1989 Muskrat (Night Force)

Posted on February 19, 2024 by mwnekoman

1989 Muskrat (Night Force)

Collectors really suck the fun out of things, don’t we? The Night Force is one of those subjects: It’s an undeniably cool sub-team, but seeing mass produced children’s toys hit upwards of $200 makes one call so much into question. Are they that rare? Are they that cool? Are they that much better than the normal versions that are barely worth 10% of that? The hype around them makes it hard to really form an objective opinion on the toys, regardless of it’s good or bad.

Muskrat here could be chalked up to one of the more mid-tier Night Force entries. The original ‘88 Muskrat was already an especially strong figure, and this recolor doesn’t change that very much. A major positive is that he now features an extra color, where V1 Muskrat was entirely green with some black details, Night Force Muskrat now has black pants that contrast with his blue vest and various olive details. The olive and black colors are pretty standard fare for the Night-Force, but the dark blue was a more unusual choice, only appearing on Muskrat and Charbroil from the same year. It looks a little Cobra-esque to me, but I like it; it makes the group more interesting for the addition. Also, for whatever it’s worth it’s almost the same color later seen on Battle Corps Muskrat (who I hate).

I think the added color makes him a tiny bit better than V1 Muskrat. Despite that, the difference in quality is negligible, and were it not for the fact that I got this one in a nifty lot, I’d probably never pursue him. He doesn’t really do anything that a normal Muskrat doesn’t already look good enough doing, and I really don’t have a compulsive desire to own everything Night Force like I might feel for Tiger Force or Python Patrol. That’s not to say anything bad about this figure, but he just seems kind of interchangeable with a normal figure, compared to the more theme-heavy sub-teams. I’ve sometimes wondered if Night Force was meant to stand on it’s own a little less, given their limited nature as TRU exclusives and the fact there was barely enough figures to fully crew some of their vehicles.

An oddity about these figures I’ve encountered is that they always have either super-tight joints or broken leg-pins. My Muskrat has a dead knee and Crazylegs had two, but my Tunnel Rat is so tight I get scared posing him. The plastic on the figures feels solid, so it’s not like the Slaughter’s Marauders stuff, it’s just like the plastic tolerances themselves were off. Or maybe I’ve just not been lucky with the four or so figures I own, you guys tell me.

Muskrat includes a Benelli Super 90 shotgun (Some folks call it an M3 or M4, but the M3 wasn’t even produced until ’89.), a machete and a boogie board just like the original, just now all in black. The original had a baby-blue machete, so it’s a bit of an upgrade, though these parts showed up in a lot of places in black. Numerous ‘93 and ‘94 figures had similar accessories, so this one’s not really unique for that. The boogie board is unique, but also not really something I find much value in having, since I never use the green one either.

So the last Night Force Muskrat, with all of his parts, went at auction for $204… Incomplete figures trend between $70 and $50, with the boogie board being the hard part to come by (makes ya wonder about all those machetes and shotguns). The part I find bewildering, is the sort of vacant reasoning for why you’d pay that much for this figure. He’s cool, but for $200 wouldn’t you want an exotic foreign figure, or maybe some odd mail-away? A squad of rarer army-builders? A convention figure? Even with current pricing, there’s a lot of more interesting items you could chase in that price bracket than the Night Force repaint of a relative no-name. The world wonders.

9610737703_77c577d789_c 1989 Muskrat Night Force gi joe

1989 Muskrat (Night Force) Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

3D Joes

1989 Tiger Sting

Posted on June 27, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Tiger Sting

Tiger Force vehicles! The Tiger Force vehicle colors are cool and iconic, I love them. I think at one point this used to be a cool alternative opinion that made you different from the crowd, but now everyone loves everything that’s been lathered in bright colors and reminds them of the good times prior to the turn of the century… Which means I can’t be cool just for liking toy jeeps and aircraft in tiger colors anymore.

The Tiger Sting is a repaint of the VAMP Mark II, just in the colorful Tiger Force team colors. I find it interesting that it’s a repaint of the VAMP and not the Cobra Stinger, seeing as how Tiger Force and Python Patrol did a lot of faction swapping; the “Sting” in the name would also make more sense as a Stinger repaint. Maybe there was a miscommunication at the factory? Either way, it’s the requisite repaint of what is probably GI Joe’s most iconic and popular vehicle, so it does the job regardless of what the thinking was behind it.

Speaking of the parts it uses, the domestic release on the Tiger Sting uses a mixture of ‘82 VAMP and VAMP Mark II parts, namely, it uses the upper hull of the original VAMP that doesn’t feature a lot of sculpted details. Later in the UK and a few other European countries, it was released using the upper hull of the VAMP Mark II, with the little shovel and tarp on the hood. I assume the smooth body was used to help the tiger-face decals adhere, so the different parts might negatively impact that.

For me this one’s another childhood item that came from my brother’s collection, not something that I ever picked out for myself. Part of the reason I think GI Joe vehicles really went down in quality towards the end of the line, comes from the fact that most of the vehicles I liked as a kid were repaints of older 80‘s items like the Tiger Sting. The childhood armory featured mostly vehicles released between ‘90 and ‘94. For the most part, my focus was put on the Tiger Sting, the Lynx and the Sky Sharc, whereas I don’t remember ever having much fascination with the Badger, just as one example. A lot of the older vehicles seemed more compact and easy to play with, compared to monstrosities like the Attack Cruiser.

I don’t find the Tiger Force vehicle colors to be all that unrealistic, at least not by GI Joe’s standards of fluorescent grenades, android soldiers and whatever the HISS Driver is supposed to be. During the Korean War, there was a kinda famous M46 Patton painted up with a big goofy tiger face in the front, and at least half of the tank was bright yellow. I remember seeing the thing a long time ago, but now I can’t find anything decent documenting it, at least at a glance. Realism aside, I like the colors because they look nice. The Tiger Force color-scheme is distinct and stands out immediately. With the Tiger Sting here, I really love the way that it’s colors contrast so much against green tones you see around your yard or parks in the Summer, it’s really nice in photos.

Complete Tiger Stings can run around $80, but any small defect can bring that price down to around $50 to $40. Finding one with all of the missiles, the steering wheel, gas cans and no damage to the doors can be some work. I take the liberty of assuming they didn’t make as many of these as they did VAMPs and VAMP Mark II’s, so that probably also affects the pricing. Personally, I think this one’s worth the premium, as it does feel like one of the only Tiger Force vehicles you really need.

1989 Lynx

Posted on May 29, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Lynx

The late-80‘s repaint lines followed some simple patterns, especially when it came to the vehicles. An old toy that had been out of production for a year or two was slapped in new colors and put back out on store shelves. The Slaughter’s Marauders vehicles are the odd exception to this, as they all featured new turrets, making them unique from any other vehicle in the line. Why Hasbro took a different approach with these vehicles, I do not know, but either way it lead to some more memorable items.

I’m very biased towards the Lynx, as this has been one of my favorite GI Joe vehicles since I was a small child. I never had any of my own vehicles until I was a teenager, but part of that was because my brother had a decent collection of late-line items to chose from. I think vehicles interest me a little more than most, but I still place a higher focus on the figures, just like most of you guys out there. Of course, my brother’s collection was mostly 90‘s items, so out of the vehicles he owned, this one was the most reasonable and tank-like.

A lot of fans seem to find artillery vehicles boring for not doing much or having reduced figure capacity. This is true, but sort of alien to me, both now and when I was a kid. I’ve always really liked artillery vehicles, mainly for the fact that it’s a vehicle with the potential to kill something in another zip-code. This also provides me with an easy plot for a battle, as Joes and Cobras would always have an interest in attacking each other’s artillery. It doesn’t have to do much to act as a kind of objective for attackers and defenders, so they always saw a lot of use in that way.

The Lynx is an fairly impressive looking vehicle for something that’s just a Wolverine repaint. The Wolverine’s missiles have been replaced by a new turret, which recycles the main gun from the Mauler. The turret looks really big on it, which I think makes the vehicle look a lot more powerful. For a little more visual interest, it’s covered in the signature camo that the Slaughter’s Marauders vehicles use. This is a really good woodland pattern, the greens are vibrant, and everything has a realistic hue to it. Because there’s no odd or clashing colors, putting any Joe from outside Slaughter’s Marauders you like in it doesn’t seem too odd or unnatural as well, which is what I do most of the time.

Because it reuses the lower hull of the Wolverine, it also inherits most of that vehicles gimmicks. The removable engine cover is a nice detail, though it’s always prompted me to imagine that it breaks down every other mile. The tow-rope also reappears; I wish I could say I loved this little part, but I don’t. The clips for it on the vehicle are comically fragile, and while intact examples give the vehicle a lot of flair, it doesn’t really seem to make up for how delicate it is. With a little work I could repair a broken one with some epoxy and a 3-D printed tow-rope, which I might do if I ever bother with a cheap Wolverine. For this vehicle, I’ve never really cared that it doesn’t have it on my copy. Another flaw in the Lynx’s design is in the turret. While it does look very cool and used to be a little tighter, there’s not very much you can do to keep the gun elevated. I’ve not found a good way to safely take this vehicle apart either, so if you get one with a floppy turret, it’s a hard problem to fix.

Typically, I look up the value of an item at the end of my blog post, though I usually can guess if something is expensive or not while I’m writing. The Lynx seems to have a pretty consistent value of about $50, which surprised me a fair amount. That’s not too much money, but it’s a lot more than I was expecting, especially for examples that often had missing or broken tow-ropes. I really like the Lynx, but as a vehicle, it really doesn’t do anything you can’t find in a much cheaper Slugger. Likewise, if you just want a centerpiece to display the Slughter’s Marauders on, the Equalizer is a much better choice.

1989 Lynx Links:

3D Joes

Joe A Day

1989 Darklon

Posted on March 6, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Darklon

Darklon’s an interesting figure to me, particularly for the fact that he’s one of those figures that’s really grown on me since I got him. Of course, like half of the Iron Grenadiers he’s fairly flawed, but the character was pretty cool, and if any classic Cobras needed replacing in the 80‘s, it was probably Destro more so than Cobra Commander.

Overall, Darklon’s kind of a tough sell. His first problem is that he’s tied to a vehicle, Darklon’s Evader. I believe I’m more open than most people to oddball GI Joe vehicles, though the Evader is something I’m fairly certain I’ll never own unless it’s by pure chance. Usually, when Hasbro packed an important character with a small vehicle, the character was some kind of big badass, and the vehicle was more like an oversized accessory (See Zartan, Serpentor, Sgt. Slaughter, ect.). In Darklon’s case, he’s kind of an oddball in bell-pepper colors, who comes with a motorbike(?) too embarrassing for a Funskool Batman figure to use. Maybe in a different context it wouldn’t have seemed so strange to me.

The main appeal of Darklon is his albeit underdeveloped character, which mainly only existed for a brief tenure in the Marvel comics. That’s one way of saying the toy really isn’t that good, as without some interest in his role in the GI Joe world, this wouldn’t be a figure much worth paying attention to. Still, I associate him with some pretty cool issues and moments in the comics, such as the debut of the Python Patrol. He did more than Voltar anyways.

Now normally in a comic-book story line, having a popular character whose getting worn-out replaced by his family member who pretty much does all of the same things (Just more evil!), is a pretty shabby way of trying to get repeated interest and sales, but with Destro and Darklon, there’s actually a pretty good case for it. By this point in the comics, a lot of the older Cobra’s were played out and over-exposed. Destro especially, saw his character melt and go from being a ruthless, terrorist arms-dealer, to being some kind of half sympathetic anti-hero, dedicated to Baroness, and nice enough to smooth over her life-long hatred of Snake Eyes! I think it would have been better if a character like Darklon had played a bigger role after his initial appearance, especially since I do think he was genuinely cool for the few scenes he had.

Putting his character aside, Darklon’s a guy who wears an outfit so random and asymmetrical it looks like something that’d be made by an AI-art generator. Asymmetry is a big theme in the Iron Grenadier aesthetic, so I understand it’s role here, but Darklon still might look just a little too random. Probably the most strange detail is the strap of tiny gold grenades on his right knee, which is among the dumbest grenade-oriented details I’ve seen on a GI Joe toy. Though, in Darklon’s defense, maybe they’re just decorations.

Everything else is just kind of okay for him. I like his head, the mask-sculpt especially looks pretty neat; the texturing on his shirt is nice too. Nothing special, but a good enough figure to represent a gaudy European warlord. In that context, even his wack-o colors aren’t so bad, but the Bronze Bombers repaint into Crazeblaze is much better. That would be my go-to Darklon, but mine’s missing his arms, so I still have to fix that at some point.

Despite being a late-era vehicle driver, Darklon gets the privilege of having a gun. It’s a terrible kind of weapon that looks more like an air-soft or a Nerf gun, so I’ve yet to bother with one. My personal replacement for this is the black version of Skydive’s pistol, also included with Battle Corps Leatherneck. It has a bulky, sci-fi look to it, which I think suits him pretty well.

To my Surprise, mint complete Darklon’s fetch a steady $15. Ones missing the gun go for about half of that, and ones sold with the Evader trend towards $30. Not the worst price, but more than I’d have expected for figure that’s both obscure and somewhat unremarkable. I like him and he brings value to my collection, so I suppose others just see him that way as well.

1989 Darklon Links:

1989 Python Viper

Posted on February 6, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Python Viper

Viper repaints are something I like; Python Patrol repaints are another thing I like. Naturally, I like the Python Viper a lot because of this, but that’s not much of a surprise. It’s not a figure that does anything particularly amazing, though at face value it’s probably the best Viper repaint ever made, which by extension makes it the best Python Patrol figure ever made too.

The Python Patrol as a whole, is a set that works best in harmony with each other, though not so much piecemeal. Each figure’s colors pulls off another in various ways, which makes oddball repaints like the Python Crimson Guard look much more reasonable when in the company of the Python Viper and Tele-Viper. I think that’s part of why some fans desire a requisite Python repaint for virtually every Cobra, since they have a nice aesthetic and represent an interesting idea, though not many figures outside of their group really match with them much.

I never got to read most of the Marvel comics until just recently, and the comic’s take on them as stealth units being deployed by Darklon in eastern Europe struck me as an interesting idea. In particular, I’ve always viewed them as Cobra’s jungle fighters, since that’s what almost everything else seems to pin them as, including the fact that they’re the Cobra analog to the Tiger Force. Besides that though, pairing them with Darklon and other contemporary Cobra’s is antithetical to my view of them as a harmonious set; it’s cool, but I still don’t think it looks as good in practice.

The Python Viper is very nice for several reasons. One is that his colors are mostly gray and black with some yellow details, which is pretty much the perfect ratio of drab to bright colors for a GI Joe figure. The brighter gray is also very nice for appreciating the sculpted details of the Viper mold, which are much easier to overlook on the original blue and black colors. Other than that, it’s cool because it’s different. That may sound dismissive, but army-builder repaints like the Python Patrol are usually a little superfluous like that.

You get the same rifle and backpack from the ‘86 Viper, just now in black. It’s a simple kit that works, and while the light-gray weapons were originally something I didn’t mind, the Viper rifle looks much more convincing in darker colors. I would like them even more if I actually owned some, though Python Patrol gear always runs up the price of a figure more than I feel like it’s worth. If given the choice, I’d rather have two Vipers with replacement guns than one that’s complete.

I feel like prices are faltering some on Python Patrol items, at least from the height of the post-covid market. Oddball auctions for Vipers are starting trend lower, though just a few months ago there were still tons that were hitting upwards of $40. Incomplete figures usually go for less than $20, which is a slightly more reasonable amount. I get the sneaking feeling the prices on the Python Patrol got pushed way up by that wave of post-covid speculators, and a lot of morons who were hoarding oddities as “investments”. I like these a lot, but I won’t be getting any more until prices come down.

1989 Python Viper Links:

1989 HEAT Viper

Posted on December 13, 2022 by mwnekoman

1989 HEAT Viper

‘89 Joes are ones I mainly know though my brother’s collection, and most of them stuck with me as the figures my brother had that weren’t horribly gaudy. In his collection, he had almost every figure released in that year, with the notable exception of the HEAT Viper. So when I got into buying vintage figures in my teenage years, this felt like a curious gap I was eager to fill. As it turned out, the HEAT Viper wound up being a figure I never really had a use for, despite my earnest intentions for him.

I really like the 1989 Joe line. Sure, there’s a few stinkers in the lineup, but more of the figures, and especially the Cobras, strike me as being innovative and fun. Among the figures that should be a lot of fun, is the HEAT Viper. He’s bright, has an exciting job (Cobra bazooka trooper), and tons of little gimmicky parts. Only none of these things are done well, and he really isn’t that much fun of a figure, unfortunately. The light-orange and purple colors don’t really hit as nicely as the Alley Viper did. His parts also tend to make him really, really cumbersome to handle, yet, they’re also integral to the figure (good luck if you lose some). Speaking of his accessories, his sculpt is covered in hardpoints and pegs for those, which leaves something to be desired, to say the least.

While the idea struck me as an interesting niche at first, one thing I’ve discovered with time, is that having a Cobra equivalent of Bazooka or Zap, isn’t something that finds a role all that often in my collection. I guess unlike those two, the HEAT Viper is a terrorist, and can find all sorts of nefarious things to do with his bazooka. Regardless of how you rationalize him, he’s basically a guy that shoots his rockets off and then that’s it. It seems like something fun, but I much prefer a Stinger or a Viper with a bazooka, to having a dedicated specialist for the role.

Although I don’t particularly hate the HEAT Viper in spite of his flaws, while writing this, I have come to the conclusion that this maybe the worst figure from his release year. Comparing him to the other bad figures from that year, he’d be among the likes of Annihilator and Dee-Jay from the single-cards, and Long-Range and Wild Boar if you count vehicle drivers. The vehicle drivers are pack-ins, so of course they’re a little more underwhelming, though I think overall the issues with his parts and clunkiness makes the HEAT Viper decidedly worse than Annihilator, and maybe slightly worse than Dee-Jay. Both of those are ugly figures too, but they don’t loose functionality in the way the HEAT Viper does, the Annihilator is a lot more fun with his parts, too.

A huge problem for this figure, is that he is essentially married to his parts. His kit includes a bazooka, a sculpted hose and generic black tube, six tiny missiles, and a backpack with some exhaust pipes on it. None of these parts are terribly exciting, though the figure doesn’t really work without them. The small missiles are a particularly perplexing decision. When taken off the figure, there’s nothing to do with them. I guess him running out of ammo was considered a play feature? Of course, most of the time they just got lost instead. When he’s fully decked with his gear, another huge problem is that he’s really clunky. It looks sort of okay, but it’s not easy striking a convincing pose with him. Speaking of which, I get the feeling that his bazooka was designed for use with a certain hand, but I’m not sure which. The card-art shows him using it in his left-hand, though it feels a little more comfortable in his right. Also, he has some kind of exhaust pipes from his backpack on his left hip, so it’s weird that his bazooka’s exhaust would be bumping into that.

Despite his problems, Hasbro made of number of repaints of this mold! He got an Undertow head in 2001 and became the Fast Blast Viper, who was subsequently painted red and tossed in the BJ’s 8-pack from ‘02. The original head then made a return to the figure for a Python Patrol version in the ‘03 Python Patrol 5-pack, with the peg on his helmet retooled to sit higher. Prior to all of this, he appeared in Brazil as Estilhaço, with slightly different colors.

HEAT Vipers are very common and not at all valuable, though mint, complete HEAT Vipers don’t actually show up all that often. Most of the time, you can find this figure with one or two of his missiles, but rarely all six. Still, even a complete figure is only worth around $15, which isn’t too much for something with parts as small as this. It’s also easy enough to just buy two with a few of their missiles and combine them to have one complete figure, as less than complete HEAT Vipers tends to only run around $7.

1989 HEAT Viper Links:

The Dragon Fortress

Half the Battle

Pint O’ Comics

1989 TARGAT

Posted on February 16, 2021 by mwnekoman

1989 TARGAT

I’ve talked before about a few figures that I used extensively as a kid, which included the Frag Viper and Vapor. The third figure I used almost all the time was the TARGAT, who was another major member of my Cobra-robot army (I didn’t have the filecards and I liked androids, so most of my Cobras were reimagined as robots). Because of that, I’m pretty sentimental towards this figure and his Star Brigade repaint, but objectively I do think he’s one of the better Iron Grenadiers.

The TARGAT is a “Trans Atmospheric Rapid Global Assault Trooper”, who deploys into orbit from a space shuttle, and then flies to their mission area on earth, according to his file card. With some suspension of disbelief, it sounds neat, though personally I just see them as normal paratroopers. Maybe the whole idea is a bit cooler in the comics, but I just started reading the Marvel run again and haven’t gotten to the issues where they show up (if they do).

There was some nice uniformity on the colors of the early Iron Grenadiers. I like that the TARGAT keeps the red and black theme of the Iron Grenadier, but replaces the gold with sky-blue. It’s attractive and different looking, while still fitting with the established look for the group. This was something I didn’t like about the later convention Iron Grenadiers, like the Iron Anvils, where they went to strictly using the black/red/gold pattern with no changes. It makes the figures too generic when they all have the exact same colors.

The TARGAT is a pretty nice mold. There’s a fair amount of detail on it, but it’s mostly kept to little things like the stitches on his chest or the ribbed part of his uniform. I always really liked his head and visor combo, especially as a kid, and I think it was executed a slightly better than the fragile mask on the Alley Viper. The belt of grenades around his waist exemplifies the start of a trend we saw more of in the 90‘s, but here it’s not too overdone.

Originally he included a pistol, a control stick, a hose, the visor, and his flight unit with folding wings. The flight unit is really cool, it’s bulky and surprisingly large for a pack-in item. The control stick is extremely small, so although it was a nice detail, I tend to ignore it since it’s usually missing and doesn’t add much. The pistol is also an interesting, if not somewhat weird part. It’s made of a flexible plastic and clips onto his bicep while he holds it, I guess to make it easier to use while he’s flying? It’s unique at the very least, though personally I think it’s easy to replace with a normal gun.

I find it somewhat surprising as to the amount of repaints this mold received. After this release, it showed up again in ‘93 for Star Brigade , and sans the head as Create-a-Cobra, before going to India where Funskool used it for their own version of the Star Brigade figure, followed by a recolor as Street Hawk. Then, the mold was returned to Hasbro, and was used one last time for the convention Coil Troopers (with a Decimator head). All of those mold uses were pretty good, though personally I think the original here had the best colors of them all.

Complete TARGATs can trend around $25, but ones missing just the control stick go as low as $10. I don’t really think that part adds that much to the figure, which means this guy is still a fairly affordable and fun army-builder in 2021. After getting a couple mostly complete examples, I enjoy picking up the occasional extra with only his visor.

1989 TARGAT Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Half the Battle

1989 Night Viper

Posted on August 18, 2020 by mwnekoman

1989 Night Viper

I was surprised when I realized how it had slipped my mind, but incidentally, I’ve never wrote about the ‘89 Night Viper. It’s one of my favorite figures too, but I suppose after writing about the TBM Python Night Viper, I forgot to get around to this one. It’s also been one of the most consistently popular post-’86 Cobras in the franchise too; so perhaps I also ignored him for the feeling of the figure being over exposed at this point.

The original Night Viper I had as a kid was another figure from my brother’s collection, and it was a figure we both liked. When my collecting focus shifted to vintage figures around ‘09, it was a figure in the old Joe tubs that really stood out to me and I enjoyed rediscovering as I gradually found all of his parts again. Of course, being a favorite meant this figure was in somewhat rough shape, but it was a start that pointed me in the direction of acquiring more over time.

The colors and deco on the figure is very nice overall. There’s not a lot of different colors here: mostly just dark green plastic and black paint. However, that itself is an attractive and realistic combo that’s likely helped earn this figure it’s popularity over so many years. One of the nicest details on him is the shoulder-patch tampographed onto his left shoulder. It’s a Night-Viper specific emblem that’s rather detailed and good looking. It’s also remarkable as the Night-Viper is one of the only figures with a unit specific marker like this, which is a shame, as something equivalent to this would’ve been fantastic on the SAW Viper or a few others.

The sculpt has a lot of nice details going on too. Nothing too absurd, but a nice smattering of knives, straps and gear throughout the figure. The strap of bullets on his right arm is a little detail I especially like. The helmet also has a sleek, high-tech look to it, which does pretty well to represent the gear his file card mentions him having. I’ve always thought the ribbed legging on half of his thighs looks a little weird, but it’s also distinctly Cobra, and looks similar to what you saw on the ‘83 HISS Driver.

The accessories really help make this figure, though at the same time he’s perfectly fine without everything except the visor. Included is a gun, backpack, a clip-on visor and a scope that attaches to the visor. The gun’s one of those awkward weapons with no pistol-grip, making it hard for him to get an aiming pose with it. It’s still not a bad part though, as it interacts with the figure in a few different ways thanks to both it’s sling and the pegs for mounting it on his thigh.

As I mentioned, the Night Viper is an extremely popular figure, and almost any given version has commended a premium throughout the history of the brand. Prices are very unstable for them right now, but generally it’s a figure you shouldn’t pay more than $20 for, complete. That’s in line with what they’ve trended at for a few years until now, and it’s reasonable to assume that’s still about what the figure’s really worth. They are common and army-builders hoarded them and the Funskool variant through the 2000‘s, so there’s plenty of mint examples in circulation.

Night Viper hasbro 1989 gi joe vintage cobra ARAH

1989 Night Viper Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Photo by Scarrviper

Photo by Dreadnok Dread

Photo by PeterDB.net

1989 Slaughter’s Marauder’s Spirit

Posted on May 20, 2019 by mwnekoman

1989 Slaughter’s Marauders Spirit

I’ve talked about the Slaughter’s Marauders at least once before when I posted about Slaughter’s Marauders Low-Light, but perhaps an even more interesting figure to look at is Spirit. Both as a character and a repaint, I have some thoughts on him, and like the rest of the Slaughter’s Marauders, he’s a good bit of quirky fun.

V1 Spirit is a toy I like, and think is iconic, but I do have issues with it. His costume is pretty chintzy, his colors are decent, but if not somewhat bright, and the figure discolors to an ugly shade if you look at it wrong. Nothing major, but a few of these problems are solved by his inclusion in Slaughter’s Marauders. While he has the same palette as the rest of his sub-team, the green shades feel well suited to Spirit, and it solves the problems I mentioned, which is something his contemporaries in Tiger Force and Python Patrol rarely did.

Of course, the figure still has plenty of it’s own issues. Like the fact that the plastic quality is the same shoddy Brazilian plastic used for all of the Slaughter’s Marauders figures. More so than the others I had a really hard time tracking down an example of this guy that wasn’t broken, and had to combine a few to get a decent example. Also terrible: He has no eyebrows! I’m not really sure what to think about that. It feels like a missing paint application, but then again, maybe he just changed his look like Duke in the Tiger Force?

Spirit’s accessories are similar to the V1‘s, with a few differences. Most obviously, all of his parts are in black now, which makes some of the details a bit harder to see, but at the same time acts as a nice color alternative to the originals. His belt/skirt features a brown drape instead of red, and is nice for being slightly more muted. I’m not sure if there’s any significant changes to the gun’s sculpt or to Freedom, but as A-man told me with Low-Light, his gun was changed so maybe the same happened here.

I have a hard time picking a favorite Spirit figure, since I feel like there’s problems with all of them. The Slaughter’s Marauders colors on this one provide me with a reasonably colored version of Spirit, that doesn’t yellow easy or look terribly out of place among a larger Joe roster. Of course, this comes at the cost of his eyebrows and plastic quality, and for that reason, I can never use him without feeling uneasy.

You have to be a pretty hardcore collector to want to bother with Slaughter’s Marauders, honestly. A mint, complete SM Spirit will run around $30, and is not too easy to find, either. Broken figures with a few parts will still run between $15 to $20, which with most other Joe items, would seem absurd. My personal strategy with these has been to target them in lots and buying multiples of cheap junkers to slowly piece together a perfect figure. More often than not, an SM figure will at least have one break on it somewhere, and when a figure nets me extra spare arms and crotches I have less to fear about using them in photos too.

Slaughters Marauders Spirit Hasbro Gi Joe 1989 ARAH V2

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1989 Gnawgahyde

Posted on March 11, 2019 by mwnekoman

1989 Gnawgahyde

In the late era of ARAH, Gnawgahyde came as both a character of minor prevalence and as one of the last Dreadnoks (the last new one, IIRC). Of course, all of that screen time is limited to the DIC cartoon unfortunately, but that doesn’t stop Gnawgahyde from being a pretty great figure, like many others from his year.

As one of the figures I’ve had since I can remember by way of my brother, Gnawgahyde left me feeling somewhat ambivalent as a kid. Even back then, I didn’t like the DIC episodes, so cartoon reruns didn’t sell me on him as a character. Moreover, because it was a figure that was technically my brother’s, I didn’t know what parts were his, and this is one of those figures that’s really made by his parts.

Of course, that’s not to say the core figure’s design is bad. There’s a ton of detail all over the sculpt, and his face has a pretty cool expression too. I think the profile of his head’s a little long, but it’s still a good sculpt. The necklace and fur-vest on the torso are also great details, and the look of the fur does nicely to separate him from the rest of the Dreadnoks made to that point.

In regards to the sculpt however, one thing I never have liked about him is the functioning knife holster on his leg. It was an ambitious attempt for the time, and a cool little feature, but it seems to want to always bend the handle of his knife outwards. Why would I want to put a knife in there just to get it bent? Besides that, it looks kind of bad.

His accessories are many, and quality wise are all over the place. The hat and sniper riffle are quite nice, while his machete is simply fantastic. I had so much fun with that part alone when I was a kid, giving it to ninjas and such with the wrist clip it featured. With that said, it’s pretty sad they never reused it during Ninja Force. I like his bow alright too, but with the presence of the machete the knife feels like overkill, meanwhile the quiver just looks terrible to me. The sculpt is giant, and there’s no sculpted detail on the front of it!

Then there’s his boar. This was also the point of the line where any figure that could conceivably include an animal, had to include an animal. Is it his pet? His next victim? It’s pretty distinct looking, with the piercing in it’s ear. Though at the same time, I have a hard time imagining this is a guy who cares very much about animals.

Complete Gnawgahydes routinely go for about $20, though more often than not you’ll find them missing at least one part, which cuts the price in half. Typically, it seems the most commonly missing parts are the knife followed by the bipod. For a character as memorable as this guy (for a post 1987 character), with as many parts as he has, I’m a little surprised he’s not going for more.

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