Tag Archives: 2001

2001 Sure Fire

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2001 Sure Fire

I’m not sure what to say about Sure Fire. Objectively, I think he’s a really good toy and I like him a lot. Yet at the same time he’s connected to a member of the GI Joe deep-state as a homage to David Lane, and that’s a one-way trip to the #GroanZone nobody needs. I slept on that factoid for many a years and enjoyed the figure more before I knew though, so perhaps in favor of having fun, I’ll mostly ignore that and just talk about why Sure Fire isn’t a bad time.

The ARAHC Joes outside of the ridiculously rare Serpentor wave have always floated around as some of the most worthless figures on the aftermarket. That’s not a knock against them, just an observation. When I was a kid, I only encountered them once, and the only set I ever saw was the Cobra Commander (Battle Armor) and Chameleon set. That came a little too soon after the ‘97 Cobra Command set, so I never wound up getting any figures from this line until the late 2000‘s, when their cheapness became more interesting as a way of bolstering my smaller collection from back then. Somewhere along the way I ended up with one of these Sure Fires.

For the most part, this figure is almost a total repaint of ‘92 Shockwave, just with a new head. The new head is… fairly undesirable. It’s not in that Big Brawler territory of sheer misery, but it has that cheap and generic look that the other sculpts from the time were prone to, in a way that I can only think to describe as feeling more Chap Mei and less GI Joe. None of this is really anything that ruins the figure though, as I feel like the figure comes across the strongest as an army-builder FBI mook rather than a real GI Joe. V3 Shockwave has slightly brighter colors that make him seem more in-line with his 90‘s-neon DEF buds, but Sure Fire is in this really dull navy-blue color that makes him seem like much more of a generic by comparison.

Gotta be honest though, for me a lot of the appeal of this figure comes from my view on Shockwave. I love commandos in balaclavas, so despite being a solid figure I can never like DEF Shockwave more than V1 Shockwave. When I want to see a bunch of 90‘s contemporaries at the same time, the DEF mold comes out. Most of the time though, ‘88 Shockwave is the only Shockwave for me. This leaves a pretty cool sculpt mostly unexplored in my Joe world, so Sure Fire helps me rectify that. The character’s complete junk, but when you put that aside he can become a much needed Joe-mook who’s not a Steel Brigade. Plus, just giving him some headgear from Marauder’s goes a long way towards making him fully generic.

I feel disappointed by the fact that I can make a “how’s the figure degrading now” paragraph apart of my standard format when I’m talking about 2000‘s Joes. Interestingly, V1 Sure Fire seems to be holding up pretty well 22 years to his release, which I honestly did not expect for something that features blue plastic. The next release of the mold (and character) is fairing less well with the greens on his legs in particular turning dark on many copies. It’s sort of interesting the way that discoloring is so random on these figures now, where certain releases will seemingly all turn uniformly bad at once, but then a repaint of that figure that may only be a few months newer or older is perfectly fine.

For accessories you get ‘91 Dusty’s pistol in black, ‘87 Law’s uzi in silver, and a solid black version of Law’s helmet too. These accessories are nice, especially if you deemed Sure Fire appropriate as an army-builder. The silver uzis are distinct and look nice to pass around, and the black helmet fits nicely on a good number of classic figures too. I really don’t know why the ‘91 Dusty pistol became the weapon of choice during the 2000‘s, but it’s usable and better than some alternatives. Really, these accessories aren’t anything to write home about, but they do the job nicely and reinforce the image I have in my head about him just being a generic.

He’s a little less common than the ‘02 repaint that can be found in excess abundance, but ‘01 Sure Fire is still only worth around $10, $15 if you feel lazy and just go for a BiN. Back in the day, you could get left overs from China for $3 a piece or so, I didn’t take much advantage of that, but in hindsight I wish I had seeing how thirsty I am for o-rings now.

2001 Sure Fire Links:

Half the Battle

Joe A Day

2001 Gung-Ho

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2001 Gung-Ho

A problem endemic to many a figure from the ARAHC line, is the fact that many of them are nice, but not all that necessary. This comes from the fact that they often took common molds, and repainted them in similar colors, such as with both Cobra Commanders, the Baroness, Low-Light and others. Many of these figures now provide me with some enjoyable novelty, but at the time it made for a lackluster lineup. Gung-Ho’s another one of these unneeded repaints, though this figure’s actually pretty decent at face value.

Figures like this Gung-Ho are actually something that frustrated me as a kid. I barely ever saw the ARAHC figures back then, and it was really disappointing to get my first shot at expanding my own GI Joe collection, apart from my brother’s, only to be greeted by a lot of the same figures I had open access to. That coupled with this line’s absolute lack of anything a kid might like (fun colors, gimmicks, recognizable characters), left me passing them over in favor of other things every time. Hasbro improved on these issues in 2002, but even as a kid, this half-assed approach was dissuading.

The other two Battle Corps versions of this Gung-Ho are both nicely colored and remain extremely common. This version is about as nice as the other two, maybe even a little nicer for the toned down vest and olive-drab pants. It’s a little bland, but Gung-Ho has enough crazy looking figures that this one’s an okay change of pace. Probably the most irritating thing is his pale, pasty skin, though I’d say it matches a little better with ARAH figures than the later 2000‘s Joes when everyone turned orange.

Nice colors aside, why did we need this? Sure it’s a strong mold and a good rendition of it, but the original take with the green vest was still as good. With near reissues of Baroness, Torpedo and Roadblock floating around, it seems like it would’ve made more sense to bring back the V1 mold. That figure was probably a lot cheaper and easier to get a mint copy of in 2001, but I might’ve preferred it a bit to have a decent one, just in muddy ARAHC colors. It’s a head-scratcher, but then again, I like this mold a bit better anyways, so perhaps it was no big loss.

Gung-Ho comes with the same M-60 and backpack as this mold’s first release, and he also includes a figure stand. I like this M-60, even if the scale probably isn’t too realistic. The backpack’s alright, it sticks out quite a bit and doesn’t have a great profile, but it does the job for the figure.

Like a lot of figures from his era, he’s gotten harder to find, though this version of Gungo-Ho remains inexpensive floating around $10. You can get him sealed in his original pack with Leatherneck for $20, so that’s also an option. All things considered, it’s a fun, cheap version of Gung-Ho when everything else has gotten too expensive, but it leaves something to be desired when you have a bunch of other Gung-Ho’s.

2001 Gung-Ho Links:

Half the Battle

Joe A Day

2001 Big Brawler

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2001 Big Brawler

Big Brawler is the butt of many jokes, and has been a loathed character among GI Joe fans since his creation. When you know the history of the character and a little of what was going on back then… It’s not hard to imagine why. Still, like a lot of ARAHC figures, he’s kind of nice when taken in on his own. Kinda.

To understand a little more of why Big Brawler is so egregious, let’s take a look at his filecard:

“A master of both psychological warfare and hand-to-hand combat, Big Brawler has engaged in top secret operations against despots and terrorists worldwide. When it became evident that most of the world’s terrorist activities were orchestrated by COBRA, Big Brawler transferred from Army Intelligence to the G.I. Joe team. He now takes his battle directly to the snake pits, while acting as liaison to the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). He has a natural ability to persevere in the adverse conditions of the world’s jungles, in ways that Tarzan himself would be envious of. Big Brawler has refused all officer-level promotions, preferring to remain on the front lines where the real action takes place.
Despite his superior intelligence-gathering and infiltration skills, Big Brawler is quick-tempered and can’t resist the urge to pound any COBRA on sight. Since his first mission, when he was only supposed to take photos of a secret spy headquarters but “improvised” and blew up the island instead, he has been regarded as a loose cannon. Good thing he’s a G.I. Joe – he’s too dangerous to be anything else.”

I have so many sick burns, buzzwords and clever one-liners I could unload at this tripe, but really you just have to laugh and take it for what it is. Most of these filecards from around this time are easily this corny, though this one seems especially great when you consider that it’s the story for a guy who looks like the coomer wojak. You also have to know that he’s named after Brian Mulholland of the GI Joe Collector’s Club. I’m personally foggy on exactly why Brian got a GI Joe figure named after himself, but I thought the Collector’s Club had a lot to do with writing some of these files. That sort of makes it narcissistic, in addition to being cringey.

Onto the figure, Big Brawler’s a repaint of 1987 Outback, with a new head. For the most part, it’s an appealing looking figure based on a underused mold, and makes a nice, cheap alternative to the expensive Night Force Outback. Of course, a major flaw of the figure is the aforementioned new head, which looks pretty terrible. The proportions look squished, and his neck is pretty long too. The figure would’ve been better if they had just reused Outback’s original head, and that’s a shame.

Another thing that really bugs me is the paint on his biceps: there’s no flesh color above the swivel joint, giving him these weird and ugly bands on his arms. Otherwise, his paint applications and colors are okay. There’s not really a whole lot going on, and he feels a lot less detailed than Outback, but everything that needs to be painted is painted. Still, there’s a certain cheapness to this figure, that when combined with his head, makes him feel a lot more like a dollar-store bootleg than a real GI Joe toy.

His accessories include Outback’s flashlight, ‘92 Big Bear’s backpack, and ‘91 Red Star’s rifle, in addition to a figure stand. I hope the Red Star rifle is more of a coincidence and not an intentional inclusion for the figure, as I hate to think they ditched Outback’s parts in favor of making him seem more like some hackneyed Rambo knock-off (stolen AK). His backpack is magical and unlike Outback’s, Big Brawler’s can stick to him without straps! I want one of those in real life.

My personal hope was to go to eBay, find some idiot who payed a gigantic sum for Big Brawler, and then berate them here. However, most people aren’t that dumb, and Big Brawlers still aren’t very expensive relative to everything else. He’s easiest to find carded with Tripwire for about $20, some odd loose examples will go for around $10. Put all of the cringe and ugliness of this figure aside, and I think he’s nice for that much. It’s a repaint of a good mold, and if you really wanted the figure would still look pretty decent with his head swapped for Outback’s.

Gi joe arahc duke night rhino big brawler side track cobra commander

“That’s right chumps, I just caught the guy you’ve been after for 19 years, all by myself! Maybe you dudes should go back to basic training while I grab my Medal of Honor.”

Gi joe arahc duke night rhino big brawler side track cobra commanderGi joe arahc duke night rhino big brawler side track cobra commander

2001 Big Brawler Links:

Half the Battle

Joe A Day

2001 Tripwire

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2001 Tripwire

I was recently reminded when I read this post on Forgotten Figures that the ARAHC line turned 20 this year, which is curious to think about. As a kid, I pretty much passed over these entirely, so it was fun to collect them later in the 2000‘s when 25th Anniversary was the only thing anyone cared about. A lot of these were some pretty good repaints, that really fell short just by way of their extremely drab colors and the repetition of certain mold choices. Of course, Tripwire here is only 19 years old, but it’s the same line and more importantly: I wanted to write about him.

Tripwire is mostly similar to his ‘83 figure, and at a glance you might mistake him for that release when used in a photo. The only real difference is that the colors here are much, much darker than on the ‘83 figure. The green is now a dark olive, while gray is swapped for black. To me, it kind of seemed like a nice way to re-release a Tripwire figure that’s unique apart from the original, but still close enough that it works in lieu of that figure. It’s dark and a little boring, but also looks a little more realistic, so it’s a fair trade-off.

One thing I hate about the Tripwire mold is it’s penchant for “brown nosing”. You know, it’s the same problem the Televipers and Slipstream have. Because the face is painted onto plastic colored to match the rest of the uniform, as soon as something nicks his nose, there’s a huge dark spot left there. My ARAHC Tripwire has a boogered nose like this, because I got him in a lot with a bunch of other ARAHC figures all at once for a couple of dollars. It was a deal too good to pass up, but it’s still always bugged me. I think I’ll repaint it soon.

As for accessories, Tripwire comes equipped with the entirety of his original loadout. You get his mine detector, 3 mines and backpack just like always. Although exploring Tripwire’s secondary specialty of demolitions would seem interesting, I’m glad they managed to keep him with his original parts.

I’ve really enjoyed this figure in my collection over the years- to the point I’ve yet to acquire a V1 Tripwire. Objectively speaking, it’s a drab Tripwire repaint in a line that featured too many drab repaints. However, on his own it’s a workable figure that does well to represent a classic character. I suppose another way of saying that, is that the only thing that holds this figure back is the line he’s associated with.

You can get this Tripwire around $7, and he’s commonly in lots with the Big Brawler he came packaged with, as well as other ARAHC figures. ARAHC lots are common and usually don’t go for much still, so if you aren’t offended by the overall drabness of the line, you can usually get figures like this one with a few extras for a lot less. They are good toys in all honesty, they really just suffer from bad marketing choices.

2001 Tripwire ARAH ARAHC GI Joe Cobra Hasbro vintage action figure
2001 Tripwire ARAH ARAHC GI Joe Cobra Hasbro vintage action figure

2001 Tripwire Links:

Yo Joe