1985 Dusty

Posted on January 4, 2022 by mwnekoman

1985 Dusty

I think in all 12 years of ARAH, 1985 was probably the best year in the entire run. I think it represents the precipice of the 80‘s, building off what made ‘84 great, but just before the downward slide into goofy characters and iffy sculpting you saw in ‘86 and ‘87. In 1985, you had a wide-variety of specialist who were simple, yet distinct and highly detailed, well exemplified in Dusty.

I should have it out for Dusty, because I don’t tend to like desert troopers all that much. As an environment, I don’t tend to find deserts all that interesting, and I personally find them difficult to simulate for dioramas. But Dusty’s a fine figure like all of his contemporaries, so much so that he demands usage just to highlight the quality of his sculpt.

Dusty’s mold is great. It’s a simple looking outfit that’s brought to life by the details of his pouches, zippers and fabric folds. To top it off, Dusty is one of the rare GI Joe figures that utilized fabric for the back of his helmet. The only thing I tend to dislike about Dusty as a sculpt, is his goofy looking face. The camouflage does well to hide it, but his head is a little bulbous and his expression reminds me of some kind of Fisherprice Adventure People figure. The later 1991 Dusty really won out over this one for having a sharp head sculpt.

The colors are very nice on Dusty, too. The figure is cast solidly in khaki plastic, with brown camouflage adorning his entire outfit. His straps, goggles and boots are painted black, and he features a nicely detailed flag-patch above his right breast pocket. A very nice color scheme, though weirdly, there never really was another desert-camo figure that exactly matched with him. In some ways I like that he’s unique, but in others, I sort of with I had a Dusty that matched better with tan-Grunt and Mission Brazil Leatherneck.

Dusty’s parts are classic, though I myself have never owned his FAMAS. He came with the aforementioned rifle, a bipod, and a backpack. I think the FAMAS has become a lot more mainstream in recent years, but I’m not sure how common you saw it in media from the 80‘s, I think it’s an interesting choice that they went with. Dusty’s backpack saw a decent amount of early reuse, and came with Red Dog, as well as Dusty’s Tiger Force repaint, followed by several different colorations in the 2000‘s. That’s sort of neat, though this backpack is a little bulky and probably not my favorite sculpt from the period.

V1 Dusty’s aren’t pricing very consistently at the moment. Complete figures can be had for around $30, and ones missing the bipod are trending around $15. A random auction seems to shoot to the moon every now and then, but overall he prices similarly to a few other ‘85 and ‘86 figures. Despite the quality present here, I think he’s a figure that’s going for too much at the moment, especially for incomplete examples.

1985 Dusty Links:

1985 Lampreys

Posted on December 14, 2021 by mwnekoman

1985 Lampreys

For most people, I think the Lamprey is a very forgettable figure from the ever popular 1985 line-up. I can understand why, since he really doesn’t show up in the cartoon or the comics, and the figure doesn’t lend itself to too many roles. In my collection though, the Lamprey is a really important figure, and one that stimulates my imagination on some deeper level.

This figure was among the first four vintage acquisitions I made back in 2008, with the other three figures being ‘83 Major Bludd, ‘87 Techno Viper, and a mint Stinger Driver, all of which I acquired for less than $20 (boy do I miss those days…). At the time, I was only 14, so getting vintage figures with kid money was a little hard to do, and these first four figures I acquired were really special to me for that.

Photo from Forgotten Figures

The Lamprey was a particular figure I sought out, after becoming interested in him from a Forgotten Figures post I read earlier that year. Particularly, I saw this picture of an army of Lampreys, using the ARAHC repaint as an officer, as they receive some sort of briefing by Flying Scorpion with Major Bludd in tow. It made an impression on me, because I hadn’t seen diorama pictures of o-ring army-builders like this before. I’ve always wanted to recreate a similar scene, though I still lack the Flying Scorpion, and it appears that may remain the case until I make a custom of him, or find a Brazilian guy with a bunch of old toys and no clue what they’re worth.

The Lamprey does a nice job of portraying a simple, interesting design. The baggy suit looks nice without having too much going on, and comes across to me as a much more plausible design than something like the Sea Slug from just a few years later. The little blue lifejacket is another eye-catching detail, and somewhat cements them in my mind as the Cobra equivalent to Cutter. Interestingly, the figure is cast in a metallic, silver plastic, and I believe is the first figure to use a plastic color like this.

His only part is some kind of Sten Gun. I say “some kind” because there’s a million variants of the Sten, and I believe the Lamprey’s is based on one of the more obscure ones, possibly the Sten MK V. The Lamprey’s Sten is distinct, because it features both a pistol grip, and a foregrip, but lacks a stock. Supposedly, some British paratroopers were issued Sten MK V’s with a similar configuration, although the Lamprey’s gun has a barrel shroud similar to earlier versions of the Sten; leading me to believe it’s an amalgam.

I know I’ve said a lot more about Sten guns than I have about the toy part itself, but it’s a good example of how much attention to detail went into a few GI Joe guns. Putting that aside, the gun has a functioning strap which adds a lot more play value to an otherwise forgettable vehicle driver. The only real problem I have is that the grip’s a little thick on it, so it’s not always a joy to pose a figure with.

You can still get a mint, complete Lamprey for between $6 to $10. Many times, they go for more, but I expect prices to normalize on the lower end… Soon. Maybe. Or not. Either way, it’s a figure you get cheap sometimes, and it’s fun to collect an army of them for that much. The only thing that tends to wear on them is the silver paint on his helmet, which can be easily restored, if you don’t mind that sort of thing.

1985 Lampreys Links:

1988 Voltar

Posted on November 23, 2021 by mwnekoman

1988 Voltar

Among all of the non-Cobra entities GI Joe has to deal with, the Iron Grenadiers are easily my favorite Cobra alternative. Most of their figures weren’t perfect, but as villains, they make a lot of sense and have an interesting esthetic. Voltar’s a good example of this, as he’s very much not perfect, but also a cool little figure in some other ways, that does a lot of things I like.

Voltar was originally part of my brother’s collection, but was one his odd figures that captivated me a lot. I think it’s because he had several things I liked going on, which included: A robotic monocle-helmet, gold, and evil facial hair. He wasn’t enough of an evil cyborg to outclass Vapor, but he fell into his role as a general. At this point in my childhood, he had Power Rangers style battles with Ninja Force Bushido and the ‘92 Eel (who was a good guy, to me).

My fascination with Voltar didn’t end there though, and I continued to like this figure in particular, even into my teenage years when 25th Anniversary was my collecting focus. I really wanted a Voltar to go with my Destro from that line, but that was at the point when acknowledging the GI Joe line after 1986 was a blaspheme. Mixing modern and vintage figures has always looked way too dumb to me, but I still think there was a few odd moments when 25th Iron Grenadier Destro hung out with Voltar and Metal Head just because I liked them that much.

All that sentiment aside, Voltar’s a nice figure in some ways, and a weak figure in others. There’s a ridge on top of Voltar’s helmet, that seems to nicely line up with the one on the normal Iron Grenadier: an underappreciated bit of continuity between them. I also think his head sculpt is nicely sharp, best illustrated by the prototype Long Range figure that reused his head, and looked much better without the oversized helmet (instead, Long Range got a new head that looks much worse). A few parts of his design leave something to be desired, around his knees and his gloves in particular, but other than that it’s a nice looking figure. I like that he uses gold and black to tie him into the Iron Grenadiers, but also introduces magenta as a color for the group.

I like his parts, but they’re definitely not for everyone. He included a backpack, SMG, and a condor. His SMG is pretty unpopular, frankly, I don’t like it much myself. However, when I see it, I just recall a lot of memories of using this gun in various colors as a kid. It looks powerful, and fit into hands pretty well too. The backpack’s okay, but kind of a mess. Then you have his pet bird, which is probably the strangest part of the figure. It really doesn’t tie into the character any at all, though I sometimes wonder if including a vulture was a play on his role as a general for a war-mongering arms dealer. Was there a quota for animal pack-ins? Either way, I’d use the birdy, but mine’s missing the feet.

Voltar was sold in an “Ultimate Enemies” pack with Muskrat. I don’t know why these two have each other as nemeses, but it seems like something fun and goofy enough to think about. While we’re on his role in the fiction, I really hate how Hama treated a lot of later characters like this in the comic. Sure, Raptor was dumb and nobody cared if he was tossed into a volcano and never seen again, but Voltar? He seemed like a fun and resourceful enough character to keep having some kind of role. But, he wasn’t Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Zartan, Scarlet or Baroness, so he had to get killed off in favor of continuing to over-expose the soap opera of five or six characters.

Voltar’s a cheap figure surprisingly enough, you can get a mint complete one for around $15 with some regularity. Given that I was losing bid-wars on broken Iron Grenadiers at the beginning of the year, I thought he’d be a tad pricier just as a member of the group. Obviously, most folks just don’t care about this guy a whole lot, though part of me wants to be hopeful it’s a sign prices are starting to soften again overall.

1988 Voltar Links:

Forgotten Figures

Joe a Day

3D Joes

1991 Snake Eyes

Posted on November 16, 2021 by mwnekoman

1991 Snake Eyes

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m not a huge Snake Eyes fan. I like him, but I don’t love him, and he plays a reduced role in my GI Joe world. In the 12 year run of the original ARAH line, there was 5 major Snake Eyes figures, and of them, this may have been the best design. I’m still pretty ambivalent to it overall though.

Truth be told, I don’t think most of the original Snake Eyes toys were all that good. You have the unpainted ‘82/’83 figure, with a soft head sculpt and relatively little going on. An okay ‘85 figure, which is more interesting than the first, but still has a kind of doofy sculpt. An ‘89 figure which comparatively was very nice with tons of accessories. Then you had one other figure, with the Ninja Force (and Shadow Ninja) figures that came out after the ‘91 figure, and those were easily the worst. It’s odd, given that this design is a little more obscure, but I think there’s a case to be made that this was the best Snake Eyes figure for a few reasons.

One thing I really like, is that this Snake Eyes returned him to his look as a commando, and downplayed the ninja thing a little more. I’m partial to Snake Eyes as an enigmatic commando, though most of the toys put more emphasis on the ninja angle. Parts of the toy still look overtly ninja-like, but we see a return to the the goggles and mask combo, which really ties him to the original sculpt.

I also really like that this is one of the only Snake Eyes toys that isn’t totally monochrome. While the figure still features mostly black as a base, details are shown with blue, light-gray and even a little red and silver for the mask. It’s not so overbearing that it screams “90‘s toy”, but breathes a lot of visual interest into Snake Eyes that the other versions of him sorely lack.

His parts are okay, but not the figure’s strong suit. He includes an orange, suppressed SMG, two orange swords, and a backpack missile-launcher with a grappling hook. In terms of gear, the older Snake Eyes figures beat this one by a longshot, though I think his gun looks nicely interesting despite the orange. The grappling hook was a creative way to incorporate a missile launcher, though I never was very hot on parts like this, even as a kid. Probably the nicest thing is that he includes two swords, allowing him to wield them akimbo, which is neat.

There’s a couple repaints of this mold, which are pretty good in their own right. You have the ‘04 Desert Patrol figure, and another one from ‘05 in the Heavy Assault Squad. The thing is though, is that most of these figures really don’t surpass this one in terms of coloring. They’re more reasonable looking, but this figure already was a nicely colored toy, and the repaints tend to diminish that, with generic color schemes that are far less eye-catching. I’m glad they exist, though the ‘91 release remains the best use of the mold to me.

For all of us GI Joe cheap-o collectors, this Snake Eyes is still nicely affordable. A mint complete figure tends to go for around $7, though do note that the second sword is often times missing. It’s not a perfect figure, but this might be my favorite Snake Eyes from ARAH. He presents a lot of qualities and is an all around solid figure of a mostly over-exposed character.

1991 Snake Eyes Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Joe a Day

1987 Raptor

Posted on October 26, 2021 by mwnekoman

1987 Raptor

To celebrate Halloween this week, I’m doing a profile on Cobra’s very own trick-or-treater: Raptor. Raptor is infamous for not being very good, and indeed, I have some obvious things to criticize him for. I also have some things I like reasonably well about him, though, not so much much as to offset his bizarre super-villain reject appearance.

There’s a lot to not like about Raptor. The first and most obvious thing is that the figure is totally outlandish, and looks more like a rejected Spider-Man villain than a Cobra. As I’m still reading some of the Marvel comics for the first time, one thing I really dislike is how much the character’s media appearances are tied to Jinx and Billy, whom I’m very disinterested in. In a slightly more redeeming light though, I like that he’s a direct accomplice to Fred VII Cobra Commander, and that gives me some reason to think about the character a little bit.

If he were a one-off type of character, I think the fandom and myself might treat Raptor with a little more love. The problem is that he’s part of a pattern of crazy Cobra designs from 1987, including shoddy characters like Crystal Ball and Big Boa. An eccentric shirtless weirdo wasn’t too far out of the ordinary for Cobra by this point, with Zartan and Dr Mindbender also coming to mind. It’s just that you got this guy, the other aforementioned ‘87‘s, and Cobra-La, all at once, which left Cobra heading in a bad direction, overall.

With that said, the two main issues with Raptor are that his design is dumb, and his character leaves something to be desired. The toy itself, is actually pretty decent. Besides a kind of derpy head sculpt, he has sharp detailing across the entire toy and plenty of painted details to show it. I really like the feathers on his arms and boots, as well, the falcon-buckle looks nicely sharp. All of his details like this are apart of the silly bird-theme, but the toy is still nicely detailed. If his quality were as low as ‘86 Roadblock, there would be no need to even look at this figure, but contrarily, there’s some redemption for him based on his overall sharpness.

I like his accessories too. Like his contemporaries, he lacks a gun which is a sad omission, but his soft-goods cape/wing thingy looks excellent and has a detailed, premium feel to me. Also included is his pet falcon to add to your personal GI Joe zoo. It clips onto his wrist, and sits there, like any other GI Joe bird. Overall, it feels like he lacks something here just for the fact that his parts don’t really do all that much, though it’s worth saying that figure doesn’t look cheap anyways.

A perfectly mint complete Raptor shouldn’t cost you more than $15, although on odd occasions they will go for more since the market’s so bad right now. With even a little damage, the figure’s value plummets and will only fetch a few dollars, if anyone still cares to bother. Most of the time, the soft-goods are prone to tearing, and his falcon is usually missing it’s feet. For me, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel when I finally decided to go for this figure, the same as most GI Joe collectors. Overall though, I’ve warmed up to him a lot, and I’m glad I have one.

1987 Raptor Links:

3D Joes

Half the Battle

1988 Psyche Out (Night Force)

Posted on October 12, 2021 by mwnekoman

1988 Psyche Out (Night Force)

Night Force would almost be an overrated subgroup in GI Joe, if you only looked at figures like Falcon and Muskrat, where nice looking toys were put in different, arguably less cohesive colors. The appeal of Night Force, in my opinion, largely comes from the figures who had normally bright colors swapped for more serious business colors, like Lightfoot, Crazy Legs, and in the case of this profile, Psyche Out.

A GI Joe who specializes in Psy-Ops is a pretty bizarre idea for a character. There’s a few other characters he could pair up nicely with, but personally, I find it hard to do much with him. It makes it even weirder to think about why he’s a member of a night-ops team, but I suppose it was really just an opportunity for Hasbro to recycle a mold from yesteryear. I find something fascinating from a more conspiracy minded point of view about Psyche Out, and personally enjoy pairing him up with Chuckles and Scoop as a propaganda/conspiracy team (though, I have no cool pictures to represent that).

Given the nature of this figure, the fluorescent green of V1 Psyche Out really wasn’t that obnoxious. Still, the colors are superior on this version. Palette-wise, there’s a lot of hues that overlap between this figure and a few other vintage classics. His off-white shirt is pretty similar to Mainframe’s color; likewise, the olive pants are in line with Heavy Metal and a few others. It makes him look more cohesive with those golden-year ‘85 and ‘86 figures, and less like a stereotypical 1987 figure in all of the worst ways.

This figure looks pretty nice, but in the end of the day I can’t find too much to do with him. I’ve had the figure out at my desk for two, maybe even close to three years now contemplating that cool photo I’ll take of him, but “standing aimlessly by a hummer” was the best I could come up with for now. I like the toy enough to want to do something with him, but he kind of just comes off as a good-guy version of Crystal Ball.

I still don’t own a single Night Force figure that has their original parts, so for my Psyche Out, I just use a selection of my favorite pistols or the original’s gear. Night Force Psyche Out included a backpack, an antenna for his head, two clip-on wrist radars, a radar hand-device, and a seldom seen pistol, all in black. It’s nice for being different, but these parts really don’t look any better than the original’s. As I already find Psyche Out’s normal equipment to be weird and niche, I feel no need to acquire these parts.

A complete Night Force Psyche Out runs around $130 currently, but one with only a couple of his parts in nice condition only fetches about $30. Having figures and repaints without their original parts feels pretty lame. Despite that, I really can’t say some little black satellites are worth $100, especially not when he looks fine enough with other parts.

1988 Psyche Out (Night Force) Links:

1986 Leatherneck

Posted on September 28, 2021 by mwnekoman

1986 Leatherneck

I really have a fondness towards 1986 Joes, although I don’t think it was the best year of the vintage line. Largely, it’s the year where Hasbro began replacing characters and doubling up on more guys with the same specialty. Leatherneck for example, comes off as a replacement for Gung-Ho. One could argue he’s not a bad replacement for Gung-Ho though, or in some ways, is a nice compliment as an additional Marine.

When I started buying vintage Joes in the late 2000‘s, I had almost no money, and a lot of classics were typically out of my price range. For the most part though, 1986 guys were a cheap series of figures to complete, so my early o-ring acquisitions were characterized mostly by guys from this one year. During that time, I ended up giving more attention to figures like Leatherneck than I otherwise might have done, so my opinion of the figure is colored by a sense of sentimentality I rarely feel towards most stuff.

Leatherneck is one of those go-to Joes you can use in a lot of places with a lot of other figures. I really like the relative consistency you can see in his design and colors when compared with figures like Flint and Footloose just to name a few. The only real downside to this is that he does lose some uniqueness, which is something Gung-Ho still has over him. Still, I’m not huge Gung-Ho fan, and the generic qualities of Leatherneck lends him to more situations for me.

The sculpt is pretty sharp on Leatherneck. I particularly like his vest/torso, and find that the details are very crisp on it. It’s a fair argument to say that other parts of the sculpt are a bit on the softer end, but overall it’s good enough for me. The only thing that really bothers me about the overall look of the figure, is the paint on his arms. While most of his deco is quite good, the flesh paint on his arms isn’t quite opaque enough, meaning his hands have a slight greenish hue. It bugs me a bit.

As for his parts, Leatherneck included a simple kit consisting of a small backpack and a gray M-16A2 w/ M203 grenade launcher. I find this M-16 a bit vexing, as I don’t like the sculpt very much. Compared to other M-16 sculpts like Frostbite’s, I feel the details just don’t come out as strong here. I also think the handle looks really long, especially compared to the nice M-16 sculpt from ‘82 Grunt. To redeem this one though, I think it’s nice that Hasbro showed enough attention to detail to sculpt multiple variants of the M-16. This particular model wasn’t even that old when Leatherneck came out.

Right now, a complete V1 Leatherneck will cost you around $15 to $18. I was pretty astounded by this, as $15 seemed like what one would fetch on the high-end, but there’s even odd examples of Leatherneck’s selling for $30! It’s far more than he’s worth and it’s quite apparent to me that he’s been badly affected by the current price surge. I’ve seen a lot of people with Marine family members (or who have been Marines) and have a special attachment to Leatherneck for that reason alone, so it’s probably why his price has gone up so much.

1986 Leatherneck Links:

1993 Gristle

Posted on September 14, 2021 by mwnekoman

1993 Gristle

I’ve spoken before of how I’m a big fan of the Headhunters, so it probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that I like Gristle a lot. Overall he’s kind of a mediocre figure, but he has enough of a role, and presents enough quality that I’ve always found him to be useful. Given that I also don’t like the 1993 lineup much as a whole, he stands out to me as probably one of the best releases from that year.

The Headhunters are a small group, so they don’t have much in the way of named agents. In fact, Gristle is literally the only unique Headhunter besides Headman, who’s the group’s requisite leader. This alone makes him fairly important in my collection, and overall I’d rate him as actually being a bit more useful than Headman. Headman’s a background character, possibly more so than Cobra Commander; going out and getting directly into danger wouldn’t make much sense for him. Meanwhile, Gristle acts as the field-commander for the Headhunters, and would probably be often found in the middle of crack alleys that the Headhunters have turned into war zones.

Technically, Gristle is a Cobra, because the DEF line was canceled and his sculpt was shuffled off to the ‘93 Battle Corps line-up. I don’t think of him this way very much, as I prefer to think of the Headhunters as a separate and distinct threat from Cobra, though, one that might intermingle with them and their related organizations. Mind you, the whole War on Drugs angle of the DEF line was probably one of the most propagandistic moments for the brand, so it really wasn’t a travesty that they moved away from that. Still, I prefer having a diverse selection of bad-guys/terror groups to making Cobra any more bloated than it already was by ‘93.

Gristle has a pretty nice sculpt. While I like late-line 90‘s figures, I typically associate them with busy designs that often overcompensate on things like grenades. Gristle, for the most part, only wears a detailed bike-suit with nothing on it that looks too absurd. His head’s a little cheesy with that pony-tail, but I like it. It gives him some personality that he certainly needs. There’s also a really nicely sculpted skull-buckle on his waist, which is sharp and nicely done compared to other attempts at a similar detail.

The colors could be a weak spot on Gristle, despite the nice sculpt. I’ve personally gotten to where I care a lot less about fluorescent colors than I used to, though this particular combination of burgundy with green-yellow strikes me as being very ugly, besides being very neon. For a longtime, I really wanted to get the darker colored Joecon repaint of this figure, but I always prioritized different things over a drab repaint of a figure I already like, so I never ended up with one.

His parts are okay. Like most of his contemporaries, he comes with nothing unique, and instead a generic runner of parts also seen with the Headhunter Stormtrooper and the Star Brigade Astro Viper. That includes a Rock Viper PSG1 rifle, ‘92 Destro’s pistol, and a Shockwave knife, all rendered in a dark red color that matches the figure. As well, he also included a yellow missile launcher, missiles, and a figure stand. These are decent guns, so he’s not much worse off for including them, but generic parts always hurt the appeal of a figure, if only by a bit.

Like with many figures these days, the prices of ‘93 Gristles can be random. Still, you can occasionally get one complete for about $10, and even carded for $20 if you look for long enough. I don’t think Gristle has ever been very popular, and 1993 figures tend to be common too, so that’s likely why his price has remained low.

1993 Gristle Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

Joe a Day

1986 Low-Light

Posted on September 6, 2021 by mwnekoman

1986 Low-Light

Low-Light’s a figure that hits all the right notes, which makes him a favorite for me and probably most other Joe fans. His character was great in Sunbow, his toy had a fantastic specialty, and it’s colors were perfect. He’s not perfect, and I think he might be a slight step-down in quality from some of the ‘85 icons, but he’s still probably one of the best GI Joe figures ever made.

I feel like for myself, Low-Light offers an alternative to Snake Eyes, especially after Snake Eyes became primarily a ninja. In my mind, he’s a top-tier commando badass who can do basically anything, and sometimes may have been a slight Golgo 13 expy. This is also what I’ve usually used Commando Snake Eyes as, but I really just don’t like Snake Eyes that much, so Low-Light suits me better. He has a face and a personality that Snake Eyes lacks, and also isn’t caught up in the overexposed Arashikage plot-line, which tied up a few too many characters in my opinion.

Low-Light’s design is super cool. He has one of those futuristic vests you saw a lot in his year, with figures like Roadblock and Cross-Country. The quality of the sculpt is very strong, and the details are both crisp and plentiful on him. I also really like his goggles, which make him look a tad more mysterious, and also introduce a nice splash of red to an otherwise drab figure. There’s enough zippers and pockets on Low-Light to almost make him look busy, but it works in the figure’s favor, especially helped by having enough paint to make these details stand out nicely.

There’s one thing that bugs me about Low-Light, and it’s his head. Like a lot of the ‘86 cast, his head is pretty big. I think it’s a bit better than Beachhead’s, but it’s still on the larger end. I think I’ve commented on it before, but the big heads in ‘86 are just bizarre to me. It seems like a lot of the ‘85 figures were moving towards more solid proportions with what you can see in Flint, Alpine, Footloose and others, but then we go back to big heads a year later. It doesn’t ruin the figure or anything close, but it’s always something that stuck out to me about figures from this year.

A classic part of the figure is his gear. He included a sniper-rifle, an uzi, and a nice black backpack. The sniper rifle appears to be an Enfield L39A1, though years ago I always assumed it was an M14. It’s a really nice sculpt with a night-scope, and a detachable bipod. Of course, the bipod is flimsy and seems to be always missing, but it’s a nice play feature either way. The uzi got around to a few other figures, and is the same one later included with Law and Order. It’s inclusion here is nice, as it really provides Low-Light with some action oriented roles and allows him to be more than a guy taking pot-shots with a sniper-rifle.

In my opinion, ‘86 Low-Light is the only Low-Light you really need, but the subsequent uses of the mold, and updates to the character are all pretty solid too. This mold got a great repaint in Slaughter’s Marauders, and then was used in green for an ‘08 Joecon figure. Sadly, the SM figure is very brittle, and the Joecon figure is worth a fortune, while not really providing anything this figure doesn’t already give. As an alternative, there’s the ‘91 sculpt which had strong colors, and two fun repaints. I like that toy, but I’ve never really liked it as Low-Light for the lack of his cap and goggles.

Finding a complete Low-Light seems to be mildly tough, as they’re usually missing either the bipod or the uzi. Despite that, he’s extremely common, and also not very expensive, running around $20 for a complete figure, and between $6 to $10 for one missing a part or two. I’m surprised he’s not been hit worse by the price surge of late, though, maybe that’s a sign things are slowly winding down on that note.

1986 Low-Light Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

Icebreaker’s HQ

1993 Mudbuster

Posted on August 10, 2021 by mwnekoman

1993 Mudbuster

90‘s GI Joe figures are awesome; 90‘s GI Joe vehicles however, more often suck. I have some I really like, but it seems like in most cases, the good 90‘s vehicles are only “mostly okay”, while the bad vehicles are really bad, at least compared to the quality of the 80‘s line. The Mudbuster is one of the former, and is an overall, mostly okay party wagon.

The Mudbuster is essentially a pickup truck with a turret in the back, which I have to admit, feels pretty unimpressive for the world’s most daring anti-terror task force. Sometimes I rationalize GI Joe having more primitive equipment like this, by ignoring the code name and imagining a scenario where vehicles like the Mudbuster are pieced together on the job, from civilian vehicles found in third-world countries where a mission is taking place. At the very least, the Mudbuster gives my imagination something more to work with than the Battle Wagon, which is a similar thing but way worse.

As a basic truck-type toy, the Mudbuster is a lot of fun and a nice contemporary vehicle to a collection of 90‘s Joe items. As a kid, this was a go-to vehicle for me from my brother’s collection, with the only vehicles I really liked more being the Tiger Sting, the Lynx, and the Brawler. The Mudbuster is small, easy to play with, and can fit a generous number of Joes for what it is.

Overall, the Mudbuster feels pretty solid, at least when compared to something terrible like the Rat. However, 90‘s cheapness is apparent here, which is part of why I consider this vehicle less when compared to a similar 80‘s item. I very much dislike the emptiness of it’s interior, which does not feature a steering wheel like the VAMP. Despite this, the driver’s area is still somewhat cramped, especially for the beefy 90‘s sculpts that would be intended to sit in it.

The gimmicks feel pretty basic, there’s a battering-ram on the front bumper that works using a rubber-band and a button in the truck-bed. Personally I think it’s pretty lame, and the band won’t last too well either. Getting a figure to pose with the turret is a pain; it’s doable, but it also feels like a really good way to break a thumb or heel at this point. The launcher had some weird grappling-hook type thing that you could tie to the vehicle, and to be honest, I also think this is rather dumb looking, and a weak point to the vehicle overall. It looks better with the spare missiles that come with it, which is kind of neat: it includes three unique missiles that can all be stored in the back.

The Mudbuster’s colors are decent. Overall, the turquoise and blue is a good look and the vehicle isn’t as obnoxiously colored as something like the Badger. The only bad thing is that it’s still pretty incohesive, and the turquoise really breaks the feeling of this thing being a piece of military equipment. Then again, going back to my earlier narrative, it’s a little more believable if you contemplate it as a retrofitted civilian vehicle.

Mudbuster’s are super common, you can usually get a complete one for around $15 or less. I don’t have a particular obsession with trucks, but a lot of people, especially rural people, really love trucks in any capacity, and I imagine that translated into a strong-selling vehicle in ‘93. These days, the Mudbuster probably isn’t a must-have vehicle, but it’s a nice piece for display with it’s contemporary toys. If you compare it to the VAMP, it’s a much weaker toy, but without that comparison, the Mudbuster is good enough on it’s own.

1993 Mudbuster Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Joe A Day

The Viper Pit

Tag Archives: ARAH

1985 Dusty

1985 Dusty

1985 Dusty Links:

1985 Lampreys

1985 Lampreys

1985 Lampreys Links:

1988 Voltar

1988 Voltar

1988 Voltar Links:

1991 Snake Eyes

1991 Snake Eyes

1991 Snake Eyes Links:

1987 Raptor

1987 Raptor

1987 Raptor Links:

1988 Psyche Out (Night Force)

1988 Psyche Out (Night Force)

1988 Psyche Out (Night Force) Links:

1986 Leatherneck

1986 Leatherneck

1986 Leatherneck Links:

1993 Gristle

1993 Gristle

1993 Gristle Links:

1986 Low-Light

1986 Low-Light

1986 Low-Light Links:

1993 Mudbuster

1993 Mudbuster

1993 Mudbuster Links: