1991 Cesspool

Posted on June 5, 2024 by mwnekoman

1991 Cesspool

I’d argue that the named Cobras of the 90‘s are right up there with the greats of 1984, or at least very close in quality. To me, Cesspool and Interrogator are easily on par with Copperhead and Wild Weasel, and the only real problem with 90‘s Cobras is you only got about two or so new ones a year. Still, the new guys for 1991 are both very good, and here’s some elongated rant on that.

Character wise, Cesspool is preeeeetty corny. Overall, I’d say he’s actually way cornier than Headman in many respects, but it’s the solid character design that elevates him over the other. Don’t get me wrong either way, because I quite like Headman, and I also quite dislike CEO’s, but Cesspool’s just… Stupid? The characterization early on for someone like Zartan or Firefly seemed a lot more intriguing or tangible, whereas Cesspool feels more on the Dr. Robotnik/Rita Repulsa silly end; way more of a caricature.

At face value anyways, the idea of scarred, psychotic former CEO joining with Cobra has some interesting prospects. Mr. D’Alleva would probably have plenty of dirty business ties and blackmail that would put him higher up in the late Cobra hierarchy, which again, is a pretty small club. Focusing on his unscrupulous business smarts makes the character a bit more interesting to me, and also gives him some purpose beyond “Toxo-Viper column decoration”.

The design and sculpt on Cesspool is where he shines. Most prominently is the giant Cobra design on his shirt, which was surprisingly a design motif they hadn’t tapped until this figure. Then there’s his head: the scarring on his face and dead eye is both very sharp and very cool for just how gruesome it is. The rest of the figure strikes me as more of a par for the course Cobra super-villain kind of look, but the detailing is sharp all throughout. The only thing I really don’t like, is the gold plastic used for his right arm, which will probably be prone to crumbling sooner or later.

His accessories suck for the most part. You get the requisite Eco-Warriors water-pack, a gold chain-saw and a gold helmet, with a tiny and easily lost respirator. Worth noting that while similar to the squirt-gun included with Flint, Barbecue and Ozone, Cesspool’s is a unique sculpt. Still, it’s just like those in terms of being cumbersome are difficult for the figure to hold. Would’ve been way nicer if his parts were more consistent with the Sludge Viper and Toxo Viper, but oh well. The chainsaw’s okay, but not really integral to the figure. Finally, his helmet is pretty cool actually, it has a nice design and ignoring the issue with the respirator, it looks fairly well done. Why use it though? Cesspool is almost never shown with his helmet, and the head-sculpt is too cool to cover up. So most of his accessories are the kind of thing you toss in a bin and only keep around for the sake of knowing you have them.

The little respirator pushes a complete Cesspool up towards $40. Sans that, you can get one with the rest of his accessories for $15. Reproduction respirators are out there, which is both an option for “completing” your figure, but also something to scrutinize when buying a figure advertised as complete. For the all the praise I can heap onto Cesspool, it’s hard to say he feels like he’s worth as much as a decent V1 Zartan (last time I checked). Amusingly though, eBay prices are a pretty good indicator of the collecting consensus on any given figure, so I guess going by that Cesspool’s an A-tier Cobra.

1991 Cesspool Links:

1992 Eco Striker

Posted on November 28, 2023 by mwnekoman

1992 Eco Striker

1991 was probably the worst year of Joe vehicles ever made, though 1992 wasn’t far off, mainly for continuing a lot of the gimmicks that didn’t really work out from the year before. That includes paper gliders (Air Commandos) and the flimsy Battle Copters, but the new ideas like a Flintstones car and a helicopter that didn’t fit GI Joe figures (Desert Apache) weren’t much better. So after all of that, the year’s Eco Warriors offering of the Eco Striker comes off pretty well by comparison, even if it was the first of many AWE Striker regurgitation to be.

If had to chose an old vehicle to give to the Eco Warrior Joes for their subline, I’m not sure I could’ve named a better one than the AWE Striker. It fits the theme, it rolls well, it can carry four figures, light-up front lights, a nicely detailed engine, it really was a toy from Joe’s best year. Which is probably why the Eco Striker stands out as the best toy from one of Joe’s worst years. Sometimes I forget how nice the AWE Striker was just for my strong preference to the VAMP, and also the fact that they really wore out the toy’s appeal with continual recolors and retools for the next thirty years. In 1992 though, it was still pretty fresh.

The bright blue and yellow colors of the Eco Striker make it look very much like a toy, though at least it’s a very attractive looking toy. Blue and yellow are colors that compliment each other very well, and there’s also a bevy of contemporary Joes that feature a lot of yellow and look good with it. The decals also add some hazard stripes to the sides, which I really love the look of even if the yellow loses some of it’s vibrance just from the poor quality of the stickers. Like all the vehicles from it’s era, it has super cheap, paper stickers as opposed to the vinyl kind used on older vehicles. That’s fairly egregious when you consider that it’s a toy where the main gimmick involves water.

As for the big and exciting new feature that the Eco Striker brings to the table: a squirt gun, like with the Septic Tank a year prior. The squirt cannon is easily the worst feature of the Septic Tank, just for being so cumbersome and not really having enough space for a figure to man it. The design of the AWE Striker lends itself to this gimmick much more. It still looks a little too big for the vehicle, but it doesn’t really hinder it’s function that much. As an added bonus, it’s pretty easy to get a decently matching black gun to replace it, so the Eco Striker can be rendered in it’s classic glory with a normal gun. Personally, I wish there were some more newly tooled bits to change it’s look a little more like with the Septic Tank, but this one functions well as it is, so I can’t be too picky.

If you’d believe it, there’s more than one Eco Striker: A new version was released as a 2014 Joecon exclusive, rendered from the Ninja Commando 4×4. I do like that they put together an Eco Warriors set for Joecon, though many of the choices were questionable, like usual. The Ninja Commando 4×4 is a pretty horrible rendition of the AWE Striker. The design removes a ton of parts and simplifies it to an extent that the Joecon version of the Eco Striker just looks like a vintage one that’s missing half of it’s parts. I really don’t know why that exclusive exists, but it’s there.

The last complete Eco Striker sold for a whopping $61, which is a lot more than I was expecting. You really don’t see complete copies for sale all that often, and incomplete ones don’t go for a lot less. I’m not sure I think it’s really worth that, but it is a very cool vehicle, and probably the most memorable repaint of the AWE Striker. If I’m ever in the market for another one, I’ll probably just buy a cheap junker and augment it with similar parts from other AWE Strikers.

1992 Eco Striker Links:

…Nothing besides Yo Joe!, so if you have some Eco Striker pics or a blog post hidden somewhere, feel free to link to it in the comments.

1993 Outback (Version 4)

Posted on July 17, 2023 by mwnekoman

1993 Outback

V1 Outback is one of my favorite GI Joe figures. He looks cool, he has great accessories, a great character, and in general, fits the part of the kind of moive-like action hero who can sometimes fight big battles all on his own, if your imagination works that way. All of that together makes for a character we should see more often than we do, but his fourth (kinda third) toy from Battle Corps left a lot to be desired.

So originally Outback V3 would’ve been apart of the Eco Warriors, but that sub line was canceled similar to DEF, and it’s releases were moved over to the Battle Corps lineup of ‘93. The colors on this release are extremely bright, which is fairly similar to the tones you typically saw from Eco Warriors. The figure was then promptly repainted into some new colors more similar to the Battle Corps toys, and that’s where you wind up with version 4.

This Outback has a curious look to him, to say the least. For some reason he’s wearing a hardhat now, which makes him look more like a random lumberjack or construction worker. His shirt and pants are also much more on the plain end, and he doesn’t seem to be wearing anything that would protect him from the dangerous chemicals the Eco Warriors would typically encounter. To make him even better, he’s primarily green and khaki, with bright blue and orange details all over, in addition to some little bits of gold and black. I really can’t think of a figure that had more random colors than this one.

Gotta be honest, I find almost nothing redeeming or fun about this figure. A lot of the ‘93 redesigns were on the controversial end, like with Dr. Mindbender or Law, but those toys at least have some interesting visual elements going on with them. This Outback however, just looks really boring. The design is bland and doesn’t really seem to serve a clear purpose. Even the infamous Fishn’ Trip Bazooka from that year looks a lot more appealing than this figure does. In decent colors this mold might be salvageable, but there’s not much potential that was wasted here.

For accessories you get a tree of bright red parts, featuring Hit&Run’s carbine, Big Ben’s LMG, Ambush’s EM2 rifle, two missiles and a figure stand (as well as a blue missile launcher). It’s weird how almost every other Joe included some kind of knife or machete, but the survivalist just comes with random guns. At the very least, they are good guns, so if you’re another individual who’s developed a fondness for bright parts, you could probably find some uses for them. They don’t really make this Outback a good toy though.

Almost every Battle Corps Outback you will find is MOSC. Carded, he’s worth about $14, and loose he’s worth about $9. It’s really funny how heavily certain ‘93 and ‘94 Joes were hoarded by speculators who expected to get rich off of these; the fact that almost every example of this Outback that you find is carded makes me wonder how many kids ever even played with this guy.

1993 Outback Links:

1991 Cleansweep

Posted on January 4, 2023 by mwnekoman

1991 Clean Sweep

Clean Sweep is, overall, probably my favorite figure from the entire Eco-Warriors subset. In the back of my mind, there’s always been this question as to why if he looks so much like Airtight, why wasn’t he a new Airtight? At the same time, one of his key characteristics that makes him worth remembering is that he was actually a new character, and not the second or third version of some guy from the line’s early days.

Speaking of which, I do think an area where 90‘s Joes lose out to 80‘s Joes, are the subsets. I think 80‘s figures overall are more memorable or distinct for the fact that novel specialties were represented often by one figure per year, instead of an entire carded assortment. This didn’t hurt DEF/Headhunters quite so bad, but most of Ninja Force is way more forgettable than the periodic Storm Shadow or Jinx. The same can be said for Eco-Warriors, where Clean Sweep and Ozone stand out a lot less well, just for the fact that you have Flint, Barbecue and Deep Six all doing essentially the same thing.

Getting back around to Clean Sweep, he’s a really well done figure. While I do like all of the Eco-Warriors, if I could only have one, it’d definitely be Clean Sweep. His yellow hazmat suit and it’s sculpted details come across to me as the most well-suited and appropriate looking of the lot, where as some of the others seemed like they were trying to find ways just to look different. It’s sharp and interesting without looking busy or like an X-men reject, which is something you can’t say for many of his contemporaries.

His colors are another one of his strong aspects. Sure, the green is quite a lot brighter than the traditional olive-drab, but it still looks good, and makes him cohesive with both Flint and Ozone. Having a mostly yellow suit in a nice medium tone is another thing I like, as this color really sells him as a hazmat guy, in a way that bright blue and ketchup red doesn’t do so well.

Probably the most integral accessory for Clean Sweep is his helmet. It’s weird, as unlike with the Toxo-Viper’s helmet and HEAT Viper’s missiles, Clean Sweep isn’t really ruined without it. Being a Joe, I can imagine a few play scenarios where showing his face off would be kind of fun, which is less the case with the other two. It’s also very nice that his helmet has a few bits of green on the trim and some light blue for his visor. I always appreciate painted helmets, since this really wasn’t standard for the vintage line, and I can think of plenty of contemporaries for this guy where having a painted helmet would’ve helped them a lot, like with Eco-Warriors Flint or DEF Shockwave.

Yet another thing I find to like about Clean Sweep is that all of his accessories are fairly well done, in addition to the helmet. Included is a pistol and a backpack with a control panel in neon green, his aforementioned helmet, and this huge, water-squirtin’ tank thing. I feel like Hasbro was still putting a lot more effort into the gimmick parts at this point, as opposed to the requisite and recycled launchers you more often saw in ‘93 and ‘94. I certainly don’t find this tank too captivating, but it was a nice pack-in, especially when you consider the fact that dumper vehicles like the Barracuda were available at around the same time.

Clean Sweep runs around $20 for a complete figure, sometimes a little more or less. Seems like a fair amount for what should be a very obscure character, but he looks good enough that if I ever wanted another, I wouldn’t be badly offended to pay that. Most of the Eco-Warriors come across to me as something nice for a change of pace, though Clean Sweep and Cesspool stand out as the must-haves from the lot. As the economy continues to crumble, you’ll probably see guys like this get a little cheaper in the coming months.

GI Joe Clean Sweep Eco Warriors 1991 Hasbro ARAH Cobra

Old photo from when I first started collecting. The embarrassing sharpie-marks on Mainframe’s computer were there when I bought him.

1991 Cleansweep Links:

1992 Barbecue

Posted on August 30, 2022 by mwnekoman

1992 Barbecue

Eco-Warriors are a fun subset. Extremely corny, but as a concept they work perfectly in the world of GI Joe, as chemical warfare is a real and scary thing. Of course, the comics and what not usually put the focus on pollution, because that’s a little bit more of a gentle thing than having GI Joe entering an urban wasteland after Cobra attacks with sarin gas or white phosphorous. It was also a great way for Hasbro to bring back older characters like Barbecue, who logically fit somewhat on the team given his prior role as a firefighter (though oddly, Airtight was nowhere to be found).

I like this mold a lot better when it was reused three different ways in Star Brigade as Payload, though that doesn’t mean the original release as Barbecue was bad at all. Him and all of his color variations were prominent in my childhood as various different things, which I think speaks to the strength of the sculpt. Part of what makes this figure fun is that he’s almost creepy in that hazmat suit, especially with the way his face is obscured by the clear plastic visor. Often times as a kid I’d use him and the Payloads as cyborg Cobras akin to BATs, though other times he was just a lonely astronaut who’d typically die some painful death.

Compared to V1 Barbecue, this release seems much less distinct, though I think he’s a little bit cooler overall. Naturally, he loses some of that distinctness from the repaints that came later, though Deep Six also looks a lot like this figure in some ways. Still, Barbecue as an Eco-Warrior seems a little more applicable to a few different situations than the more standard firefighter he was originally. Oddly, it’s a pretty even trade off, as most of what makes this version cool also makes him just another Eco-Warrior, whereas most of what made ‘85 Barbecue cool, also made him very niche.

The red and yellow colors are somewhat pleasing to look at. I do often think of ketchup and mustard when I see him, but that’s tasty, so I don’t mind. The red is a nice shade and isn’t too bright, so he looks pretty reasonable for the role he serves. With that said, imagining this mold in the original’s orange and grey makes me think that was a bit of a missed opportunity for a repaint, but I’m also sure that not too many others would’ve wanted that.

Barbecue’s parts straight up suck. That’s partly because the only parts you get are his squirt gun and a figure stand. While the 1991 Eco-Warriors came with some traditional accessories, Barbecue and the Toxo-Zombie from 1992 only come with the squirt guns. You can find any number of generic black or yellow guns from the same time-period to equip Barbecue with and he’ll look fine, but it does diminish the figure’s appeal a lot when he doesn’t even come with one unique part of his own.

Astoundingly, this has become a fairly expensive figure ranging from $20 to $25 for a decent example. Part of that is probably owed to the fact that his clear visor falls out on some examples, making it a tad rarer and to the fact that the ‘92 Eco-Warriors were produced in smaller numbers. But seriously, complete ‘92 Barbecues now often outprice complete ‘85 Barbecues, and both represent a C-tier character. I hope I live to see the day when 90‘s Joes are worthless again.

1992 Barbecue Links:

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors)

Posted on August 10, 2020 by mwnekoman

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

Sludge Viper V1, 1991

Posted on March 26, 2018 by mwnekoman

At a time, it was debatable what the GI Joe community loathed more: Star Brigade, or Eco Warriors. In recent times however, many Joe fans seem to be softening their opinions on these 90‘s sub-lines, and a few figures have even attained relative popularity. With that said, the Sludge Viper is neither hated, nor spoken of very much.

I’ve had one of these for as long as I can remember, and I’ve also been through some ups a downs with the figure. As a kid, he was okay and his design appealed to my general taste, but the yellow and teal colors lead me to favor the V2 Toxo Viper over him. I didn’t have a distaste for neon, but the colors used on him had too much of a friendly vibe for me to really see him as a villain.

In my teenage years I really started to see how strong the mold was and sought to acquire a small army of the Sub Viper repaint. The colors on that figure were a vast improvement and really allowed me to appreciate the mold. Even then, his new role as a naval Cobra really limited my interest in him when there were so many other figures I preferred in similar functions (Lampreys, namely). I still like that figure, but it’s rare I have the good opportunity to use him.

This leads me back to my current stance on the figure. In large, the colors don’t bother me any more and I think they give him a rather unique and fun look. It’s not a very consistent scheme with other Eco Warrior Cobra items, although that may work in the Sludge Viper’s favor giving him some much need uniqueness that he lacks in other elements. Getting past the colors, I’m left with a figure that has solid proportions, excellent sculpted details like the various gauges on his chest, and a great helmet design that isn’t undersized.

If the figure has a critical flaw, he’s simply far too similar to the V2 Toxo Viper. They both have the same gun, the same backpack, and even the water cannon is mostly the same, just purple instead of green. The parts are still good and make for a charming figure if displayed with just his backpack and gun, but the laziness of this parts reuse can’t be ignored. It’s especially irksome given that the Toxo Viper and Sludge Viper don’t really serve roles that are all that different from each other, which I think is part of the reason why the Sludge Viper is rather forgotten comparatively.

But past that, the Sludge Viper is a quality figure and should be more than welcome in the collection of any Joe fan who’s more accepting of brighter colors. Used to, this figure ran pretty cheap, but like everything else he’s seen an increase in value. They’re harder to find and complete examples will run around $14. Without his parts, they go for closer to $8. I don’t expect that these prices will remain the same once Hasbro renews interest in the brand and you see more of them on the market, but only time will tell.

Sludge Viper V1, 1991 Links:

Yo Joe

Forgotten Figures

3DJoes

Diorama by Scarrviper

1991 Toxo Viper

Posted on August 17, 2015 by mwnekoman

I’ve always been a big fan of both Toxo Vipers and the Eco Warriors. While the original is a classic, this one is an improvement in ways. I like the colors better on this figure, and it’s much less clunky feeling. I do think the original had a nicer backpack, and the helmet just looked good too. I suppose both are nice in different ways.

Though on the topic of Toxo Vipers, the Funskool version uses the original sculpt in colors closer to these. I should take a shot of that one sometime.

The Viper Pit

Tag Archives: Eco Warriors

1991 Cesspool

1991 Cesspool

1991 Cesspool Links:

1992 Eco Striker

1992 Eco Striker

1992 Eco Striker Links:

1993 Outback (Version 4)

1993 Outback

1993 Outback Links:

1991 Cleansweep

1991 Clean Sweep

1991 Cleansweep Links:

1992 Barbecue

1992 Barbecue

1992 Barbecue Links:

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors)

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors)

1991 Flint (Eco Warriors) Links:

Sludge Viper V1, 1991

Sludge Viper V1, 1991 Links:

1991 Toxo Viper