1992 Toxo-Zombie
It’s hard for me to think that the Toxo-Zombie is a figure that’s alluded me for over twenty years. Part of that, is that I have some negative sentiments towards zombies as a concept. The other part of that, was the bitterness associated with watching an once cheap figure become a more expensive one and stay that way after the zombie-mania of the 2010’s. Well, I sucked it up, bit my lip and bought one, so here’s two or three requisite photos and roughly 700-hundred words about him.
In general, horror stuff doesn’t really fascinate me much. My favorite horror film is probably The Thing, which I’ve not seen since I was small, and I’ve never been inclined to watch any horror films besides the ones I had to sit through as a kid that my dad would turn on. Oddly, I’ve been more keen on horror-themed toys through the past few years, but I don’t think that reflects much of a change in my interest as opposed to a continued trend. A couple spooky GI Joes isn’t really horror, in the same way that something like The Predator isn’t really a horror film, so much as an action film.
Further on that note, I’ve been especially cold to zombies for most of my life. They always have struck me as a cruel otherism that desensitizes viewers towards violence against a perceived mob. There’s no curing a zombie; no quarantining, no solution besides simply slaughtering them. Zombies are dehumanized, there’s no harm in killing them, which should be done swiftly. I do not agree with bleeding-hearts that blame media for real-world social ills, but with the amount of times I see people toss around “insert-nouns are zombies” in everyday life, I wonder if the popularity of zombies have made people less empathetic.
Regardless, notions like that are really just me being a killjoy, as zombies and zombie toys like the Toxo-Zombie are quite fun when taken as base-level entertainment. Really, this one always stuck in my mind as a bold release from Hasbro at the time. A GI Joe toy that represents what amounts to a rotten, half-dead corpse covered in chemical burns was certainly an interesting choice in the early 90’s.
While the sculpt is based on the earlier 1991 Toxo-Viper, every piece has been altered to show damage on the Toxo-Zombie. The armor is cracked all over, he’s missing a boot, missing a finger on one hand, his exposed face is damaged and ghoulish looking. If I’m not mistaken, the only part that might be unaltered between the two is the Toxo-Zombie’s biceps. The continuity between the two is really appealing, though, I’m not completely sure what the thought was behind the colors. The Toxo-Zombie has the same palette as the aforementioned Toxo-Viper, just way brighter. I’ve never been sure if it was meant to look bleached, or if Hasbro was less keen on the idea of releasing two toys in identical colors just a year apart. The card art shows him in the original ’91 Toxo-Viper colors, interestingly.
Now for accessories, all you get is the Toxo-Viper’s squirt cannon in lime-green. To me, it’s a bit baffling and just seems cheap to not include anything else. One could assume that being a zombie, he didn’t need a gun; yet he includes a squirt cannon that he holds in the card art? Another example of the Toxo-Viper/Sludge Viper gun and backpack just in pink would’ve been fine, but Hasbro seemed to be really cutting corners on the 1992 Eco Warriors.
At one time people hated this toy, thought it was dumb and would hardly pay more than a few bucks for it. Then, around the time The Walking Dead got popular this guy got real expensive, and suddenly it became a popular figure. Now, he floats between $20 and $40, the later more often for a fully complete example with his filecard and squirter, the former for one without either or both of those things. I like this figure a lot, and it’s a GI Joe I can pull out for a giggle at Halloween, but other than that, there’s not really a whole lot he does. His appeal is straightforward, so you either like him or you don’t.
