2016 TBM Cobra Trooper (Tiger Force)

The Black Major got famous for making figures everyone wanted and never got from Hasbro, like environment specific Troopers. Over time though, that got stale, and he eventually branched out into more oddball designs like Techno-Viper colors, Eco-Warriors, CAT and probably the most odd of them all: Tiger Force. Technically, it’s just a Cobra Trooper in Tiger Force-like colors, and I think they were sometimes branded “Bengal Troopers”, but the colors are a closer match to vintage Tiger Force hues than most of the Python Patrol figures he made.

When they came out, these were kind of the duds of the lot, though I remember this entire wave of Troopers sat around for a while. They were not my first picks either, as Cobras in Tiger Force colors were just a little bit of a challenge to accept. Yet, they sat around and were only selling for a few bucks a piece, so eventually I wound up with a full squad of 5 or 6 of them. Those accidental army-builds always wind up having me question my own tastes, as the stuff I’d normally never consider building a squad of often winds up appealing to me once it finally happens (I had a similar experience with the Frag Viper).

It takes time coming around to them, but the truth is I think these have some overlooked appeal. The first part of that appeal is that the colors are striking and look good; the yellow is the perfect orange-tinged tone similar to Tiger Force Frostbite’s. The second, is that they really aren’t Tiger Force, just tiger colored. There’s no subteam or GI Joe markings on them, just a lonely Cobra symbol on the chest like any other trooper. The colors aren’t even that bad of a match for typical Cobra, since the HEAT Viper, Secto Viper and Desert Scorpion are similar tones. So these actually go along fairly well with a selection of figures from roughly ‘89 through ‘90. Or you can repurpose Wreckage as Firefly and use them as a squad of fake Tiger Force infiltrators.

Other than that, it’s the 2016 TBM Trooper mold and it’s more or less the same thing as other variants I’ve reviewed in the past. The toes turn inwards slightly and the head is slightly thinner than a Hasbro figure, but otherwise the quality is good. The joints are tight, it’s compatible with normal backpacks, and the plastic has a nice, semi-gloss sheen to it like a Hasbro figure. Newer “factory customs” have moved to more of a dull finish I don’t like quite as much.

Of the four or so runs of TBM Troopers that have happened now, the 2016 lot was by far my favorite. All of the figures, even something as odd as this one, just seemed to be the perfect compliment to something else in my collection. That’s not to say the others weren’t good, but a lot of the Trooper recolors at this point come off as non sequitur, which doesn’t really suit the character so well. Cobra blue is classic because the original thrived on homogeneity, kinda like Storm Troopers establishing white as the Imperial color in Star Wars.

The Tiger theme was kept for subsequent runs of TBM castings (Snow Serpents, Eels, Night Vipers), and even another run of Cobra Troopers at some point, though a lot of details changed and shifted. Most notably the hue of yellow was different on the later ones compared to this one, which is a shame since the shades of yellow and brown were so perfect on this release. The later Tiger Troops do have more detailed paint masks and more colors on them, and also loose the annoying inward toe, so there’s some give and take.

Pricing old TBM figures is tough, because not so many of these were made, so they will only become more rare overtime. Despite, they aren’t official figures, and the market for them is also similarly small. So, sometimes an old TBM figure will still go in the single digit range, and sometimes they’ll hit upwards of $20 to $50. This figure shouldn’t be worth a lot, but at the moment I have no reference besides some BiNs for around $25. Contemporaries from the same run go cheap at auction though, so it seems fair the say this guy’s value is still around $12.