1993 Outback (Version 4)

Posted on July 17, 2023 by mwnekoman

1993 Outback

V1 Outback is one of my favorite GI Joe figures. He looks cool, he has great accessories, a great character, and in general, fits the part of the kind of moive-like action hero who can sometimes fight big battles all on his own, if your imagination works that way. All of that together makes for a character we should see more often than we do, but his fourth (kinda third) toy from Battle Corps left a lot to be desired.

So originally Outback V3 would’ve been apart of the Eco Warriors, but that sub line was canceled similar to DEF, and it’s releases were moved over to the Battle Corps lineup of ‘93. The colors on this release are extremely bright, which is fairly similar to the tones you typically saw from Eco Warriors. The figure was then promptly repainted into some new colors more similar to the Battle Corps toys, and that’s where you wind up with version 4.

This Outback has a curious look to him, to say the least. For some reason he’s wearing a hardhat now, which makes him look more like a random lumberjack or construction worker. His shirt and pants are also much more on the plain end, and he doesn’t seem to be wearing anything that would protect him from the dangerous chemicals the Eco Warriors would typically encounter. To make him even better, he’s primarily green and khaki, with bright blue and orange details all over, in addition to some little bits of gold and black. I really can’t think of a figure that had more random colors than this one.

Gotta be honest, I find almost nothing redeeming or fun about this figure. A lot of the ‘93 redesigns were on the controversial end, like with Dr. Mindbender or Law, but those toys at least have some interesting visual elements going on with them. This Outback however, just looks really boring. The design is bland and doesn’t really seem to serve a clear purpose. Even the infamous Fishn’ Trip Bazooka from that year looks a lot more appealing than this figure does. In decent colors this mold might be salvageable, but there’s not much potential that was wasted here.

For accessories you get a tree of bright red parts, featuring Hit&Run’s carbine, Big Ben’s LMG, Ambush’s EM2 rifle, two missiles and a figure stand (as well as a blue missile launcher). It’s weird how almost every other Joe included some kind of knife or machete, but the survivalist just comes with random guns. At the very least, they are good guns, so if you’re another individual who’s developed a fondness for bright parts, you could probably find some uses for them. They don’t really make this Outback a good toy though.

Almost every Battle Corps Outback you will find is MOSC. Carded, he’s worth about $14, and loose he’s worth about $9. It’s really funny how heavily certain ‘93 and ‘94 Joes were hoarded by speculators who expected to get rich off of these; the fact that almost every example of this Outback that you find is carded makes me wonder how many kids ever even played with this guy.

1993 Outback Links:

1986 Beach Head

Posted on July 4, 2023 by mwnekoman

1986 Beachhead

Masked commandos always make for some of the coolest characters. Of course, I’ve seen some people that very much think otherwise, but there’s no doubt that the cool look plays a role in Beachhead’s popularity. And Firefly’s. And Shockwave’s too. Before I knew too much about the character, I was mainly attracted to him just for the fact that he’s a reasonable looking commando with a balaclava.

Beachhead has a really fine sculpt and design. He’s detailed, his gear has an interesting look, and he even has extra clips on his chest that match his SMG. The only real wart is his head: it’s massive, which is unfortunately consistent with most of the ‘86 line. The massive noggins from that year stick out so much to me that I do suspect it was intentional, but I wonder what the thinking was. I feel like these sculpts tend to age more poorly than other vintage sculpts, just because the proportions are so odd by comparison.

He’s got some nice colors and paint work on him too. This dark cyan tone wasn’t seen so much in the vintage line, which does make Beachhead stand out a lot. There’s a nice little patch tampographed onto his left-shoulder, some gray paint for his clips, even a little splash of red for the beret (?) sculpted onto his shoulder. I never really knew what the red thing on his shoulder is, but I kind of think it’s a hat. Oddly, it’s not present on his card-art, so I guess it was a late addition to the design.

V1 Beachhead also has another problem I really hate: his crotch. This figure has one of the thinnest, daintiest waist pieces in the entire line, and you will find plenty of broken ones because of that. This is the main reason that I default to the Funskool figure anytime I need a Beachhead for something, as the softer plastic is much more resistant to breakage. Although the 2000‘s brought plenty of Beachhead repaints, it’s a shame we didn’t get this sculpt in comic colors or something close to the olive used on the 25th figure, as personally I still want a normal looking Beachhead that doesn’t scare me as much as the V1 figure.

The included accessories for Beachhead are his SMG in dark-gray plastic, a backpack in black, and a flexible black satchel. If he had just been another guy with a gun and a backpack like Leatherneck, it’d have been a bit boring, but the little ammo-pouch does a lot to make Beachhead seem like he comes with more. His SMG is a classic part, it’s a Demro XF-7 Wasp. He looks great holding it and it’s really easy for virtually any figure to use it, too. It is a very odd choice of weapon for a Joe, as the Wasp wasn’t ever adopted by any military or law-enforcement, but it looks really cool, and that’s probably why the designers chose it too.

I’d say a mint, complete Beachhead is worth about $25, but sometime $35, especially for one with the filecard. He’s a popular figure that’s prone to damage in a few ways, so often times you’ll see examples sell for way more than that, but he’s not really worth more then $35 at any point. With that said, finding a mint Beachhead really is more of a pain in the ass than it usually is for a common figure; you can scroll through a bunch of listings and find most will have some kind of egregious flaw. I think he’s worth it, but if you don’t care too much, the Funskool and Night-Force versions make good replacements.

1986 Beach Head Links:

1989 Tiger Sting

Posted on June 27, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Tiger Sting

Tiger Force vehicles! The Tiger Force vehicle colors are cool and iconic, I love them. I think at one point this used to be a cool alternative opinion that made you different from the crowd, but now everyone loves everything that’s been lathered in bright colors and reminds them of the good times prior to the turn of the century… Which means I can’t be cool just for liking toy jeeps and aircraft in tiger colors anymore.

The Tiger Sting is a repaint of the VAMP Mark II, just in the colorful Tiger Force team colors. I find it interesting that it’s a repaint of the VAMP and not the Cobra Stinger, seeing as how Tiger Force and Python Patrol did a lot of faction swapping; the “Sting” in the name would also make more sense as a Stinger repaint. Maybe there was a miscommunication at the factory? Either way, it’s the requisite repaint of what is probably GI Joe’s most iconic and popular vehicle, so it does the job regardless of what the thinking was behind it.

Speaking of the parts it uses, the domestic release on the Tiger Sting uses a mixture of ‘82 VAMP and VAMP Mark II parts, namely, it uses the upper hull of the original VAMP that doesn’t feature a lot of sculpted details. Later in the UK and a few other European countries, it was released using the upper hull of the VAMP Mark II, with the little shovel and tarp on the hood. I assume the smooth body was used to help the tiger-face decals adhere, so the different parts might negatively impact that.

For me this one’s another childhood item that came from my brother’s collection, not something that I ever picked out for myself. Part of the reason I think GI Joe vehicles really went down in quality towards the end of the line, comes from the fact that most of the vehicles I liked as a kid were repaints of older 80‘s items like the Tiger Sting. The childhood armory featured mostly vehicles released between ‘90 and ‘94. For the most part, my focus was put on the Tiger Sting, the Lynx and the Sky Sharc, whereas I don’t remember ever having much fascination with the Badger, just as one example. A lot of the older vehicles seemed more compact and easy to play with, compared to monstrosities like the Attack Cruiser.

I don’t find the Tiger Force vehicle colors to be all that unrealistic, at least not by GI Joe’s standards of fluorescent grenades, android soldiers and whatever the HISS Driver is supposed to be. During the Korean War, there was a kinda famous M46 Patton painted up with a big goofy tiger face in the front, and at least half of the tank was bright yellow. I remember seeing the thing a long time ago, but now I can’t find anything decent documenting it, at least at a glance. Realism aside, I like the colors because they look nice. The Tiger Force color-scheme is distinct and stands out immediately. With the Tiger Sting here, I really love the way that it’s colors contrast so much against green tones you see around your yard or parks in the Summer, it’s really nice in photos.

Complete Tiger Stings can run around $80, but any small defect can bring that price down to around $50 to $40. Finding one with all of the missiles, the steering wheel, gas cans and no damage to the doors can be some work. I take the liberty of assuming they didn’t make as many of these as they did VAMPs and VAMP Mark II’s, so that probably also affects the pricing. Personally, I think this one’s worth the premium, as it does feel like one of the only Tiger Force vehicles you really need.

1993 Law

Posted on June 13, 2023 by mwnekoman

1993 Law

As it turns out, government propaganda isn’t a popular thing. Doubling a toy’s price to include a missile launcher with a light was also not such a popular thing. Because of this, the DEF line wound up getting canceled, and all of it’s 1993 releases incorporated into the Battle Corps. I tend to find that all of these ‘93 DEF guys are odd, but most of them are good none the less, which is the case with Law.

Law is a figure I’ve not paid attention to for the longest time. When I started collecting, I did not have much tolerance for figures in the colors you often found from ‘93. The drastic redesign on this figure was off putting, and it was even more so when I had Sonic Fighters Law to compare him to. Even back then I had a lot of interest in the DEF and Headhunters, but Law was too much to ever really consider. At some point a few years ago though, neon became a fascination of mine, so this Law has some new life in my eyes. He’s especially helped by the fact that I ignored him for so long that now he feels kind of new.

The new design is a drastic change from his ‘87 look, but if you pay attention he actually looks really good. If he were in dark and drab colors this figure really wouldn’t be too far off from the geardo/dark and gritty esthetic that’s been popular since the 2010‘s. He’s wearing a mask with chemical filters on it, which I imagine protects him from both friendly usage of teargas and also exposure to drugs and other chemicals, since some might get aerosolized during a fight. It’s a really cool detail, although I have to admit the idea doesn’t really translate well onto the figure’s sculpt, compared to his card-art (similar to DEF Shockwave and his helmet). He’s fully decked out in body-armor too, which is unique looking and makes for a pretty cool figure, Law might be able to survive a few blasts from a Headhunter’s shotgun.

I think where this figure really falls flat is the coloring. Bright-blue, light-gray and neon-yellow make for a figure with colors that are both bright and not too compelling. If there was ever a year of figures that was neon, it was 1993; despite that, many of his contemporaries had color schemes I felt were a tad more interesting. The Night Creeper Leader with his tiger pants is a fine example. Roadblock, Gung-Ho and a few others also make really good use of colors that contrast better with the neon. Law here mostly features colors at a similarly bright shade, which just makes him look more boring than he should.

You may have noticed that Law’s dog, Order, is no longer present. This was a veiled commentary on America’s decent into becoming a police state, as now you have Law but no Order… Just kidding. Law includes ‘91 Sci-fi’s gun, ‘91 Grunt’s gun, ‘92 Roadblock’s knife, missiles, stand, and a shield for his missile launcher, all in bright yellow plastic. The shield that fits over his missile-launcher was a pretty cool little gimmick. His guns are pretty terrible choices and he doesn’t look swell with either of them. At the very least the Roadblock knife was a cool inclusion seeing as to how it’s a nice and also seldom seen sculpt.

V3 Law’s are still purty cheap, with complete figures weighing in at around $12 and carded figures only going up to $20. Finding carded figures is still pretty easy, since he’s from the point where speculators began hording figures knowing that one day random 90’s GI Joes would make them rich. He’s not a must-have figure for any reason, but if you have a fascination with imagining inner city America as a war-zone brimming with neon-clad commandos, which I do, then he’s pretty cool to have around.

1993 Law Links:

1989 Lynx

Posted on May 29, 2023 by mwnekoman

1989 Lynx

The late-80‘s repaint lines followed some simple patterns, especially when it came to the vehicles. An old toy that had been out of production for a year or two was slapped in new colors and put back out on store shelves. The Slaughter’s Marauders vehicles are the odd exception to this, as they all featured new turrets, making them unique from any other vehicle in the line. Why Hasbro took a different approach with these vehicles, I do not know, but either way it lead to some more memorable items.

I’m very biased towards the Lynx, as this has been one of my favorite GI Joe vehicles since I was a small child. I never had any of my own vehicles until I was a teenager, but part of that was because my brother had a decent collection of late-line items to chose from. I think vehicles interest me a little more than most, but I still place a higher focus on the figures, just like most of you guys out there. Of course, my brother’s collection was mostly 90‘s items, so out of the vehicles he owned, this one was the most reasonable and tank-like.

A lot of fans seem to find artillery vehicles boring for not doing much or having reduced figure capacity. This is true, but sort of alien to me, both now and when I was a kid. I’ve always really liked artillery vehicles, mainly for the fact that it’s a vehicle with the potential to kill something in another zip-code. This also provides me with an easy plot for a battle, as Joes and Cobras would always have an interest in attacking each other’s artillery. It doesn’t have to do much to act as a kind of objective for attackers and defenders, so they always saw a lot of use in that way.

The Lynx is an fairly impressive looking vehicle for something that’s just a Wolverine repaint. The Wolverine’s missiles have been replaced by a new turret, which recycles the main gun from the Mauler. The turret looks really big on it, which I think makes the vehicle look a lot more powerful. For a little more visual interest, it’s covered in the signature camo that the Slaughter’s Marauders vehicles use. This is a really good woodland pattern, the greens are vibrant, and everything has a realistic hue to it. Because there’s no odd or clashing colors, putting any Joe from outside Slaughter’s Marauders you like in it doesn’t seem too odd or unnatural as well, which is what I do most of the time.

Because it reuses the lower hull of the Wolverine, it also inherits most of that vehicles gimmicks. The removable engine cover is a nice detail, though it’s always prompted me to imagine that it breaks down every other mile. The tow-rope also reappears; I wish I could say I loved this little part, but I don’t. The clips for it on the vehicle are comically fragile, and while intact examples give the vehicle a lot of flair, it doesn’t really seem to make up for how delicate it is. With a little work I could repair a broken one with some epoxy and a 3-D printed tow-rope, which I might do if I ever bother with a cheap Wolverine. For this vehicle, I’ve never really cared that it doesn’t have it on my copy. Another flaw in the Lynx’s design is in the turret. While it does look very cool and used to be a little tighter, there’s not very much you can do to keep the gun elevated. I’ve not found a good way to safely take this vehicle apart either, so if you get one with a floppy turret, it’s a hard problem to fix.

Typically, I look up the value of an item at the end of my blog post, though I usually can guess if something is expensive or not while I’m writing. The Lynx seems to have a pretty consistent value of about $50, which surprised me a fair amount. That’s not too much money, but it’s a lot more than I was expecting, especially for examples that often had missing or broken tow-ropes. I really like the Lynx, but as a vehicle, it really doesn’t do anything you can’t find in a much cheaper Slugger. Likewise, if you just want a centerpiece to display the Slughter’s Marauders on, the Equalizer is a much better choice.

1989 Lynx Links:

3D Joes

Joe A Day

1986 Hawk

Posted on May 22, 2023 by mwnekoman

1986 Hawk

The “OG13” Joes are a set I like a lot, though most of them were greatly benefited by getting new toys over time. Hawk is one of those figures, as to me, this is the original Hawk, the one with Flash’s head never existed. He is entirely replaced by this figure and I have little desire for V1 Hawk because of that. It’s still not the perfect figure of Hawk, but whenever I need him, this is the one I go to by default.

That’s not to say I dislike the ‘82 lineup of characters, but half of them looking the same really made some need new toys more than others. The bearded guys (Clutch, Rock&Roll and Breaker) don’t bother me for them all looking the same, but Hawk, Zap and Grand Slam are the three who seem the hardest to tolerate. Unfortunately Grand Slam never got a decent do-over (ignoring the convention figure), but Hawk got a good one, and amazingly they didn’t give him any absurd gimmicks or weird sculpting to get in the way of that.

Hawk has a nice sculpt, it’s not great, but it’s very good. The sculpt is very well proportioned and he has a nicely sized head, an unusual feature given his release year. I think his face looks a little derpy compared to how I imagine Hawk should look, but it’s not terrible. His jacket is also really well detailed and is one of the most eye-catching aspects about the figure. Another small detail I really like about him, is the empty pistol-holster on his right leg, so he has a spot for the gun that he comes with. I don’t know why he has a second (gold) gun on his chest, but it’s nice to see come continuity between the sculpted details and the figure’s accessories.

To be honest, I actually dislike his parts a fair amount. He includes a green backpack and helmet, along with a black pistol. His helmet looks really big on his head, and the sculpt on it isn’t the sharpest among GI Joe helmets. The backpack’s pretty bulky too, I don’t mind it quite as much, but I don’t think it looks really great with him. His pistol is a cool part though, I’m not sure which one it is, but it isn’t a Walther PPK/9mm for sure. It’s shared with Keel-Haul from the prior year, just now in black, and looks like a nice and standard semi-automatic pistol. I’m a little more fond of Chuckles’ pistol, which you’ll often see my Hawk with in photos, but Hawk’s gun is good too.

Hawk was offered as a mail-in in ‘91, and they swapped his parts for a ‘91 Cobra Commander SMG. I don’t think the figure is any different other than that, though the gun is a definite downgrade. That SMG is a fine part, but only ever showed up in the weirdest places, usually in the weirdest colors. Hawk gets it in the same gold color as Cobra Commander, which is unfortunate as this gun would be a lot nicer in black. I don’t know if it’s based on a specific gun, as although it’s reminiscent of many 1940‘s SMG’s, it also looks a lot like the Smith & Wesson M76, which was a Vietnam-era gun.

Although there were a few attempts, I don’t feel like the perfect Hawk was ever really made. This figure is the best, but his head still isn’t what I think the character should look like. The sculpt was later recolored for the ‘97 release, which is nice, but doesn’t really fix any of his problems. His torso and waist were then recolored for the comic-pack release in ‘05, which featured a very ugly head and a bunch of parts from the ‘92 Talking Battle Commander figure, topped off with sparse paint-applications and clown-colors.

Much to my surprise, V2 Hawk’s remain relatively cheap figures. If you’re feeling lazy and impatient, you can easily get a mint complete figure for around $17, but good examples often go for $10 or less. There’s a lot of repo pistols floating around out there for him now, so if you mind that kind of thing, you’re probably better off chancing the cheaper ones and looking for examples that are likely from childhood collections.

1986 General Hawk Links:

Forgotten Figures

Forgotten Figures (Around the Web)

Half the Battle

3D Joes

1985 Lady Jaye

Posted on May 1, 2023 by mwnekoman

1985 Lady Jaye

Until 1988, the GI Joe line had a requisite female figure every year. While all of them are popular, sometimes even fan-favorite characters, I really only like two of them myself, with one being the Baroness and the other Lady Jaye. So for the Joes, Lady Jaye is my favorite female figure, and probably character on top of that.

Going with my foggy and odd memories of GI Joe as a kid, Lady Jaye was present thanks to the then recent ‘97 release. Usually, female figures were relegated to being some variety of spy or martyr girlfriend, so Chun-Li and Scarlet usually died promptly during play. Lady Jaye was different though, partly because she looked like someone that could be in the military more so than a cosplayer. Her camera accessory was also an important part that often saved her life, as Lady Jaye was usually photographing things from the sidelines, and was much more competent at this than the other two I mentioned.

I’m a little less keen on her media character, incidentally. She was was usually a pretty cool character in both Sunbow and the comics, but the couple angle with Flint is irksome to me. Of course, as a kid I usually would make female figures someone’s gal pal, though I guess Lady Jaye was the exception to this since she was too competent on her own to be someone’s girlfriend. Plus I didn’t like Eco Warriors Flint or Battle Corps Flint back then.

Lady Jaye’s sculpt is incredibly solid. A major flaw with the early female figures, is that most of them are horribly ugly. Lady Jaye is sharply sculpted with features that are distinctly feminine yet don’t do anything so overt as to make that overbearing, besides maybe her cleavage-bearing jump suit. Her head is nicely scaled, and the glued-on hat looks like something she’s actually wearing, likely a benefit of it being a separate piece. She really doesn’t have too much going on, but that’s a strong part of the appeal here, like with many of the 1985 sculpts, which were detailed but not over-designed.

Lady Jaye’s accessories are absolutely classic. Included is a spear-launcher, a camera, and a green backpack. The spear-launcher is a little on the wacky end, but it looks good and is as passable as a military weapon as SEALs who fight with harpoon guns. The camera really steals the show though. As an accessory, there’s not much to say about it besides that it has a strap and looks recognizably like a camera, but the later fact is what makes it so appealing. Figures that came with little parts like this were not just unique, but grew the value of a collection overall, as even if you don’t like Lady Jaye, the camera could go on to have a life with someone else (too bad it wasn’t in any accessory packs). Her backpack deserves some comment too, it’s a nice and sharp sculpt that has a very reasonable size to it. By ‘85, backpacks were starting to get big like with Flint and Dusty, but this one fits well with Lady Jaye’s smaller size and doesn’t make the figure too top-heavy.

Lady Jaye’s go for pretty consistent pricing, with mint complete examples routinely hitting between $19 and $23. Like with everything, they used to be a lot cheaper, but these days I don’t think that’s too much to pay for a prominent character. It’s also worth mentioning that there really isn’t a better repaint of Lady Jaye either: the ‘97 one is second best, and doesn’t have paint nearly as sharp as this one. The other color variants, like the ’03 convention figure, the ’06 comic-pack repaint and the Funkool variations all look worse and cost more. So in that way, V1 Lady Jaye is a near-perfect figure that never had a better repaint, I think that makes her a must-have.

1985 Lady Jaye Links:

1988 Tiger Force Flint

Posted on April 10, 2023 by mwnekoman

1988 Tiger Force Flint

Certain figures I just associate with fun and good times, Tiger Force Flint is one of those figures. Well, I also associate a lot of Flint figures with good times, he’s a cool character and is easier to incorporate into adventures than Duke. As a young teen I was quick to add several versions of Flint into my collection, and that’s a move I definitely did not regret.

When I first got into collecting loose o-ring figures I was around 15 and had barely any money. Because of this, I chanced a really curious lot on eBay once, the photos were horrible, glary and of the figures in plastic bags. I could barely tell what was there, let alone what condition it was in, but is was something like $10 after shipping, so I took a chance and bought it, since I knew at least one of the figures would be in decent condition. When I finally received my figures, I realized I had actually done quite well, even at the time. Inside the box was Tiger Force Flint, a ‘97 Viper, ’97 Vypra, a decent Ripper, a Secto Viper (with helmet!), and a ‘93 Keel-haul, who even happened to be the logo variant that I didn’t already have. The figures were all relatively mint too, I miss the days when a broke teenager could get that much shit off eBay for $10…

I probably should have been the happiest with the Secto Viper, but really Tiger Force Flint was what I had the most fun with. I already had the Funskool version at that point, but the Tiger Force colors were more fun, and the paint-masks were much sharper on the Hasbro versions, so this figure really became my new default Flint. Despite that, I really didn’t take too many photos of him back then, especially without other Tiger Force figures. I’ve always been a little fussy about keeping sub-teams together, and he was my first Tiger Force figure, so that probably inhibited me from using him as much as I would’ve liked.

Flint has the best Tiger Force colors of the entire subset. I like the bright oranges and yellows on some of the figures (Roadblock, Tripwire), but Flint’s mixture of brown, green and olive looks fantastic. The original Flint colors are hard to beat, but these are a great alternative (and really, it’s the only decent Flint recolor, so that’s a big plus too). Despite the addition of the tiger pattern on his shirt, he still features some nice and fragile gold details, and a separate gray color for his boots and gloves. Objectively, there’s nothing that really makes the Tiger Force figure better or worse than the original, it’s just a matter of preference.

His parts were mostly the same as the Flint’s, just in a dark gray color. Flint’s backpack is a little bulky, but I think anything else looks like a poor substitute. His shotgun though, is his most fun part. Not really sure what model it is exactly, but currently I lean towards an Ithaca 37. It’s definitely a pump-action and it’s not too big, but shotguns all look kinda similar to me, so maybe it’s another one. This part is fun and easy for figures to hold, and the sculpt is sharp enough that it’s easy to tell what it is. For me, it’s hard to separate this gun from Flint, but some extras would probably make a nice side-arm for a variety of vehicle drivers. Hopefully someday someone will make some bootleg castings in black.

A mint complete Tiger Force Flint fetches a pretty steady $40. Ditch the parts and you can get one in nice condition for around $10, which frankly isn’t so bad an option when V1/Funskool Flint parts still match well with this figure. Tiger Force figures in general got really expensive between ‘17 and ‘21, but prices are cooling off a little, a trend I expect to continue as the economy melts. Even sitting that aside, we’ve probably passed peak value for a lot of GI Joe items, so I don’t think we will see too many more episodes where a bunch of weirdos pop online and suddenly inform everyone that previously common toys are rare and worth 2 to 3 times what you were paying a day ago.

1988 Tiger Force Flint Links:

1987 Nemesis Enforcer

Posted on March 21, 2023 by mwnekoman

1987 Nemesis Enforcer

In some ways, I feel like you can’t have an opinion about Cobra-La that’s not an opinion about GI Joe: The Movie. Partly, I think that’s because these toys would have no reason to exist if not to be the movie’s new villains. So if you like the movie, you probably like Cobra-La. If you hate the movie, you probably hate Cobra-La and the Cobra-La Team 3-pack. For me, the movie is an absolute guilty pleasure, and I’m open Cobra-La because of that; the same thing is pretty much my opinion of Nemesis Enforcer.

As a design and concept, Nemesis Enforcer provided GI Joe with an interesting opportunity to do some very odd things. I feel like this something crucially missing from modern interpretations of the brand, as Nemesis Enforcer really has a lot more uniqueness and identity embedded in him than your run of the mill Ghost Clancy: Call of Honor-inspired commando toy. There’s a deeper imagination present here of the kind of enemies GI Joe might face, which in Nemesis Enforcer’s case, is an abominate and soulless creation of an ancient bio-mechanical society. It’s like something from a super market tabloid, and in it’s own way I find a great deal of interest in that.

Uniqueness aside, Nemesis Enforcer is not the most breathtaking figure I’ve laid eyes on. I like the Royal Guard a lot better, though Nemesis Enforcer is leaps and bounds better than Golobulus, if only for the fact that the lower half of the toy isn’t a green-turd. I feel like the figure suffers from the fact that the sculpting on his outfit is a little more vague, and at the same time, the details of his face don’t contrast very well. Speaking of his face, I think it’s neat they painted his eyes as a pair of eerie white dots as opposed to painting them normally, but again, it doesn’t show up very well.

Nemesis Enforcer takes the liberty of using some fairly unusual colors for a Cobra. 1987 was the year where purple became a Cobra color, but on Nemesis Enforcer, it’s more of a lavender shade, much lighter than the Techno Viper or the Hydro Viper from ‘88. It’s paired with red details and some tan/off-white, along with a few other colors for small details (silver on his arm spikes and white for his aforementioned beady-eyes). These colors accentuate him nicely, and give him the feeling of something a little bit older than his release year. The kitsch colors make me think of a comic-book villain from the 60‘s or early 70‘s (I guess Magneto fits that criteria).

His parts are very odd. He comes with no ordinary weapons, but instead a pair of backpacks representing the appendages he could spontaneously grow on his back, one that features a pair of bat wings, and another with a series of green tentacles. Both are made from a soft, rubbery plastic, which is pretty unique to this figure. It’s hard to justify a GI Joe with no real weapons, but as a kid I would’ve probably liked this a lot. I loved Guyver and characters that had blade-appendages on their arms, so he would’ve probably found some roles among the likes of Blanka. Likewise, these backpacks would’ve probably seen plenty of use with the Star Brigade. Makes me sort of sad the tentacles never saw a use again, using it as a parasitic growth on some random Cobra repaint would’ve been really cool.

A mint, complete Nemesis Enforcer is worth about $10, though ones with the filecard consistently hit $20. Relatively speaking that’s not too expensive, though as a maligned faction, Cobra-La has never been popular, which has shown through to the pricing of these figures for years. I find Cobra-La a lot of fun as some kind of novelty, and also because I liked the movie, so I’m glad figures like this one remain affordable when most Joes are not.

1987 Nemesis Enforcer Links:

1988 Storm Shadow

Posted on March 13, 2023 by mwnekoman

1988 Storm Shadow

Storm Shadow as a GI Joe is a concept I’m not so sure about. At this point, it seems to be something that’s been mostly forgotten about, which I find weird since Tommy was a good guy for more of ARAH than he was bad, but I suppose it goes to reinforce the notion that GI Joe died after 1987. Regardless, this was a pretty fun toy, and it also completely changed the character of Storm Shadow from it’s release to the line’s cancellation in ‘94.

Despite being a year of toys I like a lot, 1988 has a lot of random guys, and not quite as many surefire winners like you had seen in years prior. From that end, you can see some of Hasbro’s motivations for bringing Storm Shadow back with a new figure, since from what I understand of the old stories, the original was one of the first ‘84 guys to sell out anywhere you could find Joes. Plus, your only other big-shots were probably Road Pig, Iron Grenadier Destro and Sgt. Slaughter, two of which were vehicle pack-ins. To a mild extent, it makes Strom Shadow the poster boy for 1988, which surprises me, as it’s not something I normally think about.

I don’t think this is my favorite Storm Shadow sculpt overall. The hooded design does a nice job of differentiating this figure from the original, while maintaining the look of a ninja, though I find the sculpt leaves something to be desired. It’s detailed, and the proportions are alright, though speaking of the later I tend to find that the way the figure goes from baggy sculpted pieces to thin sculpted pieces to be a little jarring. It’s not necessarily wrong, just awkward by sight and feel, like around his shin guards, or the bagginess of his perpetually lifted sleeves. On his own, it’s a fairly good ninja toy, but when compared to the standard set by the ‘84 Storm Shadow sculpt, I don’t think it’s quite as nice.

While plenty of details go without paint to show them, I think the deco is one of this figure’s stronger elements. You have the distinctive Tetris-block cammo that premiered in ‘88 and saw seldom use afterwards. We probably lost a few nice paint masks for the cammo, but I like it, and the figure seems a little more memorable for having it. You also have the Arashikage clan tattoo featured prominently on Storm Shadow’s right arm, which I think is probably the most substantial detail featured on the figure. Without that one detail, I think this would be a much more boring figure, but it’s presence is cool and eye-catching, especially since the rest of his colors are a fairly monotonous mixture of white and gray.

Storm Shadow includes a red backpack and sword, a black claw and compound bow. Like a lot of ‘88 figures in my collection, I have the misfortune of not having completed this guy years ago when prices were cheap. Fortunately in this figure’s case, his parts were reused quite a bit in the following years, so the claw and bow are parts I have several other copies of. The bow is a bit hard for figures to hold, so I don’t like it too much, but both parts look alright. The backpack is one of those with hooks for sliding his sword into; this was a common gimmick in ARAH, though one I’m also not so keen on. To me, it seems like the clips had too much of a tendency to stress the sword or break off, which limits them to just looking odd on the backpack. I think these parts being bright red looks a little weird too, but there again, this figure didn’t have a lot of color, so that’s probably the motivation for that.

After it’s use here in the US, the mold went to Brazil and later Funskool who used it for very similar releases. Then the mold was recalled by Hasbro who put it to use for a pair of repaints, a boring and uninspired green figure in the ’04 Ninja Cobra Strike Team set, and a Red Ninja Viper included in a comic-pack. Both of the later repaints are fairly mediocre, and I think their boring decos make the mold seem a lot worse. The lack of a satisfying repaint from this mold makes him one I’d be tempted to buy some extras of for customs, but that might require more energy than I’m willing to put in, given this release is already good enough.

Mint complete examples of ‘88 Storm Shadow go for around $20, though I notice the figure is both fairly common and also one that frequently goes well above that price, and slightly below it too. To me, that means the figure is probably worth less than $20, but there’s still some holdover pricing from the seller’s market of the past few years. While it’s not my favorite version of Storm Shadow, nor one I’ve even used in pictures until just the past year or so, it’s still a very solid toy, so I think the pricing is about right for it.

1988 Storm Shadow Links:

The Viper Pit

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