1985 Frostbite

Posted on July 15, 2019 by mwnekoman

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.

Frostbite snowcat polar battle bear PBB Iceberg gi joe cobra arah hasbro vintage 1985 version 1

1985 Frostbite 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

1985 Footloose

Posted on October 15, 2018 by mwnekoman

1985 Footloose

As it turns out, I have a pretty glowing opinion about 1985 figures. It’s a mainstream opinion, but I think a fan of this line would be hard pressed to argue against the overall quality of figures and vehicles released in this year, and by far Footloose lives up to those expectations.

Footloose is the GI Joe toy I always wanted as a kid, although as a kid I had no knowledge of this figure. Realistic (or even just reasonable) portrayals of modern and recent past military designs were of high interest to me, particularly for my GI Joe team roster. But, as a kid of the 90‘s this gave me a very limited selection of figures to enjoy from my own and my brother’s collection. When I did check out Joe offerings in the early 2000‘s, my priorities stayed much the same in this regard.

And indeed, Footloose is a fantastically realistic looking figure. He’s decked out in a camouflaged BDU that looks pretty appropriate for the time period when this figure came out. The web gear, wrist gear, and the overall uniform features a lot of detail to appreciate. I think most importantly though, is that Footloose is a charmingly mundane figure. He doesn’t have the distinguished look of Duke, Flint, or even someone like Gung-Ho, but instead fills the lines need for a figure that actually looks like a reasonable portrayal of an American soldier.

Hasbro was pretty good about not reusing heads during ARAH, but it did happen. In the case of Footloose, his head was reused in ‘86 for Claymore, and again in ‘87 for Rumbler. Both are obscure releases, but outside of the 1982 sculpts, that gives Claymore one of the more frequently reused heads right behind Knockdown.

His filecard is pretty great too:

Meyers was Valedictorian of his high school class, captain of the track team, and an Eagle Scout. He was going for his degree in Phys. Ed. on a state scholarship when he suddenly dropped out, moved to the coast and became quite weird for about three years. He was standing on the boardwalk in Venice pondering something cosmic when the utter pointlessness of his existence hit him between the eyes like a runaway freight train. “I think I’ll join the Army,” he said, and promptly did. Took basic and AIT at Fort Benning, graduated jump school and desert training unit. Qualified expert all NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms.

“Some of the Joes think that Footloose is out there, but all he’s trying to do is find himself. He’s the All-American Boy who got lost on the way to the fair and he’s simply trying to go home any which way he can. Most folks think they know who they are and where they’re going…They’re the dangerous ones!”

Not quite hilarious on the level of Tripwire, but a classic characterization none the less.

Footloose’s accessories are top-notch. He included a helmet, backpack, M16 and a M73-A1 LAWS rocket launcher. The helmet actually features painted foliage on top of it, which is a fantastic detail and an unusual feature for a vintage helmet. The fact that he includes two weapons really ups his usefulness and it’s even better that he can realistically carry both at the same time with the sculpted straps they feature.

A mint complete Footloose is easy to acquire for about $10, but they commonly will go for $15 as well. For such a nice figure from one of GI Joe’s most popular years, it somewhat surprises me that Footloose goes for so little, but I guess that would be a reflection of the character’s popularity compared to Flint, Shipwreck, Snake Eyes and the Cobra army builders from that year that have remained popular and relevant characters to the GI Joe franchise.

1985 Footloose Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Yo Joe

1985 Snow Serpent

Posted on July 23, 2018 by mwnekoman

1985 Snow Serpent

Although the ARAH line was long and prominent through the 80‘s and early 90‘s, 1985 sticks out as probably the zenith year of the line. This year gave us some of the most beloved characters and figures, like V2 Snake Eyes, Flint, and Shipwreck, as well as the most iconic playset, the USS Flagg. The toys were great, the cartoon and comics were going strong, and the Snow Serpent is no exception to the high quality standard we saw that year.

Army builders don’t always have the best bios, but the Snow Serpent’s filecard is pretty cool. It establishes from the get-go that these are the most highly trained, dangerous soldiers in the Cobra hierarchy. “Snow Serpents are the Arctic Specialist branch of the Eels (COBRA Frogmen)” I really like the continuity this set’s up with one of his contemporary figures. The focus on their rank also helps give the figure some substance beyond being another niche Cobra.

Building an army of Snow Serpents has been a long and hard task, and I still don’t have that many. So in my army, these guys remain an elite, highly trained force like in their file cards, while some of the V2‘s and few other later arctic Cobras function as the cannon fodder of their division.

The detail present on this figure is amazing. The Crimson Guard and Eel were both pretty nice, but the Snow Serpent is simply in a league of his own. There’s just so many folds, pockets, pouches and buckles, he seems to have a greater sense of depth to his sculpt than many of his contemporaries. The head has a particularly great look, with it’s face mask, goggles and ridges along the top of his helmet. It’s really neat how much this design has going on, and how well the figure represents it.

One of the best aspects of the Snow Serpent are his accessories. He includes a parachute, backpack, mortar, snow shoes and AK-47. This is a lot of parts, especially since most figures at the time just included a backpack and a gun. Like the figure, the parts feature a lot of nice sculpted details, especially the detailed folds in the backpack. Sadly I’ve still not acquired a 100% complete example, but most of these parts were reused a few times, so it’s pretty easy to augment one with some similar parts.

Snow Serpents are not cheap, but that’s to be expected for a figure that comes with a lot of parts and hails from such a popular year. Complete figures routinely go for around $25, and even without parts they can go for around $9. My personal strategy for acquiring these is to buy cheaper ones that still have a part or two, and slowly acquire enough parts to complete a few while gaining some extra figures for filling out my army and using in dioramas.