Tag Archives: ARAH

1983 Will Bill

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1983 Will Bill

Wild Bill finds himself in a tough spot in my collection. I sort of like using him, but I have no attachment to the character, and I don’t own a Dragonfly for him either. Besides this ‘83 Wild Bill, there’s a couple of other iterations of the character I own, most of which are nice figures too; it’s just I don’t really have much use for the character. Still, he’s an early figure that’s memorable in comparison to later vehicle drivers, so I thinks he’s worth a look.

Oddly enough I think what bothers me so much about him is the cowboy motif. This coming from a guy who mildly enjoys Cobra-La and ninjas, for some reason a cowboy doesn’t sit right. Which on my end is rather silly, as really he’s a reasonable looking figure. I just dislike the motif on a very subjective level, and that’s all there is to it. Probably, I wouldn’t have this slight against the figure were I born closer to his release, as I think cowboys were a lot more popular in the early eighties, but by the time I came around, they were lame.

The sculpt is pretty nice and simple. Personally, I feel like his head detracts a lot from it, as in general it’s way too big. Other than that, it keeps with the early line’s style of simple designs with tasteful amounts of detail. I think the sculpt on his chest with the oddly unpainted dog tags is particularly good looking, and a shame we never saw it used anywhere else besides the Funskool release.

The paint applications are about what you’d expect for a vehicle driver, though I take some interest in the bull tampograph on his belt-buckle. It’s a very small, silver paint application, which of course means it’s prone to wearing away, but as it’s such a small detail, most likely go without noticing it. I also found it oddly nice they painted his revolvers white, when nothing else on the figure is this color, and they could’ve just as easily painted them the same color as the knife of his chest.

I’ve never felt like Wild Bill was so married to the Dragonfly that it’s wrong to use him in other vehicles, so that grants him some usefulness in my collection. The only thing is I don’t like helicopters and aircraft very much. So ultimately, Wild Bill is limited to only the occasional use with a Tomahawk or maybe a few of the other oddball helicopters I have like the Retaliator. Of course, of those two the only one I really like is the Tomahawk, so to that end, there still isnt’ much to do with him.

So have crazy 2020 prices made Wild Bill a coveted and expensive figure? In truth, not really. You can get a mint with filecard Wild Bill for around $8 still, which is not much more than he’s ever gone for. Of course, you might have to look around to get one with both a nice bull-buckle and nice white pistols, but he’s a common figure that still is only worth a few dollars, which is good.

1983 Will Bill Links:

Attica Gazette

3D Joes

Joeaday

1984 Cobra Commander

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1984 Cobra Commander

There’s a lot to say about Cobra Commander. To a certain extent, you can argue he’s the central character of the GI Joe story line. After all, GI Joe’s plot entirely centers around countering and defeating Cobra, and by association, Cobra Commander. Of course, he’s also one of the most prolific characters too, with almost as many toy iterations as Snake Eyes, and in ARAH alone, more.

When I started collecting vintage figures, this Cobra Commander was among my first dozen or so acquisitions. At the time, I remember being ecstatic to own another figure besides Major Bludd that was so old, as it felt cool to collect figures that were a decade older than me. Given that, I don’t have many memories of doing much with this figure besides photographing him a lot. It’s weird, because other figures I acquired in the same period like Major Bludd and the Lamprey, bring me a nostalgic feeling for how exciting it was to buy old Joes back then, whereas this figure I’ve kind of just taken for granted. Of course, I partly attribute that to the fact that I already had several other Cobra Commander’s that were pretty good.

I really like the figure’s deco, it’s striking yet at the same time blends well with the early Cobra cast. With that said, it’s to be forever compared to the original CC color scheme, and those colors are ultimately my preference. The light-blue coupled with a bigger focus on a contrasting red color is both more interesting and iconic than this figure, which is dark and relies on gold for most of the secondary coloring. It’s not without it’s own merits and some like the more regal look of these colors, but to me, the brighter ones are better.

The sculpt’s an area where the figure again really shines, namely for new head. Among his ‘82 contemporaries, it was fair to say V1 Cobra Commander had a more interesting and nicely unique design, and that holds up well with the hooded version. The hooded head sculpt is well done on this figure. It’s simple, but portrays an ominous look fitting of an anonymous terrorist leader. It seems like a simple thing to get right, but when compared to subsequent hooded commanders, that wasn’t always the case. A few examples from Valor vs. Venom and the early 25th line show how it can be done wrong, and while I love the Talking Battle Commander/Battle Corps sculpt, it’s certainly a lot sillier looking than this one.

Like with V1 Cobra Commander, your only accessory here is his laser pistol. In ways, you could look at this as being kind of boring. In other ways, it was a charming example of a figure with a part that had play value built in to it, as well as expanding the character from just what could be seen in the toys. Being able to store the pistol on his back was a neat way for them to add a little more interest to an otherwise less action-oriented character. As well, the fact that Cobra Commander had a unique, sci-fi gun as his personal weapon over the Soviet surplus his legions came armed with, spoke to the character.

This would be the last V1 CC repaint besides Red Laser to come out, and sadly the 3rd party producers have yet to tackle this mold, either. I personally think it’s a shame as there’s a lot of potential left in the Cobra Commander mold, plus you can pretty easily make some army-builders out of him, too. The fact that the mold’s remained untouched all these years at the very least has prevented it from becoming diluted, but I’d still like to see it done up in the canceled ‘97 color scheme, or black and silver like some of the later CC’s.

‘84 Cobra Commanders have always been easy to obtain figures, and thankfully they look like something that’s going to stay that way, too. Last couple of auctions I saw for this figure ended around $10, which is pretty fair given the craziness of the market as of late. For one with a bit of paint wear, I got mine for $4 or $5 dollars as I recall, which was about a decade ago.

Cobra Commander Gijoe Hasbro ARAH vintage action figure Cobra Commander Gijoe Hasbro ARAH vintage action figure Cobra Commander Gijoe Hasbro ARAH vintage action figure Cobra Commander Gijoe Hasbro ARAH vintage action figure Cobra Commander Gijoe Hasbro ARAH vintage action figure

Cobra Commander Gijoe Hasbro ARAH vintage action figure

I did dioramas a lot differently 11 years ago.

1984 Cobra Commander Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

Joe A Day

3D Joes

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors)

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1991 Flint (Eco Warriors)

When I was a kid I didn’t like this figure very much. He was brightly colored, he didn’t look much like a normal Flint, and his helmet was butt-ugly too. Technically, it wasn’t my figure, but whenever the Joes came out I’d gun for any other Flint besides this one (which usually meant the Battle Corps figure). Most of this derived from the simple fact that this wasn’t the Flint I wanted, and go figure, I started liking this figure better as I got older and after I acquired a Funskool Flint. It’s still not a Flint figure I use very often, but with time I’ve grown to appreciate elements of this figure.

On his own, there’s really nothing too bad about this figure. The sculpt is mostly reasonable looking while maintaining a decent level of detail. Personally I really like his head; it looks more ragged and characteristic than the aforementioned Battle Corps figure from a few years later. The ribbed boots are sort of weird and don’t add much to the character, but they can be easily overlooked. Oddly, I’ve sort of grown fond of his colors; the neon green is bright, but the look is cohesive enough that it appeals to me.

I think the main problem presented by this Flint, is that he’s arguably the weakest Eco Warriors figure. Most of the other toys come with at least a few parts that are somewhat more interesting, or cool clear visors like with Barbecue and Deep-six. Then you have to get over the fact that it’s a pretty big departure from a standard Flint design, too. Of course, in my view the Eco Warriors were a pretty good lot of figures, so that’s not to put this Flint down too much.

For parts, you get an oversized blue gun, an Eco Warriors squirt-gun, and a helmet. If there’s something I don’t like about this Flint, its’ that his parts are pretty weak. His main gun is a strange sci-fi design that I can’t really identify: is it a bazooka, or a laser weapon, or something else? It looks terrible, and unfortunately we saw this weapon reappear a few more times in the 90‘s. The helmet also strikes me as lackluster, given that it lacks the paint featured on Ozone and Clean Sweep’s helmets. Interestingly, commercials depict this helmet with a painted visor like on the card, which implies to me this paint application was cut late in his production.

Looking down the road, they made two very distinct and interesting repaints of this mold, though at the moment I like this one the best. In ‘01, they repainted the figure in desert colors and packaged him with the Desert Striker, which was an okay looking figure, albeit a little bland. Then in ‘10 the body was reused for the convention Red Torches, which looked fantastic, though are very limited in usage. All in all, I think the original release here may have been the mold’s best usage.

Complete Eco Warrior Flint’s go for around $8 or less. These days, I feel really amazed whenever I can find a vintage Joe that doesn’t commend a massive premium. Likely, I assume ‘84 and Tiger Force Flint dominate the interest of anyone who wants a Flint figure, so there’s just no need for this one. I would relate to that, but on it’s own, this is a fun figure to have around.

gi joe hasbro 1991 flint arah eco warriors cobra vintage
gi joe eco warriors star brigade 90's arah Ozone Flint Toxo Viper cobra Monster Blaster APC
Gi joe arah Eco Warriors commercial flint prototype action figure hasbro
Screencap from the commercial linked to below. Notice his boots and visor are painted differently, and his squirt-gun is a different color as well (though, it might just be Ozone’s).

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors) Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUk1ZHJ6J9Y

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Joeaday

1987 Falcon

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1987 Falcon

Falcon came along in ‘87, and despite not receiving many subsequent releases, is a pretty popular figure. When you consider his obnoxious portrayal in the cartoons, the fact that he’s from an otherwise unpopular year, and that he was intended to replace Duke, it seems like a surprise that Falcon’s so well liked; that is, if you ignore the quality of this figure.

If you’re mostly a cartoon guy like me, Falcon’s pretty hard to get into as a character. The movie pretty much made him the worst character in the franchise, and DIC used him as a junky in the Headhunters two-parter. I’m under the impression the comics made him a lot more likable, but I’ve not read those issues yet, so I don’t know. Despite all that, he’s relatively popular with fans and I can imagine a few reasons why.

1987 was not a very good year of figures, and is a jumping-off point for most older GI Joe fans. It’s pretty fair to say the line jumped the shark with this year, as most fans don’t like Cobra La (though I do a bit…), or other cringe-inducing classics like Crystal Ball and Big Boa. The Joes from that year were mostly better than the Cobras, though many could be seen as a step down when compared to figures from years before.

Then you wind up with Falcon, who as a toy is pretty much great. There’s nothing too crazy going on with his design, and overall the figure looks like quite a down to earth Green Beret. The sculpted detail is easily on par with classics like ‘85 Flint, so you can see why the figure’s so popular.

Of course, the colors are fantastic too. Several cool repaints came out later, like the Night Force version and the Sonic Fighters repaint, but if I could only have one, I think this one might be the best. He features a rich green color for a base with splotches of dark camouflage, while other little details are painted separate colors, like his hat, scarf, knife and his radio. Nothing really feels overlooked here, which is why I think later versions don’t compare as well (even if a few of them are really cool).

His parts are excellent too: you get a Mossberg shotgun, backpack, knife and antenna for his backpack. The shotgun’s a pretty distinct and nice looking weapon. It has this odd foregrip-like handle he holds it by which allows him to pose better with it, though the weapon’s actual grip is thin enough he can hold it there too. The knife looks good, and nicely it stores in his backpack, which was a feature you hadn’t seen too much until this point.

Mint complete Falcons go pretty routinely around $25, these days. If you really want one, I think the figure’s worth it, though once prices calm down he’ll probably be worth half of that like he used to be. It’s a great enough figure I think he’s worth having even if your collection focuses on figures from the earlier part of the line.

gi joe falcon gi joe the movie 1986 1987 vintage hasbro arah
gi joe falcon gi joe the movie 1986 1987 vintage hasbro arah
gi joe falcon gi joe the movie 1986 1987 vintage hasbro arah
gi joe falcon gi joe the movie 1986 1987 vintage hasbro arah

1987 Falcon Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

3D Joes

1991 Attack Cruiser

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1991 Attack Cruiser

I’ve had this rant I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for awhile now, but never seem to find the time to lay out. Although 90‘s GI Joe figures tended to be a lot of fun, I really can’t say that vehicles held up so well as the line went on, especially those from 1991 and ‘92. As just one example of a terrible 90‘s vehicle, I have to say I think the Attack Cruiser is the worst vehicle from the entire line.

It’s actually kind of weird too, as popular opinion tends to push that late 80‘s vehicles like the POGO and Buzz Boar are some of the worst that the line had to offer, but I feel like opinions such as this are focusing more on the premise of those toys and not the execution. They’re silly, but aesthetically they look pretty good and are fairly fun to play with. Several vehicles from ‘91 and ‘92 aren’t like this however. Examples like the Ice Sabre, Barracuda, and this toy present simple concepts, but fail on execution.

This toy has numerous problems, but for a start, it’s most critical flaw is in the drone it launches. It’s a cheap and flimsy piece of plastic, which seems to break almost as soon as you use it. It’s made from a super thin piece of plastic like you might see on disposable packaging, which is noticeably worse than the already bland drone pictured on the back of the box. Already, it’s really baffling for them to cheap out on such a core component of the vehicle, as launching the drone is it’s main gimmick. It’s like no effort went into this area of the vehicle at all.

The vehicle is basically barren for other play features. It holds a three-man crew and has some rotating turrets; a pair of mines too, but that’s it. There’s no seat-belts like you saw on certain vehicles from around that time, or any canopies, removable hatches, ect. There’s just nothing going on with it, which relative to it’s size makes it feel very phoned in.

It has a bizarre asymmetrical design that looks horribly ugly and thrown together. I’ve tried photographing this thing from different angles before, and there’s just no one direction the Attack Cruiser looks good to be seen from. It looks almost like two separate smaller vehicles that were sandwiched together for some reason, and I really can’t figure out what they were going for with this. There’s no real-life vehicle I know of that looks like this, and there’s no other way to describe it to me besides… Extremely ugly.

The colors aren’t the worst, but the neon green certainly puts a damper on it’s overall look. It’s mostly black and I’ll say it’s a decent color choice, though I still feel like the black looks cheap. Probably worse than the green is the goofy paper decals that go on it. A lot of 90‘s vehicles feature decals like this, and they’re a sad downgrade from the familiar 80‘s decals. They’re really delicate and fall off much easier than the vinyl ones, which is a shame on the nicer vehicles, though on the Attack Cruiser, they’re really just a hallmark of the lower quality presented here.

In the end of the day, all of this leaves you with a vehicle that refuses to be fun and doesn’t even succeed at it’s single niche purpose. It’s ugly, fragile and obtuse, which really leaves the Attack Cruiser with almost no room for redemption. At least with the RAT, the idea was alright and it didn’t look too terrible; meanwhile the Attack Cruiser has almost nothing it does right. To me, it feels like an example of where they did start to take short-cuts in the line’s waning years, as there’s not a single vehicle from 80‘s that strikes me as being this bad.

Attack Cruiser’s aren’t hard to get ahold of, even complete and in good shape. This is a vehicle no one will fight you over and can be had for around $15. To be honest though, it’s a waste of money. Opinions will vary on what constitutes the worst GI Joe vehicle ever made, and a lot of that will depend on what you expect from a vehicle. In this Joe fan’s opinion though, I really can’t think of a vehicle I dislike more than the Attack Cruiser.

Attack cruiser gi joe arah vintage hasbro 90's cobra a real american hero 1991
Attack cruiser gi joe arah vintage hasbro 90's cobra a real american hero 1991

1991 Attack Cruiser Links:

3D Joes

Toys from the Past

1986 Wet-Suit

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1986 Wet-Suit

In many ways, 1986 represented a restart for ARAH. Popular characters return with new toys, such as Roadblock and General Hawk, while older specialist are somewhat replaced by newer characters that have overlapping specialties (Viper, Leatherneck, Lifeline, ect.). Wetsuit is one of the later, filling the same role as Torpedo from 1983. I’m a fan of both figures, though objectively I think Wet-Suit’s of better quality.

‘86 figures were early priorities for me when I started filling the gaps of my ARAH collection around 2009. Unlike ‘85 figures, ‘86 guys tended to be plentiful and cheaper, while maintaining the same amount of appeal for me. Wet-Suit was one of the first figures I acquired, which meant he got to see a little more action back then as one of my few non-Cobra acquisitions. I also had a real obsession with Lampreys then, which gave Wet-suit more to fight than he might have otherwise.

The truth is, it’s a really high-quality figure. Compared to Torpedo, Wet-Suit has a rich sculpt full of details. Belts and pouches adorn the majority of the figure, with a nice amount of sharpness that makes these details pop. Like the ‘85 Eel, the helmet isn’t removable, but instead features a nice, form-fitting shape that more than makes up for it.

There’s also a lot of painted details, even if some will have issues with the colors. Straps, his helmet, the majority of the suit, he has a lot of painted details and different colors to see too, even a very nice tampograph on his chest. Of course, if the teal and orange aren’t your thing, the 2000‘s provided us with this mold in multiple great and more muted color schemes. I like bright stuff though, and this version seems the most detailed, so for me this one’s the best.

The gear is both one of the greatest things and one of the worst things about this figure. He comes with a lot of nice parts, including a rubber breathing piece, a backpack it connects to, flippers, a large flashlight, and a sea sled. The parts are fun and immerse the figure in his specialty, though the downside is that he doesn’t come with any weapons. It’s really part of the figure’s charm, as with many early ARAH figures, the parts showed what the character does and how he’s unique. Yet still, it feels a little weird he has no gun or knife.

From the looks of it, newbie collectors are paying stupid prices for this guy from time to time. I say newbies, because you can still find complete and nice Wet-Suits for around $5. It’s just sometimes that they’re going for $20+, which is what the rare Mission Brazil repaint used to go for. It’s a cheap figure and a great addition to a vintage collection, but don’t follow the crowd and pay stupid prices.

1986 Wet-Suit Links:

Half the Battle

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

1992 Big Bear

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1992 Big Bear

Big Bear is a weird figure for me. A few oddities about him, mainly his deco, have always turned me towards 1998 Gorky as my default version of the sculpt. I still think that’s a somewhat better figure as Big Bear than the original is, but this is a very strong figure from the tail-end of the line that’s worth recognizing.

One of the coolest things GI Joe did in the 90‘s (that oddly enough, it’s rarely credited for) is bring us figures based on the October Guard from the early Marvel issues. This came in the way of Red Star, and Big Bear, neither of whom were characters from those early issues, but it was cool for them to finally put the concept in toy-form so many years after the fact. Of course, the most amusing part is that the Soviet Union dissolved the year before this toy came out, but that didn’t lessen the usefulness of the figure.

The quality and style of Big Bear has a lot more in common with an early eighties figure than it does a nineties figure. The sculpt is highly detailed and the colors are fairly good too. His design features a simple uniform that avoids being busy or over-the-top, and instead shows natural details like fabric folds and whatnot. The only thing I can really gripe about is that his paint applications leave something to be desired. The colors themselves are pretty good, but he looks somewhat flat with so much green and nothing else to really break up his colors. I also really hate that his eyes are red like his beard, which looks cheap to me.

I find his parts to be very interesting and curious; his gun in particular. The card describes it as an AK-88, a fictional Soviet-styled SMG, but it looks a lot more like the real-life PP-19 Bizon SMG. Many strange guns in ARAH were based on actual designs, so it doesn’t seem odd that this gun would be based on the Bizon. Yet, as far as I know, the Bizon was still in the planning in 1993. It could just be a coincidence, but it has made me wonder over the years if this gun was based on an early patent for the Bizon or something similar to that. A bigger gun enthusiast might know more definitively, but it’s cool to me none the less.

As for his overall load out, it’s pretty good. You get the aforementioned AK-88, which is a great part the figure can easily hold and pose with. You also get a nice and simple backpack, a missile launcher, and a stand. The missile launcher is really an ugly and oversized piece that provides nothing for the figure, but ignoring it, the figure has a decent gun and backpack similar to classics like Leatherneck, or the Viper.

Big Bear’s are worth about $8 complete, on a pretty consistent basis. 1992 figures are pretty common, so it makes sense that he doesn’t go for a whole lot. Still, it’s a cool figure that’s especially worth having, even if you’re not a big 90‘s fan. Then again, for all that he’s worth, I still think the 1998 Gorky is the better Big Bear.

1992 Big Bear gi joe Cobra ARAH vintage Hasbro October guard red star volga gorky
1992 Big Bear gi joe Cobra ARAH vintage Hasbro October guard

1992 Big Bear Links:

Forgotten Figures

Yo Joe

Half the Battle

3D Joes

1988 Hardball

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1988 Hardball

All of the GI Joe figures I experienced as a kid that were prior to 1993 were from my brother’s collection. The majority of his collecting started in 1989, but there was a sparse handful of figures he had that were older than that: shelfwarmers. Among them, one was Crystal Ball; another was Hardball.

Hardball’s a bit of a weird figure, in that it’s hard to say if I like him or not, or if I ever did. I tend to really hate sports and sports-themed stuff, so for that reason I find him corny and annoying. Putting that aside, the figure is well done in a few regards, enough so that I’ve been able to overlook the baseball motif.

Hardball has a decent sculpt and a great amount of colors. The figure’s legs look good and offer some custom potential if you just wanted to swap them onto a different figure. Personally, I’ve always been a bit annoyed by how small his head looks compared to many of his contemporaries, but the sculpt is still nice on it. The painted details and amount of colors they used on the figure starts to become somewhat impressive though. There’s about eight or so colors on the figure counting the unpainted plastic colors, which is about in line with a lot of the figures from 1985, like Buzzer and Alpine. Compare Hardball to figures from around the same time like Muskrat or Budo and you’ll start to see how detailed he is.

For parts, you get a two-piece grenade launcher and a backpack full of grenades. This grenade launcher feels a tad too big, but I’ve gotta be honest and admit it’s always been one of my favorite parts of the figure. As a kid, I thought the rotating drum was a really cool gimmick, and the weapon looks really powerful even if you don’t know what it is. The backpack has a lot of nice details going on too, and it’s bagginess reminds of the ones you saw a lot earlier in the line.

All things considered, Hardball’s not a figure without his redeeming elements. He’s got fun parts, a pretty good sculpt and a good amount of paint to show it off. The downside is that he’s not a very memorable character, and still just looks like a random baseball player wondering around. I never think to use him and usually forget about him, until I see him in a photo or in a list of figures from ‘88.

Hardball is not an expensive figure, and even the current GI Joe market has failed to make him valuable. Sometimes a mint, complete figure with filecard will run $12 if it’s photographed clearly, since the torso is prone to yellowing and the GI Joe tampograph wears off easy too. Keep looking though, and you can commonly find a mint figure for around $5.

Gi joe vehicle RPV Hardball Backblast ARAH vintage action figure Hasbro
Gi joe vehicle RPV Hardball Backblast ARAH vintage action figure Hasbro

1988 Hardball Links:

JoeADay

Forgotten Figures

Yo Joe

3D Joes

1983 Gung Ho

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1983 Gung Ho

Gung Ho is a popular GI Joe character, but oddly for me I have no real attachment to Gung Ho. 1983 was full of cool designs I like a lot, like Snow Job, Doc, Destro, Major Bludd: there’s barely a figure from the year I’m ambivalent to besides Gung Ho. So while I’ve got some classic figures on the mind, I might as well hash out a post about my feelings on the figure.

Gung Ho is somewhere between being iconic and boring. On one hand, the figure is distinct with fun colors and a look that’s fairly unique among early 80‘s figures (this was before 1988 when every forgettable Joe ran around in a vest with no shirt on). On the other hand, being a shirtless marine is about the extent of his character, and I can’t say I find him all that fun to use. By comparison, Leatherneck is far more standard, which seems less interesting, yet I still find that figure more fun to have around than Gung Ho.

Despite my somewhat ill-defined disinterest in him, he’s certainly not a bad figure. The light-blue and green camo colors look eye-catching and distinct. The large marine corps logo tattooed on his chest is possibly the most memorable and well done detail on the figure. It’s hard to compose a group of figures where Gung Ho doesn’t stand out, which speaks volume to his charm.

V1 Gung Ho has some interesting repaints, though domestically we never got more than the brown one in 1997 with the Slugger. In the Action Force line, he got a repaint as the fairly famous Gaucho, and Funskool also used his tooling for their own release of him and a Complan Commando figure. Most of these figures come in colors I find far more interesting than V1 Gung Ho’s, but sadly they’re of value and rarity that’s unattainable for most.

His accessories are nice. He comes with a hand-held grenade launcher, and a unique backpack that’s one of the first in the line to be so bulky. It stands out and has a great shape to it, a shame to not be included with more figures. Personally I think this pack would’ve been nice to see in black with some Cobras, but such was never the case. The grenade launcher has a functioning sling you can use, and a good size grip that isn’t too scary to stick in his hand.

It feels like mint, complete Gung Ho’s tend to run around $15 to $18, but the challenge is in finding ones that are both mint and complete. Gung Ho is very prone to discoloration and it’s more often that his original grenade launcher is swapped for the white one from an Accessory Pack. If you aren’t too picky about these things you can get one a lot cheaper, but it can require some patience.

gi joe gung ho hasbro arah vintage action figure version 1
gi joe gung ho hasbro arah vintage action figure version 1

1983 Gung Ho Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

1983 Cobra Officer

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1983 Cobra Officer

I’ve been in a bit of a lull lately with not much GI Joe stuff to talk about. The Cobra Officer isn’t a figure I can find a lot of original things to say about, and I’m far from being the only person who likes the figure a lot. Regardless, I’ve wanted to profile him on my blog for some time, and talking about a classic seems like a good way to refresh myself as we head into 2020.

I don’t really have the sentimental attachment to the Cobra Officer that I do for the Cobra Trooper. Largely, this is because I just didn’t remember him apart from the standard Troopers in Sunbow, which as a kid was my only source for connecting with the GI Joe lore. The only thing I can say is that I did handle this mold first before I ever obtained the Cobra Trooper, by way of the Python Trooper I had as a kid.

Perhaps that childhood exposure to the mold does affect my opinion on it now. The truth is, I’m more fond of the Officer’s sculpt over the Trooper’s, however, that’s only in a few ways. The added details on areas like the helmet and webgear seem more appealing to me than the Trooper’s relatively simple sculpt. Noticeably, the Officer is much less bulky than the Trooper, which I tend to think looks a little more natural.

An odd thing I hate about the Cobra Officer compared to the Trooper, however, is the figure’s grip. For some reason he has one of the most ridiculously tight grips in the entire line that I know of. For an early sculpt, it seems as though it wouldn’t be that strange, but even the Cobra Trooper and Cobra Commander can hold their weapons better than the Officer here can. It doesn’t ruin the figure, but it’s always been something that bothers me.

For parts, you get just one: the classic AK-47. It’s one of the world’s most common and iconic firearms, so it’s appropriate to be included with one of GI Joe’s most notorious enemies. I agree with the sentiment I’ve seen from others that it would’ve made more sense for the Troopers to have the AK and the Officer to have the Dragunov, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is one of my favorite accessories in the entire line. Even after The Black Major started casting these by the dozens in different colors, I still never get tired of getting this part.

Cobra Officers are not rare, but expensive and prices seem to vary more than with other figures; usually even a rough figure will go above $20. Largely, this is because of the fragile silver paint used on their Cobra sigil. However, even once this paint has completely worn away, these can still go for a premium. Used to, you could by the worn ones and replace this paint application with a decent sticker if you felt so inclined, but today even this is not very practical. I really enjoy my Cobra Officer and can’t imagine my collection without one, but the prices for them sting.

Cobra officer gi joe hasbro marvel ARAH vintage V1 1983 Cobra Trooper black major custom
Cobra officer gi joe hasbro marvel ARAH vintage V1 1983 Cobra Trooper black major custom
Cobra officer gi joe hasbro marvel ARAH vintage V1 1983 Cobra Trooper black major custom

1983 Cobra Officer Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Joeaday

Yo Joe

1982 Prototype at Yo Joe