2004 Big Brawler (Version 4)

Posted on March 19, 2019 by mwnekoman

2004 Big Brawler

Big Brawler’s a name pretty infamous to Joe collector’s who were around in the early 2000‘s. At best, I think he could sort of be described as a meme that represented the low-quality characters that were being created at the time. Some collector’s even seemed to feel somewhat insulted by the character. With that said, there’s some value that can still be gleaned when Big Brawler’s figures are taken at face value.

This particular Big Brawler reuses the part recipe and paint masks from the Tiger Force Big Brawler who came out the year before. In fact, many of the colors are the same as that figure, with the major differences being the color of his shirt, skin, and hair. Clearly, the figure was designed as a part of a set that was meant to be budget priced, and the fact that he’s not changed more can be easily overlooked. Back then it might’ve been less acceptable, but it 2019 without the other figure in my collection, I don’t mind.

His main fault as a figure is that the character is junk, and the paint is just a tad too limited. Particularly, the unpainted bullet belts on his legs just leaves a lot to be desired. At the same time, as he is essentially just a repaint of Salvo, it’s nice to see that Salvo didn’t become yet another ARAH mold that would be forever without a repaint (ignoring the other Big Brawler and Balrog). Of course, I think Salvo is superior to any color variant of this Big Brawler, but it’s still nice for the variety.

BIG BRAWLER started out in Army Intelligence before he was tapped to join the G.I. JOE Team, bringing an impressive catalogue of specialized skills and talents. Equally at home in dense tropical undergrowth as he is in concrete urban badlands, he has survival and observation abilities on a par with jungle cats and feral street criminals. Proficient in small arms, squad-level infantry weapons, and platoon support weapons, BIG BRAWLER also holds rank in several martial arts disciplines. Trained as a psychologist and having participated in several military psychological operations, he knows that as good as you are with a weapon, you can’t win a fight unless you can think three moves ahead of your opponent, and then have a surprise for him!
“Never start a fight you can’t finish, never drink water that a purification tablet won’t dissolve in, and always brush your teeth when you’re in the jungle!”

In other words, Big Brawler’s good at everything he does, and is trained and educated in everything. Also, he’s a psychologist… Man it’s not as bad as his original Rambo-wannabe bio, but this file is just dumb. It also really leaves Big Brawler without too much of a purpose, and definitely as a character to improvise with. I can’t think of much to do with him at the moment besides having him man vehicles and act as squad filler in dioramas.

His only accessory was a silver version of the customized M4 we saw around a few times in the New Sculpt era. It’s actually a pretty nice part, but it’s also extremely generic. I don’t feel like it does much to accentuate a character in need of some added appeal.

I’m having a hard time pricing this version of Big Brawler. I think I got mine in a lot about a year or so ago, but I really don’t remember anymore. And other than that he’s another bad victim of the GI-drought, where there’s nothing showing up on eBay routinely enough for me to say “that much.”. So I’ll assess the figure like this: The character is terrible, and the figure is mediocre. But he’s not badly colored and has the cool novelty of being one of a few Salvo repaints. So if you see him somewhere, he’s a decent addition for around $8, but at that, it’s a figure that any collection could do without.

Gi joe Big Brawler 2004 Valor vs Venom VAMP Toys R Us Exclusive GI Joe ARAH Spy Troops

2004 Big Brawler Links:

JoeADay

Half the Battle

Yo Joe

2004 TRU Night Force Tunnel Rat

Posted on December 10, 2018 by mwnekoman

2004 TRU Night Force Tunnel Rat

I’ve never been a fan of the 2004 Night Force set. It’s really not bad in retrospect, but the figures are a poor match for the superior vintage Night Force colors. The 2003 Python Patrol set was a far better update to the vintage Python colors compared to this, but there are a few interesting figures in this set. Today I’ll have a look at Tunnel Rat, who I feel is neither the best or worst figure included.

This set passed me by at retail without my knowledge (or caring), and when I got into collecting older item’s a few years later, this set was still at the bottom of my priorities. In fact, I’ve only acquired two thirds of the set to date, mainly through lots and the like. My disinterest in the figures spurns from a simple reason: they’re bland. The colors and details are pretty good across the set, but at a glance all I see is black.

Such is the case with Tunnel Rat. The vintage Night Force Tunnel Rat had a strong palette of colors without being boring to look at. The 2004 figure on the other hand, has an excessively dark color scheme. There’s a lot of colors and details in this deco, and really it’s a well decorated figure. It’s just that the colors are so dark you can hardly appreciate that, which is a massive shame.

Speaking of details, one thing that drives me nuts about 2000‘s Joes moreso than pinheads, terrible parts and poor mold choices is the usage of the full GI Joe logo. For some reason this became of visual trope of figures from this era, and Tunnel Rat features it on his leg like all the other figures in the set. It’s especially jarring on this figure where dark, realistic colors are part of the appeal, and then you just have a massive toy brand logo running down his leg. I really hate that.

For accessories, he included Red Star’s AK47, and V1 Firefly’s backpack and walkie-talkie. It’s a pretty weird situation when a figure comes with good parts, but still doesn’t really have a good loadout. I pretty much always enjoy getting a spare Firefly walkie, but the backpack without his tool tray is pretty off-putting. All in all, these parts are good things to have in a parts bin, but for Tunnel Rat, they don’t suit the character.

So, overall this Tunnel Rat is an okay figure. There’s a few worse versions of Tunnel Rat, such as the Sonic Fighters repaint, but that doesn’t make this figure’s problems any better. Nowadays completionists will pay a lot for the sparse appearance of this figure “complete”, but as the parts are totally generic, I don’t recommend bothering with them. Partsless, you can get this guy for about $6 or $7, and depending upon how you view the colors, that isn’t a terrible price. Most of these 2000‘s TRU exclusives have become a lot harder find and a lot more expensive, but the Night Force set hasn’t appreciated in value quite as much.

Tunnel Rat gi joe Short Fuze Downtown 1989 2004 2003 Toys R Us Night Force Hasbro ARAH

2004 TRU Night Force Tunnel Rat Links:

2004 Scrap Iron

Posted on July 2, 2018 by mwnekoman

2004 Scrap Iron

2000‘s era Joes were myriad in missed opportunities, but every now and then Hasbro produced an excellent figure that made great use of a vintage mold. For the most part, that’s true of the Scrap Iron from the 2004 Cobra Strike Team – Urban Division set.

The Scarp Iron mold was one that had been acquired by Funskool in the 90‘s but then returned to Hasbro in the 2000‘s upon demands by collectors. Hasbro used the mold to make two figures, this fantastic one, and a horrendous comic-pack figure. Most of the molds they reacquired from Funskool were never used much, or were only used for one or two crappy repaints, but that thankfully wasn’t the case with Scarp Iron here.

During the transition, some of the mold seems to have been lost. So the arms and legs have been swapped out for the same combination used on the 2004 Infantry Forces. It’s a good fit, and oddly enough I feel glad for the swap. Now he’s more similar to the contemporary Cobra Trooper of the era, and it provides some variety if you’ve collected a few versions of Scrap Iron already. I also feel like the Thunder arms are a bitter fit for this figure than the Infantry Forces.

Frankly, this may be the best color scheme Scarp Iron’s ever been sold in. The solid black with red ties him into the colors for most of Cobra’s classic armory, and especially pairs well with the SMS. The paint applications are further complimented with some brown for the boots and gloves, blue for the collar, and some grey to break up his helmet. There’s some really blase figures with far fewer paint applications from around this time, so one like this really stands out in my opinion.

The parts are a comical example of how lazy Hasbro got with accessories in the 2000’s. Scrap Iron is known for his trademark missile launcher, but now it’s no where to be seen. Instead, we have the Range Viper’s backpack in green, as well as his grenade launcher in black… sans the magazine! Lastly, he includes the twin barrel laser riffle from Sonic Fighters Major Bludd, because the other gun wasn’t just crappy and random enough.

At one time, this figure was common, and pretty cheap. Collector’s hoarded the Cobra Urban Division set for it’s high quality army builders and were left dumping the Scrap Iron and Storm Shadow on eBay at a pretty high rate. But, a lot can change in 14 years, and now this figure isn’t as common. I personally found two eBay listings for this guy in the past three months, which actually makes him more scarce than Funskool Tripwire for comparison. When you find him though, they look to be selling around $11, which is fair enough if you like Scrap Iron enough.

2004 Scrap Iron Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figures

2004 Cobra Officer (Comic Pack)

Posted on November 23, 2017 by mwnekoman

Amid waves of excellent Cobra trooper repaints from The Black Major and a few from Hasbro, there’s bound to be some figures that become overlooked. One such figure is the Comic Pack Cobra Officer, a figure that was rather well appreciated at one time, that has now fallen into otherwise obscurity.

Army builder mania was still strong in 2004, and Cobra Troopers that had been absent from the GI Joe line since it’s reboot were staunchly demanded. That year the popular Cobra Infantry Forces set was released and quickly sold out, leaving plenty of demand for another Cobra Trooper/Officer release, which came in the form of the comic packs. Mind you, most collector’s vastly preferred the Infantry Forces to these figures, but it wasn’t uncommon to see where people had army built these back then.

The figure makes some unfortunate mold changes from the Cobra Infantry Forces Officer that hurt it comparatively. The Thunder arms from that figure have been swapped for V1 Roadblock’s, and the waist has been changed to Roadblock’s as well. The arms, while being seen generally as a poor replacement, aren’t horrible. Likewise, I feel the waist works reasonably well, but the question that remains is why they would switch parts in the first place. It’s possible the entire part recipe was made in error for this figure given the penchant Hasbro had for such mistakes at the time. If my memory serves me correctly, the head was intended to be the new sculpt from the Infantry Forces set and was swapped due to a miscommunication with the factory.

The detail is fairly good on this figure with a few subtle touches I like rather well. On the sides of the helmet there is a Cobra sigil, and a good amount of silver detailing on the buckles and buttons of his web gear. Combine that with the vibrant, comic-based colors of the figure and you do end up with both a fairly unique and moderately attractive figure. A downside here is that the paint you do get is rather thick and poorly applied, a sad quality issue that is hard to overlook in some instances.

It’s almost not even worth mentioning the parts for this figure, as like most figures from this era he includes a small group of poorly chosen parts. The Baroness riffle that nobody likes, the large AK47 from Red Star, and the V3 Dusty pistol. This is a load out of parts ranging from decent to awful and it’s the same parts that a few too many figures included. That Dusty pistol was packed with more than twenty figures through that era!

All in all, this is a figure with a few flaws that was a mediocre stand-in for the vintage version back in 2004. Nowadays however, there’s so many Cobra Trooper/Officer repaints that this one has ended up with somewhat of it’s own niche, one that it really used to not have. The bright colors and mold changes make him very different to the vintage figure and there’s certainly no bootlegs that resemble him, so he provides something different in his own way. If you look around for him, you can get these for $5 a pop, sometimes less. For that much, it’s an alright figure to have around and provide some variety to the collection.