about $14, and loose he’s worth about $9. It’s really funny how heavily certain ‘93 and ‘94 Joes were hoarded by speculators who expected to get rich off of these; the fact that almost every example of this Outback that you find is carded makes me wonder how many kids ever even played with this guy.

1993 Outback Links:

2004 Viper (Python Patrol), Valor VS. Venom

Posted on July 11, 2023 by mwnekoman

2004 Viper (Python Patrol), Valor VS. Venom

Filler week! I have some good memories of Valor vs. Venom, but not so many that it’s really worth talking about the VvV Viper sculpt again after I already wrote about the red one, and this guy’s pack-mate, the Tele-Viper (Python Patrol) on another occasion. Yet, here I am, because I ran out of time this week, and I have a couple of old photos of this guy anyways.

I completely ignored GI Joe in 2004. Spy Troops garnered my interest for a bit thanks to it’s fun designs and cool gimmicks, but this was lost with Valor vs. Venom. I had a lot of toys I wanted that year, between getting every last Gundam product I could find at retail and trying to save some out from Transformers Energon, GI Joe didn’t have much of a chance, especially for toys I considered a somewhat pitiful showing. The Valor vs. Venom story line of DNA altered Cobras, plus many of the goofy characters like Coil Crusher and Venomous Maximus, drove me away primarily, but the drab and often boring Joes did nothing to help.

Years later though, I was thirsty for anything GI Joe I could get, and most of the ‘03 through ‘06 figures started to look more appealing, especially once people started dumping off their collections for change. Many of the aforementioned elements of VvV still didn’t appeal to me, but browsing YoJoe! for some hours revealed a number of toys I felt would be more at home in my collection. It also helped that the then current 25th Anniversary Viper was a pretty lackluster figure, so this older sculpt gained a stronger appeal for having normal wrists, and the ability to sit properly.

This Viper is a fun toy, and a good representation of the sculpt. For a guy wearing a helmet, his head is a little small, but the proportions are much more solid overall than what you typically see on releases from this era. He can’t get super-authentic tacti-cool real-military poses, but the feel of the figure is pretty similar to a classic o-ring from ARAH. Right now, I’d love it if they could just go back to selling figures like this at retail, as while GI Joe has put out some great collectibles since ‘08 or so, the New-Sculpt construction was the last time GI Joe was a good toy.

Like many New-Sculpt figures, this guy seems to suffer badly from the cracking-chest phenomena. All of mine have a small crack at the neck now, which I know is common to figures from this era. So far though, a lot of my Comic-Pack guys are still perfectly fine, and many of my other new-sculpts are fine too, so if I had to guess I’d say these are a little worse than average. Between figures commonly yellowing and the neck-cracks showing up, it’s really not fun to collect these any more, which is sad.

For accessories, you get possibly the three most generic parts that were in-use between 2003 to ‘06, that being an AK-47 (with bayonet), a G36 rifle, and a knife. What’s funny about these parts is that they were used so much, I can barely guess which figure first included them, but honestly, with so many uses, they were probably never intended as someone’s special gun to begin with. Why does a Viper include two rifles? An SMG or an explosive-launcher of some type would have been nicer than two guns that fill the same role.

No one does auctions anymore, so finding a few of these guys at a price they’re worth isn’t too easy. Still, even the dealers that only list BiN’s rarely bother asking for more than $8 for one of these guys. You’ll find them in lots and with the Python Tele-Viper often enough for around $20, too. There’s a lot I miss about figures like this one, but sadly it’s really not something worth paying that much money for. Mainly, that’s because there’s a good chance this figure will continue to age poorly and degrade, which they’ve proven to be doing at a much faster rate than the 80‘s figures that are twice their age.

2004 Viper (Version 13) Links:

Half the Battle

GeneralsJoes

1986 Beach Head

Posted on July 4, 2023 by mwnekoman

1986 Beachhead

Masked commandos always make for some of the coolest characters. Of course, I’ve seen some people that very much think otherwise, but there’s no doubt that the cool look plays a role in Beachhead’s popularity. And Firefly’s. And Shockwave’s too. Before I knew too much about the character, I was mainly attracted to him just for the fact that he’s a reasonable looking commando with a balaclava.

Beachhead has a really fine sculpt and design. He’s detailed, his gear has an interesting look, and he even has extra clips on his chest that match his SMG. The only real wart is his head: it’s massive, which is unfortunately consistent with most of the ‘86 line. The massive noggins from that year stick out so much to me that I do suspect it was intentional, but I wonder what the thinking was. I feel like these sculpts tend to age more poorly than other vintage sculpts, just because the proportions are so odd by comparison.

He’s got some nice colors and paint work on him too. This dark cyan tone wasn’t seen so much in the vintage line, which does make Beachhead stand out a lot. There’s a nice little patch tampographed onto his left-shoulder, some gray paint for his clips, even a little splash of red for the beret (?) sculpted onto his shoulder. I never really knew what the red thing on his shoulder is, but I kind of think it’s a hat. Oddly, it’s not present on his card-art, so I guess it was a late addition to the design.

V1 Beachhead also has another problem I really hate: his crotch. This figure has one of the thinnest, daintiest waist pieces in the entire line, and you will find plenty of broken ones because of that. This is the main reason that I default to the Funskool figure anytime I need a Beachhead for something, as the softer plastic is much more resistant to breakage. Although the 2000‘s brought plenty of Beachhead repaints, it’s a shame we didn’t get this sculpt in comic colors or something close to the olive used on the 25th figure, as personally I still want a normal looking Beachhead that doesn’t scare me as much as the V1 figure.

The included accessories for Beachhead are his SMG in dark-gray plastic, a backpack in black, and a flexible black satchel. If he had just been another guy with a gun and a backpack like Leatherneck, it’d have been a bit boring, but the little ammo-pouch does a lot to make Beachhead seem like he comes with more. His SMG is a classic part, it’s a Demro XF-7 Wasp. He looks great holding it and it’s really easy for virtually any figure to use it, too. It is a very odd choice of weapon for a Joe, as the Wasp wasn’t ever adopted by any military or law-enforcement, but it looks really cool, and that’s probably why the designers chose it too.

I’d say a mint, complete Beachhead is worth about $25, but sometime $35, especially for one with the filecard. He’s a popular figure that’s prone to damage in a few ways, so often times you’ll see examples sell for way more than that, but he’s not really worth more then $35 at any point. With that said, finding a mint Beachhead really is more of a pain in the ass than it usually is for a common figure; you can scroll through a bunch of listings and find most will have some kind of egregious flaw. I think he’s worth it, but if you don’t care too much, the Funskool and Night-Force versions make good replacements.