2001 Big Brawler

Big Brawler is the butt of many jokes, and has been a loathed character among GI Joe fans since his creation. When you know the history of the character and a little of what was going on back then… It’s not hard to imagine why. Still, like a lot of ARAHC figures, he’s kind of nice when taken in on his own. Kinda.

To understand a little more of why Big Brawler is so egregious, let’s take a look at his filecard:

“A master of both psychological warfare and hand-to-hand combat, Big Brawler has engaged in top secret operations against despots and terrorists worldwide. When it became evident that most of the world’s terrorist activities were orchestrated by COBRA, Big Brawler transferred from Army Intelligence to the G.I. Joe team. He now takes his battle directly to the snake pits, while acting as liaison to the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). He has a natural ability to persevere in the adverse conditions of the world’s jungles, in ways that Tarzan himself would be envious of. Big Brawler has refused all officer-level promotions, preferring to remain on the front lines where the real action takes place.
Despite his superior intelligence-gathering and infiltration skills, Big Brawler is quick-tempered and can’t resist the urge to pound any COBRA on sight. Since his first mission, when he was only supposed to take photos of a secret spy headquarters but “improvised” and blew up the island instead, he has been regarded as a loose cannon. Good thing he’s a G.I. Joe – he’s too dangerous to be anything else.”

I have so many sick burns, buzzwords and clever one-liners I could unload at this tripe, but really you just have to laugh and take it for what it is. Most of these filecards from around this time are easily this corny, though this one seems especially great when you consider that it’s the story for a guy who looks like the coomer wojak. You also have to know that he’s named after Brian Mulholland of the GI Joe Collector’s Club. I’m personally foggy on exactly why Brian got a GI Joe figure named after himself, but I thought the Collector’s Club had a lot to do with writing some of these files. That sort of makes it narcissistic, in addition to being cringey.

Onto the figure, Big Brawler’s a repaint of 1987 Outback, with a new head. For the most part, it’s an appealing looking figure based on a underused mold, and makes a nice, cheap alternative to the expensive Night Force Outback. Of course, a major flaw of the figure is the aforementioned new head, which looks pretty terrible. The proportions look squished, and his neck is pretty long too. The figure would’ve been better if they had just reused Outback’s original head, and that’s a shame.

Another thing that really bugs me is the paint on his biceps: there’s no flesh color above the swivel joint, giving him these weird and ugly bands on his arms. Otherwise, his paint applications and colors are okay. There’s not really a whole lot going on, and he feels a lot less detailed than Outback, but everything that needs to be painted is painted. Still, there’s a certain cheapness to this figure, that when combined with his head, makes him feel a lot more like a dollar-store bootleg than a real GI Joe toy.

His accessories include Outback’s flashlight, ‘92 Big Bear’s backpack, and ‘91 Red Star’s rifle, in addition to a figure stand. I hope the Red Star rifle is more of a coincidence and not an intentional inclusion for the figure, as I hate to think they ditched Outback’s parts in favor of making him seem more like some hackneyed Rambo knock-off (stolen AK). His backpack is magical and unlike Outback’s, Big Brawler’s can stick to him without straps! I want one of those in real life.

My personal hope was to go to eBay, find some idiot who payed a gigantic sum for Big Brawler, and then berate them here. However, most people aren’t that dumb, and Big Brawlers still aren’t very expensive relative to everything else. He’s easiest to find carded with Tripwire for about $20, some odd loose examples will go for around $10. Put all of the cringe and ugliness of this figure aside, and I think he’s nice for that much. It’s a repaint of a good mold, and if you really wanted the figure would still look pretty decent with his head swapped for Outback’s.

Gi joe arahc duke night rhino big brawler side track cobra commander

“That’s right chumps, I just caught the guy you’ve been after for 19 years, all by myself! Maybe you dudes should go back to basic training while I grab my Medal of Honor.”

2001 Big Brawler Links:

Half the Battle

Joe A Day

2004 Big Brawler

Big Brawler’s a name pretty infamous to Joe collector’s who were around in the early 2000‘s. At best, I think he could sort of be described as a meme that represented the low-quality characters that were being created at the time. Some collector’s even seemed to feel somewhat insulted by the character. With that said, there’s some value that can still be gleaned when Big Brawler’s figures are taken at face value.

This particular Big Brawler reuses the part recipe and paint masks from the Tiger Force Big Brawler who came out the year before. In fact, many of the colors are the same as that figure, with the major differences being the color of his shirt, skin, and hair. Clearly, the figure was designed as a part of a set that was meant to be budget priced, and the fact that he’s not changed more can be easily overlooked. Back then it might’ve been less acceptable, but it 2019 without the other figure in my collection, I don’t mind.

His main fault as a figure is that the character is junk, and the paint is just a tad too limited. Particularly, the unpainted bullet belts on his legs just leaves a lot to be desired. At the same time, as he is essentially just a repaint of Salvo, it’s nice to see that Salvo didn’t become yet another ARAH mold that would be forever without a repaint (ignoring the other Big Brawler and Balrog). Of course, I think Salvo is superior to any color variant of this Big Brawler, but it’s still nice for the variety.

BIG BRAWLER started out in Army Intelligence before he was tapped to join the G.I. JOE Team, bringing an impressive catalogue of specialized skills and talents. Equally at home in dense tropical undergrowth as he is in concrete urban badlands, he has survival and observation abilities on a par with jungle cats and feral street criminals. Proficient in small arms, squad-level infantry weapons, and platoon support weapons, BIG BRAWLER also holds rank in several martial arts disciplines. Trained as a psychologist and having participated in several military psychological operations, he knows that as good as you are with a weapon, you can’t win a fight unless you can think three moves ahead of your opponent, and then have a surprise for him!
“Never start a fight you can’t finish, never drink water that a purification tablet won’t dissolve in, and always brush your teeth when you’re in the jungle!”

In other words, Big Brawler’s good at everything he does, and is trained and educated in everything. Also, he’s a psychologist… Man it’s not as bad as his original Rambo-wannabe bio, but this file is just dumb. It also really leaves Big Brawler without too much of a purpose, and definitely as a character to improvise with. I can’t think of much to do with him at the moment besides having him man vehicles and act as squad filler in dioramas.

His only accessory was a silver version of the customized M4 we saw around a few times in the New Sculpt era. It’s actually a pretty nice part, but it’s also extremely generic. I don’t feel like it does much to accentuate a character in need of some added appeal.

I’m having a hard time pricing this version of Big Brawler. I think I got mine in a lot about a year or so ago, but I really don’t remember anymore. And other than that he’s another bad victim of the GI-drought, where there’s nothing showing up on eBay routinely enough for me to say “that much.”. So I’ll assess the figure like this: The character is terrible, and the figure is mediocre. But he’s not badly colored and has the cool novelty of being one of a few Salvo repaints. So if you see him somewhere, he’s a decent addition for around $8, but at that, it’s a figure that any collection could do without.