1997 Gung-Ho

I think I’ve mentioned before I’m not a huge Gung-Ho fan. I probably should be, as whatever complexes I have about shiftless hill billies aside, he’s a pretty perfect fit for GI Joe’s Vietnam War inspired visuals. Hasbro only repainted this mold once in full (though his skinny biceps cursed many others), which was with this 1997 release as a pack-in with the Slugger. Weird, since they had the Thunder mold, but I guess they wanted to get Gung-Ho out quicker.

Certain figures entered my collection at memorable times with a flood of sentiments behind them. Others, came in on a bit of whim so forgettable, I wouldn’t know when I got the figure if not for a dated photo from around the time. Although he’s very nice, this Gung-Ho is a bit of the later; I remember getting him in the early 2010‘s and that’s about it. I have the Slugger he came with, but I have no recollection if I bought them separate or together. The 2010‘s were a fairly miserable time in my life, so I think a lot of toy acquisitions were less memorable and more of a coping mechanism. Though, I’m glad now I coped by buying cool figures that have only gotten more expensive and harder to find.

Indeed, there’s nothing super special about this figure other than the fact that it’s one of the only alternate coloration out there for Gung-Ho. Action Force repainted him into Gaucho, and there’s some oddball Funskool variants that are all extremely rare. Those toys aren’t too practical to get a hold of though, so this version is your only real repaint of Gung-Ho. In the 2000‘s, Hasbro seemed to favor the Battle Corps mold over this one, and while that seems like a bit of a shame, I do think that toy is better than this one, as a sculpt.

The colors chosen here seem really tasteful and logical compared to a handful of other ‘97 releases. He’s mostly brown with camouflage, and has his details highlighted in a teal similar to the original toy’s color. Compared to the ‘83 version, I feel like the head sculpt comes across better and sharper looking, though I’m not entirely sure why. The paint masks are similar besides the whites of his eyes now being painted, yet the head just looks slightly less bulbous to me.

Like all 1997 releases, he’s plagued by the oversized rivets. So sometimes when you bend his shoulders, the arm runs the chance of crumbling around the rivet. Besides being big, the rivets are also unpainted, which looks super cheap and off compared to almost any other figure. I think this problem gets worse in the winter when the temperature is cold, though I’m not entirely sure.

His accessories are really nice, it’s the full classic kit of parts, but this time they even painted his backpack. So you get a black China Lake grenade launcher similar to the original, and a brown and teal backpack that perfectly matches the figure. Painted accessories are pretty rare with GI Joe, especially backpacks, so it’s just a bit of an odd choice that the straps were painted for this one. At the same time though, I also really appreciate it as something that makes this figure a tad more unique. You also get a figure stand, which we all know better than to use, but still, it was nice for a pack-in figure.

The cheapest a complete figure has sold for in the past six months was $50, which is pretty absurd given he used to be much cheaper than a mint V1 Gung-Ho. Of course, that’s a little exaggerated by the fact that no one does auctions any more, but even then $50 is a little nuts for this figure. Yet, that’s the modern state of GI Joe collecting, so it is what it is. For me, I’m a little hesitant to acquire 1997 Joes at their current prices just for the risk their shoulders could crumble at any given time, though I’m very glad to own this figure, which in my opinion is the superior Gung-Ho.

1997 Gung-Ho Links:

Hlaf the Battle

The 1997 GI Joe line has a weird status with fans at the moment. People remember it, some of the figures have gained popularity they probably didn’t have upon release 20 years ago. But, there’s figures no one talks about still, such as the Storm Shadow this profile is about.

As a kid in the nineties, I had a few options for a Storm Shadow figure, not all of them decent. My brother had a Ninja Force Storm Shadow, which I liked decently, but never stood out to me. Then there was the Shadow Ninja version which I owned, but those toys were terrible for a lot of reasons. Finally, there was this figure. Even back then, the V1 sculpt appealed to me a lot more than the Ninja Force variations, plus he could hold his accessories a lot better, making this my go-to Stormy all the way up to my teenage years.

The best part of this figure is the deco. The black pattern on his torso is directly taken from Ninja Force Storm Shadow, making this figure him in redux form. Like that figure, this Storm Shadow is also a GI Joe team member, hence why he’s sold in a team with Lady Jaye and Snake Eyes. It’s a small touch, but it makes the figure a lot more interesting now than if he’d just been a remake of the original, in a similar vein to the 2005 comic pack figure. The deco is subtle enough that it adds visual appeal to this version, but it doesn’t prevent you from using him as either a Joe or Cobra. As there’s no markings on the figure tieing him to either side, he’s still workable as a Cobra, a role he infrequently adopted when I was a kid, but one that worked none the less. Lastly, he features some grey and beige details the original didn’t have, which highlights the sculpt nicely.

The sculpt is exactly the same as the original figure, which is good. By ‘97, a lot of ARAH molds were already gone or degrading (The shoulder swap on ‘97 Snow Job being one good example, of many) so it was nice to see V1 Storm Shadow still fully intact. Hasbro wouldn’t go on to use this mold very much through the 2000‘s, certainly not to the extent of figures like V1 Firefly. After this, the figure only showed up twice more in the Ninja Cobra Strike Team set as the Black Dragon Ninja and Red Ninja Viper, and once after that again as Storm Shadow in 2005 (but with different shoulders). I see this figure as Hasbro’s best ninja sculpt, so it’s disappointing that it saw so little use. Even more so when you consider the Ninja Force tooling was being used in favor of it. I’m sure that made collectors of the time happy, given how unpopular Ninja Force figures were.

I suppose I could comment on his parts rather than take them for granted. He comes with a katana, wakizashi, nunchucks, bow and quiver/backpack. Exact same parts as the original, which is perfect. All of the parts work well with the figure, as they were intended, but I sometimes forget to appreciate how nice it was for a figure to have his original parts. Later in the 2000‘s Hasbro would start including more random and varied parts that rarely worked with the figures, let alone look good. To my memory, this figure was the last Storm Shadow to include these parts.

All in all, I like this figure a lot. He’s not the original Storm Shadow, but he’s fun and a little unique. He’s also a lot easier to find in pristine white condition than the original, so that’s another plus in his favor. Like other ‘97‘s though, he’s getting a little tougher to find. He tends to float around $12 when one shows up for auction, which seems like a fair price. If you’re okay with ninjas, I think he provides enough qualities to be worth owning alongside the original.