2005 Crimson Shadow Guard

Posted on January 28, 2019 by mwnekoman

2005 Crimson Shadow Guard

I’ve mentioned before on this blog, but I missed out on all of the TRU exclusive 6-packs from 2004 and 2005. At the time, I only casually paid attention to GI Joe items that were coming out, and the only 6-packs I ever saw were the Green Shirts and Imperial Procession set. At the time I thought those looked pretty decent, but they didn’t entice me enough to collect them. Had I known about sets like the Cobra Infantry Forces and the Shadow Guard set, I’d have likely started collecting seriously much sooner.

The Shadow Guard was one of the cooler ideas Hasbro came out with in the mid-2000‘s. It was cool enough they even revisited it for the 50th Anniversary line, which is not something you can say for the other 90% of 2000‘s GI Joe ideas that were tossed to the wayside. The filecards are a little vague as to what exactly they do, but essentially they are the Night Force of the Crimson Guards, and a good excuse to do a black repaint of the iconic army builder.

Since I acquired these, they’ve become somewhat replaced in usefulness by the various Black Major Customs Crimson Guards in black, but these still have their value. Cutting to the chase, these lack proper parts and have inferior arms cobbled together from 1992 Duke and 1992 Shockwave. The arms are the real killer, as the bulbous shoulders from Duke limit some movement, and look strange on them.

Other than that though, they feature the newly sculpted masked head from the 2004 Crimson Guard, and the same removable helmet. Personally, think the vintage head/helmet looks better, but these have something unique going for them with that gimmick. The only thing against them is simply that a removable helmet never has the tightness of a sculpted helmet. However, all these years later and now that we have the alternative TBM customs, I like that these provide something unique apart from the vintage mold. Neither one is explicitly better, they’re just different.

Nothing too crazy is going on with their deco. Essentially the figure is solid black with a few silver details such as those on their wrists, as well as some gold for their shoulder tassel and Cobra sigil. They kept it simple and the figures look good for it, something that can’t be said for the Night Force set from the same time.

This set used to really get put down for the parts, and I have to say they weren’t the most well executed. The idea of course being that the Shadow Guard uses mostly silent, stealth weapons for their various activities, a fun sounding premise. But instead of say, a few silenced Uzis from a Snake Eyes figure, or maybe one of the Low-Light V1 or V3 guns, they just gave us a generic assortment of Ninja Force era weapons. That includes a three-sectioned staff, claw, two different swords, crossbow, and a bow and arrow.

Now, you know if they had included ordinary guns, odds are I’d still be here complaining about the parts just based on the other releases from that era. And, a few of these aren’t that bad, in fact I do quite like using the V1 Scarlet crossbow they included. I think an extra one of these and maybe some of the suppressed guns I had mentioned would’ve gone a long way to improving this area of the set.

Lose Crimson Shadow Guards float around $8, while sealed sets seem to go between $30 and $40. Compared to the other TRU exclusives from the time, these aren’t nearly as hard to find, or as costly. For the quality they provide and given the relative rarity of the similar custom figures, that’s not a bad price at all. These are still something that’s worth looking out for if you haven’t acquired them by now.

crimson guard shadow guard tru exclusive gi joe valor vs venom 2005 arah hasbro a real American hero

2005 Crimson Shadow Guard Links:

1995 Star Brigade War Dog (Unreleased Prototype)

Posted on January 21, 2019 by mwnekoman

1995 Star Brigade War Dog

Before anyone gets too excited, I don’t own a War Dog prototype or anything as fantastic as that. But ever since I got deep into GI Joe collecting over a decade ago, this item has fascinated me more than a lot of other unreleased items from 1995. You rarely see much about this concept, and my blog provides me with a platform to ramble about it, so I will.

Gi joe unproduced star brigade war dog prototype 1995 1994 hasbro kenner arah

For the longest time, I only knew about this figure through it’s pages on Yo Joe!, featuring it’s official (or is it just more concept?) art, and an early mock-up figure that existed of it. The mock-up figure is a particularly interesting piece showcasing the early design phase of the more abstract entries into the line like this. It’s made from a few different toys that came out in 1993, mostly from Mattel. The majority of the figure was made from a Jurassic Park Dimetrodon. Heavy Duty’s gun is also quite noticeable on him.

The prototype is basically meant for showcasing the concept in an utmost basic physical form. I have to say it’s quite ugly, maybe even silly looking like this, and a far cry from the monster portrayed in the art above.

Much to my surprise, an actual newly sculpted hard copy does exist. The only way I know of it is through the article on the Star Brigade from Joe Declassified, featuring a picture of it you can see here. Seeing it’s size next to Duke makes me really curious how they would have planned to sell this thing. Would it have come out blister-carded at a normal price-point? Or would they have sold it in a box more like a small vehicle?

This prototype is a lot closer to the art, and a lot better looking. I’d be curious if me or my brother would have bought it had it come out to retail, but somehow I doubt we would have. My novel interest in this piece aside, this was firmly the wrong direction for GI Joe. I get that the design team was trying to keep the brand relevant with pop culture and the tastes of children at the time. However, in the pursuit of that it diluted the brand with strange products and moved towards imitating, not innovating.

But among the myriad of terrible, strange ideas they’d have attempted, the War Dog strikes me simply as the most interesting. So many questions that could be asked about it. There’s very little content about him on the internet, and if you know of anything I missed or any other prototypes of War Dog, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

1995 Star Brigade War Dog Links:

Yo Joe Concept Art

Yo Joe Mock-up Figure

3D Joes

Joe Declassified

1993 Heat Viper (Version 2)

Posted on January 14, 2019 by mwnekoman

1993 Heat Viper (Version 2)

When I was collecting in my teenage years, my early vintage acquisitions were some odd ones, mainly flavored by both odd tastes and conditions. The condition being, that for a while early on I did not buy loose toys. Back then I was really bothered about not knowing where my toys had been, but with time I came to desire more vintage items then I did new ones, so the only practical solution was to forget this phobia. Still, it meant my early purchases tilted more towards what was practical to buy MOSC, such as the Battle Corps Heat Viper.

It was pretty fun buying a vintage figure for the sake of opening. I know some of you might find that sentence a bit sadistic, but on a cheap (and honestly crappy) figure like this Heat Viper, it’s an experience with enough novelty value I found it worth a small premium. The truth is, I don’t remember opening many ARAH GI Joes. Most of the oldest toys I had as a kid were ones I was borrowing from my brother, though I had my own collection of figures from ‘93 and ‘94 acquired on clearance years later. So there was a lot about the feel of the packaging I didn’t remember.

“This new generation of Cobra anti-tank specialists are equipped with the latest in hyper-kinetic, high-speed, armor-piercing technology. When they spot a G.I. Joe vehicle (especially a nice Battle Wagon, Patriot, or Mudbuster) they sit perfectly still, lining up the tracker sights on target to guide their projectile. Then they try to squeeze off one of their hand-held rockets knowing they’ve only got one shot because if they miss, there isn’t a G.I. Joe worth his salt who’ll let that poor fool try for seconds!”

Interestingly, his secondary specialty is listed as being the Earthquake Driver. They did this a lot in the line’s twilight years, where instead of including a vehicle driver with the vehicle, a random single-card figure was just named it’s driver. I really can’t see why a Heat Viper would also be driving what amounts to a weaponized construction vehicle, but oh well.

The Heat Viper himself is a boring, maybe even terrible figure. The original Heat Viper had it’s fair share of problems, so it’s amazing they created what is almost surely a downgrade from that. The figure is almost totally devoid of either sculpted or painted details. He’s just a guy in green tights, and he looks as much like an anti-tank trooper as he does a ninja. Besides that, he’s all of three colors, and he wears his underwear on the outside. So he doesn’t have much going for him visually.

Gi joe arah vintage cobra heat viper hasbro 1993 dr mindbender parts

Nothing gets better with his accessories. The generic combo of the PSG1 (Rock Viper riffle), the Annihilator’s SMG, and Iron Grenadier’s pistol all in fluorescent green makes him feel almost like a parody of a 90‘s figure. I normally skip commenting on missile launchers, but in the case of this Heat Viper, it’s one of his more interesting accessories. It shares a lot of details with the V1 Heat Viper’s bazooka, even having the distinctive “Fang” logo on the launcher. So for once, it’s character appropriate, and although it’s a very cumbersome part, it’s one of the only launchers I’d ever contemplate displaying a figure with, so there’s that.

In proper correspondence with the figure’s quality, the V2 Heat Viper is nearly worthless. A MOSC figure will still sell for about $12, which is maybe only a dollar or two more than what I paid for a carded one almost a decade ago. Save for the missiles, you can typically find these nearly complete for around $6. Through lots, you’ll get a good number of them for even less, which is what I’ve done over the years. There’s not much good to say about him, but it’s a cheap acquisition to pad out a 90‘s collection if you seek that.

Gi joe arah vintage cobra heat viper hasbro 1993 dr mindbender

Gi joe arah vintage cobra heat viper hasbro 1993 dr mindbender cardback

Gi joe arah vintage cobra heat viper hasbro 1993 dr mindbender cardfront

1993 Heat Viper (Version 2) Links:

2003 Wreckage

Posted on January 7, 2019 by mwnekoman

2003 Wreckage

I recall the 2000‘s as an era of mostly missed opportunities for Hasbro and GI Joe. There was some nice stuff, but more that often missed the mark. This is certainly not the case always, and one example of a figure that holds up well is 2003 Wreckage.

It’s funny that some of Hasbro’s better item’s from back then were Firefly repaints. V1 Firefly was one of the molds they honestly used a bit too much, but it’s still hard to fault any of the repaints as being bad figures besides maybe BJ’s Firefly. The unfortunate side effect of this is some mold degradation that affects figures like Wreckage a good amount, but it’s not too noticeable thanks to his darker colors.

Wreckage is a worthy and cool repaint for paying homage to the unreleased Tiger Force Sabre Tooth from the vintage line. Of course, the two figures don’t look much alike, beyond both being Firefly in a Tiger Force centric color scheme. Sabre Tooth has more of the classic TF green and orange, while Wreckage swaps these colors for yellow, black and tan. While it’s somewhat off putting to me that the original Sabre Tooth colors were ignored in favor of new ones, I honestly think that these colors are more unique and interesting on Wreckage, and help him stand apart in the sea of similar colors featured on the vintage Tiger Force.

I get really curious as to what Sabre Tooth’s filecard might have been like. Wreckage’s bio seems pretty juvenile to me:

WRECKAGE perfected his craft at the Army Jungle Warfare Training Center, where he served as a member of the OpFor (Opposing Forces) cadre. It was his job to play the enemy in training exercises, and he took his job very seriously indeed. His favorite trick was to sneak up behind a trainee and write “bang, you’re dead,” on the back of his helmet without him knowing he was there. Once, he booby-trapped a drink cooler with a live skunk and left it in the path of a thirsty trainee patrol. His methods may have been irregular, but they worked; his victims never forgot the lessons he taught them. Any demolitions specialist can set a charge and blow something up, but WRECKAGE is also an expert at defusing and disarming demolitions. This is quite an asset in hostile territory where one is apt to find all sorts of dangerous stuff just lying around waiting to be stepped on or activated by a trip wire. He is even better at spotting these troublesome devices and avoiding them entirely, which is why the other members of the G.I. JOE TIGER FORCE team are always glad to have WRECKAGE along on any mission.
“If it goes off with a bang, I treat it with respect. Even if it’s a little firecracker. Anybody who doesn’t is a fool, plain and simple.”

It’s not as bad as something like Big Brawler’s bio, but it bounces between making him some kind of trickster and a Tripwire replacement. So, I’m left to my own devices to figure out what Wreckage really is. “Jungle Warfare Instructor” is a pretty cool secondary MOS, so I like to think that he might have helped reinforce the training for all members of the Tiger Force, and might still serve as something of a tactical advisor. He’s also good enough when I just turn my brain off and use him as Tiger Force Firefly.

GI Joe Tiger Force TRU Toys R Us 2003 Firefly cobra sabre tooth wreckage

Like almost every release of the V1 Firefly mold, Wreckage comes with the same gun, backpack and walkie-talkie. Oddly though, this figure doesn’t include the cover for his backpack, and I’m left clueless as to why. It couldn’t have cost that much to include it, and subsequent Firefly’s had it, so they didn’t lose the mold. It was just removed for no apparent reason. Otherwise, his accessories leave me with no real impression. It’s good they kept the vintage parts, though as a tiny criticism I wish they were some color unique to this release instead of black.

For an oddball exclusive from 2003, Wreckage is a lot more common than I’d have thought. I think it’s safe to say he was the most interesting figure from the set he came in, so likely many collector’s have sought him out in particular at some point. The prices tend to range on him a bit too, but $10 to $15 seems to be what’s typical. I think this is an interesting figure, and of the post-ARAH Tiger Force releases, this one seems to add the most to the vintage assortment.

2003 Wreckage Links:

GI Joe in 2018: A Look Back at the Best Content

Posted on December 31, 2018 by mwnekoman

The GI Joe brand may not be in the best of places with no retail releases in years and virtually no media support (besides some poopy comics), but the GI Joe fandom is keeping the brand fun, interesting and alive despite that. This week I’m featuring some content from around the community that I thought was really interesting from the past year.

As always, Forgotten Figure’s had Rarities month and displayed some very interesting items. I took a lot of interest in the Calcium Sandoz figures from Funskool, particularly the Hydro Viper which I had never seen prior to this.

Rarities – Funskool Calcium Sandoz Figures

The Canadian Consumer Distributing exclusive Cobra Combat Tank was another rather interesting piece highlighted. These early Joe exclusives really interest me, especially for how different much of the early line’s minimalist aesthetics were.

Rarities – Canadian Consumer Distributing Cobra Combat Tank

The Dragon Fortress had a great post highlighting every Cobra from 1991. Individually, a lot of these figures come across as hidden gems, but all together you start to get a picture of how good a year 1991 was.

1991: The Year Cobra Broke (a Tribute) – Cobra Convergence 3

Attica Gazette did a fantastic post demonstrating how he gets ideas for composing his photos. I personally feel like my own diorama compositions could use some work, so I found this post really helpful.

Diorama Trials & Tribulations

He also did a fun group event with Forgotten Figures and the Dragon Fortress showing off Tiger Force Tripwire. It was really neat seeing the three unique perspectives on the figure, so don’t forget to check out Forgotten Figure’s post here and Dragon Fortress’s post here as well.

Tiger Force Tripwire

Cobra Island’s been doing some great work reviewing and profiling almost all of the new factory customs as they get produced. I found this index pretty helpful, also be sure to check out his two most recent spotlight’s of the Snow Serpent Night Viper and Night Viper OG ReDeux.

Black Major Toys, Red Lasers Army & Letal Customs Review Gallery Index

There’s been some really fantastic dioramas posted as well, especially at ARAH Gallery. Here are a few of my favorites:

Lastly, you might be wondering what the most popular post here on the Viper Pit was for all of the past year. I was wondering that too, and not to much of my own surprise, it was my post on the TBM custom Python Troopers. Factory Customs are pretty much the only thing keeping GI Joe collecting alive these days, and that’s definitely where the interest is on my blog.

Black Major Custom Python Troopers

Gi Joe action figures Cobra vintage V1 Python Patrol

That’s all for now folks, see you next year here on the Viper Pit.

2004 TRU Night Force Tunnel Rat

Posted on December 10, 2018 by mwnekoman

2004 TRU Night Force Tunnel Rat

I’ve never been a fan of the 2004 Night Force set. It’s really not bad in retrospect, but the figures are a poor match for the superior vintage Night Force colors. The 2003 Python Patrol set was a far better update to the vintage Python colors compared to this, but there are a few interesting figures in this set. Today I’ll have a look at Tunnel Rat, who I feel is neither the best or worst figure included.

This set passed me by at retail without my knowledge (or caring), and when I got into collecting older item’s a few years later, this set was still at the bottom of my priorities. In fact, I’ve only acquired two thirds of the set to date, mainly through lots and the like. My disinterest in the figures spurns from a simple reason: they’re bland. The colors and details are pretty good across the set, but at a glance all I see is black.

Such is the case with Tunnel Rat. The vintage Night Force Tunnel Rat had a strong palette of colors without being boring to look at. The 2004 figure on the other hand, has an excessively dark color scheme. There’s a lot of colors and details in this deco, and really it’s a well decorated figure. It’s just that the colors are so dark you can hardly appreciate that, which is a massive shame.

Speaking of details, one thing that drives me nuts about 2000‘s Joes moreso than pinheads, terrible parts and poor mold choices is the usage of the full GI Joe logo. For some reason this became of visual trope of figures from this era, and Tunnel Rat features it on his leg like all the other figures in the set. It’s especially jarring on this figure where dark, realistic colors are part of the appeal, and then you just have a massive toy brand logo running down his leg. I really hate that.

For accessories, he included Red Star’s AK47, and V1 Firefly’s backpack and walkie-talkie. It’s a pretty weird situation when a figure comes with good parts, but still doesn’t really have a good loadout. I pretty much always enjoy getting a spare Firefly walkie, but the backpack without his tool tray is pretty off-putting. All in all, these parts are good things to have in a parts bin, but for Tunnel Rat, they don’t suit the character.

So, overall this Tunnel Rat is an okay figure. There’s a few worse versions of Tunnel Rat, such as the Sonic Fighters repaint, but that doesn’t make this figure’s problems any better. Nowadays completionists will pay a lot for the sparse appearance of this figure “complete”, but as the parts are totally generic, I don’t recommend bothering with them. Partsless, you can get this guy for about $6 or $7, and depending upon how you view the colors, that isn’t a terrible price. Most of these 2000‘s TRU exclusives have become a lot harder find and a lot more expensive, but the Night Force set hasn’t appreciated in value quite as much.

Tunnel Rat gi joe Short Fuze Downtown 1989 2004 2003 Toys R Us Night Force Hasbro ARAH

2004 TRU Night Force Tunnel Rat Links:

1993 Alley Viper

Posted on December 3, 2018 by mwnekoman

1993 Alley Viper

Before the superb Black Major custom Alley Vipers and the plethora of well colored Alley Viper repaints in the 2000‘s, you had one alternative for an Alley Viper who wasn’t orange. That alternative, was the Battle Corps Alley Viper.

Compared to other Battle Corps reimaginings, this Alley Viper has gone through a few spats of collector popularity. It seems strange since you’d imagine the neon yellow would be a buzzkill for most normie collectors, but with the original Alley Viper donning orange and baby blue, it does make sense. In particular, I remember when collectors were going mad to get every figure updated in the modern/25th anniversary style, a lot of folks actually wanted this design over the 1989 version.

And for a figure that does lazily reuse the lower half of the V1 Alley Viper, it’s a pretty solid redesign. Personally I tend to prefer the 2000‘s repaints not only for their colors, but also for the swap to V1 Duke legs, as I feel that balances their proportions a little more and makes the sculpt more unique, but there’s nothing wrong with the legs used here. A lot of the V1 Alley Viper’s design and gear are retained on this version, such as how they both feature a knife and grenade on their vests. In some ways it makes the two figures almost cohesive, which could lend itself to using them as a single unit (especially the V1 and the 1994 repaint of this figure.)

When I was a kid I had access to this figure, the 1994 repaint and the V1 version. Of them, the ‘94 repaint was my favorite, with this guy in a close second. I reasoned that the armored look made him a strong adversary of the Ninja Force. So typically the shield and face mask were for countering ninjas.

One of the popular features of this sculpt is the shield and face mask. The face mask has a feline, beast like aesthetic which is very cool. Personally I prefer the look of the V1 mask, but this one has a lot more personality. Meanwhile his shield is a large Cobra symbol, which depending upon how you look at it is either very cool or somewhat overbearing. The original shield was far more practical and interesting looking to me, but in truth I’ve always had a hard time getting that figure to hold it well. Meanwhile the V2 Alley Viper here has a shield that just clips on his wrist, and as a toy this just functions better.

Other than the mask and shield, he included V1 Dial-Tone’s SMG, a modified version of the V1 Alley Viper’s gun and backpack, and a yellow missile launcher. This is a pretty good assortment of parts, and best yet they’re all in black. For some reason though, they changed the foregrip on the Alley Viper gun to be a solid block that the figure can’t hold. Why? Sure, most of the time I want to pose the figure with his shield and can’t use the grip anyway, but it just doesn’t serve any purpose to change it. For that, I tend to prefer posing him with the Dial-Tone SMG.

Complete V2 Alley Vipers run around $20 now. Carded ones show up more than you might expect and actually run about the same price, which I suppose we can thank vintage scalpers for. I like this figure a lot, but for that much money there’s better and way cheaper alternatives, where this figure strikes me as having more of a novelty appeal.

1993 Alley Viper Links:

Yo Joe

3D Joes

1985 Tollbooth

Posted on November 19, 2018 by mwnekoman

1985 Tollbooth

Tollbooth is a strange figure for sure. He’s obscure, but he’s also fairly well liked by collectors. He’s a good looking figure; but isn’t all that useful. He has the older swivel-neck construction in a year where most of the other releases had ball joints. For one reason or another he’s a figure that’s just stranger than he should be.

Anything associated with GI Joe from 1986 and prior is a core part of the brand’s image and is generally well remembered. Odd characters like Copperhead and Wild Bill for example, aren’t really all that important yet Joe fans can sometimes herald them as irreplaceable parts of any decent character roster. That’s likely why characters like this continually saw updates going as far back as the tail-end of the vintage line. It makes sense, as this was the golden age for GI Joe; Tollbooth seems to be an exception to this line of thought however.

His obscurity likely isn’t helped by the vehicle he came packaged with, the Bridge Layer. It’s just a guess, but I imagine a typical kid buying Joe vehicles would go for something more action oriented like a Moray or VAMP ahead of what’s essentially a support vehicle. Of course, that’s far from a dismissal of the Bridge Layer. It’s a cool vehicle but logically, it’s only useful if you already have a collection of GI Joe vehicles at hand.

Tollbooth’s sculpt is honestly fantastic, and features a lot of nice details to look at. I think the best part is his head, with his strongly pronounced square jaw and tilted hardhat. There’s a lot of personality that just seems to emit from it that you didn’t see in every figure back then. The open shirt and dog-tags go along with that look.

The going rate for a mint Tollbooth is about $12 and sans hammer $6. He’s a really nice figure to go for so little, but the truth is that there isn’t too much to do with him. He’s meant to fill a support role and primarily drive a niche vehicle, so there’s not a whole lot of need for him. On the flip side, when you look at the quality present in a figure this obscure, it really speaks volumes about how much care went into the line to that point.

1985 Tollbooth Links:

Forgotten Figures

Yo Joe

Joe a Day

1987 Crystal Ball

Posted on November 12, 2018 by mwnekoman

1987 Crystal Ball

Originally, I was going to take a new photo of Raptor for this week’s post and write about him, but I forgot where I put him. So instead, I’m looking at a figure of similar quality and status among the collecting community: Crystal Ball.

1987 was the start of a different chapter in the life of the vintage ARAH line. With the GI Joe movie leading the push, the toy line took a deeper step into the sci-fi and fantasy elements of the line. It would seem fair to say that most of these concepts never took off well, and Crystal Ball’s a good example of that.

It may even be fair to say that Crystal Ball was one of, if not the most unpopular figure from the original line. Of course, there’s nothing but old stories and anecdotes to back up that claim, but it’s pretty common you hear about how badly this figure peg-warmed upon release. My older brother who had this figure, wasn’t even old enough for toys until closer to 1990. Let that paint an image in your head of how long these lingered at retail while all of the other ‘87 and ‘88 figures had long sold out.

With his infamous nature being said, I find that Crystal Ball really isn’t that bad of a figure, at least not compared to a few of his contemporaries. The paint is rather well detailed on the figure, especially his head. His hair is painted black and white, I suppose to represent graying; his eyelashes and irises are separately painted black and red too. The rest of the figure’s design may not make the most interesting Cobra agent, but at the very least it’s nicely colored and detailed.

Crystal Ball has two major weaknesses, the first being his character. He’s a hypnotist, and he interrogates Joes by reading their minds… I mean I guess it’s only as crazy as aliens, monsters, Serpentor and whatever else I’m fine with in Joe, but Crystal Ball just seems hokey on a conceptual level. It’s commonly said that Stephen King and his son Owen were either involved with, or directly created this character, which explains it enough for me.

“Born of a Romalian father (who supposedly had “second sight”) and an American mother from Bangor, Maine, Crystal Ball actually was the seventh son of a seventh son . . . and such men, the gypsies of old believed, were possessed of supernatural powers. That may or may not be true, but Crystal Ball can sometimes read minds, making him a unique addition to the Cobra forces, especially as an interrogator of captured Joes. Cobra doesn’t use torture to interrogate their prisoners; when Crystal Ball is having one of his good days, they simply don’t need to.
“When Crystal is around, ya don’t just have to watch what you’re sayin’; you have to watch what you’re thinkin’!” ”

Crystal Ball’s other major weakness, is his parts. The only thing he includes is a holographic shield that clips on his wrist. It’s a boring part/gimmick and I doubt it held the attention of children back then for long. Interestingly, most of the 1987 Cobra’s don’t include a gun, and Crystal Ball is no exception.

As you may know, the market for vintage figures has seen a lot of bizarre pieces shooting up in value recently. That’s certainly not the case for Crystal Ball, as this guy is as worthless as ever. Often you can find mint, complete Crystal Ball’s going at auction for around $5. If you don’t care about his silly shield, his value seems to plummet further to only a dollar or two. It’s very telling as to what collectors feel about the figure. Personally I don’t think he’s that bad, but I can’t think of a reason why anyone would really need him.

1987 Crystal Ball Links:

Yo Joe

Half the Battle

Diorama by Cradea2

2005 Zartan (DTC Comic Pack)

Posted on November 5, 2018 by mwnekoman

2005 Zartan

In 2005, GI Joe was low on my collecting radar and Toys R’ Us was a seldom stop for me. So most of the comic pack figures came and went without my knowledge. My collecting interests changed a lot as the 2000‘s came to a close, and with a bigger interest in oddball 2000‘s items like these, I picked up most of the good comic pack figures around 2010 and ‘11. The overstock was so bad on these they were available for years after release at retail price and even below that, which provided me with a good avenue for some unfamiliar sculpts. One such sculpt that I had never owned, was Zartan.

I think Zartan could be argued as one of the most important villains in the GI Joe storyline, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have a great history of action figures. After the classic V1 figure, you have a strange but decent Ninja Force release, a terrible ARAHC figure, some novel Joecon items, and a pair of sub-par New Sculpt era figures. As someone who wasn’t even born in the 80’s, it was always frustrating to have to few options for such a cool character.

For a comic-pack release, this Zartan is really nice. The colors are nicely different from the V1 figure, but aren’t so much of a departure that they look wrong. Of course, he no longer changes colors like the V1 figure, but some collectors might appreciate that gimmick being lost. Save for the head, the sculpt is entirely recycled from the V1 figure and marks the only other time it saw a retail release. If there had been a handful more of good or even decent repaints of this figure, this release might not have been as worthwhile, but such was not the case.

Speaking of that head, I have mixed feelings on it. Like a lot of figures from the time, it’s a little small. The face sculpt is pretty good, although I think the shape of the cowl looks a little exaggerated. The face paint is also strange looking, with black going all the way up his forehead.Has he ever looked like this? The sculpt looks a lot worse without that trademark diamond pattern on his face.

I never liked Zartan’s removable chest and leg pads. Like with the HEAT Viper, it seems they serve no purpose beyond getting lost. This figure loses Zartan’s iconic pistol and disguise and replaces it with a bow, arrow and quiver. The convention figure didn’t have it either, so I assume it was lost in the transition between Funskool and Hasbro. These parts were a huge appeal with the original and it’s a shame they were lost. At the very least, the new bow and arrow set’s nice in it’s own right, and is an appropriate part for the character.

V1 Zartan’s aren’t cheap or easy to get, and the later figures are all either novelties or are crappy. So if you want an alternative for a decent Zartan figure, your choices are this one and the Funskool figure. They certainly aren’t as easy to find as they used to be (what is), but the sealed set with a nifty Fred Cobra Commander, Zarana and a reprint of #74 barely tops $20, so that’s not a bad option.

2005 Zartan Links:

Generalsjoes

Yo Joe

Joe A Day