Tag Archives: Flint

1988 Tiger Force Flint

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1988 Tiger Force Flint

Certain figures I just associate with fun and good times, Tiger Force Flint is one of those figures. Well, I also associate a lot of Flint figures with good times, he’s a cool character and is easier to incorporate into adventures than Duke. As a young teen I was quick to add several versions of Flint into my collection, and that’s a move I definitely did not regret.

When I first got into collecting loose o-ring figures I was around 15 and had barely any money. Because of this, I chanced a really curious lot on eBay once, the photos were horrible, glary and of the figures in plastic bags. I could barely tell what was there, let alone what condition it was in, but is was something like $10 after shipping, so I took a chance and bought it, since I knew at least one of the figures would be in decent condition. When I finally received my figures, I realized I had actually done quite well, even at the time. Inside the box was Tiger Force Flint, a ‘97 Viper, ’97 Vypra, a decent Ripper, a Secto Viper (with helmet!), and a ‘93 Keel-haul, who even happened to be the logo variant that I didn’t already have. The figures were all relatively mint too, I miss the days when a broke teenager could get that much shit off eBay for $10…

I probably should have been the happiest with the Secto Viper, but really Tiger Force Flint was what I had the most fun with. I already had the Funskool version at that point, but the Tiger Force colors were more fun, and the paint-masks were much sharper on the Hasbro versions, so this figure really became my new default Flint. Despite that, I really didn’t take too many photos of him back then, especially without other Tiger Force figures. I’ve always been a little fussy about keeping sub-teams together, and he was my first Tiger Force figure, so that probably inhibited me from using him as much as I would’ve liked.

Flint has the best Tiger Force colors of the entire subset. I like the bright oranges and yellows on some of the figures (Roadblock, Tripwire), but Flint’s mixture of brown, green and olive looks fantastic. The original Flint colors are hard to beat, but these are a great alternative (and really, it’s the only decent Flint recolor, so that’s a big plus too). Despite the addition of the tiger pattern on his shirt, he still features some nice and fragile gold details, and a separate gray color for his boots and gloves. Objectively, there’s nothing that really makes the Tiger Force figure better or worse than the original, it’s just a matter of preference.

His parts were mostly the same as the Flint’s, just in a dark gray color. Flint’s backpack is a little bulky, but I think anything else looks like a poor substitute. His shotgun though, is his most fun part. Not really sure what model it is exactly, but currently I lean towards an Ithaca 37. It’s definitely a pump-action and it’s not too big, but shotguns all look kinda similar to me, so maybe it’s another one. This part is fun and easy for figures to hold, and the sculpt is sharp enough that it’s easy to tell what it is. For me, it’s hard to separate this gun from Flint, but some extras would probably make a nice side-arm for a variety of vehicle drivers. Hopefully someday someone will make some bootleg castings in black.

A mint complete Tiger Force Flint fetches a pretty steady $40. Ditch the parts and you can get one in nice condition for around $10, which frankly isn’t so bad an option when V1/Funskool Flint parts still match well with this figure. Tiger Force figures in general got really expensive between ‘17 and ‘21, but prices are cooling off a little, a trend I expect to continue as the economy melts. Even sitting that aside, we’ve probably passed peak value for a lot of GI Joe items, so I don’t think we will see too many more episodes where a bunch of weirdos pop online and suddenly inform everyone that previously common toys are rare and worth 2 to 3 times what you were paying a day ago.

gi joe tiger force flint arah 1988 vintage hasbro cobra gi joe tiger force flint arah 1988 vintage hasbro cobra gi joe tiger force flint arah 1988 vintage hasbro cobra

1988 Tiger Force Flint Links:

Attica Gazette

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

3D Joes

2010 Flint (Vacation in the Shadows)

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2010 Flint (Vacation in the Shadows)

The 2010 Joecon set was an amusing and rather depressing event, which essentially only happened because The Club rick-rolled everyone with a very bad 2009 convention set. To make up for it, they pieced together one last o-ring convention set, before essentially making up some story about how all of the classic molds were destroyed, so don’t ask for them anymore. Given how crappy to Modern-styled sets were after this, I don’t think anything of value was lost by them ditching the o-rings, especially when you look at how phoned-in this convention set was. Still, there’s some things I like about it, including this weird Flint.

As the story goes, Hasbro would sometimes make requests for the convention set, and with this one, they wanted more high-profile characters featured in the set. Because of that, you ended up with a random Flint and Interrogator in a Action Force themed set. At the time (and maybe to this day) the random Flint wasn’t very popular, probably because the design has no particular inspiration as far as I know. Still, I kind of like it for that oddness, and also holding a spot as one of the last official o-ring figures we’ve gotten to date.

He’s mostly made from the body of ‘93 Duke, with the head from ‘85 Flint. Given that this Duke had almost no repaints, it was nice to see the sculpt make a return with a little more painted detail. The Flint head is one of the best vintage sculpts, so it looks good with the newer Duke body. All in all, the recipe makes for a decently satisfying repaint.

His colors are kind of… odd. Overall it’s a reasonable looking military uniform, but it doesn’t match with almost anything made before it. I appreciate this in a way, because it does mean the figure is relatively unique and stands out where you chose to show him. The flip-side of this appeal however, is that it means he really doesn’t fit in much with anything already in your collection. I don’t mind that too much though, as Joes (unlike Cobras) aren’t hurt too badly by a relative lack of cohesion.

His parts are lackluster, and seemed to just be a toss-in. Included was a forest-green backpack from ‘91 Dusty, and gray versions of ‘87 Outback’s gun, and the shotgun from one of the later 25th Anniversary Flints. The Dusty backpack was long over exposed from continual reuses during the 2000‘s, and the guns do little to excite. It’s kind of incredible how often we saw the Outback gun at this point, especially since it wasn’t a very good part to begin with.

For a while, you could get surplus Flint figures from China, sans parts. These were likely defects of some sort, but it was nice for meaning you could get a recent convention figure at a relatively cheap price (it’s what I did). Had it not been for that, I’d have probably never bothered with what otherwise comes across as a mundane repaint at convention pricing. I really miss those weird listings for cheap surplus figures.

Last time one of these Flint’s showed up on eBay, it was a NIB example and sold for $78. Sort of pointless to bring that up, as I feel this figure is obviously not worth that much, and that auction was likely just another example of the on-going market bubble. Figures like this one are getting harder to find though, and later Joecon sets were (supposedly) made in fewer numbers than earlier ones. Regardless, this figure is a novelty in all regards, and I have a difficult time understanding the satisfaction anyone would derive for paying prices like that for a figure like this.

cobra officer comic pack 2004

2010 Flint Links:

Generals 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

Funskool Flint

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With Christmas having recently passed,  I couldn’t help but find it necessary to talk about a Joe that was a Christmas present of mine. The funny thing is, prior to my teenage years I never really had any GI Joe items I got for Christmas. It wasn’t that I didn’t like GI Joe, but I never seemed to get any as presents. A combination of the DTC and 25th Anniversary lines brought me back into Joe hard around 2007, and in light of that my brother snagged me a Funskool Flint as a present the next year.

Despite the quality of Funskool figures and their cards, opening Flint up that morning was a fun and somewhat surreal feeling. Mind you, I’m a kid of the mid-90‘s, so I totally missed out on most of ARAH, but I still had this feeling of having just time traveled. Those ARAH cards were visually striking in a way that I feel was almost timeless.

The figure itself was also my first time owning a vintage Flint figure. This was just a bit before I began hunting down actual vintage figures off eBay, so I was really excited to have this figure in my collection. As a big fan of the Sunbow cartoon, I always desired having more figures in their classic appearances as opposed to many of the redesigns from the late 80‘s and 90‘s. That’s not to say Flint’s Eco-Warriors or Battle Corps toys weren’t any good, but to me as a kid they didn’t look enough like Flint. It really makes me regret having no prior knowledge of the Funskool figures, as I certainly would’ve bought a lot of them. I wanted things like this during the 2000‘s a lot more than Spy Troops and Valor vs Venom.

As for the figure itself, it’s a fairly decent representation of V1 Flint. So much so that I’ve been content with the figure for a whole decade and never bothered with a Hasbro Flint. The colors are very similar, and although the paint is notoriously messy on certain runs of Funskool figures, I seemingly lucked out and got a fairly clean looking Flint save for the gold paint.

Hasbro Gijoe ARAH Flint parts funskool action figure

In another nice event, Funskool Flint comes with parts that are remarkably similar to Hasbro’s. Mind you, the plastic is of course somewhat cheaper but visually they do the job rather well. Back in the 2000’s these figures were so cheap that an example like Flint or Scrap Iron was worth buying just for the parts at the humble $3 they ran. For a collector on a budget, this was a great way of getting good parts to give to a Hasbro figure.

I really loved getting this figure a decade ago, especially coupled with a few other Funskool items I got at the same time. Back then however, these figure were dirt cheap. As Funskool figures now routinely run between $10 to $20, I find it increasingly hard to say if they’re worth it most of the time. A few figures provide something unique, but with figure’s like Flint at today’s prices, you’re probably better off sticking with the American version.

Hasbro Gijoe ARAH Flint parts funskool action figure

Funskool Flint Links:

Funskool Flint Dio by The Dragon Fortress

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Forgotten Figures

1985 Airtight

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Airtight Dusty Flint Quick Kick ARAH vintage action figure 1985 Cobra GI JoeAh, Airtight.One of the guys from GI Joe’s golden year of 1985. I’m always a tad more appreciative of figures with interesting specialties. In ‘85, there weren’t as many chemical warfare/hazmat figures running around, which made Airtight all the more interesting on his own, though I do find he’s better complimented by said later figures.

Airtight was one of the first figures to include a more intricate load out, with a unique hose that connected from his head to his backpack, and a chemical detector that hooked up to his backpack as well. It does mean the figure comes unarmed, but that wasn’t his role. I kinda miss when figures could come out with a focus on unique accessories, and not the same set of guns, knives, axes and whatever else have you.

I’ve always wondered what a Night Force Airtight might look like, but I suppose that curiosity will be left to the world of customs. Unfortunately, this mold never appeared again after it went to Funskool. He did get a Brazilian release as Ar Puro in Tiger Force colors, who was pretty nice looking though.

Tiger Force Roadblock (1988)

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Tiger Force Roadblock Duke Flint ARAH Vintage action figure GI Joe CobraThree of my favorite figures here. The original Tiger Force color schemes were so vibrant, yet cohesive. It also helps that they often recycled excellent sculpts, just making the figures all the better. Given, I think some are nicer than others. Duke’s colors seem a tad more bland to me than the other two.

Most of the later attempts at the TF weren’t so great. I’m not a fan of the UK figures, and the Spy Troops set that was inspired by those was pretty weak too. I’ve not seen many ME figures do Tiger Force with much success either, so for me, these guys are where it’s at.

City Sweep

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50th Anniversary GI Joe Cobra POC Retaliation Flint Crosshair VAMP Mk II Spy Troops

Flint and Crosshair secure the city’s perimeter, increasing the pressure on Cobra.

It’s a shame this figure was so hard to acquire, being an SDCC exclusive. It feels like something smaller or the gray version should have been the exclusive, but I suppose we’re lucky this figure was released in the 50th line at all.