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About mwnekoman

Blogger, toy collector, balding, lactose intolerant. I think that's an excellent description of myself.

2005 Serpentor

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2005 Serpentor

The 2000‘s comic packs did a lot more wrong than they did right, but that was not always the case, such as with the #49 set. The reason this set’s so nice, is because you got arguably the best o-ring Firefly, and excellent update to Serpentor, and a hastily degrading Scrap-Iron who’s easy enough to sit aside.

I’m sort of ambivalent to Serpentor as a character. He’s unnecessary as a concept, and as I feel GI Joe relies so heavily on Cobra Commander as a central character in the plot, it’s a bad idea to try and replace him. Regardless, both the cartoon and the comics tried pretty hard to make the character appealing, so I have some interest in him for that. The Arise Serpentor, Arise mini-series was one of the more fun Sunbow storylines, likewise, I associate him a lot with the Cobra Civil War from the comics, which was another highlight. Put another way, the character is corny and irritating, but also a decent plot device you can associate with some of GI Joe’s better stories.

Unlike many of his comic portrayals, this Serpentor comes in bright shades of green and yellow, with yellow paint making up a lot of his details. Like with many comic-pack figures, he features a new head with a scowling face. I dislike how small it is, but it looks alright with his helmet on. The head can be put aside, and it leaves you with a fun, brightly colored repaint. The end result is a figure that retains the overall look of Serpentor while still providing something new and interesting, which is exactly what this figure needed to be.

For me and likely others too, one of the biggest appeals of this figure is that it’s one of the few Serpentor figures that’s decently easy to get and keep in good shape. The original ‘86 Serpentor has the infamous gold-plastic-syndrome plastic, which means the figure is overly fragile and virtually a ticking time-bomb, especially now that most of them are about 35-years old. The only other release of the character before the ME stuff was the ‘02 ARAHC repaint, which is virtually an unreleased figure. And then there’s this one, which was available for years with unsold overstock of these sets, available at or below retail price. Essentially, this one wins by default.

On that note, it’s sort of weird there isn’t more Serpentor toys. Even after the shift to 25th Anniversary style construction, there was two haphazard attempts at the character, before he was to be put away once again. He’s iconic enough that you’d think he’d be around a little more often, but alas, such is not the case. Joe fans rarely even seem to complain about his absence, which mildly gives me the impression there’s still more disdain for this character than there is fondness.

2005 serpentor gi joe parts comic pack marvel

As for his parts, you get about everything you could hope for. Included is his cowl/backpack, a removable helmet, his tiny little knife, and a nice yellow cape. Something extra to make him a bit more interesting would’ve been nice, but I guess you get that in the form of the helmet. He’s really a figure where all of his parts are unique to him and can’t be switched with anything else, lest you worsen the figure’s look. With that in mind, it’s nice he’s one of the few vintage sculpts to retain most of his original parts.

For the longest time, this whole set Serpentor was included in was cheap and common. I got mine sealed, years after the fact from Amazon for something like $10, which was probably stock from when they managed online sales for TRU. Right now, anything can for random and absurd prices, but generally this set’s never been worth more than $30, sealed. With the current state of both Joe prices and inflation, that’s still a pretty good price for what you get.

2005 serpentor gi joe parts comic pack marvel2005 serpentor gi joe parts comic pack marvel 2005 serpentor gi joe parts comic pack marvel 2005 serpentor gi joe parts comic pack marvel

2005 Serpentor Links:

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2010 Flint (Vacation in the Shadows)

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2010 Flint (Vacation in the Shadows)

The 2010 Joecon set was an amusing and rather depressing event, which essentially only happened because The Club rick-rolled everyone with a very bad 2009 convention set. To make up for it, they pieced together one last o-ring convention set, before essentially making up some story about how all of the classic molds were destroyed, so don’t ask for them anymore. Given how crappy to Modern-styled sets were after this, I don’t think anything of value was lost by them ditching the o-rings, especially when you look at how phoned-in this convention set was. Still, there’s some things I like about it, including this weird Flint.

As the story goes, Hasbro would sometimes make requests for the convention set, and with this one, they wanted more high-profile characters featured in the set. Because of that, you ended up with a random Flint and Interrogator in a Action Force themed set. At the time (and maybe to this day) the random Flint wasn’t very popular, probably because the design has no particular inspiration as far as I know. Still, I kind of like it for that oddness, and also holding a spot as one of the last official o-ring figures we’ve gotten to date.

He’s mostly made from the body of ‘93 Duke, with the head from ‘85 Flint. Given that this Duke had almost no repaints, it was nice to see the sculpt make a return with a little more painted detail. The Flint head is one of the best vintage sculpts, so it looks good with the newer Duke body. All in all, the recipe makes for a decently satisfying repaint.

His colors are kind of… odd. Overall it’s a reasonable looking military uniform, but it doesn’t match with almost anything made before it. I appreciate this in a way, because it does mean the figure is relatively unique and stands out where you chose to show him. The flip-side of this appeal however, is that it means he really doesn’t fit in much with anything already in your collection. I don’t mind that too much though, as Joes (unlike Cobras) aren’t hurt too badly by a relative lack of cohesion.

His parts are lackluster, and seemed to just be a toss-in. Included was a forest-green backpack from ‘91 Dusty, and gray versions of ‘87 Outback’s gun, and the shotgun from one of the later 25th Anniversary Flints. The Dusty backpack was long over exposed from continual reuses during the 2000‘s, and the guns do little to excite. It’s kind of incredible how often we saw the Outback gun at this point, especially since it wasn’t a very good part to begin with.

For a while, you could get surplus Flint figures from China, sans parts. These were likely defects of some sort, but it was nice for meaning you could get a recent convention figure at a relatively cheap price (it’s what I did). Had it not been for that, I’d have probably never bothered with what otherwise comes across as a mundane repaint at convention pricing. I really miss those weird listings for cheap surplus figures.

Last time one of these Flint’s showed up on eBay, it was a NIB example and sold for $78. Sort of pointless to bring that up, as I feel this figure is obviously not worth that much, and that auction was likely just another example of the on-going market bubble. Figures like this one are getting harder to find though, and later Joecon sets were (supposedly) made in fewer numbers than earlier ones. Regardless, this figure is a novelty in all regards, and I have a difficult time understanding the satisfaction anyone would derive for paying prices like that for a figure like this.

cobra officer comic pack 2004

2010 Flint Links:

Generals Joes

2021 Red Shadow Agent X (TBM Cobra Officer)

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2021 Red Shadow Agent X (TBM Cobra Officer)

For one of his 2021 projects, The Black Major took a different route from his more typical repaints of popular army builders, and instead made sets of new army builders, from a more original recipe dubbed Agent X. Each figure came in four variations, with the main changes being the head, torso and accessories. Essentially, there’s two versions of Snake Eyes, a Firefly and then then a Cobra Officer.

It’s a different approach even if I think most of the figures that resulted from this aren’t too interesting. For me, the main draw to this series of figures are the Cobra Officers, while I honestly have enough Firefly and Snake Eyes repaints not to bother too much with those. With that said, a few of the color schemes are strong enough to warrant the extra variations, likewise, they do nice to supplement collections of odd groups like the Red Shadows. With that said, I think he missed a big opportunity by not doing SAS Force from this mold.

The part choices are fairly interesting too. In the case of the Cobra Officer, he’s made from the ‘83 Officer’s head and torso, ‘83 Snake Eyes arms and legs, and the waist from ‘86 Roadblock. Gotta admit, I’m not a big fan of either the Snake Eyes legs or the Roadblock waist, especially not when paired together. At the same time, they don’t look horrible, and I appreciate having the figure changed up in small ways that make me not feel so insane for buying copious amounts of the same toy in different colors.

This Red Shadow Officer is really well done and looks much more on point than some of the early Red Shadow customs. The red color is bright and a good match for the tones you saw on Palitoy’s releases. It doesn’t take too many creative liberties and mostly stays in line with the paint masks for the other Agent X figures, which in this case seems like a good thing.

The accessories are actually what inspired me to stock up on a few variations of this figure, although that might sound odd to some. Included is an M4 (Marauders Gun Runners sculpt), a 25th Snake Eyes knife, and ‘87 Chuckles’s pistol. I really liked getting the extra Chuckles pistols! That’s a really nice part and it’s not the easiest to get a few of, let alone in large amounts. The other parts work and are okay. I really enjoy collecting odd colored bootlegged ARAH parts from TBM, so it bums me out a little when he does MGR accessories. The 25th SE knife is a weird choice too, but it has a thin handle, which means it’s useful to old-sculpts at the very least.

The quality of this release seems alright, and about middle of the road as far as factory customs go. The joints seem okay, most of mine are pretty tight. Paint applications are tight and look very good consistently. Out of a little more than a dozen, I’ve yet to acquire any with any weird casting defects or anything like that.

At the moment, you can get these for about $15 retail, but he knocks off a few dollars when you buy a few at a time. I’m really curious to see how these will change in value over time. On the one hand, they’re fairly odd figures and I’m not sure how popular this set’s been compared to past releases. Then again, he’s also making a lot fewer figures than he used to, and Cobra Officers are popular. Personally, I speculate this figure will be more demanded later on, while the oddball SE’s and Firefly’s will probably languish a tad more, especially given that people might feel fine only acquiring one each of those.

gi joe bootleg black major officer red shadowgi joe bootleg black major officer red shadow

1990 Topside

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1990 Topside

Topside always struck me as one of the most generic figures in my collection, even as a kid. That’s not bad, in it’s own right, but the lack of distinctive characters was a change you saw GI Joe experience in the 90‘s compared to the 80‘s. He’s not a bad figure for being plain, but it’s hard to think he shares the same general release period with figures like Captain Gridiron. In fact, if it weren’t for the sharpness of his sculpted details, I might have mistaken him for a Corps! figure in the past.

The sculpt is fairly okay on him. The figure’s overall design is rather plain, which in some ways is a nice change of pace from the typically more busy 90‘s styles. His sweatpants with the drawstring hanging out has always irritated me, although his plastic is the exact same color as ‘86 Roadblock, so it can be switched for a small upgrade. The sculpt looks fine enough overall, but I feel he looks a little lacking compared to any version of Cutter.

Topside’s deco is mostly good, with the exception of his head. One of his most irritating features is his yellow eyes, which are the same color as his hair. It doesn’t stand out very well, and makes his face look kind of undefined. He has some text across his vest, which nicely adds some visual interest to the figure, but like with Outback, it’s fragile, and tends to be worn a lot of the time.

1990 Topside gi joe hasbro vintage action figure cobra ARAH

I was sure before I wrote this I knew where his helmet was…

Topside’s accessories are an area where the figure really shines. He comes with an SMG, a helmet, and a missile-launcher backpack, that doubles as a free standing launcher, with three removable missiles. It’s a nice and simple selection of gear, and the backpack works well without looking too silly. The SMG (MP5K? Not sure.) is a nice sculpt he can easily hold with both hands, and it’s interesting for being mostly unique to this figure.

You can get a mostly complete Topside for around $15 with some regularity. I say mostly, because almost every Topside you’ll find is at least missing the third missile. Besides that, the NAVY text is prone to wear, and he discolors fairly often as well, so you might hunt for awhile before you find a nice one. At modern prices though, that’s not too much to pay for a relatively nice 90‘s figure.

1990 Topside gi joe hasbro vintage action figure cobra ARAH1990 Topside Links:

Forgotten Figures

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3D Joes

1997 Baroness

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1997 Baroness

The Baroness is one of the best characters in the GI Joe franchise. If I could only have one female GI Joe character, it would be the Baroness, without hesitation (most other female GI Joes irritate me in some way). With that in mind, there’s been some good toys of the character, and more really bad toys. None compare as well to their contemporaries as the original sculpt, and in this case, it’s very strong repaint from the 1997 line.

The ‘84 Baroness sculpt is a good one. The biggest detractor to most female GI Joes, is that their toys are butt-ugly. The only exceptions to this were Baroness and Lady Jaye. Generally speaking, the sculpt and in particular the head both look very nice and serviceably feminine. I think the introduction of the two-part head piece, with her hair being a separate, glued on sculpt, improved the look and sharpness considerably over prior figures like Cover Girl and Scarlet.

This ‘97 repaint is also among the better Baroness recolors, and is probably the only blue one worth having. It looks pretty close to how she appeared in both DIC and a few other places, which makes the blue look pretty reasonable for Baroness. I also really like the Cobra symbol on her chest, which is unusually detailed. The only thing I don’t really like about the colors here, is that her skin-tone is very pale and sick looking.

Like all of the 1997 releases, the quality is the biggest detractor to this release. She has oversized rivets, which can cause the shoulders to crack apart. I would comment that the plastic also has a suspect feel to it, but 24 years later and these figures don’t seem to be breaking badly besides at the shoulders. Another irritating feature of the rivets is that they’re unpainted, which is very uncommon on Hasbro figures.

The entire Cobra Command set came with some pretty lackluster part options, and Baroness is no exception. All she has is her classic riffle and a figure stand, while the backpack from the ‘84 figure is MIA. It’s pretty strange too, considering that the old backpack shows up again with ARAHC’s Chameleon, but it’s probably just another indicator of the hectic production of the ‘97 line.

And now it’s time for the part of the post where I tell you about how stupidly expensive obscure and niche figures have become. Except, to my surprise, this Baroness still isn’t all that expensive. A lot of chumps will try to pass this figure off for $40+, which is absurd, and certainly not warranted for this toy. Auctions tend to only fetch between $10 and $15 however, which is a far more fair price. Usually you can save a few dollars if the figure is bundled with the Cobra Commander and Destro from their set, which is a decent option to consider given that both of those figures are solid repaints.

cobra trooper the baroness marvel gi joe hasbro vintage 1997cobra trooper the baroness marvel gi joe hasbro vintage 1997

1997 Baroness Links:

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TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco

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TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco

The Black Major’s run of Cobra De Aco figures are probably among some of his least popular releases, next to the Night Stalkers he made. In the case of Cobra De Aco, many of the colors he chose, along with the quality of the release was fantastic, but the figure was made from straight-arm tooling, hence the limited interest from the collecting community.

I have mixed opinions on the choice personally. On the one hand, I think it’s very nice to own a reproduction of the authentic Cobra De Aco in colors and tooling that’s as close to the genuine article as possible. I’ve gotta admit though, the figure’s usefulness is a lot more limited because of the straight-arm tooling, and the choice certainly dashed collector interest.

There’s two white-colored Cobra De Aco’s that were made: One that’s a stark white and matches TBM’s arctic Cobras, and this one that’s more of an off-white color. The off-white plastic strikes me as being a tad more interesting, and I even think it looks like something Hasbro would use (it’s very similar to the tone of the ’89 Track Viper).

Another feature of these Cobra De Aco figures I really appreciated was the alternate heads they included. There’s a gasmask head from the comic-pack Cobra Officer, a Chrome Snake Eyes head, and the third option, Flash’s head with a brown, South-American skin tone. It’s a neat inclusion that seems like it could have a lot of life away from this figure, though I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone make good use of it.

The quality of this release was almost impeccable. The joints, paint, and construction is all a step above the typical fare of a “factory custom”. I think I didn’t get a single figure with issues from the entire run, and I ended up with a pretty big collection of these since they were so cheap and plentiful for the longest time.

The Cobra De Aco’s include Flash’s original gun and backpack, though sadly it also presents the only real quality issue with the figure. Almost all of TBM’s Cobra De Aco’s came with guns that weren’t really flexible enough to be used without the cord breaking. Some of mine also seem to suffer from flaking paint, which is a little weird. It’s a small thing to look over, though it does mean that most of the De Aco’s lack decent weapons.

gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra

These Cobra De Aco’s are old and tracking down a specific color scheme can be tricky. Collector interest hasn’t picked up that much for them though, and after enough hunting you can get about any version you want for around $20. That’s a lot more than I paid for most of my De Aco’s, and I’m not sure I’d pay that much for them now, but it’s not too much if you only want a few.

gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra

TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco Links

Reproduction Cobra De Aco at Forgotten Figures

Photo by Cyko_9

Photo by 00zxcvb

1987 Cobra Commander (Battle Armor)

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1987 Cobra Commander

In some ways, Cobra Commander is the main character of GI Joe, as a story line. The GI Joe team, which consists of a revolving cast of individuals, was created to counter Cobra, and capture Cobra Commander. Thus, without Cobra Commander, GI Joe has no plot. Of course, this is a somewhat limiting view on the brand, but little to say it underscores the importance of the character.

Of course, that’s also probably why attempts to replace Cobra Commander are so often poorly received. In short order, you had Serpentor and Golobulus who both effectively replaced the character. Then, in 1987, you had this new Cobra Commander, who was actually Fred VII in the comics, or in other words, another replacement for Cobra Commander. How many leaders did Cobra need? If nothing else, it was a little too much, too fast.

This figure looks really good, and I think that’s partly because the sci-fi themes of the armor fit with Cobra Commander’s megalomaniac character. The armor looks elite, while at the same time showing a more combat oriented look. The angry expression sculpted onto his eyes is also a really nice touch on the sculpt, it makes him look far more hostile than the soft eyes on the ‘84 figure.

The colors are really nice on this figure, and I really like that they kept all of V1 Cobra Commander’s colors. The excessive amount of silver really makes the figure look more regal and sci-fi at the same time. The only downside is that he’s sort of fragile, given that most of the figure is made from notoriously delicate silver paint, while the rest is still made of sky-blue plastic, that’s very prone to discoloration.

Included for accessories are his backpack, pistol and unique hose for his helmet. The backpack and gun are pretty neat, though nothing particularly special. His backpack is really only useful to this one figure and doesn’t have much life outside of that, but the scoped pistol looks pretty good with a wider variety of figures. The hose, however, is something that really draws some ire out of me. What purpose does it serve to make this a separate piece? It’s one of those pieces that’s like it’s only there to get lost, and he looks wrong without it.

There were some okay repaints of this figure. After the first release, it went to Brazil and then India, where the figure was released in colors similar to Hasbro’s. In ‘97 we got a blue and gold repaint of the mold, which was interesting, at the very least. The mold came back in similar colors to it’s first usage, but far more drab in ‘02. Then it was used for the Imperial Guard from the Imperial Procession set in ‘05. Lastly, it showed up again in ‘05 as a part of a comic-pack, retooled with a new Fred head and removable helmet. My dream repaint of this figure would be one in green armor as Serpentor, or some bodyguards for him, but that’s just my taste.

Mint, complete ‘87 Cobra Commanders are not hard to get, and if you look around, you can easily acquire one for $12 to $15. Every now and then, you’ll see eBay idiots push the price up towards $30, but the figure is still easy enough to acquire for half of that. Keep an eye out on his gun when looking for one though, as a lot of listings swap the original gun for the silver Accessory Pack version, and the 2002 Snow Serpent’s gun as well (which is a perfect match for the plastic used on the backpack).

gi joe fred Vii vintage figure hasbro gi joe fred Vii vintage figure hasbro

1987 Cobra Commander Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

3D Joes

 

1993 Dinohunters Dinosaur

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1993 Dino-Hunters Tyrannosaurus Rex

I’ve wanted to do a joke for April Fools for several years now, but I’m not really keen on derailing my blog with irrelevant content from figure profiles. The best way I’ve concluded to do a joke without derailing the blog, is to profile something fairly absurd that fits with the theme here, and I don’t know of anything more comical and off-color than this plastic dinosaur. This tyrannosaurus is an odd piece, in that it feels like an accessory, but to whom? It barely counts as a figure on it’s own, but you can’t say it really belongs to anything besides the set collectively.

gi joe 1993 dino hunters dinosaur

The 1993 Dino-Hunters set was a curious item. In the late years of ARAH, Hasbro began experimenting with packaging a multitude of older sculpts and vehicles into themed sets as store-exclusives. Only this one saw release, but a second set was planned for ‘95, which would have featured the Mudbuster and Locust with an arctic theme. This was a pretty good format, as it afforded some fun and curious repaints of toys that had been off store shelves for several years.

The truth about this piece, is that it’s a fairly terrible toy. I get that this was supposed to be a budget friendly gift set, but this is probably one of the lamest toy dinosaurs I’ve ever handled. The sculpt is weak and wimpy looking, while the paint applications also look rather lousy. It’s posed in this really silly way that makes it look like it’s having a heart-attack. It feels similar to the simple sculpts you’d see on the small animals like Timber or Max, but upscaled a ton. To someone unfamiliar, you’d never guess such a shabby dinosaur was a GI Joe toy.

What’s a Dino-Hunters tyrannosaurus worth? I hate to say it, but I have almost no clue. It seems like almost everything from the set trends towards $100+, and given that you almost never see a loose set or dinosaur for sale, I’d figure well more than $100, at the very least. Boxed Dino-Hunter sets pop up more often and sell for at least more than $600. Given that, if you’re in the market for one of these and feel compelled to own the complete set, it’s probably cheaper to pay $600 to $700 on a sealed set than buy anything here, especially the dinosaur individually. As for me? I can only photograph one of these because it’s from my brother’s childhood collection. If not for that, I wouldn’t pay those kinds of prices for what anything in this set provides, let alone this goofy tyrannosaurus.

1986 Zarana

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1986 Zarana

As a sub-group, the Dreadnoks started off very hot in ‘84 with Zartan, and subsequently in ‘85 with Buzzer, Ripper and Torch. After that, however, the Dreadnoks quickly became decidedly more mediocre, with ‘86 introducing Monkey Wrench, Thrasher, and Zartan’s twin siblings, Zandar and Zarana.

For the purpose they serve, I like the Dreadnoks. They’re fun figures that are unique and individualistic. Even the more generic or uninspired members add something to the line, in the way that they’re somewhere between being an army-builder and an actual character, kinda like Cantina goons in Star Wars. It gives Cobra some individual characters that are unique, but also unimportant enough to be disposable and believably subdued with relative ease.

Unlike the more generic Dreadnoks, however, Zarana has a much more defined character, and I have’t always liked it. In Sunbow, they gave her a really cringey romantic plot with Mainframe, which always irritated me a bit. A lot of the times in the cartoons, and also a bit in the comics, I felt she wound up just being an expy for the Baroness. In general, I felt as though the character’s portrayal was always either irritating or just phoned-in.

The figure itself is kind of fun. Having a female to hang around with the Dreadnoks is a tad interesting. The sculpt is overall very detailed and has enough paint to highlight most of that as well, which makes her a fairly fun figure. Like her siblings, Zarana also has a color changing gimmick, though eventually I don’t think there will be any more of these that work. For awhile, you could restore the gimmick by boiling the figure, but this only works some of the time.

gi joe zarana zartan dreadnoks v1 1986 hasbro action figure

Fresh after being boiled. I’m pretty sure it quit working again after this though.

Of course, there’ also the well-known big-head and earrings variant of Zarana. As I recall, early Zarana figures had the earrings head, while the later ones have the smaller head. Some people think the earring variant looks better, and I do think the detail is slightly better, but the derpy expression and gigantic size kills it for me.

I hate Zarana’s parts. She includes a red backpack and a saw-gun-thing. The backpack is rather forgettable, but her cutter weapon seems strange and a little contrived. A normal gun or pistol like Zartan’s would’ve been a lot nicer. I never bothered getting V1 Zarana’s parts, as the similar ones from the comic-pack figure were enough for me.

Zarana’s seem like they’re getting hit pretty hard by the newbie collectors. Pricing at the moment is very inconsistent on them and the earring-variant is going for around $50, while the other version (pictured here) is going for around $15. It’s funny to see people shelling out so much for the “rare” variant, when there’s clearly an ample supply of them being traded around. I like Zarana, but I’d probably not own one if I had to pay these prices.

gi joe zarana zartan dreadnoks v1 1986 hasbro action figure gi joe zarana zartan dreadnoks v1 1986 hasbro action figure

1986 Zarana Links:

Forgotten Figures

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Half the Battle

1986 Sci-Fi

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1986 Sci-Fi

Although it’s probably the last ubiquitously popular year of ARAH, 1986 has it’s fair share of mostly unpopular figures. To name a few, there’s Cross Country, Zandar, and arguably Serpentor (a lot of people love him, but a lot of people also really hate him). Sci-Fi is another character you rarely see that much love for. Largely, I suspect this is because he’s a neon-green replacement for Flash, though you could also say it’s because he’s a little ho-hum, overall.

V1 Sci-Fi was a figure I mostly acquired on a whim, at a point when I had most of the other ‘86 figures and thought that finishing the year seemed like an interesting prospect (unfortunately, I never made good on that goal). At the time, I really didn’t feel like I needed this figure since I had the ‘91 version, and felt it was good enough. It’s a weird juxtaposition, when you have an 80‘s figure that’s colored in stereotypical 90‘s neon, and a 90‘s figure that’s colored more plainly with some bright-yellow for added flare, Regardless, I was surprised in a few ways when I got him how much I liked this one.

The overall design is pretty nice on this version. It’s very over-the-top looking, but it’s also pretty detailed and interesting. His chest armor and helmet really stand out to me, he kind of looks like Robo-cop, which is cool and makes me want to pose him more often with a pistol. I think the worst part of the figure is his metallic boots, which don’t look very detailed and just come across as too fantastic looking. Still, it’s a nice design and I think he has more going on than Flash, although I like that figure too.

I don’t think too many people really care to hate on neon colors anymore. Some people prefer realism, but that’s a moot point on a figure that represents a futuristic laser-trooper. Still, V1 Sci-fi is probably one of the saddest molds to not get a repaint. Even imagining this figure in one of Hasbro’s hokey 2000‘s color-schemes, like the TRU Nightforce colors, makes me imagine something that could’ve really brought out the potential in the sculpt here.

A problem that’s fairly common to ‘86 figures you can see here, is his relatively large head-sculpt. Since he has a sculpted-on helmet and visor, it goes a long way to disguise it, but his head is kind of bulbous still. I really don’t know why Hasbro went from proportions that were so good on ‘85 figures to this trend of gigantic heads, but it’s something that makes ‘86 guys kind of alienate themselves in my collection. Thankfully it’s not very bad on Sci-fi though.

The parts are really enjoyable, and I’d go as far as to say they’re an upgrade over Flash’s weapon. Sci-fi comes with a bulky black laser rifle, a backpack, and a hose for connecting them. It’s a simple kit, but the usage of rubber hoses provides Sci-fi with a weapon that’s far less cumbersome than Flash’s gun. It’s also pretty neat that it can be stored on his backpack, though I don’t tend to find that it fits all that well, at least on mine.

Sci-fi’s are cheap and easy to get, and with that being the case right now, probably means you can expect it to stay that way forever. Complete figures seem to fetch about $6, which is about as cheap as 80’s figures get. Sci-fi embodies a lot of what early GI Joe fans hated about the line, and he doesn’t have the novelty/nostalgia value that 90‘s figures have acquired, so I suppose there just aren’t too many people who see anything interesting in him.

1986 Sci-Fi Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

3D Joes