1993 Blanka

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1993 Blanka

For the most part, it’s my opinion that the Street Fighter GI Joes are one of the weaker 90‘s sub-lines. No doubt, there was some curious figures I had as a kid that saw plenty of play, but most of them had terrible sculpts or glaring flaws because of the tooling they reused (Zangief with exposed robot parts!). Blanka is one figure whom has almost always been immune to my critical outlook, however.

I’m partly biased towards Blanka because I’ll readily admit, he was my favorite Street Fighter II character as a kid and to this day the character I play as the most. So when I was a kid having a figure of my favorite character from the game meant Blanka received an ample amount of my attention. From then and up to now, I felt like one of the appeals that Blanka had was that he was a fairly ambiguous character, even in the game. So it was easy to find a place for him in a variety of roles, as either a friend or foe depending upon what I felt like.

Outside of his head, Blanka is a full repaint of 1988 Roadpig. The muscular, shirtless Roadpig body works well for Blanka and is among the better reuses of tooling for the Street Fighter GI Joe line. There’s not much that seems out of place besides maybe the arrows on his leg, and the physique is a good match for Blanka. The new head is also a pretty good sculpt, nicely sized and featuring a fierce expression that suits the character.

The version of Blanka I’m highlighting is the one that came packaged with the Beast Blaster. It has slightly more muted colors over the single carded version. The green for his skin has been replaced with blue, while the red details have been replaced with two shades of brown. It’s still a pretty eccentric figure, but these colors fit with how I like to use him more, and visually just look better to me on a subjective level.

To incorporate Blanka into my GI Joe universe, I’ve usually had two ways I liked using him. The first way that’s probably more typical, is to use him as a mutant creation by Dr. Mindbender. It’s a fun scenario that ties Blanka into Mindbender and possibly Serpentor. Alternatively, I’ve on and off contemplated him as a more mentally competent ninja character, as an adversary to the Ninja Force. I sort of got the idea when I was 13 or so after playing Samurai Warriors 2 and thinking Kotaro Fuma looked like this Blanka. I guess you could say he’s always captivated my imagination.

Beast Blaster Blankas aren’t as common as other versions of Blanka, but they show up from time to time and aren’t worth too much. Typically an auction will go around $10, and as he has no parts there’s little variation in his value. In my opinion, this is the most appealing version of Blanka, though he’s a figure that might be easier to fit into some people’s collections more than others.

1993 Blanka Links:

Yo Joe

(Note: There’s almost nothing on the internet about this figure! Some content about the green version, but nothing on this guy.)

2019 TMB Snow Serpents Ghost Squad (Sunbow Colors)

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2019 TMB Snow Serpents Ghost Squad

So the newest wave of factory customs for 2019 is here, and it’s Snow Serpents. The V1 Snow Serpent is a classic mold and one of the highest quality sculpts from the vintage line, but finding things to do with it that are very interesting will be a challenge. So far of the early repaints, I’m pretty big into the Ghost Squad, which is a figure based on the Snow Serpent’s appearance in the cartoon.

The figure is primarily a stark white and not the off-white of the vintage figure. This is pretty nice, in the way that the white now matches with more figures that used a standard white color like the 1991 Snow Serpent or the Ice Viper. Other than that, the web-gear is painted a gray color, while the eye holes in the mask are painted black; there’s some blue for the goggles, and silver for the buckles. The paint applications and color scheme in general is pretty basic, but it conveys a Sunbow accurate Snow Serpent while maintaining enough detail to be interesting, so for that I quite like it.

I’ve yet to figure out exactly what I see these as in my collection, but the colors are interesting enough they could work for a fair bit. As they’re cast in a more standard white, they actually look more natural with most of my arctic Cobras than the V1‘s do. I’m not too big on making new sub-divisions within my standard Cobra ranks, but it is interesting that their colors match almost perfectly with the 1998 Cobra Polar Force set, so maybe the Ghost Squad is a small group of elites who worked with Firefly once. Sound good to me.

In terms of quality, the figures are overall pretty great. On mine, they pose well and the joints are acceptably tight. There’s few blemishes in the paint, and no casting irregularities I could find. All three that I bought seem to have trouble holding a snowshoe on one foot, but that’s easily rectified with some acrylic gloss in the foot hole.

For parts, you get the full load out of classic Snow Serpent parts including the folding stock AK47, snowshoes, backpack, mortar, and parachute. I was impressed with the quality of the parachute pack in particular, which so far feels durable and works without issue. To match the colors of the figure, all of the parts come in white, which isn’t too bad. My only problem is that the mortar doesn’t stand out very well like this, but there’s plenty of alternatives for that part alone.

These are much less available then past customs, which has some collectors reasonably frustrated. Each color scheme seems to be produced in smaller numbers and some of them are priced closer to the $20 range, unless you buy early or in lots. I figure a lot of it has to do with just how niche many of these Snow Serpent color schemes come across, so the production numbers were probably lowered with lower expected demand. In most cases I’ve not been able to justify the prices for what’s come out so far. Still, it’s an excellent figure and the quality is good, so when you see a color scheme that catches your fancy, I wouldn’t wait around.

2019 TMB Snow Serpents Links:

Python Patrol Snow Serpent at Forgotten Figures

Factory Custom News Thread at ARAH Gallery

2014 TBM Night Stalkers/Female Cobra Troopers

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2014 TBM Female Cobra Troopers

I almost completely forgot about the female Cobra Troopers the Black Major made until I found them in storage lately. I have mixed opinions about these figures, but I do like them a lot overall. Interestingly though, I’ve found these are probably among, or are the least popular factory customs that have been produced, which seems worthy of some commentary.

Whenever female Cobras have been announced, I’ll admit it gets my attention. Outside of Baroness, the toys have always glanced over females in Cobra, but they’ve been there in both the cartoon and the comics. So as toys they present something unique and relatively unexplored for me to collect.

However, as I found with these and the 50th female Cobra Trooper, I just don’t have much need for generic female Cobra Troopers. There are contexts where they make sense, but it’s rare I find myself in the situation to use them like that. You might notice that most of the pictures in this post are pretty old, which is partly because I couldn’t come up with any ideas for new pics besides simple ones of them standing around. Which is a problem I have with the concept more so than this figure, but it’s the primary reason I don’t use these more often.

The figure is constructed from the upper half of the convention Cobra Night Stalker and the lower half of Baroness. Comparatively, the convention Night Stalker used legs from the Cobra Infantry Forces. This discrepancy is subtle and improves the black one in particular, not because the parts are better, but because it makes them more interesting as something different than what it’s based on. It’s a variation of the older figure, but not something that invalidates it.

The biggest issue that most had with this particular run that I have found is the quality. For the most part I found my figures to be about on par with the original TBM Cobra Troopers, with the occasional loose joint or something like that. The paint was good on all of mine and I didn’t get any with casting defects, so that’s enough for me. In certain cases it was hard for them to use their parts, but that’s an issue with the parts being mediocre more so than the figure itself.

For parts, you get a helmet, a Spas-12, and a riot shield from the POC Shock Trooper. It’s a pretty weird allotment of parts, though not bad perse. The weakest link is by far the shotgun, which seems poorly suited to the figure. It’s very large and doesn’t really look proportionate with the figure, plus she has a very hard time holding it. The riot shield is a real treat and as probably the best part from the ridiculously hard to obtain Shock Trooper, getting it in bulk was very nice. The helmet is nice, but unfortunately sits on the figure’s head only by balancing it. The best you can do to get the helmet to stay on is to use something like Blu Tack.

These haven’t appreciated much in value, which makes sense since they were very atypical and not very popular. Typically these go for $10 to $15 depending on the color scheme, and less than that for a few like the yellow ones. The truth is, if you want something different this figure is very much worth having. If you can get past that the parts are mediocre, and the quality is beneath the typical TBM customs, they’re a decent take on the idea of female Cobra Troopers.

2014 TBM Female Cobra Troopers Links:

Joecon Night Stalkers at Yo Joe

Shock Troopers by 00zxcvb

2005 Lonzo R Wilkinson

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2005 Lonzo R Wilkinson

The Comic Packs from the mid 2000‘s really got a lot wrong, which is probably why they floundered so hard at retail. Many of the set’s and especially the early sets were an endless sea of deep green and yellow, which made for a boring and tired retail line. This early impression one might have of the line really overshadowed the great figures that came from it later, such as Lonzo R. Wilkinson.

And, if you have even a cursory knowledge of the Marvel comics you’ll know Lonzo here is Stalker, but from when he was a soldier in Vietnam instead of a GI Joe member. It was a great issue of the comics and the perfect inspiration for a comic pack set, as the included Tommy Arashikage and CLASSIFIED figures are also quite good. It’s unique, interesting and new, while avoiding a concept that’s too niche to make for fun figures.

The part combination used for Lonzo is pretty solid, with a few issues that are emblematic of the era. The figure makes use of Duke’s torso, Tunnel Rat’s upper arms, Gungo Ho’s lower arms, Roadblock’s waist, General Hawk’s legs, and the older comic pack Stalker’s head. The General Hawk legs are the weak link in this recipe, and like many of the 2000‘s ARAH sculpts, the head on Stalker is very, very small. The colors and uniform look good enough that this would be one of my favorite Stalkers were it not for these issues, but they can still be overlooked.

The colors are pretty nice on this release too. They’re vivid and rich, but without relying on the obnoxious amount if neon comic colors that prior figures had opted for. While the green color is very rich and bright, the brown-yellow trim is muted and looks reasonable.

For accessories, you get the comic-pack era M-16 sculpt, and a SAW Viper backpack. The M-16 is a good sculpt, and very nice that they took the time to include a period appropriate gun with the figure. The backpack is pretty dumb though. Was there nothing else they could have included that might’ve looked a little more standard for a Vietnam War soldier?

The comic packs are now unfortunately hard to find, I’ve learned this from experience while trying to fill gaps in my collection. Lonzo on his own seems to float around $15? They pop up so infrequently it’s honestly hard to tell, but this figure and his entire set was fairly popular without being too common, so that sounds about right to me.

2005 Lonzo R Wilkinson Links:

Yo Joe

Joe a Day

GeneralsJoes

2005 Range Viper

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2005 Range Viper

It’s probably a fair statement to say that relatively few people miss the “New Sculpt” era and construction from 2002 to ‘06, but that doesn’t mean some genuinely good toys weren’t made during the period. Hasbro’s Direct to Consumer line did a great job of showing what the style was capable of, and the Range Viper is fine example of that.

The DTC Range Viper changes up the original design in a pretty nice and significant way. Lots of folks used to have a harsher view on the vintage figure’s sculpt, and while I’m probably a bigger fan of that design, this one’s good too. By reusing most of the Valor vs Venom Swamp Rat’s body, the new Range Viper wears what’s more of a wet-suit than the original. It’s different enough that I don’t think the figure really has to be better than the original to maintain a unique appeal.

The helmet is one of the figure’s main attractions. Removable helmets for Cobras haven’t always worked out for Hasbro, like the mail-away Agent Faces helmet that looked large and a little goofy with the figures it was included with. Perhaps one could say the Range Viper’s head is a little small as a consequence of the helmet, but overall the proportions are pretty decent on both the head and the mask. I like a lot of the new helmet design, and overall I think the skull face looks a lot more intimidating on this figure than the original.

While his parts are just recycled bits from the New Sculpt era, I like what they chose for him pretty well. You get a pair of knives to fill the holsters that are a leftover from the Swamp Rat, an MP5K, and a Dragunov SVU. While none of these parts are new, I’m a big fan of the Dragunov SVU and really liked it’s inclusion here. The cool thing about the SVU is that it’s a more modern, bullpup configuration variant of the classic Dragunov. It was originally used by Russia in 1994, so there’s a few figures that could be smartly equipped with it, if you like gun-nerd type stuff.

Thinking about the era this figure was from and my relationship with it really is telling about some of Hasbro’s missteps. When most of the early New Sculpt lines came out, I was still in Hasbro’s primary demographic, but I didn’t buy many of the figures then. Most of my collection of figures like this guy were bought on clearance years after their original releases. I had interest, but Hasbro’s lack of a coherent media push and ideas like Sigma 6 kept me from really engaging the line with anymore than passing glances. It’s a topic I could make an entire rant about on it’s own, but as for what’s prevalent to this Range Viper: I personally think if this figure had been apart of the Robot Rebellion line, and that had an anime/cartoon airing somewhere like Toonami, the brand would be vastly in a better position today.

DTC Range Vipers were popular in their heyday, and it shows with how common they remain in the current market. You find them carded more often than not, and they range from as low as $6 to $9 in that condition. It’s a great army builder and cool interpretation of the Range Viper, so for anyone interested in the style it’s still a worthy addition.

2005 Range Viper Links:

Yo Joe

JoeBattlelines

Modern Custom by Oreobuilder

Black Major Desert Scorpion Trooper

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Black Major Desert Scorpion Trooper

For almost an entire decade now, collectors have been bombarded by an entourage of third-party GI Joe figures, mainly produced by the Black Major. After getting more Cobra Troopers than you can shake a stick at, Night Vipers, Alley Vipers, and an endless amount of other creations, keeping up with all of them is getting hard. A few of the oldest customs go mostly forgotten, which brings me to the Desert Scorpion Trooper from the Black Major.

Essentially, this figure is from his earliest production runs around 2010. It’s made from a different mold than all of the Troopers that came after 2014 or so, and it’s reflected somewhat in the quality of the figure. Don’t get me wrong, the quality’s pretty great, especially for what one would’ve expected back then. Though it’s certainly not as nice as later runs of figures. In general, loose arms tended to be a bit more common with these than the later mold. As well, I found that mine had a slight issue with their hips not wanting to sit straight, a problem the later mold also lacked.

The colors and design, to my knowledge are based on an older bootleg made in small numbers by other individuals. TBM’s figure is a much more saturated tan color, compared to the lighter tan of the older figure. The usage of the Desert Scorpion sigil is similar between the two figures. Personally I think TBM’s version of the design is the better appearance, but it can be argued the old figure was closer in color to Hasbro plastic, so there’s room for debate.

I think when these were new, they were largely overshadowed by the camouflage Troopers that came out at the same time. The added realism of the camouflage, coupled with the amount of detail that it provided on the vintage Cobra Trooper mold made for a figure most collectors couldn’t afford to ignore. This guy on the other hand comes off as more of a standard Trooper with a switched up pallete; yet for me this is one of the figure’s main appeals. While the camouflage figures always looked impressive, they don’t blend in well with most of the vintage ARAH figures. The Scorpion Trooper doesn’t look that out of place comparatively.

Like the V1 Cobra Trooper, this figure only included a Dragunov sniper riffle. Newer Trooper customs have gone to add in a Viper backpack and AK47 from the Cobra Officer, but these were more true to the original. I definitely prefer the AK to the Dragunov, but it’s quite a blessing to be able to hoard up tons of spare AKs and Dragunovs when these were so hard to get with vintage Troopers prior. Even if this figure didn’t have the nice extras, I was plenty happy just getting more Dragunovs.

They show up pretty rarely now, so it’s hard to figure out what the Scorpion Troopers go for on average. Most custom Cobra Troopers don’t go for more than $30, and certain figures will still only run around $15. So although it’s a wide estimate, given their rarity I think it’s fair to say you might see them go for anything in between those two numbers.

Black Major Desert Scorpion Trooper Links:

Early Factory Custom Desert Trooper at Attica Gazette

Display of Black Major Custom Troopers by 00zxcvb

1997 Duke

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1997 Duke

I’ve talked once before about 1997 Duke and cited him as one of the worst GI Joes in my collection. Big emphasis on the “my collection” part, but I’d still consider him a figure with significant issues. With that said, elements of the figure are of decent quality, and parts of his design are… interesting enough to be worth talking about.

Me and my brother collected the 1997 GI Joes, and they were the first “new” line of GI Joes I was able to collect as a kid. While they were controversial to collectors for their quality issues, I really have a special fondness for this year, 1998, and 1994 since those were more or less my introduction to the line. Despite this, my bias doesn’t apply to Duke, as somehow I didn’t know of his existence until I was an adult.

Duke’s first obvious problem is his colors. The 97‘s were prone to some experimental color schemes, that in some cases were excellent. In other cases, you had oddities like this figure. Brown hair, lime shirt, red boots? Looking at his colors makes me feel like the hue on my monitor is off, they’re just way too weird and random for a character like Duke.

But the biggest shame? His paint applications are actually pretty sweet. Check out the detail on his breast pocket, or the decoration just above it, multiple colors on the bandolier, camo on the pants, ect. The only thing he’s missing is some paint for the watch, which is oddly left a giant mass of flesh.

This was also the first Duke that was badly hurt by the original’s missing tooling. Duke’s old arms weren’t something that precious (The Hit&Run arms on the Tiger Force and Chinese variants were great), but these replacements were just terrible. As he uses arms from Gung-ho V1, his sleeves are essentially just painted on; the lack of any thickness or detail just looks unnatural. This was the parts combo the kept for all subsequent Dukes too, which really just adds insult to injury.

His parts are pretty decent, but not perfect. He keeps the gun and binoculars from 1984 Duke, while swapping the helmet for a generic one from ‘97 Grunt, as well as the generic black Hawk backpack that practically every figure from that year had. For some reason, they also decided to toss in a 1982 style visor for his helmet too, which is actually pretty cool. All in all, I really just wish he had a better backpack, but it looks like they kinda tried with this one. Kinda.

Sealed or with the Silver Mirage, 1997 Dukes go for around $30 to $40. Meanwhile the figure can go for about $8 loose and on it’s own. 97‘s go for some pretty random prices, but it certainly seems like Duke is on the less interesting end for the most part, with only figures from the Arctic Mission Team really underpricing him.

Note: I thought I had an alternate version of this picture without the filter, but it’s been lost while swapping computers over years. I’d have taken another to show him off better, but I can’t say the figure motivated me enough to do that!

1997 Duke Links:

Yo Joe

Modern Style Custom by Oreobuilder

2002 Snake Eyes (BJ’s 8-pack)

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2002 Snake Eyes (BJ’s 8-pack)

There’s a lot of interesting classic sculpts I’d like to talk about on this blog. There’s a lot of interesting modern sculpts I’d consider talking about on this blog. Yet, every now and then I have to break things up and just talk about something weird and obscure, both of which accurately describe this Snake Eyes figure.

My first Snake Eyes figure was Ninja Force Snake Eyes, who was among my motley collection of 1994 figures that were truly mine as a kid. But, of characters I had back then Snake Eyes resonated with me the least. Personally I think to be a big Snake Eyes fan, you had to be someone into the comics in the early eighties, and not a GI Joe fan by other means.

BJ’s Snake Eyes is a repaint of 1989 Snake Eyes, who I already dislike quite a bit. It’s funny since overall I’m a big fan of ‘89 figures, but Snake Eyes firmly falls into the category of figures from that year that appeals to me less. The mold was reused one other time for a less interesting ARAHC repaint, and never for something that wasn’t black or Snake Eyes… Which seems like a bit of a waste.

With those things in mind, I have a lot against this figure just from the premise. However, if you want a version of this Snake Eyes sculpt, I personally think this is the best release. Compared to the other two releases, the paint applications are more detailed on this release. Besides the obvious gold and silver details, many of the mold’s pouches and grenades are painted a very subtle gray color. The sculpt also shows off it’s details better on this release which is cast in charcoal gray plastic as opposed black. The GI Joe logo on his leg is dumb and a bit distracting, but overall the figure is well decorated for one as a discount-chain’s store exclusive.

The parts with this figure are comically terrible, but he’s from the BJ’s eight-pack, so you might already have known that. Included is the three-sectioned staff from the original, Big Bear’s AK-88, and a “Sound Attack” uzi painted silver. Of all the parts from ‘89 Snake Eyes they could have kept, the three-sectioned staff is the one I liked the least. For a commando this weapon just feels silly and it’s cumbersome to pose too. The AK-88 is a totally random inclusion that Hasbro had a habit of just chucking around back then. Oddly, it seems like it would’ve been a better fit with the Firefly from the set, who included Beachhead’s gun. Maybe the parts were packed with the wrong figures?

Finding one of these can be tedious just by virtue of how many Snake Eyes figures there are to sort through, but this figure is common and easily acquired complete for $5. I forgot I owned this figure. I got him in a box of random Chinese surplus ages ago and forgot him in a corner of the house. Upon further inspection though, it’s a nice figure, just one that’s so unneeded he’s easy to overlook.

2002 Snake Eyes (BJ’s 8-pack) Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figure (Unproduced Colors)

Generals Joes

1985 Frostbite

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1985 Frostbite

Frostbite is a curious figure. As an arctic figure and a vehicle driver, he doesn’t seem to do much to draw any particular interest, but he’s got some elements I find valuable to point out. Or course, as a fan of polar climates I’m biassed, but I’ll admit to his boring parts too.

On the surface Frostbite’s not a particularly interesting figure. He’s a grinning guy who’s almost entirely white and is meant for sitting in the Snow Cat. However, I think that at least as a sculpt he might be more interesting than the single carded Snow Job and Iceberg who surround his release. There’s a lot of detailed centered around his torso with his pistol holster, fur collar and black undershirt. Little things like the shirt stand out a lot to me, and there’s a pretty comparable amount of paint on him to Snow Job, which is good for a vehicle driver.

But besides just liking to use him I don’t have much to say about him other than that. He’s a minor figure and mainly an accessory to his vehicle. The quality of him is good and what you’d expect from an ‘85 release. For me personally, he’s really just something I sought out early in my collection for being an arctic specialist.

It’s sort of interesting Hasbro thought he was an worthy character of bringing back twice. One of those times was just for a Tiger Force repaint, but the second time was as a single carded figure for Battle Corps. Those are figures I’ll save for another post, but his recurrence in ARAH is a curiosity I’ve yet to figure out.

When I decided to write about this figure, his one accessory was my main motivation. It’s an M16 with a night vision scope. I think a lot of collectors don’t recognize that optic immediately, but it’s a really cool and curious detail for the designers to equip him with. It adds some nice flair to Frostbite, partially implying he might get selected for night-ops a lot. I also find it a great weapon to distribute to other Joes like Night Force members and Lowlight, since the scope really lends itself to their specialties.

V1 Frostbite’s are about as cheap as a figure gets. Typically they run $5 to $8 complete, but if you look you can find them for less than that, commonly. Between his gun and his usefulness as custom fodder, I’ve found that he’s a figure that’s nice to pick up some extras of from time to time.

1985 Frostbite Links:

Yo Joe

3D Joes

1984 Recondo

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1984 Recondo

In the overall story of GI Joe, Recondo seems pretty unimportant. I can’t remember a major moment in the cartoon or in the comics that had a lot to do with him, but despite that his figure is still one of my favorites.

I think a large part of Recondo’s appeal is that he’s a fun and broadly usable figure. As a Jungle Trooper, his area of expertise is fun and relatable to most who would acquire him as kids or adults, and he isn’t alienated from the rest of the cast in a way like Snowjob. It’s a completely different motif, but the underlying charm is quite similar to Footloose.

Growing up I had almost no attachment to the character. The most obvious reason for this is because he had no more figures past the ‘88 Tiger Force repaint. But another reason could be because he didn’t get much screen time in Sunbow. Overall, he received less screen time than characters like Cross-Country and Wild Bill (thanks to Half the Battle for a convenient chart showing this) and only had a major role in about two episodes. So I didn’t ever have much interest in him until I got into collecting vintage more, and I still forget him a lot.

Recondo has a few small variants out there, which is an interesting obscurity to look out for. There’s at least four color variants on the paint used for his camouflage and watch. The hue of the paint ranges from olive to a vibrant green, and the thickness of the stripes can vary as well. Nothing major, but something to look out for should you ever acquire an extra from a lot.

His parts are few, but pretty cool regardless. He comes with a rucksack and a M14E2X, which is basically an M14E2. The gun has a nice wrap sculpted on to it for some added detail and it’s a pretty unique look, especially for a 1984 figure. Meanwhile the backpack features a nicely sculpted handle that can even be held by the figure, which is a nice touch.

Mint complete Recondos should run around $10, which isn’t very much for a cool figure that’s this old now (35 years!). With that said, his camo can be prone to wear and it’s quite common he’s erroneously paired with his Accessory Pack riffle and listed as complete, so these things can complicate finding a decent example.

1984 Recondo Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Recondo by Scarrviper at ARAH Gallery

Joeaday

Yo Joe