1993 Dr Mindbender

Posted on February 15, 2022 by mwnekoman

1993 Dr Mindbender

Dr Mindbender amounts to Cobra’s resident mad scientist, and is one of the original crazy Cobra’s before 1987 came along and saturated the line with rejected Spider-man villains. For most of my life, I’ve preferred villains who were drab, boring and mostly devoid of personality, like Scrap Iron, but Mindbender’s different. I’ve always loved the character, and he’s been a central figure among my Cobras almost as much as Destro and Cobra Commander.

For a long time, this was my only Dr Mindbender. I say “mine” but it was another figure that was really my brother’s, I was just allowed to look at it any time I wanted, since as a kid and an adult, I never break stuff. A nice thing about Mindbender, is that he’s a distinct looking character who fills a somewhat obvious role, so even without access to his file card, it was easy to know who he was and what he did. I think there was a big focus on him too, since Cobra robots and Cobra’s monster Blanka, were a major focus of my childhood battles.

As was the trend in 1993, half of Mindbender is reused from an older figure, in this case, the ‘86 Viper. They released this mold in Brazil a few years later, where it was lost, hence why you never again got a whole Viper repaint. Putting that bit of trivia aside, it blends in alright, and the upper half of the figure’s sculpting looks fantastic. One thing I’ve never liked about V1 Dr Mindbender, is that the figure has one of those stereotypical oversized heads from his year, compared to this one, which is cool, tightly sculpted, and proportionate. Besides being slathered in nonsense-tech crap, it’s also nice that the figure looks pretty normal, and doesn’t have grenades popping out of every orifice of his body.

His colors are hideously bright, though I’ve never really minded that, even if I’ve been sensitive to it at times. In fact, I’d go as far to say these colors look pretty good, mixing that dark purple with a vibrant yellow. A few details are black, which balances things out, and the recycled Viper legs do well to tie him back to an existing Cobra uniform. The only thing that’s almost too ugly is the excessive use of yellow on his chest. You lose a lot of the sculpt’s detail in all of that.

His parts! His parts are so awful and wonderful at the same time. It’s an odd runner that as far as I know, was only shared with Lobotomaxx. Included is Dee-Jay’s gun, Voltar’s gun, ‘91 Sci-fi’s gun, ‘89 Snake Eye’s gun, an Iron Grenadier pistol, and the Hydro Viper’s knife, besides the obligatory launcher, missile and figure-stand that this blog usually doesn’t acknowledge. Six normal weapons is actually a bit extra compared to most figures from the time. Obviously, these parts aren’t very good, but I find them to be a guilty pleasure. As a kid, I generally equipped most figures with Voltar guns, though generally, most of these parts wound up getting used by a wide variety of figures. The knife especially became Armor Tech Destro’s trademark weapon, the lightning knife, which he could charge with high-voltage electricity from his fist. Also, I just like giving him Dee-Jay’s awful gun because I’m low-key tasteless.

1993 Dr Mindbender’s are very cheap, running around $9 for a fully complete figure with file card. It’s not too surprising when 1986 Mindbender’s are pretty cheap as well, though it’s still odd given the popularity of the character. If you like 90‘s neon, this is a fun version with a good sculpt. He has most of the problem’s you’ll find with any ‘93 or ‘94 figure, but he’s also the only alternative Mindbender figure, and he’s nice for that reason alone.

1993 Dr Mindbender Links:

2011 Canceled Jurassic Park Mercenary GI Joe

Posted on February 8, 2022 by mwnekoman

2011 Canceled Jurassic Park Mercenary GI Joe

Little secret: I actually still like 25th Anniversary style sculpts. Not more than vintage, but many of the post-’09 sculpts are nice enough, and fun to pose and fiddle around with. You don’t see them here very often though, because A: Most of those toys aren’t very interesting and B: None of my readers really want to see them all that badly. Still, I think it’s worth documenting an interesting unreleased toy, and a toy that represents another example of Hasbro using GI Joe molds to represent whatever other brand.

Sometime a little after 2010, an ample supply of mysterious, canceled Jurassic Park figures made from recent GI Joe sculpts showed up on eBay. As I recall it, it wasn’t even known for a while that some of these figures were intended for a Jurassic Park line. Most of the toys intended for this line used tooling from the GI Joe Resolute figures, with the only notable exception being a guy with Zanzibar’s head, and some soldiers using Firefly’s head. Vehicles were to be sold with these figures, which included the umpteenth AWE Striker repaints, and a newly sculpted helicopter and hummer. A handful of newly sculpted dinosaurs would’ve also accompanied these figures.

Just before Hasbro lost the Jurassic Park license, some version of this line was seemingly salvaged, with two 2013 releases, although, those were a little different than the 2011 canceled figures that appeared earlier. And notably missing was this odd tattooed guy with a Duke head. For a long time you could get these cheap, just like with the Elite Ice Viper and the old stories about various other midnight-run figures from the 2000‘s. There’s never really been a name put to this figure, as far as I know, but he’s generally identified as a mercenary, so I’ll just be referring to him as Mercenary beyond this point, for the sake on convenience.

I thought the GI Joe Resolute toys were pretty nice overall, and seemed to mark the point at which the Anniversary-era moved towards sculpts that were at least mostly functional. Sadly though, the figures were plagued with some Spy-Troops tier bad proportions, typically huge heads and tiny baby-feet. Mercenary here is made from Resolute Duke’s huge head on Resolute Roadblock’s body, which oddly enough, balances out. Pretty much everything else here is just Resolute Roadblock, including the vest and his accessories.

It’s a fairly nice looking toy, with unique colors and some highly detailed tattoos over his face and arm. He’s able to pose decently with a wide range of motion in his joints, and he’s balanced nicely too, which was a rarity for figures from this period. Truth be told, I like how he looks a bit better than either of the figures he’s made from, although that’s not to say those were bad. The only real gripe I can find is that Duke’s head is kind of ugly, but it’s an otherwise fine figure.

His accessories are… not great. He comes with most of the parts seen with Resolute Roadblock which includes a vest, LMG, ammo belt, rocket(?) and a pickax. Frankly, these are some really bizarre parts. I’m not sure how he’s supposed to use the rocket. The pick axe has a massive backpack-peg on it, and it’s sort of blunt, making it look more like a hoe. The LMG is his only nice part, and it’s dumb too. It has these square-holes in the bottom of it, almost like it’s missing something (Roadblock’s is the same, so it’s not because this is a prerelease figure.). You can thread his ammo belt all the way through the gun… Which gives it unfired rounds on both sides of the feed. At the very least he can pose decently with it, but it’s a pretty nonsensical gun.

Want to know something incredible? This figure isn’t worth all that much… Someone scored one on eBay a while back for a shocking $5, and most offers trend around $40. For a toy that’s eleven years old and was never actually released at retail, that’s surprising, especially when figures that exist in countless amounts, like Funskool Tripwire, can run an easy $100. I think it says something interesting about the on-going collecting bubble, when a figure like this really has no value, but toys that were common just a few years back are holding huge premiums (low-information buyers).

2011 Canceled Jurassic Park Mercenary Links:

Jurassic Wiki

JP Toys

2000 Rip It

Posted on February 1, 2022 by mwnekoman

2000 Rip It

A lot of people take issue with the original HISS Driver, mainly for being the very first obnoxiously colored Cobra. I like that figure, and think it’s red color is there for a reason; so that way he’s especially noticeable inside his tank. Rip It, is a more standard colored Cobra, and I like him too, even if I like the standard Hiss Driver better.

As a kid, I missed out on most of the ARAHC line. I had interest, but I was also interested in a lot of other things too, and a trip to TRU was something that only happened a few times per year for me. When I did go, the only figures they had were the Chameleon and Cobra Commander set, and vehicles were pretty much off limits, so the HISS III, was never really an option for me. At the same time, I don’t recall ever seeing one, so it ended up being an oddity I never discovered until I was a teenager.

There’s a contrived new character that Rip It, is meant to represent. Someone at Hasbro clearly thought that it was more marketable to turn army-builders into unique entities, as we saw this several times during the 2000‘s. A tank commander for Cobra really isn’t a bad idea, but not one like Rip It. His bio is horribly dumb, and having him look just like a normal HISS Driver, seems like something an old video game would do, when they didn’t have the budget to make a new sprite for a boss character.

But any Cobra-loving GI Joe collector can see Rip It for what he is, and that’s a solid repaint of the HISS Driver. Were it not for this release, and his subsequent (and incredibly expensive) convention repaint, there would be no other HISS Drivers to collect. You can buy the HISS tank in almost any color imaginable, but the HISS Driver was rarely recolored, and that’s a glaring omission on Hasbro’s part. There was going to be another HISS Driver, but it was cancelled, and after that the only other recolor was the torso for one of the ugly TRU Infantry Division figures.

It’s a solid looking color scheme they used for Rip It. He’s mostly a desaturated blue, with black details (boots, chest-pad) and some red bits too (face mask, cobra symbol, gauntlets). I like it, and despite the colors having a dull tone, he looks more visually interesting than the V1 HISS Driver. Despite being a bit different looking, his blue is close enough to Cobra blue that I think he looks great with V1 Cobra Troopers. It’s an all around solid repaint, and something I’m glad happened.

I have a solitary complaint with this figure, that really doesn’t undermine any of it’s appeals, but I’ll say it anyway: He doesn’t contrast with his tank. The bright red of the V1 HISS Driver, is meant to compliment the tank, hence the clear canopy that allows you to see it all of the time. It makes the driver noticeable, and adds more red to the look of the V1 HISS, making it look consistent with other early vehicles, like the FANG, Stinger and the STUN. Rip It, does not stand out in a V1 HISS, and he especially doesn’t stand out in his similarly blue HISS III. It’s not really a big deal, but in my view, the original was red for a reason.

Rip It’s were apart of a number of desirable figures you could get cheaply from China there for a while, from around 2009 to 2012. The paint apps on these always seemed a little more suspect than retail examples, which makes me think they might have been old factory rejects that were just laying around for years. Most of the time, they were indistinguishable, so it was a nice way to army build him there for a while.

Like a lot of toys mostly owned by collectors in the 2000‘s, Rip It’s are a lot harder to find now. They tend to run around $30, and examples sold with the HISS III go for about the same amount, or sometimes a few dollars more. I don’t think that price will hold, but sadly, it’s apparent that 22 years later, Rip It’s are a lot harder to find, and are no longer a cheap alternative to the ‘83 figure. It’s a nice enough figure to be worth a premium, but honestly, $30 is simply too much, especially when Hasbro will probably just reissue him with a HISS again, now that o-rings are back in fashion.

2000 Rip It Links:

Forgotten Figures

Joe A Day

Half the Battle

2004 Crimson Guard

Posted on January 25, 2022 by mwnekoman

2004 Crimson Guard

There’s a lot of bad you can say now about 2000‘s GI Joe toys. Namely, the sculpts are weird, the plastics are degrading, and many other design choices were flawed, to put it lightly. Still, there was something highly appealing about having GI Joe figures at easy access, and even a wonky figure like the 2004 Crimson Guard was pretty cool, if only for being a Crimson Guard that was cheap and kind of easy to get.

Something that’s characterized my collecting habits over the years, is that I’ve never had a lot of money to spend on figures. Mind you, this is partly because I never really “grew out” of toys, in the way that most teens do, so much of my early years collecting vintage was done with jobless teenager money. This relates to my view on a lot of 2000‘s GI Joes, where figures like this Crimson Guard had long gone out of fashion with mainstream collectors, and provided a nice, cheap alternative to the pricey ‘85 figure. One of the nice things about the GI Joe fandom being dominated by flavor-of-the-week trend chasers, is that you can get some fun toys cheaply once they’re not cool anymore, as long as you’re a little open.

It goes without saying that this version pales in comparison to the 1985 Crimson Guard, though, it’s still fun in it’s own right. The removable helmet gimmick is poorly done, and features two main issues: the head cannot look left or right and the helmet is awkwardly large. The former issue is hard to forgive, but the later isn’t so bad, as they look fine around a lot of ‘86 Cobras who had similarly huge noggins. The head sculpt is also quite nice, and I’m tempted to call it one of the best 2000‘s heads.

Another huge issue with this figure, is the usage of ‘92 Duke biceps, with ‘92 Shockwave lower arms. It looks completely out of place, and limits the figure’s articulation by a solid amount. What’s even more frustrating, is the amount of alternatives that might’ve been preferable to these overly thick arms. Call me crazy, but I’d go as far as to say ‘83 Gung-Ho arms would’ve been nicer than what they went with. Painted-on gloves might be weird, but the toy would be more functional, and it wouldn’t have been as bad as painted-on sleeves like most Duke’s of the time had.

There’s basically three releases of this figure from around the same time, which you’ll see get used interchangeably in the photos on this post. The first is Agent Faces, who has an orange sigil and a Duke head; the 2004 Crimson Sabotage release, which features a different marking on the arm, and the new head; followed by the focus of this profile, the 2004 release in the TRU Crimson Guard Force set. For the most part, the releases all look the same, with the exception of this figure’s gold Cobra sigil.

For parts, you got a generic 2000‘s customized M4, a ‘91 Dusty backpack, and a helmet. Pretty scant, and a terrible stand-in for the fantastic parts from the original figure. I suppose the Dusty backpack makes them look a little more combat oriented, but it doesn’t suit them well at all. Pretty sure the M4 was just a lazy toss-in too, but if you wanted to give them the benefit of a doubt, maybe it was a reference to how the original Crimson Guard’s gun reused a portion of the sculpt from Airborne’s gun, which was also an M4? It’s lame either way.

Sadly, the days of easily buying these for small amounts of change seems to have long come and gone. They’re still only worth around $13, but you don’t see them so often, not priced like that anyways. Used to, you could easily get this figure for $5, maybe $8 at most, and they were very common. At a higher price though, I feel their flaws are too pronounced compared to a V1 Crimson Guard or a Black Major one.

2004 Crimson Guard Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

Funskool Captain Gridiron

Posted on January 18, 2022 by mwnekoman

Funskool Captain Gridiron

Paraphrasing something RTG told me once, even a bad GI Joe figure, it still a good action figure regardless. I think that’s true, and I also think it applies pretty strongly to Captain Gridiron. I actually find it strange that Captain Gridiron isn’t more maligned by the GI Joe community, as while I’ve seen countless jokes pointed at Ice Cream Soldier or ‘85 Bazooka’s shirt, Gridiron probably doesn’t get the grief he deserves. I don’t outright hate him, but he’s incredibly hard to take seriously.

The 1990 GI Joe line-up was pretty fantastic, you had great figures like Topside or Rampart. And silly sports-centric figures, aren’t new to GI Joe either, even with oddballs I’ve liked in the past, like Hardball. Then you’ve got Captain Gridiron, who’s just… inherently silly. I think ever since I was a kid, I’ve been very sensitive to characters that felt like they’re making fun of my intelligence (whether that’s intentional or perceived) and Captain Gridiron has always made me feel that way, maybe more than any other GI Joe figure. It’s difficult to describe what makes me feel this way, but it’s a lifelong viewpoint I’ve had, and it’s shaped my distaste for certain brands; I like my toys to take themselves seriously.

There’s a few factors that differentiate Captain Gridiron from other silly GI Joe figures. The main aspect I see, is that other figures like Hardball, are more earnest in their approach to being a soldier toy with a sports theme, compared to Gridiron, who’s completely over-the-top and is more so rubbing your nose in it. Comparing him to another silly figure, Raptor, I can at least take Raptor a little bit seriously, because that figure is earnest in it’s approach to being a villain, even if the animal motif requires some suspension of disbelief. Gridiron on the other hand, is fundamentally a neon football player with football themed weapons and gear, which is something I have trouble looking past.

Putting all of that aside, he’s an okay figure quality wise, and something that’s extra strange when you own the Funskool version like I do. I got this figure sometime just before prices started to skyrocket on Funskool Joes, and I think the only reason I got him was that I had enough of a notion that prices were going up, that I knew there would be no way I’d bother with him again at a later date.

He’s got the sculpting quality you’d expect from a GI Joe toy, and the sports theme doesn’t do much to get in the way of that. There’s enough detail here like the ribbing on his sleeves or the zippers on his vest that it provides an amount of redemption for an otherwise questionable character. Overall though, I’m tempted to say he looks kind of boring, and the hard-points for his football-grenades really takes away from the look of his leg sculpt. Can’t say I’m sad he never got a repaint besides this one.

The Hasbro release actually had some decent colors, featuring two shades of green and yellow that overlaps with a few contemporaries like Scoop. Funskool turned the colors up to eleven though, giving him more yellow and making his pants orange, notably. There’s also a few other odd differences, like his hair being black now or his vest being a much darker green, gray details were replaced with silver. Among Funskool figures, this one’s more on the unique end.

I hate his parts. Captain Gridiron comes with a rifle, four missiles, two football grenades, two clip-on arm pads, backpack and a helmet with visor. This Funskool version comes with all of the same gear as Hasbro’s, save for the pistol and an extra football, but in different colors. It’s actually a solid upgrade, since now his rifle is made of black plastic, while the missiles are a contrasting orange color. The clear visor on his helmet is a nice touch, but I hate how the helmet looks, and rifle just looks like garbage; easily one of the worst ARAH guns. The football grenades are part of what makes his motif seem so overbearing, and lastly, you’ve got his arm pads, which just seems like a toss-in. It’s amazing he has so many parts and all of them seem to only lessen my opinion of the figure, but I guess that’s just how it is.

Like I expected, Funskool Gridiron’s have become hard to find… for a fair price. There’s a bunch of nutters trying to hawk this figure for $100 at any given time, which should clue you in on how rare he is (hint: he’s common), but he’s certainly not worth that much. This is a figure people could not give away years ago, and is still very common. I expect an auction would only fetch between $20 to $30, and even that is way more than this figure’s worth.

Funskool Captain Gridiron Links:

Joe A Day

Funskool Rony

2000 Major Bludd

Posted on January 11, 2022 by mwnekoman

2000 Major Bludd

I really like Major Bludd, he’s a fun character, and most of his toys are good (with the exception of 25th Major Bludd. That one’s really bad!). But writing about Major Bludd toys as too much of a regular occurrence could make my blog a bit tedious. Though, nothing else really strikes my fancy at the moment, so I figure I might as well profile another one.

I got this figure in a lot sometime in either ‘09 or ‘10, for peanuts. At the time, I already had an ‘83 Bludd, so I didn’t have a lot of need for this one. Though, there was some novelty in having a brown version that can bend both of his arms, he was always overshadowed by the cadre of other ARAHC figures I found more interesting at the time. I really regretted missing out on the ARAHC line when I was a kid, so I when I started buying figures loose, I found it exciting to track these down for relatively low amounts of money. Despite that, I’ve tended to find my ambivalence to this figure has become a pattern relative to the entire series, where most of the toys are nice, but usually get out-shinned by something similar from another year.

2000 Major Bludd is an odd duck, because the truth is he’s a pretty alright looking figure. The problem he runs into though, is just that there’s so many other Major Bludds that do the same thing, better. When I say that, I’m mainly talking about Chinese Major Bludd, which has the same head and similar colors, but with a more interesting selection of body parts. Were it not for that figure, this would probably be the best toy of Major Bludd.

Normally it’s a nice thing when you get a subdued repaint of a neon-90‘s toy like Super Sonic Fighters Major Bludd, but, that figure already came in great colors, featuring primarily dark blue with some yellow details. It’s hard to call this one superior because of that. That doesn’t make him bad either, it’s just the other toys seem to invalidate him a bit. I also think the deco suffers from being rather flat, as he doesn’t have any of the green details you saw on the ‘83 figure.

The only part besides a figure stand included here, was his original double-barreled laser rifle, now in black. A little creativity from Hasbro could’ve gone a long way to make his parts more interesting, but that’s a funny thing to complain about, since this section is where I normally complain about the superficial inclusion of Rock Viper rifles and SAW Viper backpacks with 2000‘s figures. This little gun’s not that bad, and it’s nice to have it in black too, as I could imagine it looking good with a few of Cobra’s sillier characters like Overkill or Mindbender. It’s just not great with Major Bludd.

It’s not every day you find one of these being left to open pricing, but it’s regular enough you can get a BiN for $8 or less. Carded sets with the Rock Viper (Range Viper), go for as little as $10, which is probably a better value. There’s so many Major Bludd’s to choose from, it’s really hard to say anyone needs this one. Despite that, it’s a relatively solid figure, and represents ol’ Sebastian well enough. I also realized Chinese Bludd’s have become a lot harder to get, so in lieu of that one, this one’s probably become a good option again.

2000 Major Bludd Links:

Forgottten Figures

1985 Dusty

Posted on January 4, 2022 by mwnekoman

1985 Dusty

I think in all 12 years of ARAH, 1985 was probably the best year in the entire run. I think it represents the precipice of the 80‘s, building off what made ‘84 great, but just before the downward slide into goofy characters and iffy sculpting you saw in ‘86 and ‘87. In 1985, you had a wide-variety of specialist who were simple, yet distinct and highly detailed, well exemplified in Dusty.

I should have it out for Dusty, because I don’t tend to like desert troopers all that much. As an environment, I don’t tend to find deserts all that interesting, and I personally find them difficult to simulate for dioramas. But Dusty’s a fine figure like all of his contemporaries, so much so that he demands usage just to highlight the quality of his sculpt.

Dusty’s mold is great. It’s a simple looking outfit that’s brought to life by the details of his pouches, zippers and fabric folds. To top it off, Dusty is one of the rare GI Joe figures that utilized fabric for the back of his helmet. The only thing I tend to dislike about Dusty as a sculpt, is his goofy looking face. The camouflage does well to hide it, but his head is a little bulbous and his expression reminds me of some kind of Fisherprice Adventure People figure. The later 1991 Dusty really won out over this one for having a sharp head sculpt.

The colors are very nice on Dusty, too. The figure is cast solidly in khaki plastic, with brown camouflage adorning his entire outfit. His straps, goggles and boots are painted black, and he features a nicely detailed flag-patch above his right breast pocket. A very nice color scheme, though weirdly, there never really was another desert-camo figure that exactly matched with him. In some ways I like that he’s unique, but in others, I sort of with I had a Dusty that matched better with tan-Grunt and Mission Brazil Leatherneck.

Dusty’s parts are classic, though I myself have never owned his FAMAS. He came with the aforementioned rifle, a bipod, and a backpack. I think the FAMAS has become a lot more mainstream in recent years, but I’m not sure how common you saw it in media from the 80‘s, I think it’s an interesting choice that they went with. Dusty’s backpack saw a decent amount of early reuse, and came with Red Dog, as well as Dusty’s Tiger Force repaint, followed by several different colorations in the 2000‘s. That’s sort of neat, though this backpack is a little bulky and probably not my favorite sculpt from the period.

V1 Dusty’s aren’t pricing very consistently at the moment. Complete figures can be had for around $30, and ones missing the bipod are trending around $15. A random auction seems to shoot to the moon every now and then, but overall he prices similarly to a few other ‘85 and ‘86 figures. Despite the quality present here, I think he’s a figure that’s going for too much at the moment, especially for incomplete examples.

1985 Dusty Links:

1985 Lampreys

Posted on December 14, 2021 by mwnekoman

1985 Lampreys

For most people, I think the Lamprey is a very forgettable figure from the ever popular 1985 line-up. I can understand why, since he really doesn’t show up in the cartoon or the comics, and the figure doesn’t lend itself to too many roles. In my collection though, the Lamprey is a really important figure, and one that stimulates my imagination on some deeper level.

This figure was among the first four vintage acquisitions I made back in 2008, with the other three figures being ‘83 Major Bludd, ‘87 Techno Viper, and a mint Stinger Driver, all of which I acquired for less than $20 (boy do I miss those days…). At the time, I was only 14, so getting vintage figures with kid money was a little hard to do, and these first four figures I acquired were really special to me for that.

Photo from Forgotten Figures

The Lamprey was a particular figure I sought out, after becoming interested in him from a Forgotten Figures post I read earlier that year. Particularly, I saw this picture of an army of Lampreys, using the ARAHC repaint as an officer, as they receive some sort of briefing by Flying Scorpion with Major Bludd in tow. It made an impression on me, because I hadn’t seen diorama pictures of o-ring army-builders like this before. I’ve always wanted to recreate a similar scene, though I still lack the Flying Scorpion, and it appears that may remain the case until I make a custom of him, or find a Brazilian guy with a bunch of old toys and no clue what they’re worth.

The Lamprey does a nice job of portraying a simple, interesting design. The baggy suit looks nice without having too much going on, and comes across to me as a much more plausible design than something like the Sea Slug from just a few years later. The little blue lifejacket is another eye-catching detail, and somewhat cements them in my mind as the Cobra equivalent to Cutter. Interestingly, the figure is cast in a metallic, silver plastic, and I believe is the first figure to use a plastic color like this.

His only part is some kind of Sten Gun. I say “some kind” because there’s a million variants of the Sten, and I believe the Lamprey’s is based on one of the more obscure ones, possibly the Sten MK V. The Lamprey’s Sten is distinct, because it features both a pistol grip, and a foregrip, but lacks a stock. Supposedly, some British paratroopers were issued Sten MK V’s with a similar configuration, although the Lamprey’s gun has a barrel shroud similar to earlier versions of the Sten; leading me to believe it’s an amalgam.

I know I’ve said a lot more about Sten guns than I have about the toy part itself, but it’s a good example of how much attention to detail went into a few GI Joe guns. Putting that aside, the gun has a functioning strap which adds a lot more play value to an otherwise forgettable vehicle driver. The only real problem I have is that the grip’s a little thick on it, so it’s not always a joy to pose a figure with.

You can still get a mint, complete Lamprey for between $6 to $10. Many times, they go for more, but I expect prices to normalize on the lower end… Soon. Maybe. Or not. Either way, it’s a figure you get cheap sometimes, and it’s fun to collect an army of them for that much. The only thing that tends to wear on them is the silver paint on his helmet, which can be easily restored, if you don’t mind that sort of thing.

1985 Lampreys Links:

1993 Mace

Posted on November 30, 2021 by mwnekoman

1993 Mace

The 1993 Joe line really isn’t for everyone. In fact, this is probably the point where overall, the line was going down in quality and cheaping out on things where possible (generic weapons, repaint figures). Still, there’s an esoteric appeal to many of the figures from this year, Mace is a pretty good example of that.

Because he’s such a seldom seen character, I tend to forget his specialty is as an undercover operative. Technically, that means he should be hanging out with Headhunters and Cobras most of the time, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen him used that way. My general tendency is to give him a gun and pose him standing near a cardboard building, but if I had paid more attention, I might have done some cooler things with him sooner. Too bad I’ll probably forget about him again as soon as I’m done writing this.

Mace is a pretty decent looking figure. He’s got a unique looking head and his design is overall, fairly subdued for a figure from ‘93. The most egregious thing about him is the size of his torso, which is huge. I’d go as far as to say he’s comparable in size to Road Pig, which sort of makes him look out of place, even among his contemporaries. Other than that, he’s a little boring for not having a lot going on, but there’s enough detail there to make him an okay background guy.

His parts are pretty terrible. Included is an EM-2 rifle from Ambush, a pistol from Updraft, an SMG from ‘92 Shockwave, and ‘91 Low-Light’s knife, along with the helmet and launcher combo from Muskrat, also released in 1993. The first thing that catches my attention here is that launcher… It’s a missile launcher he wears on his head! It’s silly enough to be humorous, but it’s still terrible. All of his weapons are cast in yellow plastic, which renders an okay selection of parts somewhat useless. It’s a pretty good match for BAT yellow though, so if you wanted, one or two of these guns might look okay with an ‘86 BAT.

: Image from an Etsy listing

: Image from an Etsy listing

It’s worth mentioning that Mace was originally to be a part of the DEF line, and there are rare carded examples to prove this. The figure was not changed at any point to my knowledge, just the packaging when Hasbro canned the DEF line. I had always guessed they’d have had different parts or something, but to my surprise, the figures were released as intended: just the packaging was changed.

A complete Mace runs around $15, which seems like a little much for him, but it is what it is. People are more willing in general to pay a premium now for complete 90‘s figures, and because he does come with several parts, complete figures will go for a little more in general. Of course, if you hate the yellow parts or just want one for a custom, individual figures can be had for around $5.

1993 Mace Links:

1988 Voltar

Posted on November 23, 2021 by mwnekoman

1988 Voltar

Among all of the non-Cobra entities GI Joe has to deal with, the Iron Grenadiers are easily my favorite Cobra alternative. Most of their figures weren’t perfect, but as villains, they make a lot of sense and have an interesting esthetic. Voltar’s a good example of this, as he’s very much not perfect, but also a cool little figure in some other ways, that does a lot of things I like.

Voltar was originally part of my brother’s collection, but was one his odd figures that captivated me a lot. I think it’s because he had several things I liked going on, which included: A robotic monocle-helmet, gold, and evil facial hair. He wasn’t enough of an evil cyborg to outclass Vapor, but he fell into his role as a general. At this point in my childhood, he had Power Rangers style battles with Ninja Force Bushido and the ‘92 Eel (who was a good guy, to me).

My fascination with Voltar didn’t end there though, and I continued to like this figure in particular, even into my teenage years when 25th Anniversary was my collecting focus. I really wanted a Voltar to go with my Destro from that line, but that was at the point when acknowledging the GI Joe line after 1986 was a blaspheme. Mixing modern and vintage figures has always looked way too dumb to me, but I still think there was a few odd moments when 25th Iron Grenadier Destro hung out with Voltar and Metal Head just because I liked them that much.

All that sentiment aside, Voltar’s a nice figure in some ways, and a weak figure in others. There’s a ridge on top of Voltar’s helmet, that seems to nicely line up with the one on the normal Iron Grenadier: an underappreciated bit of continuity between them. I also think his head sculpt is nicely sharp, best illustrated by the prototype Long Range figure that reused his head, and looked much better without the oversized helmet (instead, Long Range got a new head that looks much worse). A few parts of his design leave something to be desired, around his knees and his gloves in particular, but other than that it’s a nice looking figure. I like that he uses gold and black to tie him into the Iron Grenadiers, but also introduces magenta as a color for the group.

I like his parts, but they’re definitely not for everyone. He included a backpack, SMG, and a condor. His SMG is pretty unpopular, frankly, I don’t like it much myself. However, when I see it, I just recall a lot of memories of using this gun in various colors as a kid. It looks powerful, and fit into hands pretty well too. The backpack’s okay, but kind of a mess. Then you have his pet bird, which is probably the strangest part of the figure. It really doesn’t tie into the character any at all, though I sometimes wonder if including a vulture was a play on his role as a general for a war-mongering arms dealer. Was there a quota for animal pack-ins? Either way, I’d use the birdy, but mine’s missing the feet.

Voltar was sold in an “Ultimate Enemies” pack with Muskrat. I don’t know why these two have each other as nemeses, but it seems like something fun and goofy enough to think about. While we’re on his role in the fiction, I really hate how Hama treated a lot of later characters like this in the comic. Sure, Raptor was dumb and nobody cared if he was tossed into a volcano and never seen again, but Voltar? He seemed like a fun and resourceful enough character to keep having some kind of role. But, he wasn’t Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Zartan, Scarlet or Baroness, so he had to get killed off in favor of continuing to over-expose the soap opera of five or six characters.

Voltar’s a cheap figure surprisingly enough, you can get a mint complete one for around $15 with some regularity. Given that I was losing bid-wars on broken Iron Grenadiers at the beginning of the year, I thought he’d be a tad pricier just as a member of the group. Obviously, most folks just don’t care about this guy a whole lot, though part of me wants to be hopeful it’s a sign prices are starting to soften again overall.

1988 Voltar Links:

Forgotten Figures

Joe a Day

3D Joes