Tag Archives: 2020

2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)

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2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)

gi joe bootleg the black major 2020

2020 brought us another wave of ‘85 Snake Eyes repaints from the Black Major before he officially retired the mold, and of them he made some intricate and highly interesting repaints. One that stood out to me the most was this Snake Eyes in Sightline colors, which looked especially nice for being a new Snake Eyes, and not a random Cobra.

The ‘85 Snake Eyes customs are something I’m glad TBM decided to do, because while army-builders are nice, I still have a desire for new and interesting unique characters. From this Snake Eyes mold, we’ve gotten a number of unique and interesting color schemes that add more to various segments of my collection than you could ever expect from a typical Snake Eyes figure. Adding to that, because they’re all repaints of a virtually unexplored mold, each figure feels new and fresh to me.

This color scheme is particularly striking and nice to me. I’m personally a big fan of digital camo patterns and I love the way it looks when applied to military items, fictional or otherwise. The downside is that it doesn’t blend in well with most of my vintage collection, as there’s basically no o-ring figures that have a camo pattern like this. At the same time, it’s also something I like about the figure, as there again it’s very fresh and new feeling. Preventing the figure from being too drab, he has red details painted all over him just like the 50th Anniversary figures that sported this color scheme, which finishes this figure’s deco off quite nicely.

bootleg snake eyes parts

For parts, you get the full ‘85 Snake Eyes kit, plus Timber, as you might expect. This time, the parts are rendered in light gray, which is a reasonable looking color. Like with many of the TBM Snake Eyes figures, the parts don’t contrast very well against the figure, I think black or green parts would’ve looked better here. Of course, there’s a plethora of other figures these gray parts would still pair nicely with, so they’re not without their uses. They just don’t look very good with this figure.

The quality seems only okay, at least on my figure. While the figures that came in the same wave as the Ghost Mortal were pretty solid, this figure has rather floppy arms and a molding defect on one of his lower legs. It’s certainly not something that ruins the figure, but at least from this one example, the quality seems like a downgrade from the first wave of ‘85 Snake Eyes repaints.

As of right now, this Snake Eyes is still available and somewhat easy to come across for it’s initial price of $18. For that much money, I’ll definitely pass on some of the sillier repaints. For an interesting and high quality color scheme like this however, I think the price is fair. I’d speculate there will be more demand for this figure when supplies dry up compared to his contemporaries, but that’s based on the assumption my opinions on this color scheme are fairly mainstream.

gi joe bootleg the black major 2020

2020 Sightline Snake Eyes (TBM Custom)

Photo by DreadnokDread

Forgotten Figures Review of Bonecrusher (His wave-mate)

2020 TBM Eels (Copperhead Colors)

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2020 TBM Eels (Copperhead Colors)

So after a good amount of hype, The Black Major’s latest project has finally arrived, and this time it’s the 1985 Eel mold. There’s quite a few interesting color schemes floating around, though a popular one and the one I liked best was this color scheme based on ‘84 Copperhead.

GI Joe TBM The Black Major eels copperhead vintage arah

In general, I’m not someone who was overly excited for Eel repaints, and that’s for a handful of reasons. The Eel was a good figure that serves it’s purpose, and similar to the Snow Serpent, there’s not much need for a repaint of a character so specialized. Because of this, I think a lot of the repaints went in a more novel direction, which doesn’t work for me with this mold. I also just don’t like this mold as much as other people though, so there’s that too.

This color scheme is very good however, and very useful to my collection. As a personal choice, I don’t like imagining that they have much relation to Copperhead (he’s a rogue agent), but rather are just an Eel division in swamp-centric colors. This to me, makes them a little more unique and gives them a more distinct role in my collection. This way it provides some new opportunities, like giving them the Dreadnok Swampfire, or having someone for Muskrat to fight.

The quality of these figures is very good, maybe the best I’ve encountered from factory customs. In general I don’t judge these figures too harshly for quality, as with their third-party origins and small production runs, it’s usually going to be the case that a figure won’t be perfect. With that said, these are simply excellent. The paint, joints, and even the numerous parts have a solid feel to them, which surprised me, as I was expecting the flippers or mouthpiece at least to have some problems. Instead, everything’s very snug and almost on par with vintage quality.

You get the original Eel’s full assortment of gear, including the two-piece backpack, speargun, mouthpiece and flippers. All of the parts are cast in a winter green color, which looks pretty good. Personally I think black parts might’ve contrasted better with the figure itself, but I really like these oddly colored 80‘s accessories, so I’d rather have them like this than be perfectly attuned to my esthetic sense.

It seems like with factory customs, you get about a year or so of seeing the figures float around plentifully before things start to dry up. These particular Eels are the cream of the crop from this set, so I didn’t chose to wait around on them. However, I’m pretty sure a handful of these will be available into next year, at which point I’ll probably dip my hands into a few more color schemes. I expect you’ll see these particular Eels for at least the rest of the year at their normal $15 to $18, which they’re well worth.