Tag Archives: 2012

2012 Inferno BAT (The Black Major)

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2012 Inferno BAT (The Black Major)

Another week of “just not feelin’ it”, so another random Cobra recolor. Here’s The Black Major’s Inferno BAT, a figure I like an awful lot, but never did as much with that I once dreamed possible. With that said, I think this is the most memorable BAT custom he made, partly because it’s just a lot of fun to see a figure like the BAT decked out in solid orange. Also, I think he’s the Inferno BAT, but I’m going off my often hazy memory, so that may have not been the original name.

As a part of the early waves of Black Major figures, this wave of BATs all feature some mold oddities newer renditions lack. Namely, old TBM figures were designed to be incompatible with other vintage Joes, so the backpack pegs are twice as big and the extra hands for the BAT aren’t compatible with V1 BATs. I always hated this about these older figures, as it seems like something that was done in the vein hopes of pacifying the hobby-mafia, and as that didn’t work it was later phased out. Personally though, I always hate taking a loss just to appease people that hate me having fun in the first place.

The orange color is nice and deep. It’s very close to the reddish-orange of the V1 Alley Viper, which even a lot of Hasbro figures have failed to perfectly emulate. Other than that, it’s a very simple, no-thrills kind of recolor, keeping most of the 1986 BAT’s basic paint masks and not adding anything to it. The only thing I really dislike about the deco is the silver paint, which covers the orange plastic very poorly compared to other colors like blue. I always thought it was weird he skipped over doing a crimson BAT, but I think orange ones are a lot more useful than a robot in elite ceremony colors.

For accessories, you get the standard kit of ‘86 BAT parts, just modified in ways to make them unique as mentioned before. So that includes the backpack, and four removable appendages (a flamethrower, a claw, a gun, and a hand) The BAT hands have a tendency to fit too tight or too loose in the backpack, so a few copies broke right away, while others remained just fine. Nothing a pin vice and some rods can’t fix, but who knows if I’ll ever feel like doing that.

I think I mentioned in an older post that the quality on these were okay. I mostly stand by that, but these orange BATs do remind me that the lot wasn’t great either – “mid”, to use some modern jargon. Ill-fitting pegs make the arms break easy, and of course they have some stance/tolerance issues with their o-rings. There’s enough there to be worth griping about, but then I remember how much cheaper these older bootlegs were: a whole lot of 5 BATs only ran something like $25. The world’s a much different place almost twelve years later, so you can’t make cheap toys like that any more. Still, it was so much more fun and easy to overlook fairly serious flaws just for how cheap this stuff used to be. 1 o-ring figure in 2023, from either Hasbro or anyone else, costs me as much as 5 did back in 2012.

If you’re in the market for one of these, good luck, because I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen one for sale. At the very least I don’t see many TBM BATs running high premiums, so it shouldn’t cost a lot when you find one, it’s just that you’ll have to hunt for a while. A lot of these old customs tend to disappear like that, especially as they enter crypts like my personal dwelling, where I buy a lot, but never sell. Of course, there’s a newer 23‘ BAT in Alley Viper colors with the camo, but the orange isn’t as orange and purty as my figure here, you should be jealous.

tbm bat cobra gi joe arah custom 2012tbm bat cobra gi joe arah custom 2012

 

2012 TBM BAT (Blue)

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2012 TBM BAT (Blue)

So all the way back in the now distant year of 2012, The Black Major produced a run of 1986 BATs in his typical colors and patterns. It was pretty much the same drill you’ve seen a few times with his Cobra Troopers, Cobra De Acos, Crimson Guards and others, but it was a good lot of figures regardless. At the time, some of these figures saturated the market and floated around for low prices, though 9 years later, they’ve become a bit more of a rarity.

I like Cobra BATs, to a certain extent. In general, I’ve been excessively fond of robot characters since I was a small child, so figures like the ‘91 BAT or the BAAT got a lot of use in my playtimes. Still, the BAT removes the interesting human element from Cobra, so I can’t focus on them too much. They have a role in my Joe world, though they may not be as important to me as they are for others.

The thing that really sucks about the original BAT, is how much it costs to get one! Seriously, it was an expensive figure that might run you something like $30 when I got into collecting, but now complete BATs routinely haul $80. I really don’t know why they’re so much more expensive than Vipers and Cobra Troopers, but it’s entirely led by demand, and people really loose their marbles for BATs. Since Hasbro refuses to reissue old sculpts, it really leaves TBM as the only option for affordable BATs. When these 2012 BATs came out, you could almost get a full quad for the price of 1 Hasbro BAT, I’m pretty sure that will be the same when his new ones come out this year or next year.

Today, I’m looking at the Cobra blue BATs he produced. Although there’s a good number of other color schemes I enjoy, I’m focusing on these. Blue BATs are something I’ve seen people ask for a lot, in reference to how they appeared in the Marvel comics. These BATs aren’t quite Marvel-accurate, but they look pretty good regardless.

I can imagine some reasons for why there would be some random Blue BATs running around alongside normal BATs. One idea I have is that they’re simple production variants, and that BATs aren’t very consistent in terms of coloring and construction. Another angle you could use, is that their uniforms are made in the same factory or from recycled materials for Cobra Trooper and Viper uniforms. It’s basically just a dust-cover, so it’s actually strange that the BATs have their own unique outfits. They lack a real niche, but they look good, and there’s a few explanations I can think of for them.

There’s a few mold changes between the Black Major BATs and the Hasbro BATs. Notably, the TBM figures have fatter backpack pegs, and different pegs for the arm attachments, to prevent people from swapping them onto the originals (and presumably, then selling them). It was a really nice gesture at first how far he went to make it easy to tell TBM figures and parts apart from vintage ones, though I think there’s really no need to go this far.

Besides the chest stickers occasionally falling off, and their natural stance being a tad weird, the TBM BATs come across to me as being good, if not, average quality. His more recent releases, like the WORMs/Cobra Commanders, strike me as being a bit better, but the BATs were also better than some other releases, like the Night Stalkers. At the time, they were pretty amazing, though I personally suspect the paint might be a tad more crisp on the new ones he’s making, given the quality of most of his newer releases.

For accessories, you get everything that was present with the original BAT, including a backpack and four arm attachments. Personally, I’ve always thought a few of the arm attachments look a tad corny, namely the claw, but it’s only corny to a charming extent. My favorite was always the flamethrower arm, which seems limited in usage, but is certainly a terrifying concept, plus the sculpted details are the best on that one.

I believe the mold for this particular bootleg was given off to Red Laser Customs, who made some very interesting variants out of it. I will admit though, I’m not very clear on the specifics of how that worked. There was a lot of discussion and information that floated around on Facebook and Instagram back then, but I hate those websites, so a lot of it went by without me knowing too well.

The biggest problem is pricing a lot of old bootlegs is finding them. Mind you, some of these figures, especially these older releases, appear to exist in decent numbers. Still, you won’t be able to find a 2012 TBM BAT in a specific color at any time you want one. The good news though, is that he’s making a new set of BAT customs, and in all likelihood, will retread old themes as he did with the Cobra Trooper. If you’re not to obsessed, it’s probably a better option just to buy those.

gi joe bootleg hasbro vintage cobra bat gi joe bootleg hasbro vintage cobra bat

2012 TBM BAT (Blue) Links:

Blue BATs by 00zxcvb

Other than that, I don’t have any links. If you have a cool photo or some content on this BAT, feel free to link to it in the comments.

TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco

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TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco

The Black Major’s run of Cobra De Aco figures are probably among some of his least popular releases, next to the Night Stalkers he made. In the case of Cobra De Aco, many of the colors he chose, along with the quality of the release was fantastic, but the figure was made from straight-arm tooling, hence the limited interest from the collecting community.

I have mixed opinions on the choice personally. On the one hand, I think it’s very nice to own a reproduction of the authentic Cobra De Aco in colors and tooling that’s as close to the genuine article as possible. I’ve gotta admit though, the figure’s usefulness is a lot more limited because of the straight-arm tooling, and the choice certainly dashed collector interest.

There’s two white-colored Cobra De Aco’s that were made: One that’s a stark white and matches TBM’s arctic Cobras, and this one that’s more of an off-white color. The off-white plastic strikes me as being a tad more interesting, and I even think it looks like something Hasbro would use (it’s very similar to the tone of the ’89 Track Viper).

Another feature of these Cobra De Aco figures I really appreciated was the alternate heads they included. There’s a gasmask head from the comic-pack Cobra Officer, a Chrome Snake Eyes head, and the third option, Flash’s head with a brown, South-American skin tone. It’s a neat inclusion that seems like it could have a lot of life away from this figure, though I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone make good use of it.

The quality of this release was almost impeccable. The joints, paint, and construction is all a step above the typical fare of a “factory custom”. I think I didn’t get a single figure with issues from the entire run, and I ended up with a pretty big collection of these since they were so cheap and plentiful for the longest time.

The Cobra De Aco’s include Flash’s original gun and backpack, though sadly it also presents the only real quality issue with the figure. Almost all of TBM’s Cobra De Aco’s came with guns that weren’t really flexible enough to be used without the cord breaking. Some of mine also seem to suffer from flaking paint, which is a little weird. It’s a small thing to look over, though it does mean that most of the De Aco’s lack decent weapons.

gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra

These Cobra De Aco’s are old and tracking down a specific color scheme can be tricky. Collector interest hasn’t picked up that much for them though, and after enough hunting you can get about any version you want for around $20. That’s a lot more than I paid for most of my De Aco’s, and I’m not sure I’d pay that much for them now, but it’s not too much if you only want a few.

gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra

TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco Links

Reproduction Cobra De Aco at Forgotten Figures

Photo by Cyko_9

Photo by 00zxcvb

2012 30th Anniversary Dollar General Cobra Trooper

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2012 30th Anniversary “Basic Assortment” Cobra Trooper

Ah, 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar. The prophecy which foretold the apocalyptic demise of the once unstoppable American icon, GI JOE. Truly a tumultuous year for Hasbro with the titanic failure of their Battleship film, leading to a one-year delay of the second GI Joe film, only about a month before it was set for theaters and after the toys had already been sent to retail. The results of this sealed the fate for the brand for the better part of the 2010‘s, and should the Snake Eyes movie flop, possibly forever.

I’ve rarely spoken of Modern Era sculpts on this blog, despite that I do still collect them and a number of the new figures and characters are quite good. I don’t figure my readers here have much interests in them, and in truth many of them leave me strained for a commentary of substance. The Basic Assortment Cobra Trooper, however, is a fascinating figure in several ways, partly for the nightmarish picture it suggests of Hasbro’s corporate culture.

As the story goes, the GI Joe design team was tasked with making an assortment of cheaper, low-budget GI Joe figures for sale at low-end stores and pharmacies, namely Dollar General. It’s in line with infrequent releases Hasbro had made for those stores to that point, like the Valor vs Venom single-cards and later assortments of o-ring repacks like we saw in 2008. Like those, these were intended to be straight repacks of recent ME sculpts with reduced paint applications and accessories. Only, the memo the designers got was so vague, they assumed they were to create brand-new figures, with only the names of the characters to go off of.

It was one time that a horrible miscommunication gave the collecting community something to really go nuts over, and the figures were a hit at retail. But what it really shows me is just how terrible the communications are at Hasbro, and I’m left wondering how many of their dumbfounding mistakes through the 2000’s may have been a result of such incidents. Around this time, I remember reading on Glassdoor.com a bunch of bad reviews of the company, namely centering around similar stories of supervisors and bosses with a seemingly deep lack of communications skills…

With that said, the figure is really interesting too, beyond his backstory. Knowing the Hasbro designers were left to their own devices to create a figure that was a “Cobra Trooper”, I’ve often wondered what the inspiration behind this black-clad Cobra might have been. As he was released in 2012, I’d find it greatly amusing if the figure was based on the then recent Black Major Cobra Troopers. Although, given the web-gear, officer insignia and AK-47, it’s somewhat more likely that the figure may have been based off of the Sideshow Collectible’s Cobra Sniper who looks somewhat more similar.

The Pursuit of Cobra Cobra Trooper sculpt was a pretty good modernization of the classic Cobra Soldier design. There’s some issues one might associate with any modern-style GI Joe figures, but overall the quality of the sculpt and articulation sufficed for my needs. But with that out of the way, one discrepancy between ARAH and Modern that’s left me somewhat jaded is the presence of interesting repaints. With the classic construction, there’s a lot of oddball stuff to go and check out or find interesting, new uses for. However, with modern figures, Hasbro’s focus was far more on lazy, half-assed “updates”, leaving little room for repaints like this Trooper, who graces my collection as something fun and new.

For accessories, you got a helmet, AK-47, web-gear, knee-pads and a stand. For a figure that came at half the price of a retail figure at the same time, it was a good amount of parts and even left me wondering why the main retail line couldn’t be more like this. If cutting away the glut of reused weapons, and trimming down the paint applications meant selling GI Joes for far fairer prices in the ever worsening economy of the early 10‘s, why didn’t they do this across the board?

This Cobra Trooper is mildly easy to come by and generally goes between $15 – $18 bucks. Can’t say a modern figure with almost no paint or parts feels worth that compared to what vintage figures you could get for that much, but if ARAH isn’t your thing, maybe so. Unlike the inferior blue repaint of this release that replaced this one in later assortments, this figure was very popular upon release and was usually the first to go when collectors began ravaging dollar stores for these figures in 2012. As a recolor of the ubiquitously loved Cobra Trooper and being based on a decent mold, I’d expect this figure’s value to mostly stay where it is.

Gi joe cobra Trooper pursuit of cobra dollar general exclusive
Gi joe cobra Trooper pursuit of cobra dollar general exclusive

2012 30th Anniversary “Basic Assortment” Cobra Trooper Links:

Yo Joe

Hiss Tank

JoeADay