1990 Topside

Posted on May 11, 2021 by mwnekoman

1990 Topside

Topside always struck me as one of the most generic figures in my collection, even as a kid. That’s not bad, in it’s own right, but the lack of distinctive characters was a change you saw GI Joe experience in the 90‘s compared to the 80‘s. He’s not a bad figure for being plain, but it’s hard to think he shares the same general release period with figures like Captain Gridiron. In fact, if it weren’t for the sharpness of his sculpted details, I might have mistaken him for a Corps! figure in the past.

The sculpt is fairly okay on him. The figure’s overall design is rather plain, which in some ways is a nice change of pace from the typically more busy 90‘s styles. His sweatpants with the drawstring hanging out has always irritated me, although his plastic is the exact same color as ‘86 Roadblock, so it can be switched for a small upgrade. The sculpt looks fine enough overall, but I feel he looks a little lacking compared to any version of Cutter.

Topside’s deco is mostly good, with the exception of his head. One of his most irritating features is his yellow eyes, which are the same color as his hair. It doesn’t stand out very well, and makes his face look kind of undefined. He has some text across his vest, which nicely adds some visual interest to the figure, but like with Outback, it’s fragile, and tends to be worn a lot of the time.

1990 Topside gi joe hasbro vintage action figure cobra ARAH

I was sure before I wrote this I knew where his helmet was…

Topside’s accessories are an area where the figure really shines. He comes with an SMG, a helmet, and a missile-launcher backpack, that doubles as a free standing launcher, with three removable missiles. It’s a nice and simple selection of gear, and the backpack works well without looking too silly. The SMG (MP5K? Not sure.) is a nice sculpt he can easily hold with both hands, and it’s interesting for being mostly unique to this figure.

You can get a mostly complete Topside for around $15 with some regularity. I say mostly, because almost every Topside you’ll find is at least missing the third missile. Besides that, the NAVY text is prone to wear, and he discolors fairly often as well, so you might hunt for awhile before you find a nice one. At modern prices though, that’s not too much to pay for a relatively nice 90‘s figure.

1990 Topside Links:

1990 Sonic Fighters Tunnel Rat

Posted on September 7, 2020 by mwnekoman

1990 Sonic Fighters Tunnel Rat

Tunnel Rat’s a good figure who’s also been the recipient of a number of good repaints. After the figure debuted in ‘87, it went on to get a repaint for the Night Force, Sonic Fighters, a Funskool release, another Night Force release, Desert Patrol, and finally a comic pack figure. Each of these repaints are pretty decent, though the Sonic Fighters one is one I’ve had since my childhood, so I felt like looking at it recently.

A few of the Sonic Fighters repaints are some really solid releases that are arguably better than their original counterparts. Falcon and Law, for example, are very high quality repaints. Tunnel Rat on the other hand, isn’t particularly interesting or special. You swap his green shirt for a maroon one, and his black pants for drab khakis, It’s not actually a terrible color-scheme per say, just not really useful or interesting like some of the others.

The problem with Sonic Fighters Tunnel Rat, is that he’s simply not the best at anything. If you want a realistic looking figure, the original is by far the best. If you want a bright and interesting looking toy, the Funskool version is better for that. Which leaves us with this version, which doesn’t have much of a niche. In it’s own right, this is an alright looking figure, but would I recommend it over one of his other repaints? Probably not.

Some decent parts were included in this release, though nothing earth shattering. While the oversized Sonic Fighters backpacks are generally maligned items, I think Tunnel Rat’s is kind of cool- it features a sculpted on ammo box with more feeds for his LMG, so at least the details match up nicely. You also get his classic LMG, an ’87 Cobra Commander gun, a Knockdown gun, and a mortar from the ‘85 Snow Serpent. I have a hard time associating this mortar with anything besides a Snow Serpent, though it’s a nice bonus either way.

The noobie filled Joe market has this guy going for about $20 complete. Like a lot of 90‘s figures, he does have a lot of parts to look out for, and I’m not sure the production numbers on these Sonic Fighters were all that high (probably in the ballpark of Python Patrol and Tiger Force, thought that’s just a guess). I expect once the economy improves, a lot of nostalgia hipsters will outgrow toys again and go off to go buy cars and fishing equipment. For now however, this guy goes for more than he’s worth.

1990 Sonic Fighters Tunnel Rat Links:

Half the Battle

Joeaday

1990 Night Creeper

Posted on December 9, 2019 by mwnekoman

1990 Night Creeper

Ninjas were a big theme for GI Joe from the late eighties going into the nineties, with the height of this topic likely manifesting in the Ninja Force. But, before those figures there were numerous quality ninja figures before them. Besides Storm Shadow, I’d likely consider my favorite ninja the V1 Night Creeper, for both sentimental and some objective reasons.

I sort of have a weird history with the Night Creeper. As a kid, it was a figure my brother had, so I effectively had him by extension. Except, I really have no memories of him at all. I want to think his o-ring snapped pretty early on, so that could be why. Regardless, it was an interesting experience finding his parts years later and putting him back together. The colors are so disparate between the upper a lower half of the figure, I didn’t think they went together. Though, once I did piece him together and discovered how he was supposed to look, it set a real impression on me through my early collecting years.

The original Night Creeper has a pretty interesting design, that in my opinion makes him Cobra’s best generic ninja. The drapey headdress combined with a visor is distinct and has a very assassin-like appearance. It doesn’t make him look as cliche as Storm Shadow, or as chintzy as later ninjas from the Ninja Force. The chest armor and visor in conjunction with his other features leaves him looking pretty identifiable as a ninja, but it also gives him the look of a modern assassin. Overall I’d have to say it’s a nice in-between of the styles you’d see on the typical, terrorist Cobra and the more martial-arts focused side of the line.

There’s a lot of color and paint applications on the Night Creeper too. While some might be adverse to ninjas in magenta, there’s a nicely diverse palette here with light and dark grey, magenta, purple, and a lot of black and silver for details. In particular I think the camouflage pants have an interesting, urban look to them. At the very least he looks a little more stealthy than an Alley Viper!

For parts, you get a large crossbow, two different swords and a backpack from 1989 Snake Eyes that can hold one of them. I’m pretty fond of the crossbow, it makes sense as a stealth weapon. The extra bolts make it look more intimidating than a weapon like Scarlet’s too, which is a plus. The swords are alright and are fairly distinct, but they are what they are and don’t leave much of an impression on me. Lastly, the backpack looks pretty good and suits the figure, however, I find the storable sword gimmick to be frustrating. The tabs that hold the sword break too easily and make me afraid to use it. The end result means I usually ditch the swords for this figure altogether, and only use the backpack and crossbow.

These guys used to go for dirt even when they had a few parts and decent paint, so I managed to amass a decent squad of them between the late 2000‘s and early 2010‘s. There was a bigger collector interest in the white 1998 repaint and the 2004 Urban Division figure, which were both high-quality representations of the mold, but personally I found the original colors more interesting for less money, so it was hard to argue with that.

A complete Night Creeper is consistently worth about $10, give or take a dollar. It’s a common figure a lot of people have, so they don’t go for a whole lot. Despite that, it’s a really cool figure and a great army builder, so it’s nice to see there’s still fun figures like this to collect 29 years after their release. Heck, after writing this I’m tempted to grab a few more.

Night Creeper Hasbro GI Joe ARAH 1990 DIC cobra vintage action figure

1990 Night Creeper Links:

Photo by Nightforce Keith

1990 Sonic Fighters Viper

Posted on March 5, 2018 by mwnekoman

As ARAH moved into it’s final years, Hasbro started experimenting more and more with adding different gimmicks to figures. One example, is the Sonic Fighters from 1990. Unlike the later Super Sonic Fighters and Talking Battle Commanders from ‘91 and ‘92, the Sonic Fighters were comprised entirely of repaints, such as the Viper of today’s profile.

The Sonic Fighters Viper is fairly memorable for being the last appearance of the 1986 Viper mold in it’s entirety. As many fans didn’t fancy the use of the BAT legs on every Viper release there after, this adds some significance to the piece despite the relative obscurity of his sub-line.

The Sonic Fighters Viper has been a lot of things in my collection. For a while, it was the only version of the original Viper sculpt I owned, so for that alone he was a tad more interesting. By and large though, he’s flipped between two roles I think he works well as. The first, is as a body guard for 2002 Headman. It’s a strange idea and I’m not the biggest fan of that figure, but as he is technically a Cobra, I think it’s interesting to match him with some similarly colored Vipers. The second, is as a desert version of a normal Viper. That idea may be a bit less original, but the colors are well suited for that role.

Speaking of colors, it’s a rather eye-catching figure. He’s largely caramel brown, with black and gold details, as well as a orange visor. These are attractive colors, and also likely the most unique ones the Viper’s ever been featured in. Some might be bothered by the orange Visor, but I think it adds to him somewhat, and doesn’t seem like an unreasonable color just for the visor.

The parts are an interesting mix on this figure. They’re all cast in gold plastic, and you get Shockwave’s pistol, Hit&Run’s carbine, the Annihilator’s SMG, Downtown’s mortar, and the gigantic backpack with the sound gimmick. The pistol is a notorious thumb-breaker that looks dumb if you can get a figure to hold it, but the other guns are both pretty good as is the mortar. It’s a figure worth having most of the parts to, and if you want to army build them, one complete figure can arm a few other incomplete examples, which isn’t bad.

Of course, I guess I could comment on the backpack too. The Sonic Fighters backpacks are hilarious monstrosities. They’re so heavy it’s impossible to stand a figure with one; and difficult even if you use a figure stand. It makes 4 different sound effects, which are amusing for a few seconds but get boring after that. Doesn’t seem like much to be worth pushing the price of a figure up a few dollars, but they kept the gimmick for two more years so obviously kids at the time liked it well enough.

At a time, this figure wasn’t as expensive and collector’s didn’t like him much. Clearly, opinions have changed as his Sonic Fighter contemporaries have stayed relatively cheap while this Viper has seen an increase in value. Complete figures often run between $17 and $30, while the seldom incomplete example may go for $5 to $8. Oddly enough, that’s a pretty large disparity in value between the complete and incomplete example, especially for a figure who’s parts aren’t that hard to find. At the moment, it remains a figure you’ll have to hunt for to get one at a fair price.

1990 Sonic Fighters Viper Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figures

Joe a Day

1990 Vapor

Posted on March 27, 2017 by mwnekoman

My earliest childhood with GI Joe was strange to say the least. I had a handful of my own figures, mainly clearance priced 1994 figures that were lingering on pegs into ‘97. For the most part though, I mainly experienced the brand through my brother’s collection and through reruns of the Sunbow cartoon.

I was very opinionated about my brother’s collection. For the most part, I hated the lot of what he had, mainly because it consisted of oddly colored 90‘s figures and not any that looked like the guys I saw in the cartoon. With that said, a few figures always tickled my fancy regardless of if I knew the character or not, Vapor being one of them. This guy struck me as some kind of psychopathic, murderous cyborg who was immune to reason and overall a really though fight for some unfortunate Joes who might encounter him. I liked coming up with exaggerated villains like that…

As such, I have some rather fond memories playing with this guy despite his otherwise obscurity. I mean, really, if you just look at the figure you really have to ask yourself what on earth he is. His filecard is rather vague, saying little to nothing about his character. It’s not even totally clear as to if he’s a generic or a singular person, but I see him as the later.

Vapor has a decent sculpt. My favorite parts are his head and the Cobra symbol buckle on his chest. Nothing too remarkable other than that, but these are at least some decent focal points that give the figure a memorable appearance. As you might expect of a vehicle driver, Vapor has a slight lacking of too many painted details. The ugliest part of the figure is his solid red waist that gives him that “underwear on the outside” type appearance.

I like his colors a fair bit, being mostly grey with some red and black for details, and silver on his head. It’s a bit different, but his appearance looks somewhat cohesive with the A.V.A.C.’s, which is good. He was repainted only once into the Air-Viper for the 2003 Joecon, a decent figure although it’s colors arguable lack the contrast of Vapor’s. For that reason I think this one is the better of the two versions.

Overall, he’s a mildly interesting pilot and Cobra to come from the 90‘s. Given how saturated the line is with different Vipers, Vapor is refreshing change of pace. I’ve never used him in many dios, but he’s certainly worth using more.

More on Vapor (v1):

Forgotten Figures

Yojoe!

3DJoes

1990 Range Viper

Posted on September 4, 2015 by mwnekoman

The Range Viper seems to have become somewhat of a love/hate figure among the Joe fandom. The DTC version from 2005 improved the character’s popularity by a good deal, with it’s updated design aesthetic. I like that version as well, but I’ve also always been a fan of the original here.

There’s not always as much imagination with other figures that’s as apparent on this one. Range Vipers are Cobra’s skilled and brutal survivalist, an exciting niche among the myriad of questionable Cobra specialists. The figure is nicely detailed with a bandolier of bullets, various belts, a scarf, and a very distinct and detailed helmet. I think the helmet is where fans tend to become split, with a group not finding the “brainy” look so cool. Personally, I think it helps give them a scary, tribal look that would work with their specialty.

Accessories are both pretty nice and a little iffy on the Range Viper. On one hand, really anything works with the figure because he’s a scavenger. On the other hand, it’s mildly frustrating that a figure that bears a bandolier of bullets doesn’t include a gun to fire them. He has a fairly nice grenade launcher as far as ARAH goes. There’s not much competition among vintage grenade launcher’s, and I definitely like it better than Hardball’s. He also comes with a knife that has a good amount of personality, a backpack with more ammunition, and a hand-held launcher with a little missile. The launcher is by far his most forgettable part, as it’s bland and he usually can’t hold it too well either.

For me however, I could never bear to equip two Range Viper’s the same way. After all, a big part of the fun with this figure is his bio as a survivalist.

The Viper Pit

Tag Archives: 1990

1990 Topside

1990 Topside

1990 Topside Links:

1990 Sonic Fighters Tunnel Rat

1990 Sonic Fighters Tunnel Rat

1990 Sonic Fighters Tunnel Rat Links:

1990 Night Creeper

1990 Night Creeper

1990 Night Creeper Links:

1990 Sonic Fighters Viper

1990 Sonic Fighters Viper Links:

1990 Vapor

More on Vapor (v1):

1990 Range Viper