2002 Roadblock

Mmm, nothin’ I love more than a good ol’ sloppy BJ- …’s exclusive repaint of a classic Joe mold! BJ’s Wholesale, how many of you have ever been to one of those stores?!?! If not for this 8-pack I probably wouldn’t know what that even was, which makes me somewhat glad I was too young to be around for the hassle of getting this crap when it was new. Anyways, here’s an ugly Roadblock toy I’ve photographed at least twice.

Color wise, Roadblock V8 here seems like he could have some promise, being that it is just the full ‘84 Roadblock mold in Cobra blue for the upper half. I’ve always thought the figure seems like it would have some decent custom potential, but really the appeal ends there. Because of the haphazard coloring, his torso is solid blue despite wearing a tank-top, so it looks really weird and there’s no real illusion that’s he’s wearing some kind of body-suit. His bare arms are painted like sleeves, though it doesn’t really bother me as much as his torso. As an added bit of fun, the lower half is made of marbled plastic, which also appears to be randomly yellowing on my copy like with many other figures from around that period.

The BJ’s 8-pack figures generally find their strength in their oddness, with figures like Firefly that don’t really serve a purpose, but also seem like something you’d never logically expect to get made. It’s similar to the weird Funskool releases, where there’s a lot of novelty value in having a purple Tripwire. Coming back around to Roadblock, a big problem with him is that he’s too bland to really have any appeal as an oddity, yet also too cheap and random to fit anywhere else in a collection. Because of this, he might be my least favorite figure from the set.

An alternate coloration was used on some early pre-production versions of this Roadblock, which switched the blue for a bright red. It definitely looks way worse, so I’m glad for the one we wound up with. If I had to guess, I assume someone must have gotten the colors mixed up at the factory, as there seems to be a pretty strong theme of red for the Cobras in the set.

The accessories included with the entire set strike me as somewhat comedic, which is a nice way of saying terrible. Roadblock here is loaded out with a SAW Viper machine gun (now featuring a Sound Attack tab on top), a silver V1 LAW uzi, and the ‘91 Dusty backpack in black, AKA, the most generic repaint-era backpack. The uzi is an alright weapon for tossing in a bin, but none of these parts are really exciting or memorable. Even if the SAW Viper gun wasn’t the Sound Attack version, it’s still a laughably oversized weapon that didn’t look good with the original figure, let alone V1 Roadblock’s sculpt.

So like many 2000‘s Joe items, what you pay for them has a lot more to do with your patience rather than what the figure’s actually worth. Dealers can get $20 for a complete figure with his filecard, but that’s probably a lot more than what the figure should go for at auction. Of course, there’s the aforementioned yellowing to look out for too, though any example you buy may be eventually prone to this. In better times eBay was saturated with all of the figures from this set, both domestically and from Chinese warehouses selling them for pennies.

2002 Fast Blast Viper

The 2002 BJ’s 8-pack captivates me probably far more than it should, but it’s one of those things that’s just so odd for existing that I can’t help but look at it every now and then. Among the 4 Cobras included in the set is the Fast Blast Viper, a carry-forward of the HEAT Viper retool from ARAHC. I’m not a huge fan of the V1 HEAT Viper, or the Fast Blast Viper, but this figure is probably the more interesting take on the design.

Armed with specially designed battlefield weapons, FAST BLAST VIPERS are sent out to lead an attack with only one objective: stop G.I. JOE forces. Each one has learned to withstand tough battlefield conditions. They obey every order from COBRA COMMANDER instantly and without question. To make them formidable, FAST BLAST VIPERS have been trained to wipe out any fear or hesitation in attack situations—they show no emotion no matter what happens. They are mean and aggressive opponents with many combat skills and are tough enemies of the G.I. JOE team.
“We fight until we win.”

The Fast Blast Viper is a fairly vague entity who as a character I don’t like very much. If you read the file card included with this toy, it’s actually amazing how it manages to say so little about what he is, in so many sentences. “Fast Blast Vipers fear nothing… do exactly what Cobra Commanders says… are good at everything, blah, blah, blah”. What on earth is he supposed to be? Obviously, the answer to that is nothing, but that still doesn’t render the figure useless. This red repaint in particular makes a nice grunt for stuffing in vehicles and pairing with other crimson figures. I don’t mind it, but I wish Hasbro’s laziness was a little less transparent here.

Like the rest of his pack-mates, the BJ’s Fast Blast Viper is decked out in Crimson Guard-esque red colors. One of the curious problems of the BJ’s 8-pack is that no two of the figures really have a matching color scheme despite all being red, though the Fast Blast Viper here probably came out on top for the usage of black and gold on his details (compared to an Undertow with bits of gray, a Storm Shadow with brown, and Firefly with copper and gray). It’s a good look and provides some options for the FBV, who doesn’t serve much of a purpose if you already have or like HEAT Vipers in your collection. To be honest, this is probably the second best usage of the HEAT Viper mold after the Python Patrol variant from 2003.

I never really liked the mold changes made to the FBV over the ‘89 HEAT Viper. The balaclava head is generic and doesn’t provide much benefit to the figure, even if the original HEAT Viper head was a weird asymmetrical design. Other than that, they went out of their way to remove the shoulder peg from the original sculpt, which really didn’t benefit the figure any and leaves behind this weird tab where it should’ve been. None of this really ruins the figure, and in his own right the FBV is something that looks pretty good, I just don’t understand why Hasbro made these seemingly pointless tooling changes.

The parts are an obvious area where this figure is going to lose out. You get a Sound Attack version of the Spearhead rifle, a Hit & Run knife, ‘91 Dusty pistol, and a ‘91 Sci-Fi gun. All very generic stuff you should have piles of if you’ve ever collected 90‘s and 00‘s Joes, and a poor selection of gear at that. I used to really mind this figure’s lack of missiles for his legs, but really he looks fine without them, and all they really do is make me nervous one’s going to fall off.

From the looks of it, this figure has gotten a little bit harder to find than his black counterpart. Despite this, it’s still safe to say that the BJ’s Fast Blast Viper is worth less than the black one, and you can find them from time to time for probably $6 to $8. Usually they’re more often in lots, and without parts as many of the ones you see on the market are likely the Chinese overstock that was saturating eBay a few years back. Like the figures he’s packaged with, it’s a toy no one’s collection desperately needs, but it’s nice to have if you like crimson figures.