The Viper Pit

1992 Dice

Posted on January 22, 2024 by mwnekoman

1992 Dice

A minor quibble I have with 90‘s GI Joes, is the point where the majority of Cobras became somewhat redundant, faceless mooks. Don’t get me wrong, I like army-builders as much as the next guy, but the distinct personalities tend to stick in my head a bit more compared to some specialty oriented Viper. It’s mostly a ‘90 and ‘91 problem, but 1992 suffers a lot for it too, just because there were fewer figures released that year. Anyways, Dice stands out a lot just for being a unique 90‘s Cobra, at a point when the line needed a little more of that.

In many ways Dice could almost pass for one of the coolest Cobras made since the 80‘s, though he suffers a fatal flaw as a gimmick oriented Ninja Force figure. I’m not averse to gimmicks inherently and I think the designers at the time were being fairly wise to keep with trends and expand their audience a bit. Armor Tech for example, is usually viewed as an abomination to Joe’s classic construction, but as a very small child I actually liked those better, they struck me as something similar to Duplo blocks for their toddler friendly simplicity. So at face value the different construction is mildly respectable, but I think it’s aged poorly in a major way: There’s no way to change this figure’s o-ring besides cutting his torso in half, and thirty-two years later that makes all of these suck pretty hard.

Back to Slice- I mean DICE (Really, I’d never keep them straight if it weren’t for the orange Slice repaint.), he’s a fun character, and one that I find sad to have become an obscurity. His design is really solid, and on that front him and Slice probably are the best Cobra’s of the 90‘s. The dragon mask is interesting for the way that it hides most of his face but still shows a lot of skin around his mouth and exposes a nicely detailed bandana he wears under it. I like that since most of the Cobras by this point didn’t really show much of their faces, which is cool and all, but also makes a lot of them less memorable. His colors are nice too, being mostly dark purple and black with some silver.

It’s also nice that his gimmick doesn’t hamper him too much. He’s one where you twist his torso and then he slings back, like T’Jbang. Because of it, he has no waist joint, but comparatively that’s not so bad when you look at Snake Eyes or Scarlet’s t-crotches, or the Night Creepers who can barely do anything with their arms. The proportions also make it out nicely unscathed by his gimmick, Dice looks bulky and muscular but not exaggeratedly so. I think some people dislike the relative lack of a waist, but I think it looks like a combination of muscle and maybe some bulky protective gear.

For accessories, you get a simple silver axe and halberd (or bo-staff, as the filecard calls it). If you like living risky, you can get some fun two-handed poses with the staff, though I’m personally beyond testing what remaining plasticity his thumbs have left. Naturally, you don’t get any kind of backpack for him since none of the Ninja Force figures had peg-holes for them. It’s odd too, since Armor Tech figures still kinda had them, but I guess for the ninjas there just wan’t enough room. I like his little axe, but forgot to ever take a picture of him using it. His job is “Bo-Staff Ninja”, so it always feels weird to pose him with anything else.

As a random piece of trivia I thought I’d document, I have both a domestic American Dice and a Dice that was released in Mexico if I recall. The Mexican figure is no different as far as I can tell from the American one, and even the card back is the same, just with stickers placed over the English text. The only thing I can say is that figure came to me MOSC with some unusual wear: one elbow is cracked like an ’88 figure, and only one half of one thigh is slightly discolored. So it’s not an interesting foreign figure or something like that, just something that appeared cheap a decade or so ago. I only bother talking about it since I’ve not seen anyone even mention such a figure existing, so now you know.

The price on Dice might make you think twice… or not, just rhyming. Decent examples still go for less than $10, though on bad days he seems to run for a little more than that. It’s not a hard figure to find at all, and one that’s pretty durable with only two large parts to keep up with. Ninja Force lots tend to run pretty cheap too, though that’s probably because most of the lame-o’s like Dojo are just dead weight on a more desirable figure like Dice.

gi joe 1992 1993 ninja force snake eyes dice night creeper

American Dice

1992 Dice Links:

1992 Roadblock

Posted on December 11, 2023 by mwnekoman

1992 Roadblock

Also known as the recall Roadblock, this one’s famous for it’s missile launcher deemed too powerful to be left in the hands of children. What it should be famous for, however, is being the best looking Roadblock toy ever made. For a guy who’s competing to have the most toys released in the vintage line, Roadblock did pretty well with almost every toy of him being a good one.

Roadblock V4 is serious business. The design is very down-to-earth and even somewhat more similar to the modern “operator” look more in the vein of Classified or an FPS game. He looks to be wearing a ribbed sweater vest over a black shirt, which looks a little nerdy, but I’ll let it pass just for the nice texturing provided on the sculpt. The brightest color featured here is the blue on his pants, which really isn’t a weird color for commando slacks (though, it would’ve been slick if they were marbled plastic like Cross Country). For years this was my favorite Roadblock toy, and honestly it might still be despite my love for the ‘84 and ‘86 figures.

The sharpness of the sculpt here is peak ARAH perfection. Everything is rendered with crisp detailing you didn’t see just a few years earlier, and really didn’t see again until roughly 2010 or so. I do like 2000‘s GI Joes, but the Nu-Sculpt era and 25th Anniversary figures still tended to look pretty doughy until the POC line for the most part. It’s something I feel the ‘91 through ‘94 line really doesn’t get enough credit for, as the overall quality here was probably the best Joe would be for at least the next 15 years.

So there’s two sets of accessories for this Roadblock: the original recalled ones, and a new set that came with ones on a Battle Corps card in 1993. For the recall set, you got an extremely large LMG with what looks like a night-scope, a rotor-launching missile launcher and a new knife. For the Battle Corps release, you just got a ho-hum repack of the Cross Country/Snow Storm (and later Shipwreck) parts, which included V1 Hit&Run’s carbine and knife, V1 Shockwave’s pistol, Bullhorn’s Steyr AUG, two missiles and a stand all in black, along with a blue launcher, exactly like Cross Country.

The recall accessories show back up in a few odd places, but not as many or as nice as one would hope. Funskool Roadblock, Blaster and Red Dog have the LMG in black. The knife later would show up with 1993 Guile in black, neon red with Long Arm and in neon yellow-green with LAW. So some options are out there to get the knife. Also be aware that Guile’s knife looks very similar to the recall one, but is shinier.

This mold was brought back for a couple of nice repaints too. There’s a recolor of the figure that came out later in ‘93 in more typical colors, followed by a Funskool release that mimicked the original ‘92 figure. Hasbro seemingly got the mold back around ‘04, and then put out two more in the TRU sets, one in the Anti-Venom Task Force, and a similar one in the Heavy Assault Squad. I feel like there was some untapped potential in this sculpt for a new Crankcase, since the sweater-shirt combo looks kinda similar. Some brighter winter colors might’ve been nice too, since oddly this mold was almost only featured in dark colors.

Roadblock’s with the Battle Corps accessories tend to hit between $15 to $20, while Roadblock’s with the recall accessories trend towards $400! Ultimately, this toy was released to mass retail and shouldn’t really be that rare. Alas, you attach the word “recall” to something and some nerd will wet himself over the idea of having a special Roadblock that’s better-er than someone else’s. If the LMG and knife never showed up again, I could understand the novelty of wanting the see the rare parts, but similar ones were released with common figures. Anyways, paying $400 for a common toy is dumb, but this Roadblock rules so he deserves having a big number next to him.

1992 Roadblock Links:

Forgotten Figures (Rarities Post)

1992 Eco Striker

Posted on November 28, 2023 by mwnekoman

1992 Eco Striker

1991 was probably the worst year of Joe vehicles ever made, though 1992 wasn’t far off, mainly for continuing a lot of the gimmicks that didn’t really work out from the year before. That includes paper gliders (Air Commandos) and the flimsy Battle Copters, but the new ideas like a Flintstones car and a helicopter that didn’t fit GI Joe figures (Desert Apache) weren’t much better. So after all of that, the year’s Eco Warriors offering of the Eco Striker comes off pretty well by comparison, even if it was the first of many AWE Striker regurgitation to be.

If had to chose an old vehicle to give to the Eco Warrior Joes for their subline, I’m not sure I could’ve named a better one than the AWE Striker. It fits the theme, it rolls well, it can carry four figures, light-up front lights, a nicely detailed engine, it really was a toy from Joe’s best year. Which is probably why the Eco Striker stands out as the best toy from one of Joe’s worst years. Sometimes I forget how nice the AWE Striker was just for my strong preference to the VAMP, and also the fact that they really wore out the toy’s appeal with continual recolors and retools for the next thirty years. In 1992 though, it was still pretty fresh.

The bright blue and yellow colors of the Eco Striker make it look very much like a toy, though at least it’s a very attractive looking toy. Blue and yellow are colors that compliment each other very well, and there’s also a bevy of contemporary Joes that feature a lot of yellow and look good with it. The decals also add some hazard stripes to the sides, which I really love the look of even if the yellow loses some of it’s vibrance just from the poor quality of the stickers. Like all the vehicles from it’s era, it has super cheap, paper stickers as opposed to the vinyl kind used on older vehicles. That’s fairly egregious when you consider that it’s a toy where the main gimmick involves water.

As for the big and exciting new feature that the Eco Striker brings to the table: a squirt gun, like with the Septic Tank a year prior. The squirt cannon is easily the worst feature of the Septic Tank, just for being so cumbersome and not really having enough space for a figure to man it. The design of the AWE Striker lends itself to this gimmick much more. It still looks a little too big for the vehicle, but it doesn’t really hinder it’s function that much. As an added bonus, it’s pretty easy to get a decently matching black gun to replace it, so the Eco Striker can be rendered in it’s classic glory with a normal gun. Personally, I wish there were some more newly tooled bits to change it’s look a little more like with the Septic Tank, but this one functions well as it is, so I can’t be too picky.

If you’d believe it, there’s more than one Eco Striker: A new version was released as a 2014 Joecon exclusive, rendered from the Ninja Commando 4×4. I do like that they put together an Eco Warriors set for Joecon, though many of the choices were questionable, like usual. The Ninja Commando 4×4 is a pretty horrible rendition of the AWE Striker. The design removes a ton of parts and simplifies it to an extent that the Joecon version of the Eco Striker just looks like a vintage one that’s missing half of it’s parts. I really don’t know why that exclusive exists, but it’s there.

The last complete Eco Striker sold for a whopping $61, which is a lot more than I was expecting. You really don’t see complete copies for sale all that often, and incomplete ones don’t go for a lot less. I’m not sure I think it’s really worth that, but it is a very cool vehicle, and probably the most memorable repaint of the AWE Striker. If I’m ever in the market for another one, I’ll probably just buy a cheap junker and augment it with similar parts from other AWE Strikers.

1992 Eco Striker Links:

…Nothing besides Yo Joe!, so if you have some Eco Striker pics or a blog post hidden somewhere, feel free to link to it in the comments.

1992 Road Pig (Super Sonic Fighters)

Posted on February 20, 2023 by mwnekoman

1992 Road Pig (Super Sonic Fighters)

In my early years collecting Joe, I really didn’t like the later Dreadnoks all that much. For me, the Dreadnoks stopped at Buzzer, Ripper and Torch. So while I was collecting 25th figures and the tail end of the New-Sculpt era, Dreadnoks other than those three were something I didn’t put a lot of energy into acquiring. My opinions on a lot of topics haven’t changed that much over the years, but Dreadnoks are something I found myself increasingly open to, including zany figures like Sonic Fighters Road Pig.

Dreadnoks work for me a lot more now than they used to. At a time, I saw them as goofy, Mad Max crossed with the Garbage Pail Kids type characters. Figures like Road Pig, Zarana or Gnawgahyde seemed to me more like some kind of gross-out toy, much more on the cartoonish end rather than the extremely serious and at all times realistic military drama that was GI Joe. My thinking about Cobra has changed a lot over time though, and frankly, the Dreadnoks and how they operate seem a lot more fun and really-stuck now than it used to. In particular, I like them for acting as mercenaries that seem less elite or polished than your typical Cobra with a face. They also account for about half of all Cobra’s that aren’t army-builders, which is nice when Computer-Nerd Viper V3 gets boring.

In recent years, this has become my favorite version of Road Pig. The colors are harsh, and it’s not as detailed as the ‘88 release, but at the same time he sees some benefits from being a neon repaint. First, he really stands out; the obnoxious orange skin-tone coupled with the rest of his colors leaves him instantly noticeable in any environment. It also suits the character a good deal, as Road Pig’s supposed to be a gaudy, nasty looking guy, so the neon colors make sense and work well with him. I think the last thing I really like, is just how distinct the figure is next to his respective peers. A lot of the Dreadnoks often feel like retreads of similar designs and colors, but this one doesn’t fit with much besides maybe Ninja Force Zartan.

Of course, that subjective reasoning aside, this Road Pig is an UGLY figure, and there’s not much disputing that. The skin-tone is such a weird and unnatural color, that also has the misfortune of contrasting poorly with his orange hair. There’s also something that bothers me about the crossbow bolts on his leg, seeing as how he no longer includes the accessory that’s in reference to (although, you can fix that by giving him the parts from the Night Creeper Leader).

His accessories are something else that received an overhaul, and once again I don’t at all mind this. Included with Sonic Fighters Road Pig is an orange machine gun, an orange flamethrower, his original shoulder pad in orange, a backpack that makes lights and sounds, and a figure stand. So besides the shoulder pad, the original hammer, crossbow and arm-shield are gone, though personally I don’t see this as much of a loss. While these guns aren’t marvelous, they do the job decently and even look alright with a few other 90‘s figures that have orange colors. Similarly, ‘88 Road Pig’s parts never really worked well for me; the clip-on on parts in particular always felt cumbersome and fell off too much.

A complete ‘91 Road Pig should cap out around $25, but $20 is probably a more reasonable price. Typing that feels weird to me, as this used to be a figure nobody wanted. I only bought one for doing silly things with, until he grew on me some large amount. Of course, we’re also at the point where $20 really isn’t a lot of money, so in that regard I think it’s a nice figure and probably worth it.

1992 Road Pig (Super Sonic Fighters) Links:

1992 Hidden Power Terminator (Kenner Terminator 2 Future Wars)

Posted on January 9, 2023 by mwnekoman

For this post, I’m changing my usual format to show the GI Joe relevant content first, as opposed to making you read to the end, while assuming that I’m converting this blog into a general category toy-nostalgia blog about brands I have low to no investment in. While I’m at it, I’ll review the figure too, since this post would be too short if I stopped at the accessories.

So the odd thing that prompted this post, is that ol’ Arnie’s gun of choice is none other than a modified version of the ‘91 Grunt gun. I discovered this really by chance, as when I found the gun in an old storage tub, I wondered what random ‘93 or ‘94 figure it went to. Instead, I discovered that the gun went to a toy from a different company, in a completely different toy line! Of course, the Kenner purchase happened mid-’91, so that’s probably why this happened.

As you can see, it’s nearly a complete clone of the sculpt, with only a few changes made. The peg holes that were present on Grunt’s gun have been filled in, but not in the same way as later Hasbro versions of the sculpt (also pictured). Of course, the lower receiver has been completely changed, so that way it has a handle that the larger Terminator figure can actually hold. Slightly in front of where a trigger should be, there’s some weird scarring and detail loss, which is present on all the copies I found on eBay as well. The sloppiness of the scarring seems to highlight the lack of effort that was put into this.

Other than that, Hidden Power Terminator is about what you’d expect from a goofy 90‘s movie tie-in. Just like the real Arnold Schwarzenegger, he has 5-points of articulation and gimmicks that might entertain for a few minutes. A few of these Terminator figures that Kenner made were kind of neat, but it’s a movie franchise I’ve found grating more often than not, so that’s about the extent of my interest in it.

It’s kind of funny to take a look outside of the Joe market at similarly old toys and see how much they’re worth. You can still get a MOSC Hidden Power Terminator for $10, which would probably be a fair price for a less than great, sealed Valor vs Venom toy at this point. Probably not a great comparison, since I really don’t think toy lines like this hold the same, enduring appeal that GI Joe does. At the same time, it’s funny to think about how a lot of niche 90‘s Joes weren’t worth that much either until just recently.

1992 T’Jbang

Posted on October 24, 2022 by mwnekoman

1992 T’Jbang

First, to make you feel old, I just realized that T’Jbang is thirty. That means if you’re older than T’Jbang, you’re a really old man now. Unlike you, I’m younger than T’Jbang, which might make you wonder why I run an 80‘s toy blog, but that’s another story for another time. Anyways, T’Jbang is an insane looking figure, and is simultaneously the best GI Joe and the worst GI Joe.

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of the Ninja Force. The gimmicks don’t bother me much, and a lot of them were some of my first GI Joe figures (I was born in ‘94, but my parents bought me Ninja Force and Star Brigade figures that were still floating around into ‘98). They put a bigger focus on the fun-factor, and as a kid, they could play out roles as anything from ordinary soldiers, to wrestlers and Power Rangers. I never read the comics or knew who any of these guys were supposed to be. I just made up my own adventures and had fun.

Recently, I’ve rectified my lack of media knowledge and have finally read through the later Marvel comics. The result of this is a better understanding of why grumpy older people hate Ninja Force. In the comics, they suck. They come out of no where, they’re goofy, and clearly are riffing too much off of the then popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe it was something else, but colorful ninjas with attitude is a considerable leap from Storm Shadow or the Night Creepers.

Put that aside, T’Jbang is a fun figure. Although he’s a ninja, he definitely looks more like a wrestler to me, even now. I don’t mind that, he fits in well with Sgt. Slaughter, and it seems like a more appropriately colorful idea to have a ninja commando that moonlights as a masked wrestler. Visually, he comes off a lot stronger than Banzai or Dojo, which probably makes him one of the more memorable figures from the subset. There’s enough detail on him to make him stand out. My favorite part is his rather detailed yellow mask, with tiger print on it. Most of what you see on him is some more standard ninja aesthetics, with big shin-guards and arm gauntlets, but the mask is unique and looks pretty good.

Of course, like all Ninja Force figures, T’Jbang has an action feature. Similar to Dice and Zartan, you can twist him at the torso and he springs back into position, similar to a punch or a sword swing. Although it’s a shame that a ninja of all things loses some articulation, he’s not as harmed by the gimmick as figures like Snake Eyes. Of course, once his o-ring rots away, the figure has to be cracked in half or extensive mods have to be done to fix him. I really hate that, though as a toy it’s not a terrible concept, since most o-rings will outlive the amount of years a kid would spend playing with toys.

For added interest, his accessories are a sword, and a double-bladed hook sword. Hook swords are sometimes called hu tou gou, or tiger head hook, so there’s a tiger connection that goes with the mask. It’s also interesting that this weapon is Chinese in origin, so T’Jbang has learned Wushu to go with his ninja training. Oddly, hook swords are usually used akimbo, but T’Jbang’s is one weapon, combined. Because of that, I’m not sure if it’d really work the same, or all that well at all, but I suppose that’s all apart of his secret style. Sadly, it’s a little hard for him to hold because of it’s design. The other sword is plain and works better, but is also boring. Both parts are powder blue, but this figure already looks nuts, so he’s not any worse for that.

T’Jbang is worth about $5, complete. I’ve warmed up to this figure in a lot of ways, but I’m not blind to the ways he’s also an awful toy. He’s a nobody with a corny character, and his outlandish toy is doomed to eventually fall apart and require a dreadful repair. He’s practically worthless for a good reason, but I can’t find it in myself to hate this figure. He’s still fun in a very innocent, juvenile kind of way.

1992 T’Jbang Links:

1992 Headman

Posted on September 26, 2022 by mwnekoman

1992 Headman

There’s a lot you can say about “The War on Drugs” in hindsight. It was a huge propaganda push, and really an old corporate virtue-signal that amounted to good PR for toy companies, cartoons and video games. Though, kind of like with Eco Warriors (GI Joe was really preachy there for a few years), it’s a realistic part of modern warfare, and made for some pretty cool toys. Most of what you see going on with Headman is more on the extremely cool end, and only a little corny.

First, it should be said that Headman’s appearance more so than any other GI Joe villain pulls from an iconic visage that strikes fear into the hearts of many:

The suspicious man from neighborhood watch signs! Jokes aside, the corniest thing about Headman is that he wears a bandit mask and a silly little hat. The head sculpt itself is high-quality and has that late-ARAH sharpness that often goes underappreciated, but it looks super silly. I think they purposely tried to make his head look a little sillier, since if he looked like his DIC design, this would be a pretty drab figure of a guy in a suit (though, that probably would’ve been cooler).

The suit sculpt is really nice too. Hasbro’s later releases of Tomax and Xamot, as well as ‘04 General Flagg show how this mold had a lot of potential in it. A lot of later repaints didn’t look so good with 80‘s figures because of the sculpting changes that occurred between the beginning and end of ARAH, though I feel Headman is subtle enough that he doesn’t look so weird with some sculpts that are a few years older than his.

Headman’s suit is lined with gold pin-stripes that are incredibly delicate. I love how it looks, but sadly getting a mint example is not the easiest thing to do. The figure pictured in this post is my brother’s childhood Headman, whose gold paint is almost entirely gone. I wanted my own figure of this guy for a while, but eBay grief and other purchases always kept that at bay. Other than that, Headman doesn’t have much going on for painted details. The ’02 release shows off the sculpt better, though that comes at the cost of him being orange.

For parts, Headman included a G11 rifle, a free-standing rocket launcher, missile and a figure stand. The rocket launcher lights up like the other DEF launchers, which I always thought was a pretty cool gimmick, though I’m not sure there was really enough here to justify the higher price of DEF figures. Essentially including one launcher and a standard gun is pretty lacking when compared to the normal ARAH releases from the same year.

With that said, the rifle is pretty cool, and actually another great example of how much attention to detail was placed in GI Joe guns. For years I thought it was just some weird sci-fi contraption, but it’s actually H&K’s experimental G11 rifle. That gun has a long and interesting production history, but the point of it is that even in 1992, this would be a very unusual and very, very expensive gun to be toting around. It’s my assumption that it’s meant to reflect his tacky and posh nature as a drug kingpin, though that doesn’t explain why Battle Corps Mutt had it too. Oddly, the barrel area is more open than any G11 prototype I’ve seen, but maybe that’s a change that occurred once it became the filecard’s “mega-blast combat rifle”.

Getting a complete Headman is actually cheap and somewhat easy. Getting a mint Headman is a lot more challenging. A loose complete Headman in good condition tends to run around $20, but it takes a while to find one with even decent paint. Carded figures seem to float more around $50 at the moment. As is the case with much of Hasbro’s vintage gold and silver paint applications, it’s made of fairy-dust, and that’s bad for Headman since you essentially can’t touch the figure without rubbing it. Oddly though, there’s a lot more of Headman on eBay than I see for other figures (especially DEF ones), so I can only assume this guy was actually very popular back in ‘92.

1992 Headman Links:

1992 Barbecue

Posted on August 30, 2022 by mwnekoman

1992 Barbecue

Eco-Warriors are a fun subset. Extremely corny, but as a concept they work perfectly in the world of GI Joe, as chemical warfare is a real and scary thing. Of course, the comics and what not usually put the focus on pollution, because that’s a little bit more of a gentle thing than having GI Joe entering an urban wasteland after Cobra attacks with sarin gas or white phosphorous. It was also a great way for Hasbro to bring back older characters like Barbecue, who logically fit somewhat on the team given his prior role as a firefighter (though oddly, Airtight was nowhere to be found).

I like this mold a lot better when it was reused three different ways in Star Brigade as Payload, though that doesn’t mean the original release as Barbecue was bad at all. Him and all of his color variations were prominent in my childhood as various different things, which I think speaks to the strength of the sculpt. Part of what makes this figure fun is that he’s almost creepy in that hazmat suit, especially with the way his face is obscured by the clear plastic visor. Often times as a kid I’d use him and the Payloads as cyborg Cobras akin to BATs, though other times he was just a lonely astronaut who’d typically die some painful death.

Compared to V1 Barbecue, this release seems much less distinct, though I think he’s a little bit cooler overall. Naturally, he loses some of that distinctness from the repaints that came later, though Deep Six also looks a lot like this figure in some ways. Still, Barbecue as an Eco-Warrior seems a little more applicable to a few different situations than the more standard firefighter he was originally. Oddly, it’s a pretty even trade off, as most of what makes this version cool also makes him just another Eco-Warrior, whereas most of what made ‘85 Barbecue cool, also made him very niche.

The red and yellow colors are somewhat pleasing to look at. I do often think of ketchup and mustard when I see him, but that’s tasty, so I don’t mind. The red is a nice shade and isn’t too bright, so he looks pretty reasonable for the role he serves. With that said, imagining this mold in the original’s orange and grey makes me think that was a bit of a missed opportunity for a repaint, but I’m also sure that not too many others would’ve wanted that.

Barbecue’s parts straight up suck. That’s partly because the only parts you get are his squirt gun and a figure stand. While the 1991 Eco-Warriors came with some traditional accessories, Barbecue and the Toxo-Zombie from 1992 only come with the squirt guns. You can find any number of generic black or yellow guns from the same time-period to equip Barbecue with and he’ll look fine, but it does diminish the figure’s appeal a lot when he doesn’t even come with one unique part of his own.

Astoundingly, this has become a fairly expensive figure ranging from $20 to $25 for a decent example. Part of that is probably owed to the fact that his clear visor falls out on some examples, making it a tad rarer and to the fact that the ‘92 Eco-Warriors were produced in smaller numbers. But seriously, complete ‘92 Barbecues now often outprice complete ‘85 Barbecues, and both represent a C-tier character. I hope I live to see the day when 90‘s Joes are worthless again.

1992 Barbecue Links:

1992 Duke

Posted on August 3, 2021 by mwnekoman

1992 Duke

I have no shortage of Duke figures, so when it comes to Duke, I can be picky. A lot of Duke figures are pretty good, but because I have so many others, their flaws render them less useful in my collection. A good example of a figure I never use, is 1992 Duke.

In my collection, this figure is mostly invalidated by both 1994 Duke, and Desert Patrol Stalker who uses the same sculpt in similar colors. That’s not really a knock against this figure, because this toy is good in it’s own right. However, I slightly prefer the sculpt and design of ‘94 Duke, and likewise, Stalker is a slightly more interesting use of the sculpt. With that, this becomes another Duke among many who doesn’t have much to do in my collection.

This figure is fairly memorable though, as the go-to design for a 90‘s Duke. You saw it pop up with some regularity in the contemporary media, which is more than I can say for Tiger Force Duke. I always associate this Duke mostly with the DIC cartoon, which for the most part, should be a bad thing, but it’s something at the very least.

The details of the sculpt are nice, and I like the design overall. However, the biggest issue is that the chest is overly buff. This is irritating, because the arms can’t even sit flush with the waist. Usually 90‘s buff sculpts aren’t so much of a problem, but he has a thick chest paired with thick arms, which unfortunately makes the figure look silly more often than not. Other than that, it’s a nice looking design. The vest has a nicely futuristic look to me, which I think matches nicely with the aesthetics we saw in the past from several figures. A lot of fans are also quick to make fun of V1 Duke’s smug, grinning expression, which is in contrast to the more stern, serious sculpt we see here.

The colors are perfect on this figure, at least to my sense of aesthetics. The beige and tans are a great tone, and the contrast of the red camouflage livens the figure up just enough, without being obnoxious. The gold paint on his grenade and a few other details also contrasts nicely without standing out too much. It was nice to see a figure with this much balance in it’s colors at this point in the line.

His parts aren’t my favorites, but they’re nice enough. Included is a brown rifle and knife, a helmet, and a missile-launcher, with missiles, seat and a tripod. The brown plastic on the rifle and knife strike me as being a little more delicate than typical, but other than that, the sculpts look well enough. The missile launcher is a mildly interesting contraption, as it can be both carried as a backpack, and sat on while in use. I think it looks silly, but it was neat that they were still trying new things. The missile launchers were much more phoned-in on figures from ’93 and ’94.

This mold and parts from it got more use than they probably should have. A fairly nice woodland-camo version came out in the 2001 ARAHC line, and it popped up again as the excellent, aforementioned Desert Patrol Stalker figure in ‘04. The arms and chest were used for ’01 Leatherneck, and the head and biceps were also used to make Agent Faces in ‘03, and later the biceps for all of the releases of the 2000‘s Crimson Guard and the Shadow Guard. The arms are easily the worst part of this toy, so it’s a shame they used them on the Crimson Guards from that era.

It’s easy to find this Duke in good shape, and mostly complete examples fetch around $15. With that said, he’s usually missing at least the knife, and it’s pretty common to find his gun broken too. Most of his parts besides his helmet really aren’t all that necessary though, and he looks pretty good in a 90‘s display without any of his parts. He’s not a must have figure, but he’s one that’s good enough to have, especially if you like 90‘s Joes.

1992 Duke Links: