The Viper Pit

1986 Beach Head

Posted on July 4, 2023 by mwnekoman

1986 Beachhead

Masked commandos always make for some of the coolest characters. Of course, I’ve seen some people that very much think otherwise, but there’s no doubt that the cool look plays a role in Beachhead’s popularity. And Firefly’s. And Shockwave’s too. Before I knew too much about the character, I was mainly attracted to him just for the fact that he’s a reasonable looking commando with a balaclava.

Beachhead has a really fine sculpt and design. He’s detailed, his gear has an interesting look, and he even has extra clips on his chest that match his SMG. The only real wart is his head: it’s massive, which is unfortunately consistent with most of the ‘86 line. The massive noggins from that year stick out so much to me that I do suspect it was intentional, but I wonder what the thinking was. I feel like these sculpts tend to age more poorly than other vintage sculpts, just because the proportions are so odd by comparison.

He’s got some nice colors and paint work on him too. This dark cyan tone wasn’t seen so much in the vintage line, which does make Beachhead stand out a lot. There’s a nice little patch tampographed onto his left-shoulder, some gray paint for his clips, even a little splash of red for the beret (?) sculpted onto his shoulder. I never really knew what the red thing on his shoulder is, but I kind of think it’s a hat. Oddly, it’s not present on his card-art, so I guess it was a late addition to the design.

V1 Beachhead also has another problem I really hate: his crotch. This figure has one of the thinnest, daintiest waist pieces in the entire line, and you will find plenty of broken ones because of that. This is the main reason that I default to the Funskool figure anytime I need a Beachhead for something, as the softer plastic is much more resistant to breakage. Although the 2000‘s brought plenty of Beachhead repaints, it’s a shame we didn’t get this sculpt in comic colors or something close to the olive used on the 25th figure, as personally I still want a normal looking Beachhead that doesn’t scare me as much as the V1 figure.

The included accessories for Beachhead are his SMG in dark-gray plastic, a backpack in black, and a flexible black satchel. If he had just been another guy with a gun and a backpack like Leatherneck, it’d have been a bit boring, but the little ammo-pouch does a lot to make Beachhead seem like he comes with more. His SMG is a classic part, it’s a Demro XF-7 Wasp. He looks great holding it and it’s really easy for virtually any figure to use it, too. It is a very odd choice of weapon for a Joe, as the Wasp wasn’t ever adopted by any military or law-enforcement, but it looks really cool, and that’s probably why the designers chose it too.

I’d say a mint, complete Beachhead is worth about $25, but sometime $35, especially for one with the filecard. He’s a popular figure that’s prone to damage in a few ways, so often times you’ll see examples sell for way more than that, but he’s not really worth more then $35 at any point. With that said, finding a mint Beachhead really is more of a pain in the ass than it usually is for a common figure; you can scroll through a bunch of listings and find most will have some kind of egregious flaw. I think he’s worth it, but if you don’t care too much, the Funskool and Night-Force versions make good replacements.

1986 Beach Head Links:

1986 Hawk

Posted on May 22, 2023 by mwnekoman

1986 Hawk

The “OG13” Joes are a set I like a lot, though most of them were greatly benefited by getting new toys over time. Hawk is one of those figures, as to me, this is the original Hawk, the one with Flash’s head never existed. He is entirely replaced by this figure and I have little desire for V1 Hawk because of that. It’s still not the perfect figure of Hawk, but whenever I need him, this is the one I go to by default.

That’s not to say I dislike the ‘82 lineup of characters, but half of them looking the same really made some need new toys more than others. The bearded guys (Clutch, Rock&Roll and Breaker) don’t bother me for them all looking the same, but Hawk, Zap and Grand Slam are the three who seem the hardest to tolerate. Unfortunately Grand Slam never got a decent do-over (ignoring the convention figure), but Hawk got a good one, and amazingly they didn’t give him any absurd gimmicks or weird sculpting to get in the way of that.

Hawk has a nice sculpt, it’s not great, but it’s very good. The sculpt is very well proportioned and he has a nicely sized head, an unusual feature given his release year. I think his face looks a little derpy compared to how I imagine Hawk should look, but it’s not terrible. His jacket is also really well detailed and is one of the most eye-catching aspects about the figure. Another small detail I really like about him, is the empty pistol-holster on his right leg, so he has a spot for the gun that he comes with. I don’t know why he has a second (gold) gun on his chest, but it’s nice to see come continuity between the sculpted details and the figure’s accessories.

To be honest, I actually dislike his parts a fair amount. He includes a green backpack and helmet, along with a black pistol. His helmet looks really big on his head, and the sculpt on it isn’t the sharpest among GI Joe helmets. The backpack’s pretty bulky too, I don’t mind it quite as much, but I don’t think it looks really great with him. His pistol is a cool part though, I’m not sure which one it is, but it isn’t a Walther PPK/9mm for sure. It’s shared with Keel-Haul from the prior year, just now in black, and looks like a nice and standard semi-automatic pistol. I’m a little more fond of Chuckles’ pistol, which you’ll often see my Hawk with in photos, but Hawk’s gun is good too.

Hawk was offered as a mail-in in ‘91, and they swapped his parts for a ‘91 Cobra Commander SMG. I don’t think the figure is any different other than that, though the gun is a definite downgrade. That SMG is a fine part, but only ever showed up in the weirdest places, usually in the weirdest colors. Hawk gets it in the same gold color as Cobra Commander, which is unfortunate as this gun would be a lot nicer in black. I don’t know if it’s based on a specific gun, as although it’s reminiscent of many 1940‘s SMG’s, it also looks a lot like the Smith & Wesson M76, which was a Vietnam-era gun.

Although there were a few attempts, I don’t feel like the perfect Hawk was ever really made. This figure is the best, but his head still isn’t what I think the character should look like. The sculpt was later recolored for the ‘97 release, which is nice, but doesn’t really fix any of his problems. His torso and waist were then recolored for the comic-pack release in ‘05, which featured a very ugly head and a bunch of parts from the ‘92 Talking Battle Commander figure, topped off with sparse paint-applications and clown-colors.

Much to my surprise, V2 Hawk’s remain relatively cheap figures. If you’re feeling lazy and impatient, you can easily get a mint complete figure for around $17, but good examples often go for $10 or less. There’s a lot of repo pistols floating around out there for him now, so if you mind that kind of thing, you’re probably better off chancing the cheaper ones and looking for examples that are likely from childhood collections.

1986 General Hawk Links:

Forgotten Figures (Around the Web)

1986 HAVOC

Posted on May 2, 2022 by mwnekoman

1986 HAVOC

When I was a kid, I loved GI Joe: the Movie. It was one of the only pieces of media I had to know GI Joe by, all on a continually degrading VHS recording, probably from before I was born. Among the mostly 1986 and ‘87 cast featured in the film was the HAVOC. I knew the STUN, also prominently featured in the film through the Python STUN, but there was no Sky HAVOC in my house, leaving me to wonder for years what kind of awesome vehicle it might be. Then at some point in the 2010‘s I finally got one, and to this day I’m still not sure what to think about it.

Because of it’s connection to the movie, and those years spent wondering what it might be like, it’s one of the few 80‘s Joe items I have some real sentimental value with. Not a lot, but I’m biased in favor of it just for the fact that I wanted one for so long, and the satisfaction associated with finally getting one. When I try to put that aside, I’m mightily tempted to call the HAVOC a bad vehicle, as it treads a fine line between “fun” and “very stupid”.

The best thing about the HAVOC is that it has a lot of play features. The worst thing about the HAVOC, is that none of them work very well. There’s a lot of oddities with it’s design, where like with many Joe vehicles, you ignore the explicit danger it presents it’s crew in favor of having a fun toy that can do more: it’s a rule of cool kinda thing. The HAVOC’s features include it’s deployable hovercraft, an adjustable turret, turning tracks, and an opening canopy, supporting a grand total of four figures to crew the vehicle (twelve, if you count the foot-pegs on the outside of the vehicle). Seems like some modestly fun gimmicks, but virtually all of them have some flaw or issue.

The thing that bugs me most is by far the turret. The obviously stupid thing about it is that it leaves the gunner in plain sight with no protection whatsoever. Less obvious is that it can not aim left or right without turning the entire vehicle. Even less obvious, is that the turret can not be in it’s lowered position and still allow for the vehicle’s main canopy to be opened. Every time you want to get a figure in and out, you have to jack this ratcheted turret way up, just to get the canopy open. Was it tacked on at the last second? It just feels like an afterthought.

Even the main driver’s area is crummy. Why does the driver and co-pilot operate the thing with their faces planted in a monitor, laying on their bellies? It’s almost as bad as the SHARC, and that vehicle is only the way it is to support Deep Six. I really don’t have any gripes with the large glass canopy, since the vehicle’s meant to be fun, and I get that seeing the toys inside it is a lot more fun than an opaque canister. Still, the whole driving on your belly thing looks lame, and I really wonder who was working on the brand at the time that had such a fascination with this.

The back half of the vehicle is mostly taken up by it’s hovercraft bay. On the outside of it, there’s some guns and orange missiles. Inside, there’s the hovercraft which rests in a specially shaped grove. It could be sort of cool, but really, this is probably the biggest let down about the vehicle. If they had just sculpted the floor boards and inner panels differently, you could have more figures in there or even have it double as a mobile command station, like with the MAGGOT. Instead, it’s just empty, and you can barely fit a few extra figures around the hover craft by balancing them.

The recon craft is alright. It’s got two guns, some nicely sculpted engine details, and pivoting fans on it’s ventral side, which I guess allows it to turn or maneuver. It’s fun, but also somewhat unspectacular. On a side note, when I’m bored and being stupid, I’ve wondered what a GI Joe version of Mario Kart might be like, where Duke can fly in this recon craft in a race against Serpentor on his chariot, Cobra Commander in a Flight Pod, and Destro in his Despoiler. Add in the Chameleon and the Weapon Transport and you have enough for a full game. I can’t really think of anything else when I see this recon vehicle.

All things considered, it’s still a mildly fun vehicle if nothing else just because it does have a few things it can do. I think what’s just so jarring about it though, is that it does so much of it so poorly, when most of the toys released around it are better for less money and space. I like it’s overall shape and the way it looks with the more sci-fi focused ‘86 and ‘87 guys, but after that, it’s a very cumbersome vehicle, and it’s appeal is rather limited.

Prices seem to vary for a HAVOC, but generally you can get a decent one around $20, sometimes more, sometimes less. It’s surprising, but vehicles don’t seem to carry the value of figures, where now a V1 Leatherneck will cost you more than this vehicle will most of the time. Of course, this isn’t a very good vehicle, but when nostalgic tooners are paying $200 for a Cobra Commander, you’d think it’d get a bump just based on the Sunbow association.

1986 HAVOC Links:

Adambobomb

1986 Leatherneck

Posted on September 28, 2021 by mwnekoman

1986 Leatherneck

I really have a fondness towards 1986 Joes, although I don’t think it was the best year of the vintage line. Largely, it’s the year where Hasbro began replacing characters and doubling up on more guys with the same specialty. Leatherneck for example, comes off as a replacement for Gung-Ho. One could argue he’s not a bad replacement for Gung-Ho though, or in some ways, is a nice compliment as an additional Marine.

When I started buying vintage Joes in the late 2000‘s, I had almost no money, and a lot of classics were typically out of my price range. For the most part though, 1986 guys were a cheap series of figures to complete, so my early o-ring acquisitions were characterized mostly by guys from this one year. During that time, I ended up giving more attention to figures like Leatherneck than I otherwise might have done, so my opinion of the figure is colored by a sense of sentimentality I rarely feel towards most stuff.

Leatherneck is one of those go-to Joes you can use in a lot of places with a lot of other figures. I really like the relative consistency you can see in his design and colors when compared with figures like Flint and Footloose just to name a few. The only real downside to this is that he does lose some uniqueness, which is something Gung-Ho still has over him. Still, I’m not huge Gung-Ho fan, and the generic qualities of Leatherneck lends him to more situations for me.

The sculpt is pretty sharp on Leatherneck. I particularly like his vest/torso, and find that the details are very crisp on it. It’s a fair argument to say that other parts of the sculpt are a bit on the softer end, but overall it’s good enough for me. The only thing that really bothers me about the overall look of the figure, is the paint on his arms. While most of his deco is quite good, the flesh paint on his arms isn’t quite opaque enough, meaning his hands have a slight greenish hue. It bugs me a bit.

As for his parts, Leatherneck included a simple kit consisting of a small backpack and a gray M-16A2 w/ M203 grenade launcher. I find this M-16 a bit vexing, as I don’t like the sculpt very much. Compared to other M-16 sculpts like Frostbite’s, I feel the details just don’t come out as strong here. I also think the handle looks really long, especially compared to the nice M-16 sculpt from ‘82 Grunt. To redeem this one though, I think it’s nice that Hasbro showed enough attention to detail to sculpt multiple variants of the M-16. This particular model wasn’t even that old when Leatherneck came out.

Right now, a complete V1 Leatherneck will cost you around $15 to $18. I was pretty astounded by this, as $15 seemed like what one would fetch on the high-end, but there’s even odd examples of Leatherneck’s selling for $30! It’s far more than he’s worth and it’s quite apparent to me that he’s been badly affected by the current price surge. I’ve seen a lot of people with Marine family members (or who have been Marines) and have a special attachment to Leatherneck for that reason alone, so it’s probably why his price has gone up so much.

1986 Leatherneck Links:

1986 Low-Light

Posted on September 6, 2021 by mwnekoman

1986 Low-Light

Low-Light’s a figure that hits all the right notes, which makes him a favorite for me and probably most other Joe fans. His character was great in Sunbow, his toy had a fantastic specialty, and it’s colors were perfect. He’s not perfect, and I think he might be a slight step-down in quality from some of the ‘85 icons, but he’s still probably one of the best GI Joe figures ever made.

I feel like for myself, Low-Light offers an alternative to Snake Eyes, especially after Snake Eyes became primarily a ninja. In my mind, he’s a top-tier commando badass who can do basically anything, and sometimes may have been a slight Golgo 13 expy. This is also what I’ve usually used Commando Snake Eyes as, but I really just don’t like Snake Eyes that much, so Low-Light suits me better. He has a face and a personality that Snake Eyes lacks, and also isn’t caught up in the overexposed Arashikage plot-line, which tied up a few too many characters in my opinion.

Low-Light’s design is super cool. He has one of those futuristic vests you saw a lot in his year, with figures like Roadblock and Cross-Country. The quality of the sculpt is very strong, and the details are both crisp and plentiful on him. I also really like his goggles, which make him look a tad more mysterious, and also introduce a nice splash of red to an otherwise drab figure. There’s enough zippers and pockets on Low-Light to almost make him look busy, but it works in the figure’s favor, especially helped by having enough paint to make these details stand out nicely.

There’s one thing that bugs me about Low-Light, and it’s his head. Like a lot of the ‘86 cast, his head is pretty big. I think it’s a bit better than Beachhead’s, but it’s still on the larger end. I think I’ve commented on it before, but the big heads in ‘86 are just bizarre to me. It seems like a lot of the ‘85 figures were moving towards more solid proportions with what you can see in Flint, Alpine, Footloose and others, but then we go back to big heads a year later. It doesn’t ruin the figure or anything close, but it’s always something that stuck out to me about figures from this year.

A classic part of the figure is his gear. He included a sniper-rifle, an uzi, and a nice black backpack. The sniper rifle appears to be an Enfield L39A1, though years ago I always assumed it was an M14. It’s a really nice sculpt with a night-scope, and a detachable bipod. Of course, the bipod is flimsy and seems to be always missing, but it’s a nice play feature either way. The uzi got around to a few other figures, and is the same one later included with Law and Order. It’s inclusion here is nice, as it really provides Low-Light with some action oriented roles and allows him to be more than a guy taking pot-shots with a sniper-rifle.

In my opinion, ‘86 Low-Light is the only Low-Light you really need, but the subsequent uses of the mold, and updates to the character are all pretty solid too. This mold got a great repaint in Slaughter’s Marauders, and then was used in green for an ‘08 Joecon figure. Sadly, the SM figure is very brittle, and the Joecon figure is worth a fortune, while not really providing anything this figure doesn’t already give. As an alternative, there’s the ‘91 sculpt which had strong colors, and two fun repaints. I like that toy, but I’ve never really liked it as Low-Light for the lack of his cap and goggles.

Finding a complete Low-Light seems to be mildly tough, as they’re usually missing either the bipod or the uzi. Despite that, he’s extremely common, and also not very expensive, running around $20 for a complete figure, and between $6 to $10 for one missing a part or two. I’m surprised he’s not been hit worse by the price surge of late, though, maybe that’s a sign things are slowly winding down on that note.

1986 Low-Light Links:

Icebreaker’s HQ

1986 Zarana

Posted on March 23, 2021 by mwnekoman

1986 Zarana

As a sub-group, the Dreadnoks started off very hot in ‘84 with Zartan, and subsequently in ‘85 with Buzzer, Ripper and Torch. After that, however, the Dreadnoks quickly became decidedly more mediocre, with ‘86 introducing Monkey Wrench, Thrasher, and Zartan’s twin siblings, Zandar and Zarana.

For the purpose they serve, I like the Dreadnoks. They’re fun figures that are unique and individualistic. Even the more generic or uninspired members add something to the line, in the way that they’re somewhere between being an army-builder and an actual character, kinda like Cantina goons in Star Wars. It gives Cobra some individual characters that are unique, but also unimportant enough to be disposable and believably subdued with relative ease.

Unlike the more generic Dreadnoks, however, Zarana has a much more defined character, and I have’t always liked it. In Sunbow, they gave her a really cringey romantic plot with Mainframe, which always irritated me a bit. A lot of the times in the cartoons, and also a bit in the comics, I felt she wound up just being an expy for the Baroness. In general, I felt as though the character’s portrayal was always either irritating or just phoned-in.

The figure itself is kind of fun. Having a female to hang around with the Dreadnoks is a tad interesting. The sculpt is overall very detailed and has enough paint to highlight most of that as well, which makes her a fairly fun figure. Like her siblings, Zarana also has a color changing gimmick, though eventually I don’t think there will be any more of these that work. For awhile, you could restore the gimmick by boiling the figure, but this only works some of the time.

gi joe zarana zartan dreadnoks v1 1986 hasbro action figure

Fresh after being boiled. I’m pretty sure it quit working again after this though.

Of course, there’ also the well-known big-head and earrings variant of Zarana. As I recall, early Zarana figures had the earrings head, while the later ones have the smaller head. Some people think the earring variant looks better, and I do think the detail is slightly better, but the derpy expression and gigantic size kills it for me.

I hate Zarana’s parts. She includes a red backpack and a saw-gun-thing. The backpack is rather forgettable, but her cutter weapon seems strange and a little contrived. A normal gun or pistol like Zartan’s would’ve been a lot nicer. I never bothered getting V1 Zarana’s parts, as the similar ones from the comic-pack figure were enough for me.

Zarana’s seem like they’re getting hit pretty hard by the newbie collectors. Pricing at the moment is very inconsistent on them and the earring-variant is going for around $50, while the other version (pictured here) is going for around $15. It’s funny to see people shelling out so much for the “rare” variant, when there’s clearly an ample supply of them being traded around. I like Zarana, but I’d probably not own one if I had to pay these prices.

1986 Zarana Links:

1986 Sci-Fi

Posted on March 16, 2021 by mwnekoman

1986 Sci-Fi

Although it’s probably the last ubiquitously popular year of ARAH, 1986 has it’s fair share of mostly unpopular figures. To name a few, there’s Cross Country, Zandar, and arguably Serpentor (a lot of people love him, but a lot of people also really hate him). Sci-Fi is another character you rarely see that much love for. Largely, I suspect this is because he’s a neon-green replacement for Flash, though you could also say it’s because he’s a little ho-hum, overall.

V1 Sci-Fi was a figure I mostly acquired on a whim, at a point when I had most of the other ‘86 figures and thought that finishing the year seemed like an interesting prospect (unfortunately, I never made good on that goal). At the time, I really didn’t feel like I needed this figure since I had the ‘91 version, and felt it was good enough. It’s a weird juxtaposition, when you have an 80‘s figure that’s colored in stereotypical 90‘s neon, and a 90‘s figure that’s colored more plainly with some bright-yellow for added flare, Regardless, I was surprised in a few ways when I got him how much I liked this one.

The overall design is pretty nice on this version. It’s very over-the-top looking, but it’s also pretty detailed and interesting. His chest armor and helmet really stand out to me, he kind of looks like Robo-cop, which is cool and makes me want to pose him more often with a pistol. I think the worst part of the figure is his metallic boots, which don’t look very detailed and just come across as too fantastic looking. Still, it’s a nice design and I think he has more going on than Flash, although I like that figure too.

I don’t think too many people really care to hate on neon colors anymore. Some people prefer realism, but that’s a moot point on a figure that represents a futuristic laser-trooper. Still, V1 Sci-fi is probably one of the saddest molds to not get a repaint. Even imagining this figure in one of Hasbro’s hokey 2000‘s color-schemes, like the TRU Nightforce colors, makes me imagine something that could’ve really brought out the potential in the sculpt here.

A problem that’s fairly common to ‘86 figures you can see here, is his relatively large head-sculpt. Since he has a sculpted-on helmet and visor, it goes a long way to disguise it, but his head is kind of bulbous still. I really don’t know why Hasbro went from proportions that were so good on ‘85 figures to this trend of gigantic heads, but it’s something that makes ‘86 guys kind of alienate themselves in my collection. Thankfully it’s not very bad on Sci-fi though.

The parts are really enjoyable, and I’d go as far as to say they’re an upgrade over Flash’s weapon. Sci-fi comes with a bulky black laser rifle, a backpack, and a hose for connecting them. It’s a simple kit, but the usage of rubber hoses provides Sci-fi with a weapon that’s far less cumbersome than Flash’s gun. It’s also pretty neat that it can be stored on his backpack, though I don’t tend to find that it fits all that well, at least on mine.

Sci-fi’s are cheap and easy to get, and with that being the case right now, probably means you can expect it to stay that way forever. Complete figures seem to fetch about $6, which is about as cheap as 80’s figures get. Sci-fi embodies a lot of what early GI Joe fans hated about the line, and he doesn’t have the novelty/nostalgia value that 90‘s figures have acquired, so I suppose there just aren’t too many people who see anything interesting in him.

1986 Sci-Fi Links:

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: