2003 Major Bludd (Python Patrol)

Posted on August 24, 2020 by mwnekoman

2003 Major Bludd (Python Patrol)

So in total, there’s been at least three very distinct color schemes that have represented the Python Patrol. The original vintage palette, a palette closer to the vintage vehicles from a 2003 6-pack, and a similar scheme to that, but with large amounts of gray used for New Sculpt figures. Truth be told, all three variants of the Python Patrol team colors are pretty good. Of the 2003 Pythons, I think this Major Bludd might be my favorite.

There’s a few curious things going on with this Major Bludd, namely that he’s newly made from ‘91 Zap’s body, and not an existing release like most of the Python Patrol. It’s a perfect body to use for a Major Bludd, given that details such as the shells on his chest or armor on his legs fits pretty well with the character’s original aesthetic. It’s also a rare example of Hasbro using a mold in a genuinely creative and new way, something they rarely did in the 2000‘s.

I like the colors used on this set, which includes this Major Bludd. My favorite Python Patrol colors would have to be the originals, but these are a pretty good alternative, plus they look visually interesting. The figure is mainly black with a red diamond pattern across the black areas, and some more bright red and gold for details. Despite being 2000‘s figures, these Pythons look in place with the vintage Python Patrol vehicles, because the colors are so similar. Heck, I’d go as far as to say that these Python Patrol colors are better than the originals, but those figures I prefer just for being eye-catching and fun looking.

The parts here aren’t very good, but not for the usual reasons, surprisingly enough. This figure opted to retain a few of the original parts from ‘91 Zap, his bazooka and hand-cannon, but they don’t work very well here. That’s mainly because you don’t get the muzzle for the bazooka, and the cannon is meant for Zap’s backpack, which you don’t get. Normally Hasbro would screw vintage sculpts during the 2000‘s by not including the original parts, although with this release, they gave you that: only half of them!

Despite my love for Python Patrol, it’s honestly almost a shame that this figure came out in this sub-team. I say that because the truth is, I think this might be one of the best Major Bludd toys besides Chinese Major Bludd. If we could’ve gotten him in normal colors in some way, I think this would be a go-to Bludd for many collectors. As it stands, the figure is very nice, but easy to ignore since his identity is lost among a sea of Python Patrol releases.

These figures aren’t too common, but surprisingly, aren’t too expensive either. Python Patrol Major Bludd’s seem to trend around $10, complete or incomplete. It’s likely because a lot of people bought this set for army-building, creating a surplus of unneeded Bludds. On that end, it was pretty lousy of Hasbro to put Major Bludd in an otherwise perfect set for army-building. On the other hand, it’s probably the nicest figure from the set, so in ways I’m glad they took a risk on it.

2003 Major Bludd (Python Patrol) Links:

1989 Night Viper

Posted on August 18, 2020 by mwnekoman

1989 Night Viper

I was surprised when I realized how it had slipped my mind, but incidentally, I’ve never wrote about the ‘89 Night Viper. It’s one of my favorite figures too, but I suppose after writing about the TBM Python Night Viper, I forgot to get around to this one. It’s also been one of the most consistently popular post-’86 Cobras in the franchise too; so perhaps I also ignored him for the feeling of the figure being over exposed at this point.

The original Night Viper I had as a kid was another figure from my brother’s collection, and it was a figure we both liked. When my collecting focus shifted to vintage figures around ‘09, it was a figure in the old Joe tubs that really stood out to me and I enjoyed rediscovering as I gradually found all of his parts again. Of course, being a favorite meant this figure was in somewhat rough shape, but it was a start that pointed me in the direction of acquiring more over time.

The colors and deco on the figure is very nice overall. There’s not a lot of different colors here: mostly just dark green plastic and black paint. However, that itself is an attractive and realistic combo that’s likely helped earn this figure it’s popularity over so many years. One of the nicest details on him is the shoulder-patch tampographed onto his left shoulder. It’s a Night-Viper specific emblem that’s rather detailed and good looking. It’s also remarkable as the Night-Viper is one of the only figures with a unit specific marker like this, which is a shame, as something equivalent to this would’ve been fantastic on the SAW Viper or a few others.

The sculpt has a lot of nice details going on too. Nothing too absurd, but a nice smattering of knives, straps and gear throughout the figure. The strap of bullets on his right arm is a little detail I especially like. The helmet also has a sleek, high-tech look to it, which does pretty well to represent the gear his file card mentions him having. I’ve always thought the ribbed legging on half of his thighs looks a little weird, but it’s also distinctly Cobra, and looks similar to what you saw on the ‘83 HISS Driver.

The accessories really help make this figure, though at the same time he’s perfectly fine without everything except the visor. Included is a gun, backpack, a clip-on visor and a scope that attaches to the visor. The gun’s one of those awkward weapons with no pistol-grip, making it hard for him to get an aiming pose with it. It’s still not a bad part though, as it interacts with the figure in a few different ways thanks to both it’s sling and the pegs for mounting it on his thigh.

As I mentioned, the Night Viper is an extremely popular figure, and almost any given version has commended a premium throughout the history of the brand. Prices are very unstable for them right now, but generally it’s a figure you shouldn’t pay more than $20 for, complete. That’s in line with what they’ve trended at for a few years until now, and it’s reasonable to assume that’s still about what the figure’s really worth. They are common and army-builders hoarded them and the Funskool variant through the 2000‘s, so there’s plenty of mint examples in circulation.

Night Viper hasbro 1989 gi joe vintage cobra ARAH

1989 Night Viper Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Photo by Scarrviper

Photo by Dreadnok Dread

Photo by PeterDB.net

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors)

Posted on August 10, 2020 by mwnekoman

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors)

When I was a kid I didn’t like this figure very much. He was brightly colored, he didn’t look much like a normal Flint, and his helmet was butt-ugly too. Technically, it wasn’t my figure, but whenever the Joes came out I’d gun for any other Flint besides this one (which usually meant the Battle Corps figure). Most of this derived from the simple fact that this wasn’t the Flint I wanted, and go figure, I started liking this figure better as I got older and after I acquired a Funskool Flint. It’s still not a Flint figure I use very often, but with time I’ve grown to appreciate elements of this figure.

On his own, there’s really nothing too bad about this figure. The sculpt is mostly reasonable looking while maintaining a decent level of detail. Personally I really like his head; it looks more ragged and characteristic than the aforementioned Battle Corps figure from a few years later. The ribbed boots are sort of weird and don’t add much to the character, but they can be easily overlooked. Oddly, I’ve sort of grown fond of his colors; the neon green is bright, but the look is cohesive enough that it appeals to me.

I think the main problem presented by this Flint, is that he’s arguably the weakest Eco Warriors figure. Most of the other toys come with at least a few parts that are somewhat more interesting, or cool clear visors like with Barbecue and Deep-six. Then you have to get over the fact that it’s a pretty big departure from a standard Flint design, too. Of course, in my view the Eco Warriors were a pretty good lot of figures, so that’s not to put this Flint down too much.

For parts, you get an oversized blue gun, an Eco Warriors squirt-gun, and a helmet. If there’s something I don’t like about this Flint, its’ that his parts are pretty weak. His main gun is a strange sci-fi design that I can’t really identify: is it a bazooka, or a laser weapon, or something else? It looks terrible, and unfortunately we saw this weapon reappear a few more times in the 90‘s. The helmet also strikes me as lackluster, given that it lacks the paint featured on Ozone and Clean Sweep’s helmets. Interestingly, commercials depict this helmet with a painted visor like on the card, which implies to me this paint application was cut late in his production.

Looking down the road, they made two very distinct and interesting repaints of this mold, though at the moment I like this one the best. In ‘01, they repainted the figure in desert colors and packaged him with the Desert Striker, which was an okay looking figure, albeit a little bland. Then in ‘10 the body was reused for the convention Red Torches, which looked fantastic, though are very limited in usage. All in all, I think the original release here may have been the mold’s best usage.

Complete Eco Warrior Flint’s go for around $8 or less. These days, I feel really amazed whenever I can find a vintage Joe that doesn’t commend a massive premium. Likely, I assume ‘84 and Tiger Force Flint dominate the interest of anyone who wants a Flint figure, so there’s just no need for this one. I would relate to that, but on it’s own, this is a fun figure to have around.

gi joe hasbro 1991 flint arah eco warriors cobra vintage

gi joe eco warriors star brigade 90's arah Ozone Flint Toxo Viper cobra Monster Blaster APC

Gi joe arah Eco Warriors commercial flint prototype action figure hasbro — Screencap from the commercial linked to below. Notice his boots and visor are painted differently, and his squirt-gun is a different color as well (though, it might just be Ozone’s).

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors) Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUk1ZHJ6J9Y

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Joeaday

2002 Cobra Viper

Posted on July 28, 2020 by mwnekoman

2002 Cobra Viper

The collecting community in the 2000‘s was all about army-builders; especially the coveted classic Cobra Troopers, BATs, and Viper. The first two I mentioned Hasbro struggled to deliver on, though Viper repaints were put out in numbers not too different from Firefly figures. This Viper was one of the first recolors after the Cobra Infantry Team in ‘98.

A lot of the appeal of this figure is lost now because of the subsequent repaints that came after him, and the availability of some more interesting factory customs. In it’s own right, this is a passable Viper repaint that I think looks pretty good for it’s lighter, desaturated greens compared to the similar olive one from 2003. Another thing that makes this repaint nice to me, is that Hasbro kept the visor silver rather than painting it some weird color like they did on the later repaints.

The paint masks are really questionable on this figure, particularly referring to his lower legs. Because the figure uses BAT legs instead of actual Viper legs, the designers decided to paint the entire lower leg piece, including the knee above the boot, solid grey. The idea was to simulate the look of the classic Viper’s knee-boots, but it really looks horrible here. On many of my figures I removed the paint on this part which improves the look slightly, though I hate doing mods like this.

Of course, the figure also suffers from all of the classic tooling issues that plague almost every Viper repaint post ‘97. That includes the tab on his neck that makes him permanently look down, and using BAT legs instead of Viper legs. The head tab doesn’t bother me that much, but it would’ve been nice if they could have removed it. Why is it that it’s always too expensive to remake lost molds, but they can modify a mold at a moment’s notice for an obscure set of reissues made in smaller numbers?

The Viper really suffers from the poor accessory choices you saw often in the 2000‘s. Included here is ‘84 Baroness’s gun, and the backpack from the SAW Viper; generic items used extensively in later 00‘s releases. I’ve really softened my views on the Baroness rifle in recent years, as it’s not really a terrible gun, but just an okay one that was really overused in this period. As a kid, it was my go-to weapon for the Python Tele-Viper, and it has the benefit of being a relatively easy weapon to hold. The SAW Viper backpack was also not that bad of a part, but really just didn’t feel appropriate here. Even among a catalog of parts Hasbro frequently used at the time, there were better items that could’ve been chosen for this figure.

In all of the uses of the Viper mold in the 2000‘s, I really like this one for it’s colors. The 2002 Crimson/Fuschia Viper is probably the best looking use of the mold, but it’s niche and expensive. Another blue recolor came out in ’02, which was pretty nice, but it was also very darkly colored and somewhat bland. Three more were released in separate colors under Spy Troops, which all looked a little phoned-in to me. Then you had the Viper Pit set come along in pseudo ‘86 colors, which had it’s own series of problems associated with it. Putting all that in context makes me realize that Hasbro never did anything very interesting or curious with the mold, despite that the Viper is ubiquitously popular and would’ve fit well into a TRU 6-pack. To a certain degree I’m glad we didn’t see it again though.

One of the last benefits you can attribute to this figure, is that it’s a common and relatively cheap Viper. They’re a little tedious to look for among so many Viper releases, but you can get them often with the Mirage he was packed with around $10, and if you look long enough, you can get this guy by himself for around $6 or $7. Even just a few years ago this was a cheap and fun figure you might get as a toss-in purchase, though it’s a little less often now with the current market.

gi joe arah joe vs cobra 2002 vintage hasbro viper vs mirage

2002 Cobra Viper Links:

GeneralsJoes

Photo by Cradea2

Photo by Scarrviper

2020 TBM Eels (Copperhead Colors)

Posted on July 21, 2020 by mwnekoman

2020 TBM Eels (Copperhead Colors)

So after a good amount of hype, The Black Major’s latest project has finally arrived, and this time it’s the 1985 Eel mold. There’s quite a few interesting color schemes floating around, though a popular one and the one I liked best was this color scheme based on ‘84 Copperhead.

GI Joe TBM The Black Major eels copperhead vintage arah

In general, I’m not someone who was overly excited for Eel repaints, and that’s for a handful of reasons. The Eel was a good figure that serves it’s purpose, and similar to the Snow Serpent, there’s not much need for a repaint of a character so specialized. Because of this, I think a lot of the repaints went in a more novel direction, which doesn’t work for me with this mold. I also just don’t like this mold as much as other people though, so there’s that too.

This color scheme is very good however, and very useful to my collection. As a personal choice, I don’t like imagining that they have much relation to Copperhead (he’s a rogue agent), but rather are just an Eel division in swamp-centric colors. This to me, makes them a little more unique and gives them a more distinct role in my collection. This way it provides some new opportunities, like giving them the Dreadnok Swampfire, or having someone for Muskrat to fight.

The quality of these figures is very good, maybe the best I’ve encountered from factory customs. In general I don’t judge these figures too harshly for quality, as with their third-party origins and small production runs, it’s usually going to be the case that a figure won’t be perfect. With that said, these are simply excellent. The paint, joints, and even the numerous parts have a solid feel to them, which surprised me, as I was expecting the flippers or mouthpiece at least to have some problems. Instead, everything’s very snug and almost on par with vintage quality.

You get the original Eel’s full assortment of gear, including the two-piece backpack, speargun, mouthpiece and flippers. All of the parts are cast in a winter green color, which looks pretty good. Personally I think black parts might’ve contrasted better with the figure itself, but I really like these oddly colored 80‘s accessories, so I’d rather have them like this than be perfectly attuned to my esthetic sense.

It seems like with factory customs, you get about a year or so of seeing the figures float around plentifully before things start to dry up. These particular Eels are the cream of the crop from this set, so I didn’t chose to wait around on them. However, I’m pretty sure a handful of these will be available into next year, at which point I’ll probably dip my hands into a few more color schemes. I expect you’ll see these particular Eels for at least the rest of the year at their normal $15 to $18, which they’re well worth.

1987 Falcon

Posted on July 13, 2020 by mwnekoman

1987 Falcon

Falcon came along in ‘87, and despite not receiving many subsequent releases, is a pretty popular figure. When you consider his obnoxious portrayal in the cartoons, the fact that he’s from an otherwise unpopular year, and that he was intended to replace Duke, it seems like a surprise that Falcon’s so well liked; that is, if you ignore the quality of this figure.

If you’re mostly a cartoon guy like me, Falcon’s pretty hard to get into as a character. The movie pretty much made him the worst character in the franchise, and DIC used him as a junky in the Headhunters two-parter. I’m under the impression the comics made him a lot more likable, but I’ve not read those issues yet, so I don’t know. Despite all that, he’s relatively popular with fans and I can imagine a few reasons why.

1987 was not a very good year of figures, and is a jumping-off point for most older GI Joe fans. It’s pretty fair to say the line jumped the shark with this year, as most fans don’t like Cobra La (though I do a bit…), or other cringe-inducing classics like Crystal Ball and Big Boa. The Joes from that year were mostly better than the Cobras, though many could be seen as a step down when compared to figures from years before.

Then you wind up with Falcon, who as a toy is pretty much great. There’s nothing too crazy going on with his design, and overall the figure looks like quite a down to earth Green Beret. The sculpted detail is easily on par with classics like ‘85 Flint, so you can see why the figure’s so popular.

Of course, the colors are fantastic too. Several cool repaints came out later, like the Night Force version and the Sonic Fighters repaint, but if I could only have one, I think this one might be the best. He features a rich green color for a base with splotches of dark camouflage, while other little details are painted separate colors, like his hat, scarf, knife and his radio. Nothing really feels overlooked here, which is why I think later versions don’t compare as well (even if a few of them are really cool).

His parts are excellent too: you get a Mossberg shotgun, backpack, knife and antenna for his backpack. The shotgun’s a pretty distinct and nice looking weapon. It has this odd foregrip-like handle he holds it by which allows him to pose better with it, though the weapon’s actual grip is thin enough he can hold it there too. The knife looks good, and nicely it stores in his backpack, which was a feature you hadn’t seen too much until this point.

Mint complete Falcons go pretty routinely around $25, these days. If you really want one, I think the figure’s worth it, though once prices calm down he’ll probably be worth half of that like he used to be. It’s a great enough figure I think he’s worth having even if your collection focuses on figures from the earlier part of the line.

gi joe falcon gi joe the movie 1986 1987 vintage hasbro arah

1987 Falcon Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

3D Joes

1991 Attack Cruiser

Posted on June 30, 2020 by mwnekoman

1991 Attack Cruiser

I’ve had this rant I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for awhile now, but never seem to find the time to lay out. Although 90‘s GI Joe figures tended to be a lot of fun, I really can’t say that vehicles held up so well as the line went on, especially those from 1991 and ‘92. As just one example of a terrible 90‘s vehicle, I have to say I think the Attack Cruiser is the worst vehicle from the entire line.

It’s actually kind of weird too, as popular opinion tends to push that late 80‘s vehicles like the POGO and Buzz Boar are some of the worst that the line had to offer, but I feel like opinions such as this are focusing more on the premise of those toys and not the execution. They’re silly, but aesthetically they look pretty good and are fairly fun to play with. Several vehicles from ‘91 and ‘92 aren’t like this however. Examples like the Ice Sabre, Barracuda, and this toy present simple concepts, but fail on execution.

This toy has numerous problems, but for a start, it’s most critical flaw is in the drone it launches. It’s a cheap and flimsy piece of plastic, which seems to break almost as soon as you use it. It’s made from a super thin piece of plastic like you might see on disposable packaging, which is noticeably worse than the already bland drone pictured on the back of the box. Already, it’s really baffling for them to cheap out on such a core component of the vehicle, as launching the drone is it’s main gimmick. It’s like no effort went into this area of the vehicle at all.

The vehicle is basically barren for other play features. It holds a three-man crew and has some rotating turrets; a pair of mines too, but that’s it. There’s no seat-belts like you saw on certain vehicles from around that time, or any canopies, removable hatches, ect. There’s just nothing going on with it, which relative to it’s size makes it feel very phoned in.

It has a bizarre asymmetrical design that looks horribly ugly and thrown together. I’ve tried photographing this thing from different angles before, and there’s just no one direction the Attack Cruiser looks good to be seen from. It looks almost like two separate smaller vehicles that were sandwiched together for some reason, and I really can’t figure out what they were going for with this. There’s no real-life vehicle I know of that looks like this, and there’s no other way to describe it to me besides… Extremely ugly.

The colors aren’t the worst, but the neon green certainly puts a damper on it’s overall look. It’s mostly black and I’ll say it’s a decent color choice, though I still feel like the black looks cheap. Probably worse than the green is the goofy paper decals that go on it. A lot of 90‘s vehicles feature decals like this, and they’re a sad downgrade from the familiar 80‘s decals. They’re really delicate and fall off much easier than the vinyl ones, which is a shame on the nicer vehicles, though on the Attack Cruiser, they’re really just a hallmark of the lower quality presented here.

In the end of the day, all of this leaves you with a vehicle that refuses to be fun and doesn’t even succeed at it’s single niche purpose. It’s ugly, fragile and obtuse, which really leaves the Attack Cruiser with almost no room for redemption. At least with the RAT, the idea was alright and it didn’t look too terrible; meanwhile the Attack Cruiser has almost nothing it does right. To me, it feels like an example of where they did start to take short-cuts in the line’s waning years, as there’s not a single vehicle from 80‘s that strikes me as being this bad.

Attack Cruiser’s aren’t hard to get ahold of, even complete and in good shape. This is a vehicle no one will fight you over and can be had for around $15. To be honest though, it’s a waste of money. Opinions will vary on what constitutes the worst GI Joe vehicle ever made, and a lot of that will depend on what you expect from a vehicle. In this Joe fan’s opinion though, I really can’t think of a vehicle I dislike more than the Attack Cruiser.

Attack cruiser gi joe arah vintage hasbro 90's cobra a real american hero 1991

1991 Attack Cruiser Links:

3D Joes

Toys from the Past

2010 TBM Black Cobra Trooper

Posted on June 16, 2020 by mwnekoman

2010 TBM Black Cobra Trooper

It seemed like not so long ago that a bunch of mysterious, bootleg Cobra Troopers popped up on eBay and no one really knew what they were or what they’d be like. While the “factory custom” scene has changed a little in the years since then, it’s interesting to take a look back at some of the very first figures. This black Cobra Trooper was the first one I acquired.

When these figures surfaced, I was dead-broke, so I couldn’t get too much of what was available. Because of that, I singled out figures I thought might be more well suited for use in small numbers apart from bigger squads. Given that this guy is mostly just a single black color, I thought he could make decent for a sniper. I believe I stole the idea of using an all-black Cobra as a sniper from the Sideshow Cobra Sniper that came out a little before that, which struck me as an interesting concept.

At the time, for a bootleg that nobody knew much about, the quality of this release was quite impressive. A series of similar Trooper bootlegs had come out roughly a year prior, which were much flimsier by comparison. Since then, I think the subsequent Black Major releases have made this figure seem less nice. It has a few interesting quirks not seen on later releases, namely the backpack hole. On the original run of TBM Troopers, all of the figures had smaller screw-holes/backpack holes. This was done deliberately to further distinguish these figures from their vintage counterparts, but it also means they can’t use a backpack.

For the most part, the figure is solid black with some light gray painted details and a silver Cobra sigil. It’s a simple look that fulfills it’s role in my collection nicely, and also looks good with basically any other early Cobra. The paint is sharp and clean, although interestingly there’s a good amount of excess paint above the belt on the waist. The later Troopers from TBM don’t have this problem, but on all of the 2010 Troopers, everything above the belt is painted, which is a bit quirky.

For accessories, you get only the classic Dragunov sniper riffle like with the original figure. It’s a faithful recreation and at the time, this part was precious and hard to come by. Of course, it’s the only part you get and later releases improved by including the Officer’s AK-47 and a Viper backpack. Still, at the time just getting the black Dragunov was great, and I certainly enjoy having no shortage of them years later.

Pricing Black Major customs can be difficult, as this figure’s gotten much harder to find, as you might expect. Of course, most of the customs including ones from around the same time tend to cap their value around $20 to $30, so it’s fair to say this guy’s probably in the same ballpark. I think Black Major’s second run of Cobra Troopers was better than the first, but this is still a really a cool figure I’m glad to have in my collection.

TBM the black major custom Cobra Trooper black 2010 gi joe vintage hasbro

2010 TBM Black Cobra Trooper Links:

Collection of all 2010 TBM Cobra Troopers

Pre-Black Major Cobra Trooper customs

Later TBM Cobra Troopers

2010 ROC (POC) Elite Ice Viper

Posted on June 8, 2020 by mwnekoman

2010 ROC (POC) Elite Ice Viper

I feel like my readers aren’t going to be much into this one, since this blog mainly focuses on classic o-ring molds, but since Forgotten Figures is having rarities month, I thought it’d be fun to profile a few pre-production and unreleased goodies from my collection. Of course, I don’t have that much unreleased Joe stuff, so I have no choice but to profile a movie toy…

Watching GI Joe the Rise of Cobra when it came out on DVD in 2009 was an actual chore. I’m not a connoisseur of bad films, but to this day I feel it was one of the worst movies I’ve ever forced myself to watch. I also feel that’s a pretty fair opinion, as since then, the movie proved to be a financial failure, most actors associated with the film regard it as a low-point of their careers, and toyline ended in premature cancellation, hence why this Ice Viper was never released. I could rant about all of these things, but the main point that continues to astound me, is the fact that Hasbro still insists that GI Joe’s future hinges on live-action movies.

Visually, the Ice Viper was one of the more attractive offerings from the Rise of Cobra line. The figure looks bulky, unique, and doesn’t venture too far out from what you might’ve seen in ARAH. Of course, for a GI Joe item, it’s relatively monochrome and somewhat unimaginative looking, but it’s not that much worse than something you’d have seen in Valor vs Venom. Overall, the figure features a fairly decent winter-uniform that doesn’t have the ugly alien look you saw on the horrid Vipers and Neo-Vipers from the same time.

The figure’s main issues are a greater reflection of the issues with the 25th Anniversary style construction. It’s a fully articulated figure, but because of it’s large and thick winter jacket that hides it’s barren and undecorated torso, the figure’s not much for posing. The sculpt has overly bulky legs that render it incompatible with almost any vehicle, but the jacket stops the legs from even posing at the waist. Overall, it’s still a decent looking army builder, but the point is that the toy can’t do much besides stand there…

The main attraction to the Elite Ice Viper, is that the colors are slightly tweaked to feature lots of red, and no camouflage. I notice a lot of people aren’t fond of red and white color schemes like you see on certain arctic figures from the Black Major, but I think they work, especially in this figure’s case. Ultimately, one of the worst things about the ROC toy line, was that the toys were flat, and colorless. Everything you saw was a sea of black and gray, which makes a toy like this more appreciable. The red highlights make the design more fun and look like a GI Joe toy, which I see as a major upgrade over the standard colors.

The parts are pretty bad, which is better than average compared to most of his contemporaries. You get the ugly sci-fi pistol that most ROC Cobras came with, as well as a bandaged version of one of the Neo-Viper’s riffle, and a ski-torpedo missile launcher. The guns are ugly, though this figure can hold them well enough, which is not something you could say about every figure from this time period. The missile launcher is just a waste of plastic and doesn’t solicit much comment.

Like with many midnight-run figures, it’s a canceled toy for a reason, and for years this figure was both plentiful and cheap. Since the early ‘10‘s, the supply of these from China has mostly dried up, and you don’t see them so much any more. However, the only thing that’s changed about ROC’s popularity, is that now there’s no more hipsters left to shill for the film, so you won’t likely ever see this toy become a coveted possession. If you’re in the market for one, I wouldn’t pay more than $25… But that’s not an endorsement of this figure.

elite ice viper POC ROC Gi joe hasbro rise of cobra movie pursuit of cobra

2010 ROC (POC) Elite Ice Viper Links:

Generalsjoes

1986 Wet-Suit

Posted on June 2, 2020 by mwnekoman

1986 Wet-Suit

In many ways, 1986 represented a restart for ARAH. Popular characters return with new toys, such as Roadblock and General Hawk, while older specialist are somewhat replaced by newer characters that have overlapping specialties (Viper, Leatherneck, Lifeline, ect.). Wetsuit is one of the later, filling the same role as Torpedo from 1983. I’m a fan of both figures, though objectively I think Wet-Suit’s of better quality.

‘86 figures were early priorities for me when I started filling the gaps of my ARAH collection around 2009. Unlike ‘85 figures, ‘86 guys tended to be plentiful and cheaper, while maintaining the same amount of appeal for me. Wet-Suit was one of the first figures I acquired, which meant he got to see a little more action back then as one of my few non-Cobra acquisitions. I also had a real obsession with Lampreys then, which gave Wet-suit more to fight than he might have otherwise.

The truth is, it’s a really high-quality figure. Compared to Torpedo, Wet-Suit has a rich sculpt full of details. Belts and pouches adorn the majority of the figure, with a nice amount of sharpness that makes these details pop. Like the ‘85 Eel, the helmet isn’t removable, but instead features a nice, form-fitting shape that more than makes up for it.

There’s also a lot of painted details, even if some will have issues with the colors. Straps, his helmet, the majority of the suit, he has a lot of painted details and different colors to see too, even a very nice tampograph on his chest. Of course, if the teal and orange aren’t your thing, the 2000‘s provided us with this mold in multiple great and more muted color schemes. I like bright stuff though, and this version seems the most detailed, so for me this one’s the best.

The gear is both one of the greatest things and one of the worst things about this figure. He comes with a lot of nice parts, including a rubber breathing piece, a backpack it connects to, flippers, a large flashlight, and a sea sled. The parts are fun and immerse the figure in his specialty, though the downside is that he doesn’t come with any weapons. It’s really part of the figure’s charm, as with many early ARAH figures, the parts showed what the character does and how he’s unique. Yet still, it feels a little weird he has no gun or knife.

From the looks of it, newbie collectors are paying stupid prices for this guy from time to time. I say newbies, because you can still find complete and nice Wet-Suits for around $5. It’s just sometimes that they’re going for $20+, which is what the rare Mission Brazil repaint used to go for. It’s a cheap figure and a great addition to a vintage collection, but don’t follow the crowd and pay stupid prices.

1986 Wet-Suit Links:

Half the Battle

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes