1993 Dino Hunters Low-Light
Dinosaurs were to the nineties what ninjas were to the eighties. This is mostly caused by Jurassic Park, and in short order you saw Hasbro branch out and make an exclusive set of figures for Toys R” Us: GI Joe’s Dino Hunters. This was to become a new format of GI Joe releases, where you’d get two repaints and a vehicle as some kind of team, it would’ve resurfaced in 1995 with the Arctic Assault set, but instead that was canceled for Sgt. Savage, a toy line well remembered for it’s high-quality and selling out so fast you’d never dream of seeing them stacked to the ceiling at Toy Liquidators…
Anyways, this isn’t April Fools, though I did use that occasion once to remark on the hilariously bad dinosaur included with this set. Of the four items included, it’s easily the worst, but the Dino-Hunter (that’s the vehicle, it could use a better name) and Low-Light might be tied for the best items in the set. At times, the fluorescent yellow has made me wince at this figure a bit, but past that it’s a really nice repaint, and I like it a lot better than Low-Light V3 (who he’s a repaint of) in a few ways. I know a lot of people consider 1991 Low-Light an underrated figure. I see a lot of that release’s quality and I do like it, but he’s still probably my least favorite Low-Light figure. His appearance just changed so much form his ‘86 design that I could never really recognize it as Low-Light.
Dino Hunters Low-Light on the other hand has a really nice color-scheme and deco. Besides the fluorescent yellow (which does compliment his vehicle really well), Low-Light swaps a lot of the black he had featured on his pants for a nice olive green tone similar to what you’d see on plenty of older Joes, the Tiger Force figures especially. He also has a more emerald green color on his undershirt, so the figure has a nice range of complimenting colors, and it does nicely to make the neon seem less jarring (Compare this to Dino-Hunters Ambush’s orange, which seems way more out of place.).
My favorite painted detail on the figure though, would probably be his eye-brows. His eyebrows are black, not blonde like the rest of his hair. It’s a little touch of continuity between the figures, which implies the black-hair of the ‘91 figure is his natural color, while the original figure and this one show him with bleached hair. It’s one of those little things that you wouldn’t have thought anyone would’ve cared enough to do, given this is a random exclusive repaint at the tail-end of the dying toy line.
For accessories, you get ‘91 Low-Light’s customized uzi and helmet with visor, Airwave’s rifle, ‘91 Mercer’s smaller gun, Skydive’s pistol, and Hit & Run’s knife, and a figure stand. Right down to the color, most of these parts look exactly the same as ‘93 Leatherneck’s. His helmet’s visor is not the same as ‘91 Low-Light’s, it has no paint and is entirely black. Despite that, nearly every single “Dino-Hunters” Low-Light helmet you see for sale is just the common retail release. The uzi is also different, the sculpt was simplified and the stock no longer has hollow sections in the middle (Again, the same as Leatherneck.)
The last complete Dino Hunteres Low-Light sold for a whopping $158, which actually out prices some desirable Night Force figures. I find this grating, as this figure isn’t that rare (there’s always at least a few for sale), and while it’s nice, it’s not $158 nice. Also, the one I have pictured here isn’t mine, it my brother’s that he loans me for photos. So I don’t really have this figure in my own collection. I’d like my own, but there’s no way I’d ever pay that much for it, so bleh.
1993 Dino Hunters Low-Light Links:
The Viper Pit 